The officials are quite aware that this war is growing
to alarming dimensions. On Monday night the Duke of Cambridge declared that it placed a great " strain " upon the Army, and admitted, in answer to Lord Truro, that the soldiers sent out were far too young, and that the system of filling the regiments ordered for service by volunteers from regiments left at home was a thoroughly bad one; but added his usual remark, that if the country wanted older men, it must pay for them. As the country already pays in England and India nearly £150 a year per man, that remark requires evidence. On Thursday night, however, the Secretary for War made a much graver statement, saying, in reply to Mr. Waddy, that there were now 16,959 British soldiers in South Africa, besides 1,064 on their passage and 1,615 under orders ; or in all, 19,638, with 4,453 white Colonial Volunteers, and the Naval Brigade, which Mr. Smith estimated at 850. The First Lord added 'that he had 2,000 Marines quite ready to embark, if they were required. This reinforcement, which will, we believe, be sent, would bring up the number of men in the field, Regulars, Colonists, sailors, and Marines, to 26,000. So severe, indeed, is the demand, that the Daily Chronicle states positiiely, what we cannot believe, that a portion of
the Household Brigade, never sent out of England except in emergencies, is to be dispatched to Zululand. Even if that rumour is incorrect, it is a great war, and not a little one, into which Sir Bartle Frere has plunged us.
