Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/117

 CHAPTEE V. COMPULSORY RETIREMENT OF THE MOLTENO MINISTRY. At this time a change of ministry took place, under circumstances unique in the history of British depen- dencies possessing responsible government. In the method of carrying on the war it was almost inevitable that Sir Bartle Frere and the honourable Mr. Molteno should not look at matters from the same standpoint, for their past experience was widely different. The governor had been through the Indian mutiny, and consequently knew the value of discipline and had the very highest opinion of the qualifications of the British soldier for warfare of every kind. Mr. Molteno had been through an earlier Kaffir war, and had as high an opinion as the governor of the value of a soldier in an open fight, but believed that for roughing it in the field and for hunting up barbarians in forests a colonist was preferable to a highly disciplined man. Down to the time of the return of the Galekas from Pondoland all the active operations had been performed by the police and the volunteers, the soldiers merely holding certain positions as posts of protection, and with this arrangement both the governor and the minister were satisfied. So far the war might be said to be carried on in a foreign country, for Galekaland was not in the colony, and the Galekas were not British subjects. But when the Gaikas under Sandile joined their kinsmen over the Kei, the condition became different. Thereafter the principal, and very shortly the only, operations carried on were against rebel insurgents, and the scene of the fighting was colonial soil. 8 .97