A West Pointer with the Boers: $b personal narrative of Colonel J. Y. F. Blake, commander of the Irish brigadeBlake, John Y. Fillmore
History
A West Pointer with the Boers: $b personal narrative of Colonel J. Y. F. Blake, commander of the Irish brigade
Blake, John Y. Fillmore
South African War, 1899-1902
Now my narrative is virtually at an end, but to be in fashion I must
say another word to be called the "Conclusion."
Queen Victoria had a peaceful reign of some sixty-three years. Of this
long period, only thirty-seven years were devoted to war against her
own people in her own possessions. It was against the blacks, her own
subjects, that her huge armies were principally employed. Her armies
could easily account for 5,000 dead blacks annually, so that during the
thirty-seven years of her long and peaceful reign of sixty-three years,
there could be recorded in the annals of English History the names of
some 185,000 of her black subjects who, innocent, helpless and unarmed,
were deliberately shot down because they were native and rightful
owners of lands that might be rich in gold and other precious minerals.
The venerable Queen died in the year 1901 during her war in South
Africa against an innocent, humane and Christian people who happened
to have the richest gold fields known. She was succeeded by her son
who followed in her footsteps till the Boers finally consented to
surrender in order to save all that remained of their women and
children and therefore their race from extinction.
At last, England longs for peace. She has all the gold fields with the
exception of those in Alaska and she knows that by sending a titled
person to the English Government in Washington, D.C., she can get all
the gold she wishes in that land by the mere asking.
She is through with war and such is her condition financially that if
any Power offers her an insult she must swallow it. The South African
war absorbed all her money and to-day she acknowledges the huge debt of
$4,000,000,000. To pay the interest on that debt alone her population
of 40,000,000 people must be taxed at the rate of three dollars per
head annually for every man, woman and child. Even bread, the sole
food of her thousands of starving poor, must be taxed in order that
she may meet the interest of her heavy debt. She prays for peace not
only because she is pressed to earth by the weight of her debt but also
because the South African War demonstrated the extreme weakness of her
army.
The Mad Mullah in line with the Boers, has also developed the fighting
incapacity of her army. I wonder why they call him "Mad?" Is it because
he has wiped out some English commands? It may be so, because General
Cronje was called the "Butcher" when he wiped out some English commands.
The English army having shown itself so pitifully weak in the presence
of an armed though far inferior enemy, in numbers, the question arises,
"Is her navy as weak as her army?" I don't know, but should her navy
by accident run against either the American or French navy, I have an
idea that it would follow the same course and meet the same fate as the
Spanish navy during the American-Spanish War.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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