In the House of Commons on Monday Mr. Ellis, in
discussing the question of soldier-settlers in South Africa, used language about the newly enlisted Imperial Yeomen which we can only describe as deplorable, and which it is difficult not to believe that he will remember with shame and humiliation in the future. The soldier-settlers would, he hoped, be of a different character from those whom they had seen in the streets going by the ridiculous name of Yeomen. 4 Every one who knew country life, as he did, knew that the town-bred man picked up in the alums of our great cities was no good at all as a settler. They must have men who under- stood husbandry, the habits of animals—or what he would call nature—the peasantry, and not the little undersized starvelings they had seen decked out in khaki daring the last few days, a discredit to the British Army." To send out "English settlers from the slums" could only end in failure.
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