While You Are In
Touch With Him And In Communication With Me, He Has Both Of Our
Forces To Reckon With.
Make every effort to get reinforcements as
early as possible, including India, and enlist every man in both
colonies who will serve and can ride.
Things may look brighter. The
loss of 12,000 men here would be a heavy blow to England. We must
not yet think of it. I fear I could not cut my way to you. Enteric
fever is increasing alarmingly here. There are now 180 cases, all
within last month. Answer fully. I am keeping everything secret for
the present till I know your plans.'
Much allowance is to be made for a man who is staggering under the
mental shock of defeat and the physical exertions which Buller had
endured. That the Government made such allowance is clear from the
fact that he was not instantly recalled. And yet the cold facts are
that we have a British General, at the head of 25,000 men,
recommending another General, at the head of 12,000 men only twelve
miles off, to lay down his arms to an army which was certainly very
inferior in numbers to the total British force; and this because he
had once been defeated, although he knew that there was still time
for the whole resources of the Empire to be poured into Natal in
order to prevent so shocking a disaster. Such is a plain statement
of the advice which Buller gave and which White rejected.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 221 of 842
Words from 59446 to 59704
of 225456
