MOVABLE COLUMNS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
"SPECTATOR."] Sra,—The letters and remarks in the Press on the want of mobility of our columns in South Africa are very unjust, and from the tone of many of the letters you would suppose that our officers were bereft of reason. The writers of these letters are, however, misinformed, and confound the convoy with the movable column. Owing to the depopulated state of the country and its large extent, convoys of waggons are abso- lutely necessary ; and the way in which a " trek " is made is as follows. The convoy leaves the camp, its destination being kept a secret, and when it reaches a certain point a laager' is formed and left in charge of the infantry. The mounted troops then scour the country in every direction, bringing in all the cattle they can capture, and destroying the growing .crops. If they obtain information of the presence of a laager of Boers or of a Boer convoy, they attempt by a night march and a sudden attack to take ,possession of it, and many Boer laagers and convoys have been captured by us in this way. I believe our columns to be quite as mobile as those of the Boers, and the reason we cannot capture the latter is owing to the great extent of the country and the better information of the enemy. You can easily imagine that sixty or seventy movable columns in a country as large as all Central Europe make a very small figure, and can operate over a very small proportion of it at a time.—I am, Sir, &c.,
MAJOR-GENERAL.
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