"I believe that this is in the interests of the Zulus, no less than of their neighbours.
"It is in the interest of the European population of Natal and the Transvaal, because they cannot possibly live in peace and quiet with the Zulus in their present state as neighbours.
"The events of the last few months have rendered it unnecessary to prove by argument that the Zulus have been made into a great military power; that they can destroy an English regiment, with artillery to support it; or shut up or defeat a brigade six times as strong as the ordinary garrison of Natal, unless our troops are very carefully posted and very well handled.
"The open declarations of their king, no less than the fundamental laws of their organization, proclaim foreign conquest and bloodshed as a necessity of their existence.
"They are practically surrounded by British territory. Except the Portuguese, there is now no foreign territory they can reach for purposes of bloodshed without passing through British territory.
"It is, therefore, clear that they cannot continue in their present condition, with their present form of government and present military organization, without attacking British subjects, or, at best, unoffending neighbours, who believe themselves safe as British subjects or allies.
"They make no prisoners save, occasionally, young women and half-grown children. They show no quarter, and give no chance to the wounded or disabled, disembowelling them at once.
"They are separated from Natal by a river easily fordable for the greater part of the year, and not too wide to talk across at any time.
"The boundary between them and the Transvaal is even more easily passed.
"All these, I submit, are incontrovertible facts, proved by the well-known events of the past few months.
"I know that there are educated men to be found, of great ability, who claim to be lovers of liberty and of right, and of their own species, who have lived long near the Zulus, and who say there is no danger to be apprehended from them if we let them alone; that Cetywayo is a well-meaning prince, quite within his own right in massacring his own subjects, and our soldiers, too, if they enter his territory; that all that is necessary to our own safety is to let the Zulu king alone, or if the English do not like that, to leave his neighbourhood.