ipped
as it was, was a far stronger body than the entire force enrolled
under the Reform Committee, and that it would require a very large
force indeed of burghers to stop it. If Dr. Jameson had thought that
he would need help there had been ample time for him to send a fast
mounted messenger to Johannesburg. He had not done so; and it was
therefore to be presumed that as he had taken upon himself the
responsibility of invasion he was prepared for all contingencies;
but, apart from this, the force available in Johannesburg, which
would be in a few days a very good one behind earthworks, was at that
moment utterly unfit to march out in the open. It would in its then
condition, and with no equipment of field-pieces, be liable to be
annihilated by a relatively small number of Boers before it should
reach Dr. Jameson. It was decided, however, that, should fighting
take place within such distance from the town that men could be taken
from the defences without endangering the safety of the town, a force
should be taken out at once.

Fault has repeatedly been found with the military organization in
Johannesburg for not having been well served by an Intelligence
Department, and for not knowing from day to day what the whereabouts
and position of Dr. Jameson's forces were.

The reply to this is that the Johannesburg people had only two days
in which to look after themselves and protect themselves in the
crisis in which Dr. Jameson's action had plunged them; that as a
matter of fact strenuous efforts were made to establish communication
with the invading force; that the Intelligence Department--which,
considering how short a time was available for its organization, was
by no means unsatisfactory--was employed in many directions besides
that in which Dr. Jameson was moving; that some success was achieved
in communicating with him, but that the risks to be taken, owing to
the imperative necessity of saving time at almost any cost, were
greater than usual and resulted in the capture of eight or ten of the
men employed in the endeavour to communicate with Dr. Jameson alone;
and finally, that since he had seen fit to violate all the
arrangements entered into and dash into the country in defiance of
the expressed wishes of the people, whom he was bent on rescuing
whether they wished to be rescued or not, the least that could be
expected of him and of his force was that they should acquaint
themselves with the road which they propose