But
I remember that in these days it is necessary for every one, who means
to be well informed, to have a superficial knowledge of every one else's
business. Encouraged also by what Mr. Gladstone has called "the growing
militarism of the times," I hope that, avoiding technicalities, it may
be of some general interest to glance for a moment at the frontier war
from a purely professional point of view. My observations must be taken
as applying to the theatre of the war I have described, but I do not
doubt that many of them will be applicable to the whole frontier.
The first and most important consideration is transport. Nobody who has
not seen for himself can realise what a great matter this is. I well
recall my amazement, when watching a camel convoy more than a mile and a
half long, escorted by half a battalion of infantry. I was informed that
it contained only two days' supplies for one brigade. People talk
lightly of moving columns hither and thither, as if they were mobile
groups of men, who had only to march about the country and fight the
enemy wherever found, and very few understand that an army is a
ponderous mass which drags painfully after it a long chain of advanced
depots, stages, rest camps, and communications, by which it is securely
fastened to a stationary base.
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