"No doubt a great deal will depend on how things are going on the other
side. Now that Roberts has as good as captured Cronje and his force he
will of course advance to Bloemfontein and occupy it. He will then be no
more able to advance farther than Buller can--in fact, less able. Our
line of railway is secured, and we can be fed by it; but at present we
have not crossed the Orange River from the south, and the railway
between that and Bloemfontein is in the hands of the Boers, and we know
that they have blown up the bridges across the river. Until these are
restored, and the line secure in our hands, Roberts's army will have to
live on the stores that they have brought with them. Then the work of
forming a base depot from the coast will begin, and it needs something
enormous in the way of provisions and carriage to supply an army of
sixty or seventy thousand men, all of whom must as they advance be fed
from Bloemfontein.
"As long as he is stationary there it is likely enough that the bulk of
Joubert's army will cling to Natal, knowing well enough that before we
shall be in a condition to move forward they can entrench their
positions on the Biggarsberg and the Drakenberg until they are quite as
formidable as those we have been knocking our heads against.
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