But, England, you must not complain.  “Tommy” is a cheap article; he only costs a few pence per day, and if he dies there are plenty more ready and willing to take his place.  Don’t think of him as a human being.  Don’t think of him as some woman’s husband and breadwinner.  Don’t think of him as some grey-haired widow’s son, whose support he has been.  Don’t think of him as some foolish girl’s heart’s idol.  But think of him as a part of the country’s revenue.  Think of him as “One-and-fourpence a day.”

What excuse can or will be made by the authorities for the wholesale murder of our men I know not.  Possibly those high and haughty personages will sniff contemptuously and decline to give any explanation at all.  And you, who hold the remedy in your own hands, what will you do?  Will you at election times put a stern question to every candidate for the Commons, and demand a straight and unqualified answer to your questions.  Remember this:  You supply the men who do the fighting; the nation at a pinch can do without a Roberts, a Duller, or a Kitchener, but, as my soul liveth, it cannot do without “Tommy.”

If you want Army reform, you must commence with the “Press gang”; you must stand in one solid mass firmly behind those war correspondents who have not feared to speak out plainly.  You must send men to the Commons pledged to stand behind them also, men who will not flinch and allow themselves to be flouted by every scion of some ancient house; for if you do not support the war correspondents of the great newspapers, how are you ever to know the real truth concerning the doings of our armies in the field?  I tell you that you have not heard one-millionth part of the truth concerning this South African enterprise, and now you never will know the truth.  Had the abominable practice of censorship been abolished prior to this war, most of the abuses which have made our Army the laughing stock of Europe would have been set right by the correspondents, for they would have pointed out the evils to the public through the medium of their journals, and an indignant people would have clamoured for reform in a voice which would brook no denial.  As things are at present, the military people during the progress of the war have their heel upon the necks of the journalists, and the public are robbed of what is their just right, the right of knowledge of passing events; only that which suits the censor being allowed to filter over the wires.  Had it been otherwise, hundreds of young widows in Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales would be proud and happy wives to-day.

But do not let me rouse your phlegmatic blood, my Britons; sit down, with your thumbs in your mouths, my masters, and allow a coterie to flout you at will, whilst the Frenchmen, the Germans, the Russians alternately laugh at and pity you.  Pity you, the sons of the men who chased their fathers half over Europe at the point of the blood-red bayonet!  Have you grown tame, have you waxed fat and foolish during