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very much like to have your opinion on this subject. I am not at all an alarmist but I do feel in facing facts, however disagreeable they may be.

Yours ever,

E.I.D. Gordon

Drumearn, Elgin, Cape Province, S. Africa.

Nov. 27, 1925.

My dear Buchan,

There is one matter in your History of the R.S.F. in regard to which I think you are not quite accurate viz., on p.253 where you say: "The Boers never had more than 40,000 men to dispose of .....".

Now there I am afraid I cannot agree with you, for I always, in speaking of the S.A. War, put the total Boer forces at more than double your figure. I have just looked up the Official History of the S.A. War which I consider is extremely accurate in all its facts & if you look at Vol.I, Appendix 4, pp.457-459, you will see the enumeration of the forces by commandos etc. & they total up as overleaf:-

Burghers of S.A.R. 41,650

" " O.F.S. 27,609

Regular Forces of both States 2,686 (Artillery & Police)

Foreign Corps 2,120

Rebels 13,300

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87,365

Then turn to Vol. IV of the Official History Appendix 20 & you will see that on June 1, 1902 there were 33,340 prisoners in S. Africa, India & various Colonies & that 20,780 surrendered in June 1902, these two totals giving over 54,000. The balance are shown as casualties. Even if some of those put down as casualties actually escaped out of the country by various means or, in the case of rebels, managed to get back to their own Colony without detection, I think the casualties could be safely put down at 20,000, which would bring up the total actually identified to over 74,000. So I think that you

2.

will see that your figure of 40,000 is much too low.

Don't think me finicking in making this comment, but the whole book is so good that I particularly noticed this statement because it rather tends to make out the British task in the S.A. War to be easier than it was.

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I'm sure you will be glad to know that the Prince's tour in S.A. was a very great success. If any comparisons were to be made it might be said that the tour was particularly successful in districts & places which were largely Nationalist in politics. This was very conspicuous in the Free State & is of course extremely satisfactory. It was a very good thing that the present Govt. was in power as had the S.A. Party still been in office there can be no doubt that there would have been a considerable tendency for the Nationalists to stand aloof. The Prince's personality would probably have overcome that feeling eventually but still his

reception would not have been the unanimous one that it actually was. The Gov. Gen. & Princess Alice are a tremendous success & not only are most popular but take a very great interest in everybody.

I am very anxious as to what is likely to happen in Great Britain during the next 12 months or so. During the last few months I have gradually come to the conclusion that the Communists intend to have an exceedingly good try to start a revolution in the very near future. If a general strike can be brought about in May there can be no doubt that it would be a magnificent opportunity for them, & I feel quite certain that in that case they will have a try. I believe & hope that such an attempt would be foiled, but it might take a little time, comparatively speaking, to suppress it & there can be no doubt that such an episode would cause enormous damage to our trade & industry. Even in a very short time so much harm might be done (by disorganising industry & consequently throwing large numbers out of employment) that the ground might be prepared for a second attempt later. One has to remember that revolutions are nearly always made by small, but very energetic & enthusiastic minorities. I would