THE SEA TRIP

Otago Witness, Volume 02, Issue 2420, 2 August 1900, Page 66

THE SEA TRIP

He chafes at the forced inaction on .b.oard. " What an odious affair/ says he, '",is a modern journey. How slowly we travel ! In the sixteenth' century nobody minded taking five months to go anywhere, but r fortnight is a large slice out of a, nineteenth -century.; and the child of civilisation, Jong ,petted by Science, impatiently complains to .his indulgent ignar-dian -of all i dclay_ in travel^ -and getulautlj; <!&1L(

on her to complete her task and frnaKy > eliminate the factor of distance from hum ;ii . ( calculation. A fortnight is a long time 'n ( modern life." ■ I THE LATE SIR PENN SYMONS : A TRIBUTE. l On the way out a passing ship signalled the fight at Dundee and the death of Syinons, and this is how he writes : — " So Sir Perm is killed ! Well, no one would have > laid down his life more gladly. Twenty j years ago the merest chance saved him j fiom the massacre at Isandhlwana, and Death promoted him in an afternoon from ' subaltern to senior captain. Henceforward his- rise was rapid. He commanded ; the first division of the Tirah Expeditionary i Force among the mountains with prudent j skill. His brigades had no misfortunes ; j his rear guards came safely into camp. In the spring of 1898, when the army lay round Fort Jumrocd- looking forward to a fresh campaign I iised often to meet him. Everyone talked of Synions, of his -nergy, \ of his jokes, of his enthusiasm. It was ' Symons who built a racecourse, organised a Spring meeting, and won the principal event himself to the delight of the private soldiers, with whom he was intensely popular ; who moreover was to be first and foremost if the war with the tribes broke out again; and who was entrusted with much of the negotiations with their jirgos. Dinner with Symons in the mud tower of Jumrood Fort was an experience. At the j end the general would drink the old Peninsula toasts: 'Our Men,' 'Our Women,' ' Our Religion,' ' Our Swoids,' ' Ourselves,' ' Sweethearts and Wives,' and ' Absent Friends' — one for every night in the Aveek. May the State in her necessities iind others like him." Symons is again referred to a/t the end oi the book, so I'll make the reference complete. Before Sir George White armed in Natal Symons was commanding in the , colony and ought presumably to have been best qualified to form an opinion on the . military necessities; but he extravagantly underrated th 6 Boer fighting power, and some of his calculations of the force necessary to hold various places seem incredible in the light of recent events. But everyone was wrong about the Boers, and the more- they knew the worse they erred. Symons laughed at the Boer strength and laboured to impress his opinions on Sir George White, who, backed up by Hamilton's South African experience took a much more serious view of the situation, and was pEjticula-rly disturbed at th& advanced position of the troops at Dundee. He wanted to withdraw them. Symons urged the opposite considerations vehemently. He was 'i a" man of great personal force, and his manner carried people with him. " Besides," said General White to Churchill, with a '. Modling eye, and extraordinp.ry emphasis, I " he was a good, brave, fighting man, and you know how much that is worth in war." j In spite of Symon&'s confidence and en- I thusiasm White hated to have trGops at f Dundee, and Sir Archibald Hunter, his i chieff of staff, agreed with him. But nob \ to occupy a plr.;e is one thing : to abandon | it after it has been occupied, another. So [ at 10 o'clock at night they decided to confer with Sir Walter Holy-Hutchinson what con - { sequences would, in his opinion, follow { withdrawal. Thus appealed to, the Governor said that the loyalists would be disgusted- and discouraged ; that the Dutch ■ would likely rise, thinking us afraid ; and that the effect on the 750,000 natives in Natal " and Zululand might be disastrous, i It then became a question of balancing drawbacks and it was agreed to allow the troops to remain. White- then divided hi 3 troops, giving Symons 'three batteries, a \ regiment, and an infantry brigade, and kept the same- himself. Symons carried the day but lost his life. But who is to say that, all things considered, the holding- of Dundeeeven for a short time, was not an advisable act? But to return : One afternoon they sighted the rocks and slopes of Robben Island — a barren spot inhabited by lepers, poisonous serpents, and dogs undergoing quarantine, and shortly afterwards Table Bay was entered. Then there stepped on board a man who knew, who was caught, geS half-way up the ladder to the hurricane deck, and made to tell the whole story of the- past three weeks to the 300 auditors who listened in breathless silence for a time, and bombarded him with questions after. BESULTS OF A DEMOCRACY. Greai; Britain, ruled by a democracy being ' cursed with party government, the Inv : perial Government was placed in the unpleasant position of warfcehing its adversaries grow continually stronger without being able to make adequate counter-pre-parations; it could -not go to war unless it had the country behind it, and until it had a general support was not at liberty to place itself in a £>osition whence, without fighting, there was no retreat. The difficulty of rallying public opinion in the face of the efforts of many prominent Opposi-

tionists caiised a dangerous delay in the despatch of -reinforcements. War has been aggravated by the .fence JPai-ty, and those humanitarian gentlemen are personally responsible for tne great loss or life. They will find their several consolations: Mr Mor ley will rejoice tiaat he has faithfully pursued Mr Gladstone's policy in So-tith Airica-j Air Courtney that 'lie has been, consistent at all costs ; Sir William Harcourt that he lias hampered the Government. But tor tlio&e wno have lost thensons and brothers in a quarrel unnecessarily extendeu, tlitre will only remain vain regrets, and to the eye-witness only a bitter t'jiiger. fchich, in eifect — indeed cue words are almost a transcript — is the indictment oi Great Britain s present form ot Government. WHO'S THE TRAITOR? Going through the Dutch camps one day — this was wnen on his way to Pretoria — he came across a young leliow just; turned Ib, ctucl a part oi the dialogue that took plEjse between them rans as iollow.-J : — "■ What's your name?" " Cameron." "That's not a Dutch name." '• JnTo, I'm not a Dutchman. My father came irom Scotland." "Then wirjr do you go and fight against the British T '' '• How can I help it? I live here. You must go when you are commandeered. They wouldn't let me off. Mother tried her best. But it's ' Come out and tight or leave the country' here, and we've got notmng but the larm." " The Government would have paid you compensation arterwards." " Ah ! that's what they told father last time. He was loyal and helped to defend the Pretoria laager. H© lost everything, and he had to begin ir all o"er again." "' So now you fight against your country?" ■'I can't help it," he repeated, sullenly, '" You must go when yon are commandeered." Churchill's comment is : " One piteous item of Gladstone's legacy — the ruined and abandoned loyalist in tiie second generation ~ ; and when he comes across another mar. who was a Boer by circumstance, but a Britisher by inclination and birth he writes : " How few men are strong enough to stand against the prevailing opinion ! Nor after the desertion of the British residents in the Transvaal in 1881 have we the right to judge their successors ha.Tsb.ly if they have failed us, for it was Great and Mighty Britain who was the renegade and traitor then." A DREAM OF THE FUTURE. Steevens was awestruck ;vith the immensity of the Great Karoo, biit Churchill describes it as a hopeless wilderness, in which each sheep requires a hundred acres of the scrappy pasture to subsist, and has his interest aroused only when getting his first impressions of Pondoland arid 3>3"atal stretching down to the ocean in smooth slopes of the richest verdures, broken only at intervals by lofty bluffs crowned with forests. " The delicious climate stimulates the vigour of the European. The highway of the sea awaits the produce of his labour. All Nature smiles and here at last is a land where white men may rule and prosper. As yet the indolent Kaffir enjoys its bounty, and according to the antiquated philosophy of Liberalism, it is to surh that it should ever belong. But while Englishmen choke- and fester in crowded cities, while thousands of babies are born every month who are never to have a fair chance in life, there will be those who will dream another dream of a brave system of State-aided — almost State-compelled — emigration, a, scheme of old-age pensions that shall anticipate old age, and by preventing paupers terminate itself; a system that shall remove the excess of the old land to provide the deficiency of the new. and shall offer even to the most unfortunate citizen of the Empire fresh air and open opportunity." Then follows a picture of thriving port?, villages, and cities abo~e which waves Ttie Flag. (To be continued.)