Under July 7th comes the first glint of arms amid the drab monotony of the state papers.

On that date it was announced that two companies of Royal Engineers and departmental corps with reserves of supplies and ammunition were being dispatched.

Two companies of engineers! Who could have foreseen that they were the vanguard of the greatest army which ever at any time of the world's history has crossed an ocean, and far the greatest which a British general has commanded in the field?
On August 15th, at a time when the negotiations had already assumed a very serious phase, after the failure of the Bloemfontein conference and the dispatch of Sir Alfred Milner, the British forces in South Africa were absolutely and absurdly inadequate for the purpose of the defence of our own frontier.

Surely such a fact must open the eyes of those who, in spite of all the evidence, persist that the war was forced on by the British.

A statesman who forces on a war usually prepares for a war, and this is exactly what Mr.Kruger did and the British authorities did not.
The overbearing suzerain power had at that date, scattered over a huge frontier, two cavalry regiments, three field batteries, and six and a half infantry battalions--say six thousand men.