A West Pointer with the Boers /

by John Y. Fillmore Blake

Now my narrative is virtually at an end, but to be in fashion I must say another word to be called the "Conclusion."

Queen Victoria had a peaceful reign of some sixty-three years. Of this long period, only thirty-seven years were devoted to war against her own people in her own possessions. It was against the blacks, her own subjects, that her huge armies were principally employed. Her armies could easily account for 5,000 dead blacks annually, so that during the thirty-seven years of her long and peaceful reign of sixty-three years, there could be recorded in the annals of English History the names of some 185,000 of her black subjects who, innocent, helpless and unarmed, were deliberately shot down because they were native and rightful owners of lands that might be rich in gold and other precious minerals.

The venerable Queen died in the year 1901 during her war in South Africa against an innocent, humane and Christian people who happened to have the richest gold fields known. She was succeeded by her son who followed in her footsteps till the Boers finally consented to surrender in order to save all that remained of their women and children and therefore their race from extinction.

At last, England longs for peace. She has all the gold fields with the exception of those in Alaska and she knows that by sending a titled person to the English Government in Washington, D.C., she can get all the gold she wishes in that land by the mere asking.

She is through with war and such is her condition financially that if any Power offers her an insult she must swallow it. The South African war absorbed all her money and to-day she acknowledges the huge debt of $4,000,000,000. To pay the interest on that debt alone her population of 40,000,000 people must be taxed at the rate of three dollars per head annually for every man, woman and child. Even bread, the sole food of her thousands of starving poor, must be taxed in order that she may meet the interest of her heavy debt. She prays for peace not only because she is pressed to earth by the weight of her debt but also because the South African War demonstrated the extreme weakness of her army.

The Mad Mullah in line with the Boers, has also developed the fighting incapacity of her army. I wonder why they call him "Mad?" Is it because he has wiped out some English commands? It may be so, because General Cronje was called the "Butcher" when he wiped out some English commands.

The English army having shown itself so pitifully weak in the presence of an armed though far inferior enemy, in numbers, the question arises, "Is her navy as weak as her army?" I don't know, but should her navy by accident run against either the American or French navy, I have an idea that it would follow the same course and meet the same fate as the Spanish navy during the American-Spanish War.

That the English navy is huge in its number on paper I do not doubt, but that there is any effective strength in its numbers, I seriously doubt, because so many of her principal ships are armed with old smooth-bore, muzzle-loading guns, so many of the boilers are burnt out and so many of the old hulks are rotten with age.

At any rate England is praying for continued peace and will not go to war unless actually driven to it. For 700 years she has tried to crush out the very life of the Irish people by thrusting them in prison, by starvation and by actually murdering them, yet, in the end she found them invincible and not to be destroyed. Now her King and Queen go to Ireland and fairly kiss the Irish people's feet and tell them what a good, noble people they are and how dearly they love them. To be sincere, they should have added, "Now won't you enlist in for army, for we can't possibly fight without your help?"

The English, of all people, are the least sincere officially and know best the value of flattery. It is for this reason, I think, that the British Empire has so long held together, but now the people of the Colonies are beginning to reflect, to think and reason, and the connecting links are growing weaker and weaker every day and some of them may, at any moment, snap.