The same poor excuse may be made for the organs of
the Vatican. But what are we to say of the insensate railing of
Germany, a country whose ally we have been for centuries? In the
days of Marlborough, in the darkest hours of Frederick the Great,
in the great world struggle of Napoleon, we have been the
brothers-in-arms of these people. So with the Austrians also. If
both these countries were not finally swept from the map by
Napoleon, it is largely to British subsidies and British tenacity
that they owe it. And yet these are the folk who turned most
bitterly against us at the only time in modern history when we had
a chance of distinguishing our friends from our foes. Never again,
I trust, on any pretext will a British guinea be spent or a British
soldier or sailor shed his blood for such allies. The political
lesson of this writer has been that we should make ourselves strong
within the empire, and let all outside it, save only our kinsmen of
America, go their own way and meet their own fate without let or
hindrance from us. It is amazing to find that even the Americans
could understand the stock from which they are themselves sprung so
little that such papers as the 'New York Herald' should imagine
that our defeat at Colenso was a good opportunity for us to
terminate the war. The other leading American journals, however,
took a more sane view of the situation, and realised that ten years
of such defeats would not find the end either of our resolution or
of our resources.
In the British Islands and in the empire at large our misfortunes
were met by a sombre but unalterable determination to carry the war
to a successful conclusion and to spare no sacrifices which could
lead to that end. Amid the humiliation of our reverses there was a
certain undercurrent of satisfaction that the deeds of our foemen
should at least have made the contention that the strong was
wantonly attacking the weak an absurd one. Under the stimulus of
defeat the opposition to the war sensibly decreased. It had become
too absurd even for the most unreasonable platform orator to
contend that a struggle had been forced upon the Boers when every
fresh detail showed how thoroughly they had prepared for such a
contingency and how much we had to make up. Many who had opposed
the war simply on that sporting instinct which backs the smaller
against the larger began to realise that what with the geographical
position of these people, what with the nature of their country,
and what with the mobility, number, and hardihood of their forces,
we had undertaken a task which would necessitate such a military
effort as we had never before been called upon to make. When
Kipling at the dawn of the war had sung of 'fifty thousand horse
and foot going to Table Bay,' the statement had seemed extreme. Now
it was growing upon the public mind that four times this number
would not be an excessive estimate. But the nation rose grandly to
the effort. Their only fear, often and loudly expressed, was that
Parliament would deal too tamely with the situation and fail to
demand sufficient sacrifices. Such was the wave of feeling over the
country that it was impossible to hold a peace meeting anywhere
without a certainty of riot. The only London daily which had
opposed the war, though very ably edited, was overborne by the
general sentiment and compelled to change its line. In the
provinces also opposition was almost silent, and the great colonies
were even more unanimous than the mother country. Misfortune had
solidified us where success might have caused a sentimental
opposition.
On the whole, the energetic mood of the nation was reflected by the
decided measures of the Government. Before the deep-sea cables had
told us the lists of our dead, steps had been taken to prove to the
world how great were our latent resources and how determined our
spirit. On December 18th, two days after Colenso, the following
provisions were made for carrying on the campaign.
1. That as General Buller's hands were full in Natal the
supervision and direction of the whole campaign should be placed in
the hands of Lord Roberts, with Lord Kitchener as his chief of
staff. Thus the famous old soldier and the famous young one were
called together to the assistance of the country.
2. That all the remaining army reserves should be called out.
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.
