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.
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