To those at home who ignore the truth of the German’s dictum that “invading armies melt away like snow,” it was a matter of wonder what became of the enormous force of some 200,000 men which was reported to be in South Africa, and how it happened that, with so many troops engaged, the proportionately small number of Boers attacking them achieved any success whatever. A glance at the map of the main railway routes will serve to show the melting-away process. At every bridge and at every culvert were camps; at every village and at every town were posted portions of the army. From Cape Town to Komati, from Durban to Potchefstroom, from De Aar to Mafeking, from Mafeking to Pretoria, and from Mafeking to Rhodesia the British forces were distributed, and far from wondering why the regiments thus trickling along the country failed to annihilate the Boers, those who knew were inclined to marvel that there were any regiments to spare for giving chase to the marauders in their desultory schemes of annoyance. The British duty of sticking fast was infinitely more arduous than the Boer one of slipping away.
On the 28th a Boer commando captured near Kroonstad an outpost of ninety volunteers, and proceeded to loot a mail train, but later General Paget at Magato Pass drove the enemy from two positions. Night expeditions to surprise the Dutchmen were engaged in by Lord Kitchener and General Smith-Dorrien, the former near Lydenburg attacking two Boer laagers, one under Schalk Burger, and driving the Dutchmen north, the latter moving towards Witkop and surrounding the enemy, but failing to do the damage intended owing to inclement weather. A more awful night than that of the 1st of November the unhappy troops could scarcely recollect, but as the two small columns, one under General Smith-Dorrien and the other under Colonel Spens (Shropshire Light Infantry), were operating in support of each other and some miles apart, neither could turn back. Only after surrounding and surprising the Boers at daybreak were they able to retire, and no sooner was the retirement commenced than the Boers boldly dashed after them, one of their number being slain within fifty yards of the Gordons. Our losses were Captain Chalmers, Canadian Mounted Rifles, killed, and Major Saunders, of the same corps, wounded. Captain Gardyne of the Gordons sustained slight injuries.
The circumstances attending the death of Captain Chalmers were most pathetic. Major Saunders, in the thick of a blizzard of fire, was riding back with a sergeant who had lost his horse, and to whose rescue he had bravely galloped. At this moment the Major’s horse, which was cumbered with the two riders, was killed, and the Major himself wounded. To his assistance rushed Chalmers, who, though begged to save himself, refused, and promptly fell a sacrifice to his own gallantry.
Such deeds of heroism were occurring daily. Though at home public interest in the war began to wane, and certain notoriety hunters endeavoured to hint that the British troops were not as smart as they might be, the gallant men at the front fought and toiled and suffered nobly. Besides actual warfare, pillage and the wrecking and burning of trains formed part of the normal programme, and daily deeds of devotion and courage were enacted. But these deeds, as a rule, found none to record them, and only now and then some special instance of heroism was wafted home on the wires. In one case the Pall Mall Gazette gave publicity to a story that makes one glory in the name of Briton. About this time a train to the south of Standerton, on the Natal line, was “stuck up” and fired upon. The driver and stoker were both wounded, the former being hit eight times and having both his arms smashed. Nothing daunted, however, he butted the lever of his engine with his head, and drove it full speed into Standerton, working the lever the whole way with his head alone!
The Boers, some said, were growing disheartened for want of food and ammunition, but others found that as the want grew stronger they became emboldened. Success of any serious kind was impossible, but their capacity for annoyance was considerable, and Boer marauding bands continued to raid the neighbourhoods of Cradock, Aliwal North, Ladybrand, causing alarm to the British farmers and also to those Boer ones who were pacifically inclined. The hopes of the guerillas were mainly stayed by the inventive fertility of Mr. Steyn, who stimulated them to the struggle by false accounts of their successes. He assured them also that 5000 Dutchmen had risen in Cape Colony, and that Mr. Kruger had gone to Europe to obtain intervention, and, failing it, meant to sell the Transvaal to the highest bidder. This the sturdy fellows believed, and continued to fight on, not with the valour of despair, but the persistence of anticipation.
Meanwhile at home, on the 25th of September, Parliament had been dissolved, and a general election had taken place, with the result that Lord Salisbury’s Government triumphantly returned to power. Thus the hopes of the Boers—that with a Radical Government might come a repetition of the climb-down policy of ’81—were defeated. To vent his disgust, and as a sequel to his letter of a year ago,[15] the correspondent signing himself P. S. sent another highly educational letter to the London journals, a letter which is quoted to serve, as did the former one, to allay the doubt of any who may have questioned the original aggressiveness of the Boers, or doubted the justice of the war sentiment among the British:—
“Sir,—I beg you to give expression to the immense surprise and satisfaction with which my colleagues on the Continent and myself have learnt the results of the election. We fully expected that in consequence of British intoxication with the partial success your Government has achieved in North and South Africa, that the Anti-Boer Party would have obtained a majority of at least two hundred and twenty votes in the new Parliament. Now we know that there will be a strong Opposition of about two hundred and seventy members in the new House, our hopes of the future independence of South Africa have risen high. We are sorry for the loss of some old friends, but we rejoice in having some new and more discreet allies in the House of Commons. Not only that, but we see also good grounds for hope for vengeance. In China, India, and Morocco trouble is brewing, and will overtake you before you can reorganise your little military forces or form a decent army to protect your own land from the invasion of the trained millions of the Continental Powers. Soon there will be such a conflagration in Europe that all your energies will be needed to try to defend your own island, but you will be too late in your preparations, and then our chance will come.
“You seek to settle matters quickly in Africa by your leniency and conceding the use of the Dutch language to us. See ‘British Leniency,’ in Morning Post, Saturday 13th inst. But I tell you that your leniency in general and your kindness to our men, now prisoners in your hands, are regarded by us only as bribes, offered to us to be faithless to our land and our independence. We will accept your bribes, but we will not be seduced by them to accept your friendship and to cease from working for our independence and the downfall of your Empire. But as my Continental colleagues truly say, your destruction at an early date is assured. The present election shows that at the first sign of invasion fully one-third of the population of the island of Great Britain will rise against the Government and welcome the invaders, as their forefathers would have done in the days of the first Napoleon.
“We have not studied the domestic history of the English people and the present feelings of the great working class for nothing. We are not so blind as your statesmen. Moreover, we can pay for the services that we shall receive from our friends. Thanks to our previous arrangements we shall still be able to obtain in Europe the sinews of war from our inexhaustible gold mines in the Transvaal, and we know that European politicians as well as the European press can always be bought at a moderate price, and that they will faithfully render good service therefor.—Yours, &c.
“P. S.”
In this frank epistle we were given the programme of future guerilla warfare, of Boer hopes, and Boer ambition. Whether the European politicians and press would continue to be purchasable at “a moderate price” remained to be seen, but this honest avowal revealed the secret of Pro-Boerism in its nakedness, and served to account most appositely for many curious and unjustifiable assertions which have been made regarding British actions in the course of the war. While Boer gold existed, Europe and even Great Britain would find Judases ready to do business.
The Dutchmen, their political prospects in Great Britain blighted, now hung all their expectations on the chance that in America the Presidential election of 6th of November would bring about a change in their favour. Mr. M’Kinley, the President, in a private interview with the Boer delegates on the 2nd of May, had informed them of his intention to persist in a policy of impartial neutrality between Great Britain and the Boer Republics, and from that moment they looked to the Opposition—to Mr. Bryan and Democrat sympathisers—for the intervention that they still eagerly sought. But in America they met with even less luck than in England. The election resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Republicans. Mr. M’Kinley secured 292 electoral votes, while Mr. Bryan had to content himself with 155.
