MEN, MEN, MEN.
[To ran ROMP OP Ts. Sescraroa."]
Sre,—For the past few weeks I have been reading with the greatest interest and ever-increasing anxiety your remarkable and inspiring articles on the above subject, and the impres- sion which they convey is that England does not realize even to-day the seriousness of the struggle in which she is engaged. At the same time I do know that the training of a new army of one million men and the getting ready of the necessary equipment is a gigantic teak which might well tax the organization capacity of any country. The War Office, how- ever, according to recent cables, has made a move in the right direction, thanks in the main to the energy with which you have urged your point of view.
Your readers may be interested to know what this little country is doing in the way of raising men. The "Union" and Rhodesia have a total white population of approximately 1,400,000, of whom probably 25 per cent are either passive or actively hostile to the war. This percentage, of course, includes rebels, who are, or rather were, much more numerous than good people at home imagine. This brings the eligible population, if I might so use the term, to about 1,000,000. We know that 55,000 men are already in the field, which is 5'5 per cent of the total eligible population, or 11 per cent of its males. But in every town and " dorp" there is either a Voluntary Training Association or Town Guard, some of which are really first-class material. Precise figures as to numbers are not available, but a month ago there were 17,000 in the Johannesburg area, about 5,000 in the Cape Peninsula, and nearly 3,000 in Pretoria, In Durban, Maritzburg, and Bloemfontein they are also numbered by the thousand, so one may safely assume that there are about 45,000 all told in South Africa, which, with the men in the field, makes a total of 100,000, or 20 per cent, of the males. Only last week Lord Buxton said that "40 per cent, of the whole eligible popula- tion of South Africa was taking some active part in the putting down of revolt or otherwise assisting the Empire." Now this is not a bad proportion of our total manhood, when we consider that another 10,000 rebels took the field with Beyers and De Wet. Of course the difference between South Africa and Britain to-day is that here in South Africa we have war in our midst and at our very doors, whereas in Great Britain, so far as I am aware, not even a hostile aeroplane or Zeppelin has yet been seen.
I sometimes think that only when a German expeditionary force lands in England will people in the mass realize that the existence of our great Empire is at stake. I do not want to make invidious comparisons, but my own opinion is that Beath Africa has done not so badly, and that the Old Country might take her as an example of what is possible.—I am, Sir, I.L.H. ateaerre).
Monte Boa, Faure Street, Cape Town, December 11th, 1914.
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