March 15th, 1900.
[DEAR MOTHER:]
I am on my way back to Cape Town. This seemed better
than staying with Buller who will not move for two or three
weeks. I shall either go straight up to Roberts, or we will
return to London. I have seen the relief of Ladysmith and got
a very good idea of it all, and I do not know but what I shall
quit now. I started in too late to do much with it and as it
is I have seen a great deal. It is neither an interesting
country nor an interesting war. But I don't have to stay here
to oblige anybody. If I do go up to Roberts it will only be
to stay for three weeks at the most and only then if there is
fighting. I won't go if he is resting as Buller is. So this
will explain why we start home so soon. I am very glad I
came. I would have been very sorry always if I had not, but
my heart is not in it as, of course, it was in our war.
Sometimes they fight all day using seven or eight regiments
and kill a terrible lot of fine soldiers and capture forty
Boer farmers and two women. It is not the kind of war I care
to report. "Nor mean to!" I cannot make a book out of what
little I've seen but I will come out about even. It has been
very rough on Cecil. Today I went to the Maine and asked
Lady Randolph to give me a lift down to Cape Town as the ship
gets there two days ahead of the Castle
Steamer. So, they were apparently very glad to have me and I
am going on Saturday. I like it on the ship where I have been
spending the day as it is fun taking care of the wounded and
listening to their stories. I am to write an article for her
next Anglo Saxon magazine on the Passing of the War
Correspondent. The idea is that he must either disappear
altogether like the Vivandiere or be allowed to do his work.
As it is now the Government forces him upon the Generals
against their will and so they get back by taking it out of
him. Either they should persuade the Government that their
objections to him are weighty and suppress him altogether, or
recognize him as a part of the outfit. I don't much care
which as I certainly would never again go with an English
army. I am sorry the letters home have been so dull but I
have had rather hard luck straight through, and the distances
are so very great and the time spent in covering them seems
very wasteful. I shall be glad I saw it because it is the
biggest thing as to scale that I ever saw of the sort, and I
could not have afforded to have missed being in it. It is the
first big modern war and all the conditions and weapons are
new. I don't think the English have learned anything by it,
because the fault lies entirely with their officers who are
all or nearly all of one class.
DICK.
