CHURCHILL, Winston S.

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Typed letter signed, replying to a correspondent on the courage and strength of the Boers. Churchill offers an assessment of the defeated Boers, expressing respect for their ruggedness, a recurring theme in his writings and lectures.Churchill went to the Boer War as a press correspondent, was captured, and escaped from prison in an exploit that made him famous throughout the world. He turned those experiences into two books, London to Ladysmith via Pretoria (published 16 May 1900) and Ian Hamilton's March (published 12 October 1900). On 30 October 1900, he began a British lecture tour, "The War as I Saw It", and in December set out on a North American tour.Here he writes to James Neill of 292 Fiftieth Street, Brooklyn. "I am not in a position to give you trustworthy figures as to the Boer strength at any particular point in this war. On the question of courage there is no doubt that in spite of the Boer gallantry, the Regular British Soldiers have shown a greater willingness to lay down their lives at the call of duty". He comments on the Boer guerrilla tactics of concealing riflemen and then retreating, and contrasts them with the gallantry of British soldiers attacking into open ground despite these conditions."But when I say this, I would also say that there is no doubt that the man who has been bred and born in a large wild country, develops a greater military instinct, a better eyesight, and a finer constitution than those who are bred under the artificial conditions of

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