on the whole they have behaved surprisingly well, and in a way that is
really very striking when we consider how undisciplined and individually
independent they are. Let us then, on our side, play the game fairly. No
doubt it is very exasperating to have the thing dragging on in the way
it is doing, and the present intangible, elusive warfare is desperately
irritating, but there is after all nothing unfair about these tactics of
the Boers, nothing illegitimate in any way; they are merely the turning
to account of natural advantages; and this being the case, we have no
right to lose our tempers and get vicious just because we have taken on
a tougher job than we thought for. Unluckily there seems to be a big
party who are prepared to do anything and fight anyhow to get the thing
finished. You will gain nothing by those means. You will not hasten the
end of the war, and you will make its after effects more lasting and
hard to deal with.[2]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: Here is a telegram copied from the _Evening Standard_ of
October 16, 1901. "Addressing the volunteers who have returned from the
front, the Governor of Natal this morning said that he could not now
refer to the Boers as dogs of war, but rather as yelping, snarling
curs." As against that take the opinion of Lord Cranborne who has just
come back from the front: "They had fought and they were fighting with
some of the bravest, some of the most tenacious, and some of the most
admirable troops that the nation had ever had to encounter;" and he ends
his speech: "Personally he had, as one who had served as a soldier in
South Africa, a great admiration for the Boers themselves." What I
submit is, that it makes the whole difference to your chances of a
settlement whether you speak of and regard your enemy as brave and
admirable, or as a yelping cur. We shall have to settle down with these
people sooner or later, and every paltry insult uttered and countenanced
against them only makes the process much more difficult. The odd thing
is that even in England they seem to excite no surprise or dissent. They
are printed as a natural comment on the situation. What I always feel
is, now as when I was out there, that the chances of a future agreement
would be very much improved if the English people were to treat the
Boers in the way that brave enemies ought to be treated, with a certain
amount of courtesy and respect.]

LETTER XXVI

PLAIN MISTER!

Cape Town.

I