ry remarked in his report:--

"It is only by such a free hand having been given to us since the
outbreak of war in October that it has been possible to supply the
army in the field, and even so, owing to the want of reserves, we have
been too late with many of the most important articles."

The tale of deficiencies was thus summed up by the Secretary of
State:--

[Sidenote: Lord Lansdowne's note.]

"It is, I think, abundantly clear from Sir H. Brackenbury's Report,
that we were not sufficiently prepared even for the equipment of the
comparatively small force which we had always contemplated might be
employed beyond the limits of this country in the initial stages of a
campaign. For the much larger force which we have actually found it
necessary to employ our resources were absolutely and miserably
inadequate. The result has been that the department, even by working
under conditions which have nearly led to a breakdown, has been barely
able to keep pace with the requirements of the army."[46]

[Footnote 46: Extract from memorandum of May 21st, 1900, by
the Marquess of Lansdowne.]

_Colonies._

Offers of assistance had poured in from Greater Britain from the
moment that the imminence of war in South Africa was realised. It was
not the first time that our kinsmen had sent their sons for the
general service of the Empire. In 1881, within twenty-four hours of
the receipt of the news of the action at Laing's Nek, two thousand men
of the Australian local forces had volunteered for employment in South
Africa, but were not accepted. Four years later, eight hundred
colonists from New South Wales were welcomed for service at Suakim,
while a special corps of Canadian voyageurs was enlisted for the
advance up the Nile. But on neither of these occasions was the tender
of patriotic help so welcome to the Mother Country as in the present
instance, for it was felt that the whole Empire was concerned in the
contest for the establishment in South Africa of equal rights for all
white men independent of race, and that it was, therefore, peculiarly
fitting that the younger States of the great Imperial Commonwealth
should make the quarrel their own. As early as July, 1899, Queensland,
Victoria, New South Wales, the Malay States and Lagos, had tendered
their services, and Her Majesty's Government, though not then able to
accept the offers made, had gratefully acknowledged them. In
September, Queensland and Victoria