Before he obtained his high command in the Expeditionary Force, Smith-Dorrien had seen a great deal of fighting, and one likes to quote now what he once said during the South African War: “Give me a thousand Colonials, men well acquainted with the rifle and expert in horsemanship; let me train them for six months; and I shall then be ready to lead them against an equal number of men drawn from any Continental army with absolute confidence.” Sir Horace has also had experience with another type of splendid soldier of the Empire; for at one time he commanded the 4th Infantry Division of the Indian Army, which includes some of the finest troops in the native ranks. During the South African War, Smith-Dorrien performed one of the pluckiest deeds ever done by a British officer. His brigade was moving forward to take a main Boer position, when two battalions, one of the Gordons and the other of the C.I.V.’s, lost touch. The Gordons, to put it shortly, rushed up the hill at Doornkop with such impetuosity that they got cut off, and the General saw that there was great danger of their being surrounded. Without wasting a moment, and under an awful fire which was being kept up by an invisible foe, he galloped straight across the enemy’s front and turned the Highlanders back. When Smith-Dorrien rode in unscathed, a brother officer protested against the awful risk he had run. “Someone had to stop the Gordons! I couldn’t send anyone else to face that fire, could I?” was his only answer. It must have been hard for so brave a man to have to organise a retreat, but he knew that it had to be done—and done fighting. You will have heard of—you may even have known—someone whose name was included in the list sent home after a battle as “missing.” Now there is something terrible and disturbing in the thought of a man being missing. It makes one feel that anything may have happened to him. But we must always remember that this disturbing word does not necessarily mean that any harm has come to the soldier in question, still less that he is killed. It very often means that he did not hear the order to retreat and so was left behind in the trenches to be taken prisoner by the enemy. Not a pleasant fate, but from the point of view of those who love him, better than if he had fallen, as the French proudly put it, on the Field of Honour. Also it is well to remember that the number of the missing, especially in what is called a rearguard action, is always greater than the number of killed or wounded. A retreat has been well described as disheartening and painful, but in strategy it is an operation like any other. Very often, as in the case of Smith-Dorrien, it is the way to win in the end.