The Highland Light Infantry wore trousers
and their legs were all right. How much longer are we going to clothe
our Highland regiments in kilts on active service? Every man I spoke to
was dead against their use in a subtropical campaign like the present
one. Besides, even as it is, our men have to put up with a compromise in
the matter of kilts which makes their retention almost ridiculous,
_i.e._, in order to screen his gay attire from the keen eyes behind the
Mauser barrels every Highlander wears over the tartan a dingy apron of
khaki. The war pictures we occasionally see in illustrated papers of
Scotch regiments charging with flying sporrans are probably drawn in
England. Even when the apron is used, the khaki jacket, the tartan kilt
and the white legs offer a good mark when the wearer is lying on the
ground. At Omdurman I stood with the Seaforths and Camerons in the
firing line and I noticed that they appeared to lose more than any other
battalion.
On arriving at Orange River we carried our load of wounded to the base
hospital. I wish some of those well-meaning enthusiasts in Trafalgar
Square who clamoured for war could have viewed the interior of these
hospital tents and seen the poor twisted forms lying on the ground in
every direction. What a stupid and brutal thing war is! Certainly the
alleged "bringing out of our nobler qualities" is dearly purchased! If a
superior national type is the outcome of all this death and pain and
misery, War, like Nature, seems at any rate utterly "careless of the
single life"!
The battle of Magersfontein has been frequently described in the Press
and the main outlines of the fight are already well known to the public.
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