War's Brighter Side Part 36

From inland plain, from mountain height, From city and from coast, From divers ends of all the earth, From the dear land we boast Our proud descent; and never where Our language may be spoken Shall the strong tie that binds us to Our mother land be broken.

All round the world we live in lands Thy enterprise has won, And when the day with you is past With us the rising sun Brings light to carry on the work Bequeathed to us by Thee; We make and shape an Empire that Extends from sea to sea.

The same clear head, the same firm tread And independent air That made all other men seem mean Who with thy sons compare; The same cool, prudent common-sense And strong decision that Conquer with the tools of peace Or weapons of defence.

Nor Greece, or Rome, or France, or Spain Had at their highest hour One-half thy Empire, half thy wealth Or world-embracing power, And not to any race that lives In History's wondrous story Has ever been vouchsafed on earth Such universal glory.

And we thy sons as much as those Who stay at home with thee, All seedlings planted far away From the ancestral tree, Breed true and show in branch and sap The same old st.u.r.dy merit, And plant our British customs in The lands that we inherit.

And now from all your distant lands With haste we come to show We do not wait for you to ask Our help against the foe, But gather round thee pleased to have The opportunity Of proving to the world in arms Our splendid unity.

RECENT ENGAGEMENTS.

BY MR. LIONEL JAMES.

I.

Events have followed each other during the last week in such rapid succession that it is impossible to give more than a short epitome of the engagements at Karree Siding and Waterfall Drift. The cavalry reconnaissance to Brandfort showed that there was a considerable concentration of the enemy in that town, and as the Intelligence Department had information that a large force of Boers, re-equipped and remounted, had come down from Kroonstadt, it was deemed necessary to occupy the clump of kopjes in which Karee lies.

The enemy forestalled this move, and on 27th March the hills round Karee were reported held. As both flanks of the Karee position presented ground over which it was possible for cavalry to work, a plan of operations was made by which it was hoped that our occupation would result in the capture of the enemy's advance guard.

With this object a Cavalry division under General French, a brigade of Mounted Infantry and an Infantry division under Lieut.-Gen. Tucker concentrated at Glen on April 28th. On the following morning the Cavalry made a detour round the right of the enemy's position, the mounted Infantry under Lieut.-Col. Le Gallais making a similar movement round the left. The object of this operation was obvious. The mounted Corps were to be prepared to come into action at the rear of the Boer position as soon as General Tucker delivered his Infantry attack.

At 10 a.m., having received heliographic communication from Gen.

French, Gen. Tucker put his division in motion--he advanced it across the four miles of plain leading to the foot of the range of kopjes in echelon of battalions, Gen. Chermside's Brigade on the right, General Wavell's on the left. The position which he essayed to attack, in the vicinity of Karee, may be roughly termed three parallel ridges with a stretch of valley between each.

Contrary to all expectation, the first ridge was found unoccupied and the infantry advanced without opposition, until the leading battalion (Lincolns) reached the foot of the second parallel. Here they were fired into by a patrol, which itself fell back at once. Under cover of a few rounds from the guns which came into action on the left of the advance, the second range was occupied. Beneath this lay the plain of Karee, a flat of about 2,000 yards, the station standing in the centre.

At first it was not evident that the third parallel of hills was held.

But as the Norfolks, Lincolns, and six companies of the King's Own Scottish Borderers scaled a considerable kopje which commanded the left of the final parallel, shrapnel was burst over them from a field gun which appeared to be in the valley below. The rest of Chermside's brigade, covered by a few of the C.I.V., were pushing across the open.

The mounted men and two companies of the K.O.S.B.'s advanced to within 200 yards of the final position before the enemy declared their presence by opening fire. The reception which the advanced line received from the marksmen lining the hill east and from individuals ensconced in the bushes on the slopes of the hills was so sharp that the line was checked and part of it forced to retire. The three field batteries then came into action against a high tableland kop which formed the right of the held position, the advance remaining checked the while.

A battery was detached to aid the right, as the K.O.S.B.'s were suffering from a well-directed and well-ranged shrapnel fire. This battery was not able to come into action, as the teams were unable to bring the guns up the slope of the position chosen. But three of Wavell's battalions were brought across the open and an a.s.sault was attempted on the main kopje.

Matters practically remained at a deadlock until four p.m., when the sound of French's guns was heard in the rear of the enemy's position.

Three shrapnel burst on the nek connecting the left and centre of the Boer position. The Mauser fire stopped as if by magic, and the enemy vacated. The whole line then advanced and occupied the enemy's position, the latter retreating across the plain in the direction of Brandfort, taking their guns with them, which they unlimbered at intervals to sh.e.l.l the cavalry.

RICOCHETS.

Lady Edward Cecil and Lady Charles Bentinck are here on a visit.

An amusing incident occurred the other day at the Glen. An officer of one of the Guards Battalions, whose name resembles that of the station, was found bathing in the Modder by a flying sentry stationed there to prevent the men from bathing. The sentry knew his duty, and unceremoniously ordered the delinquent to come out of the water, whereupon the gallant captain, in all his nakedness, approached the bank and indignantly asked the man, "Can't you see I am an officer?"

CHAPTER XX

DR. A. CONAN DOYLE CONTRIBUTES

_And this suggests a few remarks about the much-discussed Treatment of our Sick._

The editorial in the number of April 6th was written by me, with the a.s.sistance of Mr. Kipling, who aided me in phrasing concisely and with force the declaration of British principles in the body of the article. The ma.n.u.script was set up and "proved" while he was with us, and then was sent to the Residency in order that the authorities might look up some one capable of translating it into the Taal language. It was the first of our editorials to be printed, like Lord Roberts's proclamation, in both tongues. In English it was ent.i.tled, "to the People of the Free State," and this line was paralleled in our columns with this counterpart in Taal:

AAN HET VOLK VAN DEN (? ORANJE) VRIJ-STAAT.

Dr. A. Conan Doyle, who has since written so excellent a book upon "The Great Boer War," had recently arrived in Bloemfontein, and enjoyed his first welcoming dinner with the editors of THE FRIEND at the Free State Hotel. He took a keen interest in our strange newspaper venture, and willingly wrote for us when we asked him to do so. The ringing, st.u.r.dily-phrased article, "A First Impression," which appeared in this number of April 6th, was by him.

But he came at the head of the Langman Field Hospital, and was, at first, busy in establishing that most excellent, much-needed inst.i.tution on the cricket-ground; then busier far in looking after the enteric patients who pa.s.sed under his care in numbers startling to record. It fell to me to write a notice of his arrival, in which I said--and from my heart--"We welcome him to the British Army. We had hoped to welcome him to the staff of THE FRIEND, but, in view of the humane and philanthropic work which busies him night and day, we cannot betray such selfishness as to express any disappointment over this loss.

"So true a talent as his compels him to write, whether he will or no, and he has promised us a thought or an observation, now and then, out of his golden store. Perhaps at the end of the war he may give to the world a companion book to his undying 'White Company.' If it is called the 'Khaki Company,' and deals with the exploits of Englishmen of to-day, there will be, thank G.o.d, no lack of deeds of valour as stirring, courage as calm, and warfare as enthusiastic as he found to electrify the pages of the earlier work."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A first Impression

It was only Smith-Dorrien's brigade marching into Bloemfontein but if it could have pa.s.sed just as it was, down Piccadilly and the Strand it would have driven London crazy. I got down from the truck which we were unloading and watched them, the ragged bearded fierce-eyed infantry straggling along under their cloud of dust. Who could conceive who has seen the prim soldier of peace that he could as quickly transform himself into this grim virile barbarian. Bulldog faces, hawk faces, hungry wolf faces--every kind of face except a weak one. Here and there a reeking pipe--here and there a man who smiled--but the most have their swarthy faces leaned a little forward, their eyes steadfast, their features impa.s.sive but resolute. Baggage waggons were pa.s.sing, the mules all shin & ribs, with the escort tramping beside the wheels.

_A Page of Dr. Conan Doyle's "Copy."_]

All who were in Bloemfontein spoke as highly of the Langman Hospital as I have done, and in the same--even in a more ardent manner--had we all praised the Australian Field Hospital, which we got to know before Lord Roberts took command. Especially did we exalt these inst.i.tutions in our mind, because of the way in which we contrasted them with the outfits of the R.A. Medical Corps. We could not then see why it was that private individuals and colonies should surpa.s.s the richest nation on earth in their equipments for the care of the sick and wounded, or why the richest nation on earth should have to rely on these outside establishments, and beg of the Red Cross agents and of the people of South Africa for the means to complete the equipment of her own field hospitals.

It is not a pleasant subject. It does not force itself into a book upon "the brighter side of war" by reason of any especial harmony with that t.i.tle. But it suggests a story which England needs to know--which England must wish to know if she means to keep her place among the fighting powers by the only means by which that status can be maintained--which is the stopping of every source of weakness and the reform of every evil in her army. As I said when I was urged to testify before the Commission which inquired into the subject, I did not study the matter when I was with the army. I was conscious of the general belief that the hospital service did not meet the demands of the situation either after the awful losses at Paardeberg, or, later, when enteric claimed between 5,000 and 7,000 victims at Bloemfontein.

Death was thick in the air. Nearly every correspondent and officer counted more friends who were sick than he had known to be wounded or killed in battle. The rains had set in. The veldt was like a marsh.

The nights were bitterly cold. The dead in their blankets pursued us in the streets of the town and on every ride we took upon the veldt.

My concern for my son took me daily to the Volks Hospital, where the doctor and nurses said that enteric in Bloemfontein took on so mild a form that they should "consider it a lasting disgrace to have a patient die of that disease," and yet every time I went to that hospital I heard from other visitors how many were the deaths in the army hospitals. I heard, too, how bad were the sanitary arrangements, how inefficient were the often untrained "Tommy" nurses, how dreadful were the risks the patients were obliged to take (in some field hospitals) in obeying the commands of nature.

Now that I have returned to England I have had a high official of the Medical Corps say to me, "It was known beforehand that the service must break down in war because it was undermanned; it was never made familiar with its work, it had too few reserves to draw upon; when it was distended by the sudden and extraordinary demands of war it had to grow on paper, but not in fit and proper _personnel_ or _materiel_."

Here, then, is the basis for what must, sooner or later, be exposed to all the nation. Knowing that things were amiss, and that they could not have been otherwise, the people need not wait two or five years for all the facts, or for the creation of a mis-applied "sensation."

Let them doggedly and firmly insist that the loudly promised reform of the army shall be certain to include the establishment of a properly trained, equipped, and proportioned R.A.M.C., and that the lingering prejudice of the regular army officer against this most useful, economic, and essential corps shall vanish before the will of the people as stubble is swept up by a prairie fire.

Mr. Gwynne wrote the obituary notice of Archibald Forbes, Mr. Fred W.

Unger wrote a descriptive article called "The Inexpressible Veldt,"

and we were rejoiced once again to publish a contribution in verse by Mr. A. B. Paterson, of Sydney.

THE FRIEND.

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

No. 18. BLOEMFONTEIN, FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1900 [Price One Penny.