The African Colony: Studies in the Reconstruction

A provisional modus vivendi has been found in the new Customs Union. See p. 238 (#Page_238).

37

There is a contingent liability on the Orange River Colony to pay a sum of £5,000,000, as its special contribution, from any profit which may fall to its Government from the discovery of precious minerals. See p. 245 (#Page_245).

38

The final answer to this objection would be the reorganisation of the militia – the only force for home defence – and the release of the present regular army for service over-sea.

39

I have thought it unnecessary to recapitulate in detail the financial argument used by advocates of this policy. Roughly it is as follows: The present Army Corps system provides for 78 battalions at home, 66 in India, and 12 in South Africa – a total of 156. The proposed system provides for 42 at home, 24 in South Africa, and 66 in India – a total of 132. There is thus a saving of 24 battalions, besides 6 regiments of cavalry.

Including supplementary expenses, the total reductions would be over £2,000,000.

40

The details of the force may be of interest. In April 1903 it consisted of two regiments of the Imperial Light Horse, one regiment of the South African Light Horse, one regiment of the Johannesburg Mounted Rifles, one regiment of the Scottish Horse, one regiment of the Central South African Railway Volunteers, one regiment of the Transvaal Light Infantry, one regiment of Transvaal Scottish, one regiment of Railway Pioneers, a medical staff corps, and a headquarters’ staff. The names of some of the most famous irregular corps are thus perpetuated. A new regiment – the Northern Rifles – has recently been formed at Pretoria.

41

A committee of defence has been formed in Natal, consisting of the officers commanding the imperial and the local forces and representatives of the local government.

42

This scheme would involve a departure from the present military organisation on the basis of army corps. We cannot expect to get an army corps for each colonial district, and the advantages disappear if such reinforcements are to be distributed to make up the strength of the army corps drawn from the whole Empire. The unit must be smaller – something in the nature of a division of, say, three brigades with one brigade of mounted troops. In South Africa we could have several divisions of regulars and several of local troops. The system would have the merit of harmonising with the organisation of the army in India, where reinforcements are most likely to be required.

43

“Out of Africa comes ever some new thing” is generally quoted in the Latin of Pliny, but it is probably as old as the first Ionian adventurers who sailed to Egypt or heard wild Phœnician tales. It is found in Aristotle: Λέγεταί τις παροιμία ὅτι ἀεὶ φέρει Λιβύη τι καινόν (Hist. Anim., viii. 28).