NEWS OF THE WEEK.
WE have dealt elsewhere with the feeling of dissatisfac- • V 1' • tion that is spreading in the cou'ntry' in regard to the conduct of the war. Needless to say, there is not the shade of a shadow of a desire to give in, but merely an angry growl that the war is not being pressed home. Though we recog- nise that there is always some danger and some unfairness to the Generals in popular cries for more activity, and though we most firmly and confidently believe that we are witnessing the last " flicker-up " among the Boers, we are glad that the nation is growing indignant. Out of that healthy indigna- tion may grow a state of public opinion which will make such appointments as those to the Firit and Second Army Corps absolutely impossible, and : will insist that Generals and Colonels who attach kitchen-ranges and pianos to mobile columns shall.not escape with a few mild sarcasms from their Commander-in-Chief, but shall be made an example which will be remembered in the Army for three generations. Another good result which will follow from the anger of the British people is the impression that will be made on the Boers and their sympathisers in South Africa and in Europe. Our easy-going ways with our .Generals and our Governments have sometimes been taken for the indifference which is the forerunner of giving in. The present temper of the British people cannot fail to make the Boers , and Pro-Boers realise that we shall not give in 'even if we have to "fight it out on these lines" for twenty summers. Let our readers be assured that if we thought things were going badly in any really 'serious way, not a word of anger and annoyance would have escaped us now any more than it did after Colenso or Spion Kop. There is no danger, and so we can safely speak out on the minor ineptitudes which are delaying, but merely delay- ing, the end of the war.
