LTO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—Memories are short, and
it is generally forgotten how outrageously the Government treated the Volunteers at the time when they offered to send contingents to serve in the war. So monstrous was their action that something like a state of mutiny followed in the Metropolitan corps, and it was only the threat of resignation by the leading London Colonels —the Premier's brother among them—that at last moved the War Office to decently fair action. After the Volunteers arrived in South Africa they were for some time treated disgracefully. As an example, the Cambridge University men were kept at a siding unloading coal,—work, no doubt, that some one must do, but strangely unsuited to those chosen. The C.I.V. were well treated, but that was because the authorities knew that the public eye was upon them. My object to-day is to give a condensed account of a remarkable piece of individual ill-treatment, the facts of which are well known to London Volunteers. A Captain in a London corps, an enthusiastic soldier, was unavoidably prevented from joining his own regiment's company. He thereupon, hearing that there was a chance of getting work, went out to South Africa at his own cost, with a proper war- kit, also bought out of his own pocket. For special reasons, be bad further to buy two sets of uniforms. Arrived in Natal, he offered his services, which were accepted on condition that he would work without pay as a Captain in the Line. Immediately he had to subscribe a con- siderable sum to the regimental mess. He did a great deal of work, and in his first fight was seriously wounded. To recover from his wound he was sent to Durban, where ho had to live at a cost of £1 a day in a hotel. When recovered, he returned up country, but was not allowed to join his regiment, because it was uncertain where it was, and the communications were cut. Ho waited some time, again paying £1 a day at a country inn. At this time Pretoria fell, and Lord Roberts announced that the war was over. My friend thereupon went to the local Commander, pointed out that he was getting nothing and was at heavy expense, and asked that as the war was over he might go home. The authorities agreed. He might then have gone home in a troopship, but as he was weakened by sickness and his wound, he preferred paying his passage in a liner. So he came home, out of pocket by some hundreds of pounds in return for his patriotism.—I am, Sir, &c., AN INDIGNANT CITIZEN.
[We cannot agree that the Cambridge men suffered any hardship in unloading coal, nor do we for a moment suppose that they so regarded their work. The individual officer mentioned by our correspondent seems to have been unfairly treated in the matter of expense.—ED. Spectator.]
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