Our Little Army in the Field: The Canadians in South Africa, 1899–1902 by Brian A. Reid (review)

160 The Canadian Historical Review Le Moine); de l'avant-garde litteraire (Annette- Hayward); et de Godfroy Langlois, redacteur aLa Patrie puis directeur du Canada (Patrice Dutil). Cette aile avancee n'est guere prisee de l'establishment liberal au sein des assemblees parlementaires OU des etats-majors partisans; c'est done par des brochures, des pamphlets et surtout une presse quotidienne et hebdomadaire abondante, de meme que par des clubs politiques et des loges mac;:onniques que ces francs-tireurs font valoir leurs arguments. Le moindre merite de ce recueil n'est pas de se pencher egalement sur la tendance majoritaire du liberalisme de l'apres-1877: pragmatisme de Laurier (Real Belanger), innocuite du liberalisme a Trois-Rivieres (Rene Verrette), caractere fort peu progressiste des juges d'allegeance liberale (Sylvio Normand), politique scolaire habile des liberaux a Quebec, menageant la chevre clericale et le chou radical (Ruby Heap), radicalisme en trompe-l'reil de l'hebdomadaire L'Autorite (Fernande Roy). Ces textes marquent la borne entre moderes et radicaux. Lamonde a raison d'ecrire, en conclusion, qu'il y a toujours un besoin pour une etude approfondie de ce liberalisme consensuel qui, s'il s'en approche, ne se confond quand meme pas avec le conservatisme d'alors. Combats liberaux ne peut pretendre, par sa facture collective, al'exhaustivite OU ala synthese. Il demeure qu'il n'y a pas de hiatus quant a la qualite des etudes ou au choix des sujets abordes, ce qui le distingue de tant d'actes de colloques. Ce volume bien fait sera precieux pour les chercheurs. Une tres commode « Chronologie du liberalisme (1877-1929) », en fin d'ouvrage, fait regretter d'autant plus l'absence d'un index, qui eut ete le bienvenu clans ce livre OU pullulent les individus. XAVIER GELINAS Universite York Our Little Army in the Field: The Canadians in South Africa, 1899-1902 BRIAN A. REID. St. Catharines: Vanwell 1996. Pp. 208, illus. $29.96 Canada's first war ofthe century was, in many ways, archetypical ofthe remaining four. Participation in all five was, to a greater or lesser degree, divisive, and combat service was essentially limited to volunteers . Although Canadian forces served under British command and on British lines of communications, direct command was exercised by Canadian officers, as it would be in two world wars, Korea, and the Gulf. As in later wars, senior Canadian officers had almost as many political as military battles to wage, some of them against disloyal and politically connected subordinates. And, on the whole, Canadians did somewhat better than their minimal training and lack of active service Book Reviews 161 experience might have suggested, though their occasional disasters were either discreetly veiled or blamed on others. Left to himself, Sir Wilfrid Laurier would have been happy to help a few contingents of volunteers make their way to South Africa, preferably under the command of the pugnacious and unstable LieutenantColonel Sam Hughes. It was the governor general, Lord Minto, who pushed the government into dispatching an official contingent, an infantry battalion that fought as a unit from Paardeberg to Pretoria and through ensuing months of Boer guerilla. Another official contingent of mounted rifles and.field artillery was much more useful for the kind of warfare the Boers waged. The best unit of all, Strathcona's Horse, cost its creator, the former Donald Smith, $s50,083.02 - as the author observes, 'a princely sum at the time.' The author is Brian Reid, a retired Canadian artillery colonel who has followed the South African War with an amateur's passion and a soldier's eye. Those who want the full, detailed account of Canada's first overseas war will still look to Carman Miller's encyclopedic Painting the Map Red, published in 1993· Those who want a soldier's story, light on politics and strong on atmosphere and tactics, may be more content with Reid. They will find some unexpected bonuses. Few military historians understand artillery, and the Boer War was hardly susceptible to the gunner's art. Reid, however, has a professional commitment to helping readers understand what guns and their handlers bring to a battle, from Major J.A. Hudon's C Battery...