With Botha in the Field | Page 5

prisoners, De Wet himself escaping by the merest fluke. He lost all his
transport, and generally ceased after the action to be a serious menace.

During the operations against De Wet I watched, when possible, the
demeanour of the quiet South African patriot with whom fate had
placed me in the field. I had last seen him many years before, gravely
bowing from under a silk hat to a crowd that swayed and cheered as he
drove through the streets of Manchester. And now duty found him in
the field against an old comrade-in-arms. There was a sadness, there
was a profound pathos about it. No wonder if to me it seemed that
General Botha looked downcast indeed, if stern as well, during the
Rebellion. Life, surely, was not dealing too fairly by him.
Following Mushroom Valley, we trekked, with two brief outspans only,
to Clocolan, all the time scattering De Wet's followers. At Clocolan we
paused for one day, entrained men and horses and reached Kimberley,
via Bloemfontein, on the 18th of November. The following day rebel
activities were reported in the direction of Bloemhof; but after an
eventless journey we returned to Kimberley on the 21st.

SECTION III
KEMP'S ESCAPE
It was at Kimberley that news came through that Kemp was making a
desperate cross-country trek to get into German territory in the
Upington neighbourhood. A reference to a map will show that
Upington, on the Orange River, is on the extreme western borders of
the Union; and it must be said that the trek which Kemp and the
remnant of his moderate force, poorly mounted and equipped, had
made since being routed by General Botha on the 27th of October (a
month before) stands as a remarkable piece of work. We pushed on to
Prieska, via De Aar, and reached Upington, on the scarcely completed
new line from Prieska, on the 25th of November. The journey over the
desert stretch from Prieska to Upington was full of alarms; during the
night the train halted in the lonely veld owing to a washaway, and we
stood to arms, throwing out cossack-posts around the train wherein the
Commander-in-Chief slept. It was tremendously exciting work.
The old town of Upington was transformed in those days. Around the
Dutch Reformed Church, standing peaceful and dazzling white in the
torrid sun, were tents, wagons, horses, motor-cars, signalling-parties,
despatch-riders and infantry. Away over the hard red sand dunes to the
north was the action zone, and from that direction every five minutes

came sweating motor despatch-riders, who tore along to Headquarters.
The following day news came through that the Imperial Light Horse
and the Natal Carbineers had been engaging Kemp before and since
dawn; almost cornered, he was making a final dash for the border to get
into German South-West. It was an anxious time; each minute brought
a fresh rumour as to the fighting and the thousands of men Kemp had
got together for his desperate move. Our staff returned before dark,
reporting an eventless day, with intermittent fighting. On the 28th the
Staff went out in motors as far as Rooidam. They returned with bad
news in the early afternoon. After a prolonged rearguard action Kemp
had succeeded, taking over to the Germans with him a force which was
said to be far greater than had been supposed. (Need I add that after
events showed there had been gross exaggeration?)
I offer, with reserve, the following ingenious explanation of Kemp's
escape; it was told me later by several who saw the action. Near the end
of his terrific trek through from the North-Western Transvaal to the
German outpost for which he was making, Kemp was hotly pursued by
the loyalist troops. His men were exhausted. Half of them were
dismounted. All his horses were spent. In these conditions he was
forced to the most trying form of fight--the rearguard and flank action.
With his goal practically right ahead, he reached three of the parallel
large sand dunes with which the veld around Upington is scattered.
They were on his left flank. He swerved into them. Hotly pursued, he
crossed two, and under the lee of the second left a party of good shots.
Then, cantering away over the third, he doubled round on his tracks and
with his exhausted followers made for the German outpost. When the
Union troops came up they were ambushed at short range, and the
check they got just served the fleeing rebel. In the pursuit afterwards
our parties found traces of buried rations for horses and men. These had
been provided with German thoroughness.
The second phase of the Free State Rebellion was a pantomime more
than anything else; a week's pantomime acted in the open veld in rain
that never stopped. It was the most miserable