War's Brighter Side

[The coloured reproductions on the cover of this book are fac-similes of a badge specially made for the Editors of THE FRIEND.]

With his Kind Permission this History of his Unique and Historic Experiment in Publishing a Newspaper for an Army in the Field is Dedicated to

FIELD MARSHAL, EARL ROBERTS, V.C., K.G., K.P., ETC.

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

LETTER FROM EARL ROBERTS TO LORD STANLEY REGARDING "THE FRIEND."

BLOEMFONTEIN, April 13th, 1900.

DEAR LORD STANLEY,--I understand that on Monday next, the 16th inst., THE FRIEND will come under the new management, and it will, I hope, continue to thrive now that it has been established on a sound basis.

The Army owe a deep debt of gratitude to the gentlemen who so kindly came forward, and who have given their services gratuitously in the management of the paper.

That their labours are appreciated is evident from the eagerness with which the paper is purchased by officers and soldiers alike.

On behalf, therefore, of the troops, I would ask you to convey my best thanks to all who have contributed towards making the paper such a success, especially to the following gentlemen, Messrs. Landon, Ralph, Gwynne, and Buxton.

Believe me to be Yours very truly, ROBERTS.

PREFACE

Lord Roberts is the first General of whom I have heard who ever recognised and acknowledged the Value and Power of the Press by establishing a Newspaper as a source of Entertainment and Information for an Army in the Field, and as a Medium for conveying such Arguments and Appeals as he wished to make to the Enemy. This he did, as one might say, the instant he conquered the first of the Boer Capitals, almost simultaneously with his appointment of a Military Governor and a Provost Marshal, and the establishment of a Police Force.

The story of Lord Roberts's experiment and the Experiences of the Men he selected for his Editors must be especially attractive to all Journalists, and they will find here set forth whatever is of purely professional interest to them. To those details I have added the most Notable Contributions with which each of the twenty-seven Numbers of THE FRIEND was made up, and here this narrow limitation of the interest in the book is broken wide asunder. These newspaper articles are mainly the Works of Fighting Men, at rest between Battles, and of others who were at the moment going to or coming from Engagements. They hold the Mirror up to the Life of an Army, in Camp, on the March, in Battle, and in a Conquered Capital.

In these Letters, Sketches, and Verses the Reader lives with the Soldiers in camp. He sees what they work and play at. He hears of their Deeds of Daring, Mishaps and Adventures. He catches their strange Lingo. He observes what they Eat--(and what they do not get to Drink). He notes how they speak of their Faring in Battle. In all the Wealth of English Literature I know of no such a Mirror-reflection and a Phonograph-echoing of Soldier Life as is here.

Generals, Colonels--in fact, men of every rank and grade contributed their shares; of every rank down to "Tommy Atkins," who, in general, sings his Songs in the background, in verse, like the Chorus in an Ancient Drama.

To these features I have added many Personal Recollections, as well as Anecdotes and Stories told by or about the men around me in camp, and in the conquered Capital of the Free State, with Notes and Comments upon a wide variety of subjects suggested during the editing of the other Matter here collated.

In the Proclamations of the wise and great Field-Marshal, and the Notices, Ordinances, and Camp Orders of his Lieutenants set to rule Bloemfontein after its capture by us, are to be found an account of the Methods by which a Triumphant Army establishes its own new rule in a Conquered City and Territory. This peculiar and most interesting history runs, like a steel thread, through the book from beginning to end. I do not know where else it is told, or even hinted at, in what has thus far been written of the War.