Another, less disciplined and more easily discouraged, a yeoman, wrote after Colenso:
'If I come through alive, the army will have seen the last of me! I have had enough of it, and I bitterly regret having rejoined my regiment.'
I do not say that these sentiments are general, but they indicate the weariness of the combatants. And this lassitude seemed to me to be creeping over all, from the general to the private, among those I met between Springs and Cape Town.
The army itself will not be consulted, of course, but I wish to note this state of mind, which seems to me serious.
On the other hand, British prestige is too deeply engaged for the English to retreat without losing caste.
What will happen? It would be foolhardy to prophesy. 'If in doubt, refrain,' says the sage. I will take his advice, offering for the consideration of those who have followed me so far this melancholy sentence from the Westminster Gazette of last March:
'Each Boer will have cost us £2,000 to subdue, and no one can yet say what each will cost us to govern.'
October, 1900.
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD
