TOPIC:

I was going to ask if anyone could work out what the eight-letter word is in the second line in the image below, which was part of a letter home from a British soldier, and was published in a newspaper. Had my post all prepared, and then 'slimness' showed up in an online search.

"slimness. The character of being 'slim' or sly; craftiness."

I've never comeacross that usage of the word 'slimness' before.
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But I believe our time will come, and when it does they will have to resort to more __ than firing on white flags after showing then, shelling hospitals, robbing ..

My first thought was allmodes but that does not exist as a word. Could it be a corruption of a la mode, in the sense of fashionable behaviour, ie 'to more a la modes than firing ..'

Berenice's suggestion certainly would do in Afrikaans, in which 'slim' means clever in a crafty way.
e.g.: 'so slim soos ’n jakkals' = as smart as a fox.

Speech given by General Buller at Exeter, 22 November 1900 (Western Daily Mail, 23 Nov 1900).

….. the Boers cultivated the fine art of what they call “slimness”. “Slim” is a Dutch word, and really I do not think I can better express it than by the word chicanery. It occurred to me several times in South Africa that the young Dutchman was pursuing the secondary, while the British officer was pursuing the primary meaning of the word, which is the origin of the game of polo.

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'slimness' it is then. Thanks for clearing that up.

Slim Jannie was Smuts's nickname among some of his own people because of his perceived craftiness.