As the Union Government was engaged to the end of 1914 in dealing with the rebellion within the union, the suppression of which was unconditionally necessary to the prosecution of a successful campaign in South West Africa, the date of the commencement of this campaign should be taken as early 1915. The operations that had previous to that date taken place should be considered as military expedients to meet various emergencies as they arose and not as forming part of any co-ordinated plan of campaign against South West Africa. Any plans that were formed in August 1914 to meet the request of the Imperial Government for control of the South West Wireless Stations, which was considered of great importance by the admiralty, had to be abandoned or modified suddenly to meet the grave menace which had unexpectedly arisen within the Union, and which from its insidious nature and the numbers engaged, presented a far more formidable undertaking than an expedition against South West Africa. It will thus not be doing justice to the military enterprise of the Union of South Africa to consider or refer to any military incident in South West before January 1915. These operations can only be appreciated and viewed in their proper perspective when treated as a complete history of military events in South Africa in 1914, which is not the purpose here.
(The above section was crossed out on the original manuscript)
