In fact several of our men whose patrol-beat covered this ground
told me it was terribly trying to walk among these rough and ready
graves in the heat of the day.
Along the whole line from Belmont northwards and to some distance
southwards the telegraph lines had been cut by the Boers. Not content
with severing the wires here and there, they had cut down every post for
miles along the railway. I wondered what the grinning Kaffirs thought of
such a spectacle; here were the white men, the pioneers of
enlightenment, engaged in cutting each other's throats and destroying
the outward signs of their civilisation! Perhaps it is worth mentioning
that native opinion in Cape Colony has, as far as can be judged from the
native journal _Imvo_, been decidedly against us in the present war.
This is a factor which must be reckoned with as regards the question
whether or no blacks shall be armed and permitted to share in the
fighting. Of course it seems at first sight perfectly fair to give the
Zulus or Basutos the means of defending themselves from cattle-raiding
Boers, but if you once arm a savage there is a very real danger of his
getting out of control, and Zulus might make incursions into the Free
State or Basutos into Cape Colony. From such things may we be preserved!
There is an intensely strong feeling amongst colonial Englishmen as well
as Dutchmen--much more intense than anything we feel at home--against
the bringing of natives into a quarrel between white men.
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