1899] The Military View of It 341 



the last ten days. To me it is incredible how any reasonable creature 

 should believe such trash. His wife and her niece Irene Noel are 

 generally on my side. But to-day when I say, ' Now we ought to make 

 peace with the Boers ' they are all against me. Even Anne thinks that 

 the rights of the blood feud forbid that. Yet what absurdity ! War, 

 when it is a war of aggression, as they all admit that this is, is mere 

 murder, and though it is humiliating to make peace on a defeat, it can't 

 be surely right to go on. 



" As to the wisdom of persisting, the Boers are really better soldiers 

 than ours. We had a few good regiments to begin with, but they are 

 pretty well used up now, and the rest is of a feeble kind. Our army, 

 if it can fight, cannot march, and has to stick to the lines of railway. 

 Our superior numbers are consequently of little advantage. The Boers 

 are making a splendid fight for their freedom, and are winning all 

 along the line. Every honest man, English or not, ought to rejoice. 

 Instead of this, we English are in league with the Americans, we, who 

 were the two peoples who have posed as champions of freedom in the 

 world, to subdue two small, weak nations, the Boers and the Filipinos, 

 fighting for their independence, and not a word of disapproval is heard 

 amongst us. 



" Young Walter Gaisford, Talbot's A.D.C., was here the other day, 

 lamenting that the Khalifa and his dervishes had all been killed, so 

 that there would be nobody left to shoot, he complained, even in the 

 Soudan. ' There is hope, however, that, when the Boers are polished 

 off, we may go on to a war with Abyssinia when more sport will be to 

 be had.'' This is the way our young fellows look at war ('a high old 

 rabbit shoot'). It is good for them and the world that they have at 

 last met their match. War will be unpopular enough in England soon 

 if it goes on as at present, and there will be a chance then for the weak 

 nations to remain unmolested. 



" 20th Dec. — Prince Aziz was here yesterday and told me things 

 that were interesting. He was once a lieutenant in the 16th Lancers, 

 and talks intelligently about the war. Gatacre, he says, was always a 

 fool, violent and abusive to the natives in India. He had been certain 

 he would get into trouble when it came to fighting. The Prince holds 

 the British Army cheap. They would never have been able to get to 

 Omdurman but for the Egyptian troops, who did all the work and all 

 the fighting, and in South Africa they were inferior in everything to 

 the Boers. Things have come to a pretty pass when this fat Egyptian 

 Prince can hold such opinions. But they are perfectly justified. Kitch- 

 ener, as a last hope of saving the situation, has been named Chief of 

 the Staff to Roberts, and is to start at once for the Cape. The Dutch 

 in Cape Colony are in revolt. The English newspapers say there has 

 not been such a position of things since the Indian Mutiny. It is 



