War's Brighter Side Part 34

The inoculation does no harm, its pain is a small matter, and its utility in modifying the severity of the disease is now well established. Take a case in point: two officers in the same regiment, one aged 31 and the other 24, contracted the disease on the same day from the same source. On the usual lines, the younger man should have had the worst attack, and yet, although physically the weaker, he recovered and his senior died. The younger man had been inoculated but the other had not! Some will say that it was the senior's kismet, but let that pa.s.s. The campaign is now well begun, and it is not too late even now to furnish supplies of lymph to Medical Officers for use with their units.

The disease now so rife is marked by an absence of abdominal symptoms and may, in its early stage, be overlooked. It is during this period of uncertainty that harm may be done by a solid diet, and it is safer by far for any one suspecting himself to be suffering from influenza or other vague disease to restrict himself for a few days to a milk diet. Then if the febrile condition pa.s.ses off, no harm is done, but it is to be feared that few will take this amount of trouble over themselves.

CHAPTER XIX

FOOLED BY THE BOERS

_British Leniency and Credulity abused Past Endurance._

For several days THE FRIEND had been publishing this short but imperative announcement:--

NOTICE.

From to-day (inclusive) all civilians must be in their homes after 8 p.m., unless provided with a SPECIAL Pa.s.s allowing them to be out.

The Police have orders to arrest all persons breaking this rule.

N.B.--This does not refer to civilians who are in the employ of the British Government, who will have a pa.s.s to this effect. By order,

B. BURNETT-HITCHc.o.c.k, Lieutenant, a.s.st. Provost Marshal to Military Governor.

Government Buildings, April 1st, 1900.

This notice was but one of many of the signs we gave forth that we were being fooled by the tricky Boers, and that at last we were compelled to admit it. Far back at De Aar I had seen how const.i.tutionally unsuspicious was the average army officer, how certain he felt that, because he would not himself stoop to deception and treachery, no one else could miss the enn.o.bling contagion of his example; how set he was upon carrying leniency and magnanimity to unheard of lengths, even with an enemy which neither practiced nor appreciated such treatment.

Back in the days at De Aar the Boer spies were thick among us, pretending to have horses or forage for sale, but in reality watching us, and making daily reports to the enemy. Even then I begged my friends among the officers to observe what was going on, and to take steps to keep all Dutch-speaking men out of our slenderly guarded great storage camp of supplies. But the typical officer said then, as he said afterwards for months, "Oh, there's nothing to worry about.

These people are our friends." And the occasional wide-awake non-typical officer ground his teeth and whispered, "Lord! Lord! how we are being played with! They know everything about us at every hour, in every move--and we not only know nothing of them, but are being fed up with lies."

Far from merely keeping the Dutch out of our camps, we engaged the people of the country as transport drivers and waggon hands, and even--it used to be said--let them find their way into our corps of scouts and regimental guides. We demanded that they should know the Taal lingo and the country, and the result was that when we marched into a Boer village or hamlet we saw our own people hobn.o.bbing with the residents, and asking, "Where's Piet? How's Billy? How have all of you been getting on?"--hail-fellow-well-met with these alleged "loyalists," who were among the most tricky, shuffling hypocrites I have ever met in any of my travels. On and on we went, never knowing anything of the Boers, and the Boers always thoroughly informed about us.

Everywhere the slimy, slippery ranchers and tavern-keepers and merchants welcomed us with the heartiest speech, and always were we fooled by it. They had been born in the country, half the people or more in all that great region were out "on commando," no man except a pro-Boer or a born Boer could have been where we found these double-faced people, with their Judas-like pretence of friendship. It was self-evident that they must have been siding with our enemies. Had they been for us when our backs were turned, the Boers would have offered them a choice between joining their fighting forces or losing their property and their right to stay in the land. Capetown, Durban, and Port Elizabeth were crowded by the refugees who had taken an open stand for the British side, and been obliged to leave their homes.

Nothing of this needed telling; it was indisputable, it was logical, it was common knowledge.

At last we came to fighting battles that were surprises--to meeting Boer forces where we were told there were no Boers. When, at Modder River, Mr. Knox, of Reuter's, and I saw a large force of Boers ahead, and rode back to tell our friends in the army what we had seen, we were informed that what we announced was ridiculous. There were only "three hundred Boers within a dozen miles," and these would be quickly dislodged by our Ninth Lancers. We were to meet the Boers at Spytfontein, miles and miles ahead. Nevertheless, in fifteen minutes we began one of the chief battles of the war, against the largest force that had up to that time opposed our army.

The next day saw us in the village of Modder River, welcomed by the men of the place, whose shops and taverns had been preserved in the very midst of the Boer army by--by what shall we say? It must have been either by the force of comradeship with the Boers or by miraculous and Divine intervention; one or the other, for there is no explanation of the phenomenon outside of these two alternatives. Did a single man from that village manage to cross the drift and warn us that six miles of trenches were ready to be filled by Boers when we should reach there? And why did no single individual among all these "friends" do us that service? Our guides and others rode far forward, and were gone for hours. What did they see or find, and why did they not discover the facts?

We were fooled! fooled!! fooled!!!

Without martial law in force behind us, as it should have been in force from Capetown to Kimberley, at the very beginning of the war, without maps of the country, surrounded by malignant enemies, who were the more dangerous in that they declared themselves friends. Knowing nothing, but betrayed in everything, we stumbled on--into Modder battle, up against Maghersfontein Kopje--fooled and tricked and played with for months on end.

We caught one of two men who fired at us from beneath the white flag at Belmont. The other one our soldiers killed, but the one we caught--what of him? The quicker he was hanged and left hanging on top of a high kopje the sooner would have ended the contempt of the Boers for our methods, and the sooner would have come the end of the war.

But I never was able to learn that he was treated otherwise than were the rest of our prisoners.

When we came to a village like Modder River, where the Boers had been entertained and a.s.sisted in bridge-destroying and trench-digging, did we _reconcentrado_ the little population? What a lesson to the disloyal, what a strength to our arms that would have been! We did nothing; we left them in their homes; we found them with Boer warrants for pay for forage on their persons; we saw them slipping to and from our camp at night, while by day they loitered around our headquarters and told us how loyal they were. Fooled were we--to the brim, up to our eyes, past all understanding.

Lord Roberts came, and the Boers tried the same old tricks. It is true that he maintained the same mistaken course of leniency--making war as light as possible for the Boers while they heaped its terrors upon us--but this mischievous, war-prolonging policy was so unvarying from Capetown to Bloemfontein that I always suspected it to have been ordered from home--perhaps by whoever it was that "preferred unmounted men" to catch the De Wets of the veldt. I cannot believe that Lord Roberts fought England's enemies in India in that way, or that he is blamable for that policy in South Africa. He was fooled, however, but not as others had been, nor did he evince the same fondness for being victimised as did certain of his subordinates. From the outset he took all ordinary precautions against treachery and double-dealing, and he was the first general to insist that the coloured native (very often a Boer spy) should be kept under supervision and should be at least as orderly, civil, and well behaved as white men were required to be.

It was while we were at Bloemfontein that the Boers presumed too much upon our credulity and trustfulness at last. They did this by the most barefaced and wholesale act of hoaxing ever practised upon a modern army. We sent out our forces, small and large, over the whole southern half of the Free State, distributing Lord Roberts' promise of protection to all who surrendered their arms and signed an agreement to fight us no more. Gaily and trustingly our troops went here and there, and everywhere the people came out to meet them in apparently the same cordial spirit of goodwill. As they handed in their grandfathers' old elephant rifles and whatever other fire-arm curios had been thrown aside in their garrets, they a.s.sured us that they were sick of the war, that they had been tricked by Steyn, that they had only fought to prevent the Transvaalers from confiscating their cattle and perhaps to save themselves from being murdered. It was a beautiful spectacle of erring brotherhood repentant--for those who enjoy being played upon and laughed at.

Even while the old junk was being brought to the railway we began to hear that wherever, in isolated cases, a man had honestly given up his Mauser and signed the British papers he was being plundered and persecuted by his neighbours, most of whom were still either fighting or awaiting orders to resume hostilities. My printers told me of friends whom they believed to have been shot for failing to take part in the hoax, and for seriously giving up the contest.

And at Ladybrand the "friendly" and "repentant" Boers, who had been giving tea and entertainment to General Broadwood to hold his force until the enemy could capture it, fired on him from the very houses in which he had been drinking tea, when he got wind of the trap and slipped away--to Sanna's Post.

The air began to fill with rumours of murder and pillage, the veldt again resounded with the hoof-beats of fighting commandos. We had the affairs at Reddersburg, Wepener, Karree Siding, Sanna's Post. We found that we were brushing our coatsleeves against those of active enemies in Bloemfontein--men who were apprising the enemy of our army movements and plans, who were even said to be slipping out at night, armed sometimes with messages and sometimes with Mausers.

Thus the Boer cunning over-reached itself. It was the biggest hoax, the climax of the long course of hoaxing. It was the first time it had been practised upon Lord Roberts, but I also believe it was the last time as well.

This was the meaning of the notices that now began to appear in different forms in THE FRIEND: that the Army was to be fooled no longer by mere lies and Iscariot handshakings. This was the purport of Lieutenant Burnett-Hitchc.o.c.k's command that we should all carry pa.s.ses; of Town Clerk Koller's order for all the Free Staters to give an account of their horses with proofs of ownership; of General Kelly's command that all troops "when out in positions" (around the town and elsewhere) "should invariably entrench themselves ... being careful that their flanks are secure"; of Lord Roberts's warning that our "friends" and others were to be held responsible in their persons and property for all wanton destruction of or damage to public or private property, which meant railway-wrecking princ.i.p.ally.

The Army at last was tired of being fooled.

The editorial of the day was conceived in the same spirit of resistance to a farther continuance of the experiences of the Army in the past. It was headed "British Leniency," and was, I am almost certain, written by Mr. Gwynne under "inspiration."

What about British leniency and long-suffering? (the writer asked). Let it be remembered we are still an army on active service fighting a vigorous enemy. There are people to whom British magnanimity has always and will always spell weakness. We cordially welcome and will gladly receive our new fellow-subjects. We shall not make our welcome depend upon whether they fought against us or not. Those who stood in the enemy's trenches and fought bravely for what they considered to be their liberty will soon be convinced that their struggle was prompted by men who knew not liberty, and that Great Britain will extend to them a degree of freedom which they never knew before. But--and let us here emphasise the "but"--we will have no half measures. We do not ask the newly-conquered Free Staters to take up arms against their kinsmen now fighting against us, but we do ask and shall maintain, with sternness, if necessary, a strict and rigid neutrality on the part of those who have promised it by oath. Let all take to heart this decision, that while Great Britain will remorselessly punish all and any who interfere with those who claim her protection, so will she as sternly and severely bring heavy punishment on those who misuse her tolerance and leniency.

The great extent of country through which the British army has to operate has made difficult to afford that adequate protection to those who have laid down their arms, convinced that they were risking their lives uselessly. In some cases these men have been molested and ill-treated by the enemy.

Full punishment will be meted out to those who have been guilty of such acts. We have shown an example of leniency and tolerance towards rebels, taken with arms in their hand, which we did expect would have been followed by those who direct the affairs of our enemies, and we shall exact of the two Presidents a full and complete reparation for acts of cruelty and inhumanity committed by those under their control.

THE FRIEND.

(_Edited by the War Correspondents with Lord Roberts' Force._)

No. 17.] BLOEMFONTEIN, THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1900 [Price One Penny.

PROCLAMATION.

The following Military Officers are hereby appointed Justices of the Peace for the District of Bloemfontein during pleasure:--

Major-General G. T. PRETYMAN, C.B., Military Governor.

Lieutenant-Colonel C. V. F. TOWNSHEND, C.B., D.S.O., a.s.sistant to Military Governor.

Lieutenant-Colonel B. E. B. LORD CASTLETOWN, Special Service Officer.

Major R. M. POORE, Provost Marshal.

Captain W. A. J. O'MEARA, Chief Intelligence Officer.

Captain P. HOLLAND-PRYOR, D.A.A., General.

Given under my hand at Bloemfontein, this Fourth Day of April, 1900.

G.o.d SAVE THE QUEEN!