Perhaps his
heart might have failed him in the dark days to come had he not
been so.
But whether one considers the non-destruction of the
Newcastle Railway, the acquiescence in the occupation of Dundee,
the retention of the non combatants in Ladysmith until it was too
late to get rid of their useless mouths, or the failure to make any
serious preparations for the defence of the town until his troops
were beaten back into it, we see always the same evidence of a man
who habitually hopes that all will go well, and is in consequence
remiss in making preparations for their going ill. But unhappily in
every one of these instances they did go ill, though the slowness
of the Boers enabled us, both at Dundee and at Ladysmith, to escape
what might have been disaster.
Sir George White has so nobly and frankly taken upon himself the
blame of Nicholson's Nek that an impartial historian must rather
regard his self-condemnation as having been excessive. The
immediate causes of the failure were undoubtedly the results of
pure ill-fortune, and depended on things outside his control. But
it is evident that the strategic plan which would justify the
presence of this column at Nicholson's Nek was based upon the
supposition that the main army won their action at Lombard's Kop.
In that case White might swing round his right and pin the Boers
between himself and Nicholson's Nek. In any case he could then
re-unite with his isolated wing.
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