sentiments — warm liking and admiration for "Tommy Atkins," the 

 private soldier, dislike and alleged contempt for his officer. I say alleged, 

 for I imagine that the feeling was largely the result of arrogance on the 

 part of the officers, just as it was in our own Colonial period. Loyalty and 

 devoted attachment to the Empire, coupled, paradoxically enough, with 

 personal dislike of the English, I have found very generally in the 

 British colonies, even among people of EngHsh birth or descent. At 

 Kimberley, my host said to me: "I applied for you." "Did you?" said 

 I in some surprise, "what did you know about me?" "Nothing, except 

 that you were not English." Yet, he was an Englishman himself, but 

 had been wearied by the patronising and condescending airs of the 

 English tourists. 



While I am on this topic, I may as well finish the record of my obser- 

 vations, without regard to chronological order. At Kimberley, there was 

 much complaint as to the way in which the members of the Association, 

 especially the women, were treating their hosts. One lady, for example, 

 criticised severely everything about the household in which she was 

 entertained and wound up by expressing her astonishment at the back- 

 ward state of housekeeping in Cape Colony. In this country most of us 

 have had our experiences of the tactful little ways of EngUsh visitors 

 and have learned to be amused by them, but in the colonies such things 

 rankle. I once remarked to a scientific friend in London : "Why do you 

 speak of the Colonials in a slightly contemptuous fashion? You seem to 

 regard them as people who failed at home." "What else are they?" was 

 his reply, which filled me with astonishment. 



In the relatively large city of Johannesburg all members of the Asso- 

 ciation, official and unofficial alike, were entertained in private houses. I 

 heard some of the most incredible tales concerning the behaviour of 

 these visitors, many of whom acted as though they were in a hotel, 

 ordering their meals and complaining of their accommodations. To 

 understand this, however, it is necessary to remember that, as I have 

 already mentioned, the Association is a very "mixed lot." A corre- 

 sponding lot of Americans would have behaved no better. This mitiga- 

 tion cannot be pleaded for the Frenchman, who seemed to think that 

 the slightest want of consideration toward himself was an insult to la 

 grande nation. I shall not be so unkind as to repeat the stories I heard 

 about him; I did not witness them. It did not require these warning 

 examples to make me resolve never to complain, never to ask for any- 

 thing, and to show myself appreciative of everything that was done for 

 me. All South Africa had taken the utmost pains and had spared no 



C 270 3 



