Life of Frederick Courtenay Selous, D.S.O., Capt. 25th Royal FusiliersMillais, John Guille
Philosophy
Life of Frederick Courtenay Selous, D.S.O., Capt. 25th Royal Fusiliers
Millais, John Guille
Selous, Frederick Courteney, 1851-1917; World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Africa
written and sent in prior to the commencement of hostilities, and that
they were "held over" to a time when their appearance was, to say the
least of it, unfortunate.
In justice to Selous, however, it must be said that after this he kept
silent, nor did he ever utter a word publicly in the matter. He felt
that we were now hopelessly involved, and that anything he could say
would be of little use. Though he felt sad and disappointed over the
whole matter, he was far too much a patriot to do other than wish
success to our arms, though he ever hoped that some amicable settlement
would evolve out of the whole disastrous affair. Afterwards too he often
expressed his appreciation of the noble way in which the subsequent
British Government treated the Boers, both at the conclusion of peace
and the liberal manner in which we sought to bury the hatchet--a manner
which unfortunately has not always met with success amongst the older
Boer irreconcilables. Men like Botha and Smuts have proved that our
later policy has been broad-minded and humane, and that in time we shall
amalgamate in one South African Dominion a nation absolutely loyal to
the British Crown; but it will be a long time before the malcontents
have lost all their bitterness and a new generation understands what is
meant by a Greater South Africa.
His true feelings as regards the war are thus stated in a letter to me,
November 5th, 1899:--
"This war is a most deplorable business; but of course, as you
say, we _must_ bring it to a successful conclusion now at
whatever cost; but think what South Africa will be like when it
is over. However, it is useless talking about it. My letters to
the 'Times' have raised a great deal of ill-feeling against me
in this country."
And again, writing January 1st, 1900, he says:--
"I am very depressed about this war. It is a bad business, and
justice is not on our side. There was a lot of dirty work done
by the capitalists to bring it about, and no good can come of it
for this country. I have seen several letters written by Jan
Hofmeyr during the last few months, beginning before the war.
They are very interesting, and I hope will be published some
day. They seem to explode the idea of the leaders of the Cape
Africanders having been in a conspiracy of any kind with the
Pretoria lot."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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