BULLER'S PROBLEM

_November 22nd_, 1899

The six weeks of anxious waiting are over, and to-day the second chapter
of the war begins. On either side of the Boer States a division of Sir
Redvers Buller's force is now in touch with the enemy, and at either
point there may be a battle any day.

The small British forces sent out or organised on the spot before the
declaration of war have kept the enemy's principal forces occupied until
now, so that he has been unable to make any decisive use of the margin
of superiority which he possessed over and above what was needed to keep
the British detachments where they were. The resisting power of these
detachments is, however, not inexhaustible; they have kept at bay for a
considerable time forces much more numerous than themselves, and the
first move required of the fresh British forces is to take the pressure
off them and to combine with them. The centre of gravity is in Natal,
for there is the principal Boer army, probably two-thirds of the whole
Boer power, and there, too, a whole British division is invested. A
palpable success here for either side must go far to decide the issue of
the war.

General Joubert's force in Natal is so strong that while keeping his
grip upon Ladysmith, where Sir George White has not less than ten
thousand men, he has been able to move south with a considerable force,
perhaps fifteen thousand men, to oppose Sir C.F. Clery's advance. Sir
C.F. Clery has already at least seven, and possibly nine, strong
battalions, to which within a day or two three more will be added, and
perhaps as many as thirty-six guns, with parties of bluejackets and