Native Life in South Africa [144]
reasons against the employment on the Continent of coloured troops from India. He said that 70,000 of them will be like a morning meal to the trained soldiers of Germany. This sympathetic view does not appear to be shared by German writers to the `Berliner Tageblatt', who have a high regard for the ferocity of "these Eastern devils". Apparently this is the only German view which is in harmony with the dispatches of Generals French and Joffre. His Majesty the King has since been to the front, where, in the presence of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Sir Pertabh Singh and other high Imperial officers, His Majesty personally decorated Havildar Darwan Sing Negi (an Indian) of the 39th Garhwal Rifles, with the Victoria Cross, and we need hardly add that V.C.'s are not awarded for fun.
On the first Saturday in March, 1915, King George went to Aldershot and acted as starter in the big military race in which over 500 soldiers competed. Her Majesty the Queen was also present and graciously distributed the prizes. The race was won by Private Stewart, a black trooper from Jamaica. Even the Coldstream Guards have their coloured private in training for the front; but South Africans inform you that the heavens will fall if coloured troops are sent against the white Germans, who, from the beginning, never scrupled to send black warriors against the British.
In regard to the award of the V.C. to Indians, many writers sent letters to the Press claiming that it was unprecedented for coloured warriors to wear the V.C. Whitaker and similar publications might have told them that a Native African sergeant of the West Indian Regiment wears the V.C. won on the Gambia River as long ago as 1892.
Chapter XXII The South African Boers and the European War
I slept and had a vision; and what was it about? For lo and behold, the sky was covered with a dark cloud on which was impressed the number 15, and blood issued from this cloud. Thereupon I beheld General Jacobus De la Rey returning to his Lichtenburg home without a hat on his head, and he was closely followed by a carriage full of flowers. Niklaas Rensburg (the Boer Prophet).
When the war broke out, there was no question, as far as one section of the whites were concerned, as to the duty of South Africans, but the majority of the unofficial Dutch and German sections were for remaining neutral and taking no part whatever in the struggle, either for or against the Crown. Among the Backvelders there appeared to have been some misunderstanding as to whether the South Africans were subjects or merely friends of the British Government. This bewilderment became more confusing during the interval between the outbreak of the war and the meeting of the Union Parliament. All kinds of ideas were expressed in the Press. The progressive section, mainly English, urged not only that South Africa had no alternative but to join the struggle, but they actually raised volunteer corps, which they proceeded to equip for service in Europe.
The regular volunteer forces of the country went forward at an early period of the campaign, and took the German ports. In connexion with the mobilization of these forces a regrettable catastrophe must be recorded here. The long train in which the Kaffrarian Rifles, mostly English, were going from King Williamstown, via Capetown, to the front, was derailed near the Hex River, and the gallant Riflemen had eight killed and about a hundred wounded. They are sons of the old English settlers of the Eastern Province, and some are members of European families who are very popular with the Natives of the Cape, so that white and black alike felt deeply the result of the catastrophe. General Lukin, who was in charge of the advance forces, quickly went up the South-Western Coast, and forced the enemy to evacuate his ports and retreat inland towards Windhuk, the capital of the German Colony. General Beyers and the rest of the Defence Forces which were entrusted with the land operations also mobilized.
On the first Saturday in March, 1915, King George went to Aldershot and acted as starter in the big military race in which over 500 soldiers competed. Her Majesty the Queen was also present and graciously distributed the prizes. The race was won by Private Stewart, a black trooper from Jamaica. Even the Coldstream Guards have their coloured private in training for the front; but South Africans inform you that the heavens will fall if coloured troops are sent against the white Germans, who, from the beginning, never scrupled to send black warriors against the British.
In regard to the award of the V.C. to Indians, many writers sent letters to the Press claiming that it was unprecedented for coloured warriors to wear the V.C. Whitaker and similar publications might have told them that a Native African sergeant of the West Indian Regiment wears the V.C. won on the Gambia River as long ago as 1892.
Chapter XXII The South African Boers and the European War
I slept and had a vision; and what was it about? For lo and behold, the sky was covered with a dark cloud on which was impressed the number 15, and blood issued from this cloud. Thereupon I beheld General Jacobus De la Rey returning to his Lichtenburg home without a hat on his head, and he was closely followed by a carriage full of flowers. Niklaas Rensburg (the Boer Prophet).
When the war broke out, there was no question, as far as one section of the whites were concerned, as to the duty of South Africans, but the majority of the unofficial Dutch and German sections were for remaining neutral and taking no part whatever in the struggle, either for or against the Crown. Among the Backvelders there appeared to have been some misunderstanding as to whether the South Africans were subjects or merely friends of the British Government. This bewilderment became more confusing during the interval between the outbreak of the war and the meeting of the Union Parliament. All kinds of ideas were expressed in the Press. The progressive section, mainly English, urged not only that South Africa had no alternative but to join the struggle, but they actually raised volunteer corps, which they proceeded to equip for service in Europe.
The regular volunteer forces of the country went forward at an early period of the campaign, and took the German ports. In connexion with the mobilization of these forces a regrettable catastrophe must be recorded here. The long train in which the Kaffrarian Rifles, mostly English, were going from King Williamstown, via Capetown, to the front, was derailed near the Hex River, and the gallant Riflemen had eight killed and about a hundred wounded. They are sons of the old English settlers of the Eastern Province, and some are members of European families who are very popular with the Natives of the Cape, so that white and black alike felt deeply the result of the catastrophe. General Lukin, who was in charge of the advance forces, quickly went up the South-Western Coast, and forced the enemy to evacuate his ports and retreat inland towards Windhuk, the capital of the German Colony. General Beyers and the rest of the Defence Forces which were entrusted with the land operations also mobilized.