Читать книгу Reports from the Boer War - Edgar Wallace - Страница 8
ОглавлениеReproduced from The Star (New Zealand), May 6, 1901
HIS FIRST CHECK
A TRIBUTE TO VICTORIAN TROOPS
PHILIPSTOWN, February 13, 1901
There is not a hundred miles from De Aar an Intelligence officer.
You may never have met his like at home, because in Pall Mall Intelligence officers are only ordinary people who go to office from ten till four, eat dinners, and see plays, just as you or I would, and, wearing no particular uniform other than the uniform of the regiment to which they belong, they pass unnoticed in the red-tabbed crowd on the "military side" of the War Office. My Intelligence officer, however, is a civilian, and wears khaki and a mustard-coloured cap.
He has a large staff and spends his time opening private letters that pass through De Aar, so that should one Boer general write to another Boer general, giving him information regarding his plans, strength or disposition—such being the method usually adopted by Boer commandants to convey their intentions to one another—that Intelligence officer immediately knows, and, acting on the information thus acquired, puts a stop to the indiscreet correspondent's little game.
"OPENED UNDER MARTIAL LAW"
Or it may be that the letters are opened with the idea of ascertaining what Piet Faure of Paarl thinks of Christian De Wet of Dewetsdorp. At any rate, the staff, is employed in opening letters from morning to night, and the re-sealing and fastening down with neat red labels "Opened under martial law."
Consequently, when I wrote at midnight last Monday night that all was quiet on the Orange River, I had no reason to doubt that so methodical and painstaking a department could possibly be mistaken in thinking the district was quiet. But even as I wrote—and while yet the Intelligence Office, moved by a stern sense of duty, was probably poring over the clumsy sentences of an amorous Dutchman, trying to read, in the crude, ill-turned sentences, some traitorous sentiment—the Boer scouts were seated on the kopjes outside Philipstown waiting for daylight that they might enter the town.
They knew—for their un-uniformed Intelligence department confined their attentions to the enemy's movements only—that Philipstown was held by the smallest of Yeomanry patrols, and they counted the task of taking the town an easy one.
De Wet was across the border, and he had made up his mind to accomplish that mission he had set for Commandant Hertzog.
IGNORANCE SOMETIMES PAYS
Philipstown was the first town on the list, and occupying Philipstown as generally counted by the enemy as only something a trifle more fatiguing than going to a picnic.
Philipstown is disloyal beyond salvation, and its inhabitants usually keep a holiday suit of clothes handy to don when the Boers ride through.
If disloyalty were a pestilence and sedition a plague, no honest man could come within ten miles of Philipstown and live.
Therefore, the invaders were perfectly justified in thinking that Philipstown was in their own country, and the invasion proper started south of there.
With the dawn of the 12th—yesterday—the advance party of a commando numbering 400 men moved towards the town, and the Yeomanry patrol took up a position in the gaol and prepared to defend themselves.
The functions of a cavalry patrol do not seem to be clearly understood. It is its duty to act as the eyes of the army, to report suspicious movements of the enemy, and generally to keep out of sight and see as much as it can.
Under the circumstances the patrol would probably have done more good had it retired from Philipstown and reported the Boer movements to the main body or. to the brigade to which it belonged.
However, the officer commanding the patrol entered the gaol, and putting it in a state of defence made a most gallant fight, and succeeded in keeping a portion of the town clear of the enemy.
ADVANCE AUSTRALIA
A few miles from Philipstown and on the De Aar road was a strong patrol of the Victorian Imperial Regiment, about sixty men under Captain Tivey, who had been sent from De Aar the previous day by Colonel Henniker, with instructions to patrol within striking distance, of Philipstown, and to him the officer commanding the goal sent a message asking for assistance.
At the same time as Captain Tivey got the message, the Boers resolved to occupy a very strong position south of the town, and commanding the De Aar and Houtkraal roads. Unfortunately for Commandant Van der Merwe, the Victorians resolved on achieving the same object, and immediately on both sides of the ridge, unseen by the other, were two bodies of men galloping for their very lives towards the natural fortress that overlooks the town.
The Australians got there first—as the enemy discovered later. It was not what one would call a great battle—the enemy lost a few and we lost none—but it was a brilliant little fight, and it proved the Australian commander to be as resourceful as he and his men were courageous. All day long the fight continued, and in the evening, on the arrival of Major Granville Smith with the rest of the Victorians under Major Clark, the Boers fled, leaving the Dopper* and the Dutch Reformed ministers to bury their dead.
{*Dopper (Afrikaans)—a member of the most conservative Afrikander Church, which practises a strict Calvinism. ]
Such was the battle of Philipstown—nothing very great as battles go, but sufficient to hold De Wet's main body for at least six hours and turn him back on the pursuing columns. It was his first check south, and it was fitting that the men from the colonies, who at this time are coming forward so readily at the call of the Mother Country, and the Yeomen of England should have been the men who gave De Wet his first check.
