But Again There Was A Delay, While The
Rain Came And The Grass Grew, And The Veld Was As A Mounted
Rifleman Would Have It.
The burghers were in no humour for
concessions.
They knew their own power, and they concluded with
justice that they were for the time far the strongest military
power in South Africa. 'We have beaten England before, but it is
nothing to the licking we shall give her now,' cried a prominent
citizen, and he spoke for his country as he said it. So the empire
waited and debated, but the sounds of the bugle were already
breaking through the wrangles of the politicians, and calling the
nation to be tested once more by that hammer of war and adversity
by which Providence still fashions us to some nobler and higher
end.
CHAPTER 4.
THE EVE OF WAR.
The message sent from the Cabinet Council of September 8th was
evidently the precursor either of peace or of war. The cloud must
burst or blow over. As the nation waited in hushed expectancy for a
reply it spent some portion of its time in examining and
speculating upon those military preparations which might be needed.
The War Office had for some months been arranging for every
contingency, and had made certain dispositions which appeared to
them to be adequate, but which our future experience was to
demonstrate to be far too small for the very serious matter in
hand.
It is curious in turning over the files of such a paper as the
'Times' to observe how at first one or two small paragraphs of
military significance might appear in the endless columns of
diplomatic and political reports, how gradually they grew and grew,
until at last the eclipse was complete, and the diplomacy had been
thrust into the tiny paragraphs while the war filled the journal.
Under July 7th comes the first glint of arms amid the drab monotony
of the state papers. On that date it was announced that two
companies of Royal Engineers and departmental corps with reserves
of supplies and ammunition were being dispatched. Two companies of
engineers! Who could have foreseen that they were the vanguard of
the greatest army which ever at any time of the world's history has
crossed an ocean, and far the greatest which a British general has
commanded in the field?
On August 15th, at a time when the negotiations had already assumed
a very serious phase, after the failure of the Bloemfontein
conference and the dispatch of Sir Alfred Milner, the British
forces in South Africa were absolutely and absurdly inadequate for
the purpose of the defence of our own frontier. Surely such a fact
must open the eyes of those who, in spite of all the evidence,
persist that the war was forced on by the British. A statesman who
forces on a war usually prepares for a war, and this is exactly
what Mr. Kruger did and the British authorities did not. The
overbearing suzerain power had at that date, scattered over a huge
frontier, two cavalry regiments, three field batteries, and six and
a half infantry battalions - say six thousand men. The innocent
pastoral States could put in the field forty or fifty thousand
mounted riflemen, whose mobility doubled their numbers, and a most
excellent artillery, including the heaviest guns which have ever
been seen upon a battlefield. At this time it is most certain that
the Boers could have made their way easily either to Durban or to
Cape Town. The British force, condemned to act upon the defensive,
could have been masked and afterwards destroyed, while the main
body of the invaders would have encountered nothing but an
irregular local resistance, which would have been neutralised by
the apathy or hostility of the Dutch colonists. It is extraordinary
that our authorities seem never to have contemplated the
possibility of the Boers taking the initiative, or to have
understood that in that case our belated reinforcements would
certainly have had to land under the fire of the republican guns.
In July Natal had taken alarm, and a strong representation had been
sent from the prime minister of the colony to the Governor, Sir W.
Hely Hutchinson, and so to the Colonial Office. It was notorious
that the Transvaal was armed to the teeth, that the Orange Free
State was likely to join her, and that there had been strong
attempts made, both privately and through the press, to alienate
the loyalty of the Dutch citizens of both the British colonies.
Many sinister signs were observed by those upon the spot. The veld
had been burned unusually early to ensure a speedy grass-crop after
the first rains, there had been a collecting of horses, a
distribution of rifles and ammunition. The Free State farmers, who
graze their sheep and cattle upon Natal soil during the winter, had
driven them off to places of safety behind the line of the
Drakensberg. Everything pointed to approaching war, and Natal
refused to be satisfied even by the dispatch of another regiment.
On September 6th a second message was received at the Colonial
Office, which states the case with great clearness and precision.
'The Prime Minister desires me to urge upon you by the unanimous
advice of the Ministers that sufficient troops should be dispatched
to Natal immediately to enable the colony to be placed in a state
of defence against an attack from the Transvaal and the Orange Free
State. I am informed by the General Officer Commanding, Natal, that
he will not have enough troops, even when the Manchester Regiment
arrives, to do more than occupy Newcastle and at the same time
protect the colony south of it from raids, while Laing's Nek,
Ingogo River and Zululand must be left undefended. My Ministers
know that every preparation has been made, both in the Transvaal
and the Orange Free State, which would enable an attack to be made
on Natal at short notice.
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