ression and leaves no visible trace. It
does amuse me to read the speeches and papers in England with their
talk of what we are to do with the country now we have conquered it.
"With the conclusion of the war in South Africa arises the question,"
&c., &c. It reminds one of a child's game of make-believe. There is the
same pompous air of reality. "This is the shop and you are the
shopwoman. Good morning, Mrs. Snooks, I have come to buy a pound of
sugar." Unfortunately the facts remain. I find that some of the
shrewdest onlookers out here are just beginning to feel a sort of half
doubt whether we shall ever conquer the country at all. It depends on
whether the home Government and press give up their babyish "let's
pretend" attitude and face the difficulties of the situation.

All this is very sad and lugubrious, is it not? and I daresay you think
me a croaker; but there is a melancholy satisfaction in trying to see
things as they are, and I believe what I have told you is nearer the
truth than what you get from the papers. I only hope I may turn out to
be wrong.

I add a note (January 12th) from Ventersberg, where we have just
arrived. This has been our last trek, we believe. Rimington takes
command of his regiment, and the corps, like the rest of the Colonial
Division, will be paid off. I have a vision of a great blue steamer with
a bow like a cliff bursting her way through the seas on her homeward
voyage. And yet I can scarcely believe it.

Bad news waits us here. They say the Colony is rising. Now mark my
words. If we don't watch it, we shall end by bringing about the very
state of things we have been dreading. There will be a Dutch South
African conspiracy, but it will be one of our own making. We shall have
our own treatment of these people to thank for it. Be sure of this, that
for every house up here that is destroyed, three or four in the south
are slowly rousing to arms.

You will think, I daresay, that I have been putting the case
one-sidedly. Possibly that is so; but I am putting the side that wants
putting. I am constantly seeing it stated that any measures are
justifiable so long as they are likely to end the war. "Well, but we
must end it somehow," is a common phrase. That is all rubbish. We must
fight fairly, that's the first rule of all. I daresay there may have
been individual acts of cruelty or treachery on the part of the Boers,
but I am sure that any just and unprejudiced officer will tell you that