The Edwardians (1972) s01e05 Episode Script

BUGLE: Last Post Upbeat march - Sir? - Good evening, Sergeant.
I'd like to see O'Connor! I've told you.
Haven't I told you, lad? You walk in here.
Walk, not run.
Now do that for me, will you, lad? - Otherwise I'll have you back on stable call.
- Sir.
- Sir? - It's er Meadows! Yes, Meadows, isn't it? - Sir? - Do you remember me? - Sir? - My dear chap, Hamilton.
Angus Hamilton.
Do you remember now? - The newspaper writer? - Bravo! How are you, Meadows? Oh, never better, sir.
It's been a long time, Mr Hamilton.
- Seven years.
- To the month, exactly.
- Great days, Mr Hamilton.
- We won't see the like again, eh, Meadows? More's the pity, Mr Hamilton.
More's the pity.
Well, what can I do for you? - I was hoping to see the General.
- Which one? - There are ten of the beauties in there.
- The only one who matters tonight.
Oh, now What, is he expecting you, sir? - No.
I've been trying to see him all week.
- I see.
Are you going to disappoint an old comrade, Meadows? Remember Musson's Fort and my dog? Mafeking! That's right - you called him Mafeking! Three times wounded, that hound.
Tuck me away somewhere discreet and I can buttonhole the General when he comes out.
What do you say? (Music stops, applause) Ten generals, God knows how many colonels - all come to see the little fellow off.
He deserves no less.
I'll be lucky to find anyone to wet my whistle when I'm time-expired.
I won't believe that, Meadows.
By God, I won't.
Not that I begrudge him.
He's a daisy! Isn't he a daisy, though? - The nation's hero.
- Bugger the nation! IG at Cavalry.
Best we had! Not even a knighthood.
Quite right.
It's a bad business.
What will he do now, Meadows? Now he's retired? He's a gentleman.
Gentlemen always find something to do, don't they? - (Raucous laughter) MAN: Oh, gentlemen! There's one other story that I really think must be told.
I'm going back to Kandahar in '81.
Now, as some of you remember, or certainly should, those Saturday-night concerts put on by the 13th SECOND MAN: Best of the garrison.
- Quite.
As you say, the best.
One Saturday night, at the end of the interval, a general officer happened to walk up the aisle.
Very pukka, he was.
As he walked, he ordered the chaps to sit down.
Well, the CO of the 13th Old Baker Russell - that's it.
jumped to his feet and offered the fellow his chair.
"No," said the general.
"I've not come here to sit down.
I've come here to entertain you.
" So he jumps on the stage and starts singing something from The Pirates Of Penzance.
(Laughter) You know, he's halfway through the song before anyone realises he's not a general at all.
In fact, he's a young sub called Ben Pearl all tricked up in greasepaint and false hair! (Men laugh and thump the table) - Don't you remember, B-P? - I Sorry? The Kandahar.
The Pirates Of Penzance.
- You must remember.
MEN: Yeah! (Men chatter loudly) (Silence) I am the very model of a modern Major-General I've information vegetable, animal and mineral I know the kings of England and I quote the fights historical From Marathon to Waterloo in order categorical (Laughter and cheering) DINERS: I am the very model of a modern Major-General I've information vegetable, animal and mineral I know the kings of England and I quote the fights historical From Marathon to Waterloo in order categorical (Cheering) (Singing continues in distance) Last Post ( Last Post continues in distance) (Low chatter) Gentlemen General Baden-Powell, my name is Hamilton.
Angus Hamilton.
I was with you at Mafeking, sir.
I was a correspondent representing The Times.
- How are you? Are you keeping well? - Tolerably well.
- I left my card, sir, at Princes Gate.
- Did you? When was that? A week ago.
I'd be obliged, sir, if you could give me a little of your time.
What, now? Not now, surely.
At your convenience, of course.
- You left the Cape soon after the relief.
- I was sent to China.
For the Boxer affair? Were you? Were you indeed? What did you make of the Japanese? Splendid fellows, aren't they? Quite like us.
Yes.
May I call upon you at Princes Gate? Oh, someday, yes, I dare say.
Someday.
- You wrote a book.
- My dispatches from Mafeking I remember.
The casualties Your figures - they were low, you know.
Much too low.
They were your own figures, sir, given at the time.
- No, no.
- May I call upon you, sir? My dear fellow, nothing about me to interest you now.
- Now that your service career's ended - "Ended"? Your tour as Inspector General.
Now it's over, people would like to know - what you will do next.
- Really? - If you're ready, B-P, we can drop you off.
- Very civil of you.
Good night, Mr Hamilton.
- Good night, sir.
MAN: Damn cheek! Who let the fellow in? What did you think of him, Meadows? What did you think? Out in the Cape, I mean.
Well, they called him "the Wolf".
He liked that, but - But? - He put me more in mind of a terrier.
A sharp little, cocky little, rat-catching terrier.
BO Y: "Sir," said Merlin to King Arthur.
"Fight not with the sword that you had by a miracle till you see you go unto the worst.
Then draw it out and do your best.
" And always King Arthur, on horseback, laid on with the sword and did marvellous deeds of arms, that many had great joy in his deeds.
MAN: What's that? What's that you said? - What? - You said the nation was sick.
- Yes, don't you agree? You can see signs of it everywhere, can't you? If one had to give the disease a name, I suppose you could call it "bad citizenship", - wouldn't you say? - Well, lack of character, certainly.
Exactly, but that's a sickness, isn't it? I was reading the other day somewhere, the same things that brought down the Roman Empire - are at work in Britain today.
- Socialists? No, no, of course not.
Those fellows are perfectly right to want to get rid of the very poor and the very rich.
However, they want to down everybody else to pull themselves up, - instead of all pitching in together.
- Have you decided on politics, B-P? Gracious, no.
I listen to all and are persuaded by none.
I believe we've all got to work together.
Teach self-reliance to the young.
The sort of practical Christianity that distinguishes, say, the Burmese.
- They're Buddhists, old chap.
- In theory, yes.
B-P, now that your tour as Inspector General is over, well, for one, I'm damn sorry the War House couldn't find something else for you to do.
- Other than the Territorials.
- Have you heard? Is it er I've had a good innings, you know.
Jolly good innings.
A fellow mustn't complain.
(Carriage stops) - Care to come in? My sister will have tea.
It was good of you, Allenby, to say such generous things about me tonight.
- Rot! - I would've thought a knighthood after Mafeking.
BADEN-POWELL: Oh, people make too much of that.
Altogether too much of it.
- Good night, both of you.
ALLENB Y: Good night, B-P.
Good night.
Thank you, cabbie.
(Sighs) (Carriage moves on) Could say he was intellectually even emotionally unfitted for the job.
- Oh, I suppose he did good work as IG.
- With the help of Douglas Haig.
Mm-hm.
A little too theatrical? Unconventional, anyway.
Always was.
Did you read his book? - Which? - Er What was it, now? Aids That's right: Aids To Scouting.
(Chuckles) Oh, yes.
Did you know the Kaiser had a copy of it issued to every trooper in the German Army? Good Lord.
(Hums) BO Y: England, at this period, was in great danger and some said, "What is now become of our grand enterprises and our valiant captains? What a glorious expedition that was, when King Edward landed in Normandy and marched for France, when he defeated the French at Crecy.
Where are the knights who can do such things now?" - Stee, you're back! - Azzie! Did you wait up for me? - That was very kind.
- We thought you'd be much later.
- Did you enjoy yourself? Were they kind to you? - Too kind.
Too kind! Not many chaps are seen off at the end of their careers by But, my dear Azzie, it's not something a fellow enjoys.
Nor is it the end of your career.
- Dear Stee, has it made you glum? - No, no, of course not.
- Has Ma gone to bed? - Yes, but she's awake, waiting to hear all about it.
I saw that fox in the path again this evening by the dell.
- I stopped it until a dog saw it off.
- Splendid, splendid! Byng and Allenby brought me back.
They have been most awfully decent to me.
Sometimes hard to be nice to the fellow, when you remember that bad business at Brakfontein.
- Should we blame B-P for that? - Some do.
He was told to leave the place, certainly.
Had assumed that someone else had done it and moved off.
- Didn't even wait for a report from his scouts.
- (Laughs) What price Aids To Scouting, huh? Fellows who were at both say that two days inside Brakfontein were worse than seven months in Mafeking.
Yes.
I wonder what B-P would've made of that, had he been in command there.
Huh! (Chuckles) Well, all the same, you could say that he's been treated shabbily - only a CB.
- Plummer did more, you know.
Got less credit.
- Mm.
What did that fellow from The Times want? His dispatches weren't too kind out there.
And that stuff about B-P's face showing no regret for the dead Ah! People don't remember that.
He's still their What is it? "Major General British-Pluck".
When I remember that you were the admiration of the world! That Lord Wolseley himself said you would have the ball at your feet.
My dear Ma, he's inclined to exaggerate like that.
- He said that you had greatness in front of you.
- (Laughs) - Well, now it's behind me, wouldn't you say? - You still have the Territorials.
That's not final - not yet.
Just a suggestion from Haldane.
Next year, perhaps.
After being Inspector General of cavalry Hm! - Well, you couldn't be that forever, could you? - No, and Ma knows it! I don't see why not, when they have someone who really knows what's best for the army.
- But did I? That's the question, isn't it? - Well, of course you did, Stee.
Well, the country won't forget you, thank goodness.
We can be sure of that.
(Chuckles) All those wonderful songs! - You remember, Azzie? - Ma, please.
The Mafeking Waltz, The Mafeking Grand March, Our Hero B-P AZZIE: The Baden-Powell Schottische.
MA: Such terrible music, but so kind, so right! BOTH WOMEN: La-la, la-la-la No more, Mother, please! That was a long time ago.
Really, you know - seven years.
Seven? Is it seven? Oh! It's only yesterday, people writing, your photograph in the shops, larger than Roberts or Buller! - Are we tiring you, Mother? - All those letters - It's late.
You should sleep.
- And to let you down so badly.
No-one has let me down, Ma! I mean, to be IG Cavalry without having been to staff college, or a belted earl in the family! The Badens and the Powells were always good stock.
- And you hitched them together.
- Mm.
- Good night, old Mother Hyphen.
- (Chuckles tenderly) (Sighs) I wish you would marry! Oh, gracious, Ma! It's a bit late now, isn't it? Anyway, the fault's mine.
Got hundreds of proposals sent to me in the Cape, - all from devilishly handsome women, no doubt.
- Stee! Azzie, I was touched.
It was kind of them.
Perhaps when I was younger, but then - But then there was no money.
- Oh, Ma! Oh, you never complained, I know.
After your dear father died, no-one would have believed it possible that you and your brothers, five young men at an age when they might have been tempted to waste themselves on horses and wine and dinners, that you should all have shared one small purse to suit our limited income without one murmur of complaint.
Ho, ho! I am proud of you.
It was your example.
Always your example.
Good night, Ma.
- Good night, Ma.
- Good night, dearie.
- Stee - What is it, Azzie? - She is worried about you, you know.
- I know.
What will you do now? Ooh, I've a pot or two on the boil.
Good night, Azzie dear.
(He hums) - It was a damned unpopular war by then.
- They always are, sooner or later.
I meant that, because things were going so badly, Mafeking was providential.
The way people at home responded to it, you know.
Getting into a fever, you mean, in support of the war? - Something like that.
- Ho, ho! Quite.
(Both sigh) I thought he was very down in the mouth - tonight, I mean.
He got excited once.
I was telling him that, some years ago, I was riding home from parade when my young boy, Michael - Oh, yes, how is the lad? - Splendid, thanks.
he shouted at me from a tree, saying I was shot - ambushed.
I looked up, and there was his governess on the branch, beside him! I asked her what the devil she was doing there.
She said she was "teaching Michael scouting".
Scouting? A governess? Do you know what she said? She said B-P's book on army scouting - is a textbook at her teaching college.
- (Chuckles) The deuce it is! I told B-P the story tonight, thought he'd see the humour of it, but he didn't.
He took it as a serious compliment and went on at great length about his own days at school.
Charterhouse, wasn't it? BO Y: I am Uncas, the son of Chingachgook son of the Great Turtle.
My race is the grandfather of nations.
Once, we slept where we could hear the Salt Lake speak in its anger.
Then said my fathers, "Here will we hunt.
The waters of the river go into the Salt Lake.
If we go toward the setting sun, we shall find streams that run into the great lakes of sweet water, there where the Mohican die like fishes of the sea in the clear springs.
Our eyes are on the rising sun and not toward the setting sun.
" (Flames crackle) Do you know it's past one, Stee? I must write things down while they're fresh in my mind.
You could do that in the morning.
It's been a long day.
Azzie, if a chap works one extra hour a day, that's 365 more per annum.
Three weeks longer than his neighbour.
I reckon I can get 13 months into a year, instead of 12.
I should spend some on arithmetic.
All right, an extra hour and a half.
But what use is that, if you shorten your life? Oh, my life's probably over now, wouldn't you say? That's not like you, Stee.
That's not like you at all.
Perhaps not.
These past few days, my mind has been running on some most peculiar lines.
I knew that farewell dinner would make you melancholy.
Me, melancholy? Now, that would be a waste of time! - Can I get you something? - No, but sit and talk to me for a bit.
Can you do that, Azzie? You haven't done that since we were children.
Shall I tell you a campfire story? - Tell me what you're writing.
- Oh, something for Arthur Pearson.
Remember? - The man who's buying The Times.
- The man who wants to.
Probably will.
- Remarkable fellow.
- Is it another book? You know that scheme of mine about boy patrols? And the report I did on the Boys' Brigade for William Smith, An Aid To Scouting and some of the stuff I didn't use for Pig-Sticking? Well, after that weekend I spent with Pearson in Surrey, I decided he was the chap to publish it.
- What is it, Azzie? Don't you approve? - Oh, I don't know, Stee.
Is it Pearson? I know Chamberlain said he was the greatest hustler he'd ever known, but the man really is keen on doing something for boys in this country.
- Azzie, try and understand.
- I'm so afraid you'll make yourself ill again.
Azzie, listen.
Travelling around the country as IG, I was appalled.
You don't know the things I saw.
All those young men with hunched shoulders and narrow chests Miserable wretches smoking cigarette after cigarette, loafing about unemployed because they haven't got the will to work.
Azzie, this country is in desperate need of help.
I'm afraid dear old Britain's going down because our young people are weak-kneed slackers without an ounce of patriotism! Is it wrong to think I'm the chap who can help them? If I can write a book If I can bring them together Ma is right.
You should marry and have boys of your own.
Oh, Azzie, that's not it.
Then don't let yourself be used by these yellow journalists.
You're a bit hard on Pearson.
You really are.
He's a genuinely philanthropic fellow desperately interested in good causes.
Particularly when they help to sell his publications.
- That's unfair.
- After your wonderful army career - India, Ashanti, then Mafeking - Damn Mafeking! (Flames crackle) Azzie, I'm sorry.
I really am most desperately sorry.
Won't you get some sleep, Stee? In here, if you prefer it, on your old camp bed.
All my life, there's been something to do.
Something important, valuable.
The army was full of opportunities.
Sometimes I felt I would burst with ideas! Always something to do - not just polo or pigs, but jolly exciting adventures, challenges - And then, suddenly - Stee, you're tired.
I haven't time to be tired.
As I was sitting there tonight, listening to those good chaps talking about me so kindly, and afterwards, a fellow from The Times Azzie, where have they all gone, these years? Remember what the Matabele called me? - "The wolf that never sleeps".
- "Impeesa".
I've been thinking of that, of lots of things lately.
Do you know what I felt tonight, listening to those fellows? That I was a climber who'd got to the peak of this mountain called called Mafeking, and there's only one way I can go now.
And everybody anxious to see I get down safely.
But down, Azzie - that's the point.
Down.
(Birdsong) (Boys cry out) (Cries continue in distance) Eengonyama-gonyama Invooboo Ya-boh, ya-boh Invooboo - Two, three - Good afternoon, sir.
Good afternoon Hamilton.
What do you think of my boy patrol? - Splendid chaps, aren't they? - Yes.
I've been watching their game.
Game? It wasn't a game.
Well, I suppose it is, but the best sort, wouldn't you say? Have you been tracking me, Mr Hamilton? Your maidservant told me you were here.
- You have to get up early to track an old scout.
- I seem to have done so, sir.
- May I ask - What do you think of our war chant? Sir? Eengonyama-gonyama Invooboo I first heard that when I was with the Umsunduzi relief column, 20 years ago now.
- Do you recall it? - It was before my time, sir.
John Dunn, the white chief of the Zulus brought in 2,000 young warriors.
Fine, strong, muscular fellows they were, all chanting that, like an organ.
Know what it means? "He is a lion.
Yes, he is greater than a lion.
He is a hippopotamus.
" (Laughs) Eengonyama-gonyama Invooboo BO YS: Ya-boh, ya-boh Invooboo Two, three, four.
ALL: Eengonyama-gonyama Invooboo Sir Ya-boh invooboo He is greater than a lion.
He is.
He's an ass! (Birdsong) General? (Breeze blows) BO Y: With that came Lancelot as fast as he might till he came to that knight saying, "Oh, thou false knight and traitor unto knighthood, who did learn thee to distress ladies and gentlewomen?" The knight answered not, but drew his sword and rode onto Sir Lancelot, and Sir Lancelot threw his spear from him and drew out his sword and struck him such a MAN: General, we're ready now.
Oh, thank you for your patience, Mr Speed.
If I'd known you were unwell, sir, I wouldn't have come.
- A recurrent fever, that's all.
It passes.
- I can return another day.
Certainly not.
Appointments have been made and must be kept.
I'm a busy man, Mr Speed.
So are we both.
What do you wish? At the desk, sir, as before, if you please.
Is the left hand correct? I forget.
I can use both, you know, for writing and sketching.
That's perfect, sir.
There's no need to hold the pose so stiffly, General, if it tires you.
Not at all, my dear fellow.
I've trained myself to remain stationary for some minutes.
- It's part of elementary woodcraft, Mr Speed.
- Yes, sir.
I meant that these are merely preliminary sketches.
Do write, if you wish, or talk, if it makes you feel at ease.
I have also trained myself to be at ease at all times, Mr Speed.
Of course, sir.
Lack of self-control is a deterioration of character, wouldn't you say? Was the choice of this uniform correct? - Perfect, General.
- I thought it right for a portrait, not because I designed it myself, but the South African Constabulary was the first truly Imperial corps.
I was determined to make them the finest in the world.
What do you say to that? I appealed to the British spirit already ingrained in them, the ability to play the game.
- Mr Speed - What? Oh, forgive me, General.
I Playing the game.
That's what I expected of them, - as Britons and men of honour.
- (Chuckles) Yes, of course.
They chose their own motto, you know: "Be prepared".
(Chuckles) Your initials.
A coincidence.
And a happy one.
A splendid compliment to the hero of Mafeking.
I do wish people wouldn't call me that.
If only they knew the truth - The truth, General? - Did I say "truth"? The truth is, my dear Speed, we had quite a little republic there, with me as a sort of president, tyrant, making my own laws.
Postage stamps with their own portrait.
- They were made without my knowledge.
- Yes, of course.
I always thought it was odd that, with the town surrounded by Boers, there was a regular postal service to the Cape and er Be prepared, Mr Speed.
"Si vis pacem, para bellum.
" Er, indeed, sir.
But is there a danger of war, now that There is always a danger, if we don't make sure we can keep what is ours.
We must be prepared to repel any invader.
Let him see that they'd only ram against our bayonets and bullets.
What invader, sir? - Germany? - It's a fairly common view, isn't it? B-P wasn't saying anything a lot of people don't believe.
- Germany is our natural enemy.
- Right.
Since she wants to get rid of us to develop her trade.
And snitch our colonies.
We should be ready for a bloody and desperate war.
His very words, more or less.
- To a meeting of Territorials.
- In uniform, too.
Old Bathing-Towel really has been going it these past weeks.
I've had a deuce of a job keeping him to the book, sometimes.
Kearey, did you tell him he should talk to me? I told Pearson.
Well, hang it, Hamilton.
What do you expect? I work with Pearson, you know.
You're the great Times man.
- You should be able to collar B-P yourself.
- He keeps evading me.
And the more he does, the more curious I get.
Well, Pearson thinks he should talk to you.
- Help the sale of the book, if nothing else.
- Well, that's something.
Is the book finished? - What's it called? - Almost.
Scouting For Boys.
Quite remarkable stuff, really for boys.
Could make the little perishers behave decently.
- Are you sure he's coming today? - I told you.
The old man and I are lunching with him.
What did you make of him? In Mafeking, I mean.
I admired him.
I suppose, he also irritated me.
Mm.
I know he didn't like correspondents.
Not that.
We expect that.
No something else.
On one occasion, at least, he needlessly wasted lives.
- Steady on.
- In my opinion.
He was oddly inhuman at times, too, where values other than his own were involved.
When a Reuters man complained the surgeons weren't using anaesthetic on the African wounded, B-P said the objection was childish.
Well, perhaps it was.
Those beggars don't feel pain like ours, do they? - Good morning, Kearey.
- Oh, morning, sir.
Sorry to keep you.
- Hamilton.
- How are you, General? - Mr Pearson, I'm - Angus Hamilton.
I know.
I've read your dispatches.
Very impressive.
Don't you agree, General? Oh, Kearey, remember that story I sent you for the book about the boy who showed great presence of mind? - Saving his mother from accidental poisoning? - Yes.
- Most instructive yarn, sir.
Already set up.
- Is it? Well General, don't you think you ought to give Hamilton his interview? There really isn't anything I have to say.
There's the book.
There's the camp.
- It can do no harm to let people know.
- I hate publicity! Oh, there's certainly a strong interest in both, sir! But if you wish, we needn't discuss either.
- There are your views on army reform.
- No, no.
- And international affairs.
- Germany and the threat to Europe.
Don't forget the book, though, Hamilton.
Come, B-P.
Give the fellow half an hour of your time.
I'd be most grateful, you know.
I'll be at home on Friday afternoon, Mr Hamilton.
I shall be obliged if you would take tea with me at four.
We'll have to take the story out, Kearey.
I subsequently discovered the boy half-killed his mother with the remedy.
(Both laugh) Hamilton would you take offence at a word of warning? - No.
- It depends what it is, eh? Well, I said that your dispatches from Mafeking were impressive, and so they were.
- Thank you very much.
- But I also think that their tone was wrong.
- I was there, Mr Pearson.
- Exactly.
You were there, not here.
- Do you follow me? - No, I don't.
I'm not saying that your facts were wrong, even your judgment, for a man on the spot, that is.
But you didn't know how it was home here after the Black Week.
- We did hear of that, I remember.
- Don't patronise me, Hamilton.
Just think.
In one week, we had the news that a lot of farmers on horseback had whipped us at Modder River, Magersfontein and Colenso, the Highland Brigade all but destroyed! What with Lloyd George, Keir Hardie and the anti-war campaign, the effect of the Black Week upon public morale was almost disastrous.
Naturally.
British soldiers are obliged to win, even when fighting professionals.
And then we began to read about that that little man holding Mafeking for seven months against all odds.
- "All odds"? - All odds, I said.
One confident, defiant, victorious Englishman.
That's what we needed.
Can you wonder that the country went mad for three days after Mafeking had been relieved? And the tone of my dispatches made no difference to that, did it, sir? Not a bit of difference.
I know what you're thinking.
What the devil's it got to do with Pearson what you write about B-P now? "He doesn't own The Times yet.
" It's true.
I don't yet.
Is that the word of warning, Mr Pearson? - Oh, I'm not threatening you.
Don't think that.
- No, of course not.
Just giving a word of advice, say.
Regardless of what you or I might believe about Mafeking, it made B-P a hero in the eyes of every boy in this country.
Ask yourself whether anyone should, let alone could, make a ha'p'orth of difference to that.
Hm! BO Y: The Great Spirit gave different tongues to his red children, that all animals might understand them.
Some he placed among the snows, with their cousin the bear.
Some he placed near the setting sun, on the road to the happy hunting grounds.
But to his most beloved, he gave the sands of the Salt Lake.
Do my brothers know the name of this favoured people? BADEN-POWELL: Do you remember that summer, when you all came over to Charterhouse and I showed you the copse? Oh, I remember.
A stand of hazel and chestnut and beech.
- It was a lovely place, Stee.
- Mm.
No sugar, Azzie.
No, Ma.
I believe that was my true school.
My university.
I could be anything I wanted there: Trapper, Indian brave, knight in arms I learnt more than a knowledge of natural things in the copse.
I think I found my soul.
I've been thinking a lot about it this past year.
Everything in my career seems to have grown from that tap root - from the copse, when I was a boy.
I thank God for it and I want other boys, thousands of them, tens of thousands of them - Stee - I mean it, Ma.
Haven't you understood? Yes, dear.
Yes, of course.
A little more hot water, Azzie.
Go on, Stee.
I've already been told that I'm an alarmist, a rabid imperialist.
I've also been told the scheme's pure socialism, but the only thing that matters is that boys take to it.
- Do you see, Ma? - Are you sure the King can do nothing for you? Good gracious! My dear old Ma, I don't want to ask HM for anything.
- Anyway, I'm talking about the boy patrols.
- (Ma sighs) You know I've had the idea for years, before I went to Seton about his Woodcraft Indians.
It's a splendid idea, Ma.
Well, couldn't you write a paper, get some younger man to? I worked on the outline earlier this year.
Listen.
"Object: To help in making" No, I changed that.
"To help existing organisations in making the rising generation of whatever class or creed into good citizens and useful colonists.
" And how "To develop the many qualities of good citizenship.
" Pearson will publish and I'll organise.
That's how, Ma.
He has a splendid idea: A weekly magazine.
Not like the BOP or Chums, but one that will develop body and character and stop this downward rot.
- Ma, Stee says there's bound to be another war.
- Huh? - Greater than anything since Napoleon's days.
- God forbid! Indeed.
Amen.
But He gives us free will and we must learn to save ourselves.
This country has many powerful enemies ready to stab at us.
When that happens, dearest Ma when that happens, shouldn't every boy be prepared to help in our defence? - Like they did at Mafeking.
- Exactly.
Like Ned Cecil's splendid little chaps.
- Didn't seem to mind the bullets one bit! - You were their inspiration.
And the country has treated you most unkindly.
No, Ma.
You mustn't say that.
It always comes back to Mafeking, doesn't it? During those months there, in the bombardment and the jolly exciting sorties, I saw quite clearly that everything I'd done before had prepared me for them.
There seemed to be an inextricable logic in every phase of my life.
But since then Since then, I think I've come to understand that Mafeking wasn't an end, but a beginning.
There was a purpose in it to me, deeply and personally.
Was it part of some divine plan? Was it perhaps a call to me from God? And if so how must I answer? (Approaching footsteps) Good afternoon, Hamilton.
Good of you to come.
It's very generous of you, sir, to spare me your time.
No, no.
Not a bit of it.
Sit down.
Do sit down, please.
- Good.
Will you take tea? - No.
No, thank you.
Cook has done us rather well.
Are you sure? Quite sure.
I've been admiring your trophies, sir.
The photographs.
Interesting, aren't they? Have you read my Pig-Sticking? No, I'm sorry to say I haven't.
- Sport In War, perhaps? - No, sir.
- Aids To Scouting? The Matabele Campaign? - Yes.
Yes, I've read that, sir.
Most interesting.
Blanket and saddle on the veldt.
A wonderful life.
I had a Zulu scout, Jan Grootbaum.
Astonishing, what he could read from a bent blade of grass.
- Indeed, sir.
- Do you shoot at all, Hamilton? No.
- Fish? - Not nowadays.
- Pity.
Games, perhaps? - Are you interviewing me, General? What? Yes, I suppose I am.
Do you know, Hamilton, I think it's because you embarrass me.
- Why should I do that? - Can't think, except I hate the sort of stuff you chaps peddle and I was right, in the park, when I suggested you were tracking me.
- I've a woodsman's feel for that, an extra sense.
- You're wrong, sir.
I've seen impala scent a hunter without a breath of wind.
No, sir.
I don't think of you as my quarry.
I should hope not.
I imagine I could teach you a trick or two, if you did.
But I was beginning to feel you were avoiding me.
That got your curiosity up.
Splendid! Look, Hamilton, I am sorry to have put you off, but I've been busy with my Boy Patrol scheme.
Another camp.
- I understand.
- We found a capital place in Poole Harbour.
- Where were you at school? - Scotland.
Haig-Brown was a great head of Charterhouse.
I put my skill at acting down to his encouragement, you know.
- It helped me a lot later on.
- Acting, sir? How? I was very good as Cox in Cox And Box, or so they say.
Anyway, I enjoyed the part.
Do you know of Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour? - No, sir.
- Got 21 boys keen to come.
Public schools, farm boys, working-class lads - Have I been very uncivil to you? - No, General, don't think that.
Thank you.
However, I know I have offended you in some way.
Do you? Do you, indeed? Your dispatches from Mafeking, Mr Hamilton At times, I thought them To be frank, they were often critical and unsympathetic and gave the people at home a most distorted view of the It's my recollection, sir, that my editor gave greater prominence to your reports than anything I sent him.
It was not my intention that my dispatches to the War Office should appear in The Times.
- Yet much of your popularity is due to them.
- My popu Mr Hamilton, do you recall that you wrote of the Boers' timidity before our defences? The absence of any real danger or distress? Of nothing happening? - It wasn't invariably the case, but as a rule - Can you wonder I did not welcome correspondents inside the perimeter? - It didn't surprise me at all.
- I sensed the hostility from the beginning.
And we, your resentment.
Or some of us.
General, South Africa wasn't the Crimea.
The public expected newspaper reports from the front.
- The theatre of war is no place for civilians.
- Nor for some soldiers.
What? What's that, sir? I'm sorry, General.
It was a foolish observation.
The past is past, isn't it, Hamilton? Now we must all stick together as Britons.
Do you agree? Of course.
Encourage the best in goodness and honour, so that we may deserve our greatness.
Oh, you mean your Boy Patrol movement? Exactly.
Doesn't every British boy want to help his country in some way? Not in my experience, sir.
At least not all of them.
- And if you're proposing a military movement - Careful.
But you have said every boy ought to learn to shoot.
Indeed, I have.
Otherwise he's of no more use than an old woman when war breaks out, and likely to get himself killed like a rabbit.
There's a great deal more than that to what I propose.
Yes? I can see an inspiring return to the age of chivalry, to those unselfish knights who were the true scouts of Old England, and their followers: The patrols of esquires and men-at-arms, who stuck to their leader through thick and thin.
Each man in his appointed place playing the game by the rules, dedicated to brotherhood and kindness.
Do you despise those things - brotherhood and kindness? No, sir, of course not.
But you're cynical.
Cynicism and defeatism are the sins of journalism.
Doubt and caution - they're obligations, not sins.
You doubt character.
Are you cautious about practical Christianity? What nobler task can there be, to take a boy's character when it's burning with a zest for adventure, to mould him into a good Christian and citizen? - I will not teach him to kill his fellow man.
- Not to kill! To defend himself.
Gracious heaven, are you a pacifist? - I hope not, sir, but I - Very glad to hear it.
A boy must learn to be unafraid of death, wouldn't you say? We've all got to die sometime.
What if we do go a year or so earlier, when by doing so, we may save our country's flag? - It's cold now.
I can ring, if you - No, thank you, General.
Not for me.
Cook will be upset.
I dislike upsetting servants who do their work well.
(Sighs) Have you ever thought - seriously thought - about the unemployed in this country? Hordes of loafers, a tumour on the national body.
Never taught to look after themselves, to serve, to put their country above all.
When I recall the men I commanded at Mafeking May we talk about the investment, sir? The investment of Mafeking? It was a siege.
Mr Hamilton, you don't understand proper military terms.
I try to, sir.
And as I see it, "investment" means "blockade".
Containment.
Neutralisation of a position.
Very good.
"Siege" - doesn't that convey a picture of bloody assault and desperate Not quite the words a soldier would use, but yes, I suppose.
Now, were we under siege? Nine courses at the Mafeking Hotel at Christmas.
Weeks of bored inaction.
Inaction? Nonsense! 20,000 shells fell upon the garrison.
General, that's more than 100 a day.
How could that be, when some of the Boer guns didn't fire a round in weeks? - You forget I was there too.
- Then why did you lie about our casualties? Now, they were your own figures, but I haven't let time exaggerate them.
Nor have I left the African dead out of my calculations.
No, sir, that's unfair.
Neither have I.
But Africans I remember those beggars giving information to the Boers! Bleeding to death, because white men were indifferent to their wounds.
Licking meat tins when we had good rations.
I stamped on the grasses who put those stories out! By advising your officers to kick our backsides.
You made me angry, Hamilton.
You made me lose control.
I'm sorry, General.
I have no wish to quarrel.
But if I'm unable to share the popular I don't care for it myself.
I did not seek such notoriety.
You've misunderstood.
I wasn't speaking of your reputation.
No, sir.
You said you don't consider me your quarry.
But be honest - even the meanest man dreams of bringing down a lion.
A lion? Is that how you see yourself? It's a figure of speech.
I'm not the only man who doubts the strategic or tactical importance you gave to the defence of Mafeking, a miserable collection of tin huts.
And a railway siding.
Remember the railway siding.
- And the siding, but even so - (Laughs) You get your ideas of war from Lady Butler's canvases, Mr Hamilton.
Great battlefields are not designed by artists, you know.
But they can be the contrivances of ambitious men.
Doubtless you will explain that.
I believe it was originally intended you should use your forces to defend the frontiers of Rhodesia and Bechuanaland.
Indeed.
Although Mafeking should have been a supply base only for those operations, you chose to be invested there.
You will agree, I hope, that General Cronjé did not share your view of its importance.
I'm aware that he wasted a third of the Boer forces - on a town that might well have been ignored.
- And one he could not take.
But he never made a determined assault upon it! So we don't know.
Do we, sir? You should've made the army your career, Hamilton.
You have obvious talents of field command.
I probably deserve the sarcasm, sir, but it's not the business of a journalist to accept the infallibility of the military mind.
Nor to honour those who serve it well.
You degrade the heroism of the men I commanded.
I wouldn't do that, sir.
Too many of them are my friends.
- Then you betray them.
- No, sir.
But if I remember them, I must also remember the men of Ladysmith and Brakfontein, who endured far more and who were not sacrificed to one man's Why did you insist on seeing me, Hamilton? What is it you want to write about me? I couldn't advance into Bechuanaland.
My lines of supply The risk would've been too great.
- And the glory less.
- No, Hamilton, please! Four weeks after we were relieved, you shut yourself up in Rustenberg just like in Mafeking, and stayed there despite orders to evacuate.
It was my business to sit tight, to reduce the forces opposing Roberts.
(Rings bell) I believe you wish to destroy me, Hamilton.
No, sir, for I'm not sure what it is I would want to destroy.
Thank you.
I have not been unaware.
I have known for some years that my reputation, so far as Mafeking is concerned, was perhaps based upon upon a misunderstanding.
Enjoy your triumph, sir.
My profession must take a share of blame for that misunderstanding.
Perhaps that's why I came, to demonstrate that I'd had no part in it.
It was a foolish reason.
My good fellow, there's good reason and purpose in all we do, what? (Door opens) - Goodbye, Hamilton.
- Good day, General.
Hamilton! Sir? Come and see me again.
Come to our camp.
Come to Brownsea Island.
Thank you.
(Door closes) BO Y: "As for death," said King Arthur, "Welcome be it when it cometh.
But to yield me unto thee, I had liefer die than to be so shamed.
" (Knocks) (Further knock) - Stee, may I come in? (Door opens) - Am I disturbing you, my dear? I knocked.
- No, no, come in.
How is Ma? She's a little tired this evening.
She was asking for you.
I'll come down shortly.
- You had no dinner.
- Doesn't matter.
I could bring you something.
No, Azzie.
Did you have a successful interview? - Hm? - With Mr Hamilton, this afternoon.
We should perhaps ask him that.
- Is he going to write about you? - No.
No, I don't think so.
- Did he upset you? - Why should he? - Well, I know how it distresses you.
- What does? To talk about Mafeking, my dear.
Is that what you think, Azzie? Well, sometimes.
It's true, isn't it? Yes.
Do you ever wonder why? Well, because you hate to be praised.
You're so Well, innocent, unconscious of your very special qualities.
Dear old Azzie.
Have you been working since he left? I took an hour off, lying on the bed there, thinking about the old days.
About the copse.
Yes, the copse.
And India and Ashanti The time I got that hippo with a shoulder shot.
"The man who lies down to shoot".
Those kaffirs, always giving a fellow nicknames! I was remembering that spying trip to Russia.
- And the Germans at Metz.
- Yes! I've had a good life, wouldn't you say, Azzie? Packed with absolutely first-rate adventures! Of course.
And lots more yet.
Oh, I don't know.
You could say I've had more than one man's share.
There's Brownsea Island still to come.
- Stee? - Mm? - I said, there's Brownsea Island still to come.
- Will it work, Azzie? It's so important.
One pound a head is not too much for the boys, is it? Well, it might be, dear - for the town boys, I mean.
Some of them come from pretty wretched homes, you said.
- How about - Azzie - Yes, Stee? - I was thinking, too, before you came, about the bravest man I ever saw.
- Do you know who that was? - Was he at Mafeking? No, no.
(Chuckles) No, no.
Ten years ago, in the Tungi Pass, when Bindon Blood sent me a wire saying he was having a pheasant shoot and hoped I'd join him.
- (Chuckles) Yes.
- Pretty wild pheasants they were, too.
Hundreds of tribesmen in their stone forts above the pass.
I watched as our mountain batteries bombarded them.
And then, suddenly suddenly, a fellow in a blue gown was running at us, waving a sword.
Leaping here and there, like a goat, with rifle shots kicking up dust at his feet.
Nothing seemed to stop him.
He didn't care about the odds.
One man against all of us.
One plucky chap, waving a sword, eager to prove he was a man, doing his duty, as he saw it.
I was quite sad.
You know, Azzie, I was quite sad when one of our men picked him off and he went down.
Wasn't he a splendid example to us all! Horn You'll come back for me tonight? BO Y: Halt! All right, I've halted.
Who and where are you? Ooh! Good afternoon.
What was all that about? - I'm a scout for the camp, sir.
- Indeed.
Horn - What's that infernal racket? - The kudu horn.
Oh, of course.
I remember.
- Yes, sir.
It means it's time for tea.
- I'm glad to hear it.
- And that? - I'm leader of the Ravens.
That's my badge.
B-P gave it to his scouts and the Dragon Guards.
I see.
Why were you up there? - Are you Mr Hamilton, sir? - I am.
I was sent to watch for you.
The chief said we should learn to look up, as well as around.
- You didn't, sir.
- No.
I usually don't.
If you'd been an enemy scout, I could've killed you.
- Suppose you didn't want to? - I would've had to, sir, if I'd been put on my honour.
Well Well, well! Horn Hamilton! How absolutely splendid of you to come and see us! Your motto, "Be prepared", is just the same as that followed by the knights of long ago.
Be always ready.
The order of knights was called chivalry and was begun in England by King Arthur 1,500 years ago.
When there was no war on between these knights and their enemies, they would ride about the countryside looking for a chance to do somebody a good turn, particularly a lady or a child who was in trouble.
Because they wandered about in this way, they were called "knight errants".
Now, you patrol leaders, and you chaps, are just like those knights and their retainers, always keeping your honour clean, trying to help others and serve your country.
BADEN-POWELL: You can't preach to boys.
Goody-goody talk only scares away the best of them.
You've got to hold them by something which attracts and interests them.
Then you can get them to see that, because their forefathers worked and died to build our Empire, they must not be wishy-washy slackers who let anybody take it away.
I'm glad you came, Hamilton.
You've been a great encouragement to me, you know.
HAMILTON: I can't see that, sir.
- Oh, yes.
You have.
What do you think of us? What do you think of my boy patrols? It's been years since I've felt as I do now.
Not since the copse.
Not since Charterhouse, or my first days in the army.
SCOUTS: Ya-boh, ya-boh I erm I should've asked you, sir, about the future.
The future? There is the future, Hamilton.
Isn't it a splendid thought? Eengonyama-gonyama Invooboo Ya-boh, ya-boh Invooboo - Well, good night, my friend.
- Good night, sir.
Good luck.
Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag And smile, smile, smile While you've a lucifer to light your fag Smile, boys, that's the style What's the use of worrying? It never was worthwhile, so Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag And smile, smile, smile (Gunfire, explosions)