Total, say, 4,100 infantry, of whom 600 mounted; no cavalry, no field guns.

The Boer force available against these isolated positions might be very reasonably put at 12,000 mounted infantry, with perhaps a score of guns....

It is dangerous--and yet nobody cares.

There is nothing to do but wait--for the Army Corps that has not yet left England.

Tiny forces, half {p.105} a battalion in front, and no support behind--nothing but long lines of railway with ungarrisoned posts hundreds of miles at the far end of them.