1 62 COLOUR AND MORALS 



All this may be coincidence. The latitudes 

 of the South-Western desert in the Northern 

 hemisphere correspond with those of the South 

 African veldt in the Southern hemisphere. 

 Moreover, the population of the American 

 desert region was about equal to the British 

 Field Force in South Africa. The American 

 frontiersmen wore blue, the British soldiers 

 khaki. Passing from one region to the other, 

 I was astounded by the contrast between the 

 blue-clad frontier supporting four hundred 

 riders by the single industry of robbery-under- 

 arms, and the khaki-clad army which in 

 three-and-a-half years scored only one act of 

 robbery. The peaceful civil population was 

 engaged in blood feuds, promiscuous homicide, 

 and every kind of violent crime ; while the 

 fighting army won the hearty confidence of the 

 Boer field force by its chivalrous protection of 

 the Boer women. In the one case crime was 

 universal, in the other almost unknown. 



And this may still be all coincidence. 



The Great War is fought, mainly in 

 latitude of scant sunlight. The German forces, 

 clad in blue-grey, have made a practice of 

 rape, slaughter of women and children, torture 

 and murder of prisoners, sacking and burning 

 of cities, bombing of unarmed folk, fighting 



