To Lord Methuen was given command of the Kimberley Relief Column.  He had with him the Guards, the Highland Brigade, and several of the finest infantry regiments in Her Majesty’s army.  A great task was allotted to him, but he was considered equal to any responsibility.  He has been freely criticised for his conduct of this part of the campaign.  It has been stated that he was prodigal of the lives of his men by direct assaults when he might have accomplished his purpose by sweeping flank movements, as Lord Roberts did afterwards.  But then Lord Roberts had cavalry, and Methuen was sadly deficient in that arm of the service; and how to make such turning movements without sufficient cavalry, no one yet has been able to tell.  However, it is not for us to enter into any criticism or defence of a British General.

What concerns us most for the purpose of this book, and what we rejoice to know, is that Lord Methuen was a humble and sincere Christian, who did all that lay in his power to further the spiritual work among his men.  What this means to a chaplain or Scripture reader at the front can hardly be told.  This we do know, that the direct assistance of the commanding officer often makes all the difference between rich success and comparative failure.

=Christian Work at De Aar and Orange River.=

The rallying-point for the Kimberley Relief Column was, in the first place, De Aar, the junction where the line to Kimberley connects with the line to Bloemfontein.  In course of time, De Aar became the great distributing centre of stores for the forces on the way to Kimberley and Colesberg.  Here the Army Service Corps held sway, and enormous were the stores committed to their care.

But at first, as we have said, De Aar was the rallying place for our troops, as they moved up from Capetown, and here it was that they got their first sight of the Boers.  As they placed their pickets and sentries round the camp for the night, a Boer woman was heard to say, ’The rooineks are so afraid that their men will run away, that they have had to put armed men round the camp to keep the others in.’  That was her way of interpreting the duties of British sentries!

Here it was that Christian work among the troops began in real earnest, and Sergeant Oates obtained permission from the leaders of the Railway Mission to use the Carnarvon Hall for Soldiers’ Services.  The colonel heard of it and put the service in orders, so that without any pre-arrangement on the part of the promoters, Sergeant Oates obtained the attendance of all the Wesleyan soldiers in De Aar at the time.