There are many other details which might have been touched on. Attention has been drawn to the matter only because it seems wrong for the Government to refrain from identifying itself with an aspiration which is, perhaps, more deeply rooted in the people than any other. If they are ever to be trusted, why not make a beginning on some such lines as these? To go to them for assistance in time of war, and yet turn our backs on them in time of peace is not worthy of our race. A people that is prepared to shed, and has repeatedly shed, its blood for its rulers, is surely deserving of more recognition than the occasional issue of medals to a few favoured individuals.
FOOTNOTES:
[364] With ten guns.
[365] And eight guns.
[366] Storm and Sunshine in Rhodesia. Rowland Ward. 1896.
[367] Plumer, An Irregular Corps in Matabeleland. Kegan Paul. 1897. pp. 195, 199.
[368] Selous, Storm and Sunshine in Rhodesia.
[369] The same that commanded and fell at Isandhlwana in 1879.
[370] Enthusiastic and life-long supporters of the movement.
[371] Those recruited in Natal were mounted.