3. That the 7th Division (10,000 men) should be despatched to
Africa, and that an 8th Division should be formed ready for
service.
4. That considerable artillery reinforcements, including a howitzer
brigade, should go out.
5. That eleven Militia battalions be sent abroad.
6. That a strong contingent of Volunteers be sent out.
7. That a Yeomanry mounted force be despatched.
8. That mounted corps be raised at the discretion of the
Commander-in-Chief in South Africa.
9. That the patriotic offers of further contingents from the
colonies be gratefully accepted.
By these measures it was calculated that from seventy to a hundred
thousand men would be added to our South African armies, the
numbers of which were already not short of a hundred thousand.
It is one thing, however, to draw up paper reinforcements, and it
is another, in a free country where no compulsion would be
tolerated, to turn these plans into actual regiments and squadrons.
But if there were any who doubted that this ancient nation still
glowed with the spirit of its youth his fears must soon have passed
away. For this far-distant war, a war of the unseen foe and of the
murderous ambuscade, there were so many volunteers that the
authorities were embarrassed by their numbers and their
pertinacity. It was a stimulating sight to see those long queues of
top-hatted, frock-coated young men who waited their turn for the
orderly room with as much desperate anxiety as if hard fare, a veld
bed, and Boer bullets were all that life had that was worth the
holding.
