With
The Experience Of The First Boer War Behind Them, Little Was Done,
Either In Tactics Or In Musketry, To Prepare The Soldier For The
Second.
The value of the mounted rifleman, the shooting with
accuracy at unknown ranges, the art of taking cover - all were
equally neglected.
The defeat at Majuba Hill was followed by the complete surrender of
the Gladstonian Government, an act which was either the most
pusillanimous or the most magnanimous in recent history. It is hard
for the big man to draw away from the small before blows are struck
but when the big man has been knocked down three times it is harder
still. An overwhelming British force was in the field, and the
General declared that he held the enemy in the hollow of his hand.
Our military calculations have been falsified before now by these
farmers, and it may be that the task of Wood and Roberts would have
been harder than they imagined; but on paper, at least, it looked
as if the enemy could be crushed without difficulty. So the public
thought, and yet they consented to the upraised sword being stayed.
With them, as apart from the politicians, the motive was
undoubtedly a moral and Christian one. They considered that the
annexation of the Transvaal had evidently been an injustice, that
the farmers had a right to the freedom for which they fought, and
that it was an unworthy thing for a great nation to continue an
unjust war for the sake of a military revenge.
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