In The Imperial Light Horse The Proportion Was Very Much
Higher.
But what may fairly be argued is that their exploits have
proved, what the American war proved long ago,
That the German
conception of discipline is an obsolete fetish, and that the spirit
of free men, whose individualism has been encouraged rather than
crushed, is equal to any feat of arms. The clerks and miners and
engineers who went up Elandslaagte Hill without bayonets, shoulder
to shoulder with the Gordons, and who, according to Sir George
White, saved Ladysmith on January 6th, have shown for ever that
with men of our race it is the spirit within, and not the drill or
the discipline, that makes a formidable soldier. An intelligent
appreciation of the fact might in the course of the next few years
save us as much money as would go far to pay for the war.
It may well be asked how for so long a period as seventeen days the
British could tolerate a force to the rear of them when with their
great superiority of numbers they could have readily sent an army
to drive it away. The answer must be that Lord Roberts had
despatched his trusty lieutenant, Kitchener, to Aliwal, whence he
had been in heliographic communication with Wepener, that he was
sure that the place could hold out, and that he was using it, as he
did Kimberley, to hold the enemy while he was making his plans for
their destruction. This was the bait to tempt them to their ruin.
Had the trap not been a little slow in closing, the war in the Free
State might have ended then and there.
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