The losses in the war have been terribly heavy, but
Mr., G. Lacy in his letter to Monday's Times does useful service in exposing the exaggerations of alarmist orators. Up to the end of November the official return of casualties amounted to 49,700. Of these, 37,100 appear as "invalids sent home," of whom 230 have died, 1,310 have been discharged as unfit for further duty, and 780 are still in hospital. But the entire remainder have returned to duty and "are ready to go back to Africa or anywhere else where they may be required." Thus, deducting 34,780 from 49,700, we have a total of 14,920 as the net loss, and this includes 1,250 stated to be" miss- ing," of whom the greater number have rejoined our forces, though not officially reported. Mr. Lacy finally applies the actuarial test on the 260,000 employed in the war, and arrives at the conclusion that the total deaths from all causes are a little more than three times those of healthy young men of all occupations in times of epidemic disease.
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