officers still in our ranks and most men of the Reserve saw service in South Africa.[1] Then, too, the special conditions under which an invasion of this country must be entered on would place the German soldier at a disadvantage with regard to the British soldier, against whom he will have to make good his footing in this island: the hurried embarkation; the long, probably stormy voyage, terribly trying to men the majority of whom will never before have been at sea; the risks run; the catastrophes witnessed (for I am not assuming that our reduced Fleet will be hoodwinked to the last moment, nor yet that it will be commanded by incapables, or cowards); the difficult landing from the transports that had escaped destruction or disablement,—all these things will, at least at the outset, impair his morale and diminish his physical efficiency.
- ↑ There may have been many "regrettable incidents" in the Boer War, but in its hard and difficult school many lessons were learnt, lessons not yet forgotten.— H. B. H.
