for the Prince of Wales taking a keen interest
in the war apart altogether from the natural and patriotic reason. A
peculiarly large number of the sons of personal friends were at the
front and many of them were fated to fall from time to time. The
reputation of the officers engaged in the struggle was necessarily very
dear to him. He knew them all and had many associations with their
regiments and themselves. A blow to Sir George White, a disaster to Sir
Redvers Buller, a danger to Col. Baden Powell, a threatened illness in
the case of Lord Roberts, were all matters of personal concern to him as
well as of national or patriotic interest. The central figure in the
beginning of the war--the great personality of Mr. Cecil Rhodes--had
long been a friend and had been received by the Prince upon a kindly
social footing. Through the Duke of Fife's connection with the South
African Chartered Company, the Prince must have been closely interested
in all the earlier developments of the struggle and it could only have
been by special permission that his son-in-law held a Director's place
up to the actual outbreak of the war. Mr. Chamberlain and Lord Milner
were both men who had been closely associated with his own Imperialistic
projects and ideals and there can be little doubt--though it was never
publicly expressed--that the Prince of Wales sympathised with the policy
which has since made South African expansion and empire possible.

The Prince of Wales had seen Lord Roberts off upon his career of
successful action; on January 3rd, 1901, accompanied by the Princess,
the Duke and Duchess of York and the Duke of Connaught, he welcomed him
home and on behalf of the Queen received him as a Royal guest at
Buckingham Palace. A magnificent banquet followed, given by the Prince,
in honour of the Field Marshal--who had just been created an Earl and a
Knight of the Garter--and six months later as King of Great Britain, he
was able to send a special message to Parliament recommending a grant to
Earl Roberts of L100,000. Shortly after this reception came the
much-mourned death of the Queen and the accession of His Royal Highness
to the Throne. It was not long before the King was showing his
appreciation of South African soldiers by inspecting or addressing them
before their departure, or upon their return. On February 15th,
accompanied by Queen Alexandra, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, the
Duke of Cambridge, Princess Louise, the Duchess o