crusaders, not for our Empire, but for the greater faith by which alone that Empire can be justified. All honour to those who were not beguiled by the chatter of a shallow racialism, which, let it be remembered, is the eternal foe of nationality; who, without the homely sentiment and intimate loyalties which inspired the British-born, battled for an austere faith and an honourable ideal of their country’s future. Ever since eighteen years ago I had first the privilege to know South Africa, I have cherished the belief that the Dutch stock there is one of the finest in the world, and the most akin in fundamentals to our own; and that the future must bring to the two races some such union in spirit and in truth as links to-day the “auld enemies” of England and Scotland. The War has enlarged that hope. Never during its three years was there a spark of racial feeling in the ranks of the Brigade. No Dutchman ever cavilled at the appointment of an Englishman; no Englishman or Scot but gave his full confidence to a Dutch superior. All were South Africans and citizens of no mean country. The Brigade was a microcosm of what South Africa may yet become if the fates are kind. It was a living example of true race integration. The story may be regarded also as a record of plain human achievement, of what heights are possible in the “difficult but not desperate” life of man. To individuals, as to nations, comes at rare intervals the supreme test of manhood. It is often an open choice: there are excellent arguments why the smooth rather than the rough road should be taken. The men of the Brigade enlisted voluntarily, under no conscription of law—not even under the social coercion of universal recruiting; their pay was the slender wage of the British regular; they abandoned, most of them, good prospects in their different callings; there was no reward before them save honour and a quiet conscience. They made, in another sense than Dante’s Pope, the _gran rifiuto_, and preferred a rendezvous with death to comfort and ease. And having chosen, they were wholly resolved to endure to the end. Such a sacrifice is not made in vain, and against it the gates of death cannot prevail. The survivors face life with a new mastery over themselves and their fates, and the remembrance of the fallen will be a glory and inspiration to the generations to come.