SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1901. THE BRITISH ENEMIES OF THE EMPIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 147, 22 June 1901, Page 4

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1901. THE BRITISH ENEMIES OF THE EMPIRE.

The Government of England is notoriously tolerant. Foreigners can-, uot understuiid how the authorities find it consistent with their duty to ignore the free expression of all forms of revolutionary or anti-mon-archical opinion at public meetings and in the public press. The English people are justly proud of this generosity and self - confidence of their rulers. But it would seem as If the present pro-Boer agitation had passed the limits within which it could with wisdom or safety be neglected. It has long been evident that Kruger uud his friends have from the first depended for their hope of success upon the unpatriotic prejudices of a certain ciasis of "English politician?. Every threat of Continental interference has been the direct outcome of this division of,the nation against itself; and now we hear that, as a consequence of the pro-Boer meeting just held in London., an agitation is

once more beginning- in France on behalf of the despoiled and down-trod-den patriots of the Transvaal. The path of English Continental diplomacy is already thorny enough; and there is no other country in the world in which deliberate obstruction of the nation's policy and collusion with the nation's enemies would not be appropriately punished as a high crime and misdemeanour.

The history of the South African war is in the highest degree discreditable to a small but noisy section of English politicians and journalists, who have done their best to misrepresent the purposes and the policy of the Crown, to traduce and slander its gallant defenders, and to laud and encourage their country's enemies. They vilified the British residents in the Transvaal" as grasping and cowardly capitalists; they idealised Mr Kruger as if he were Cromwell and Washington and Garribaldi in one; they represented the Boers as a peaceful and gentle race of farmerswhile the Mausers and pompoms were pouring in through Delagoa Bay; they urged ihe enemy to seize the passes leadiug into Natal.

It would be interesting to know what sort of fate would have overtaken these men in Russia or Germany. They did their best to hinder preparations iov war in England and to delay the despatch of troops after the Boers had begun the struggle. The "Daily Chronicle," under Mr Massinglham, indignantly declared' that the colonies had no part or business in the war, and finding its remonstrances unheeded published a series of vile insinuations against the conduct of the New South Wales Lancers, all utterly baseless and easily disproved. Finding that their policy of surrender and conciliation did not meet with the approval of men who still remember Majuba Hill, the pro^Boer journalists began a regular campaign of accusation and misrepresentation against the British and colonial troops in Africa. In Mr W. T. Stead's "Stop the Var" and "Hell Let Loose" we find nothing but unsupported libels of the most atrocious character—charges of outrage and murder levelled against our troops, solely on hearsay rumour, or on the evidence of the Boers, and published as fully authenticated facts. The "Manchester Guardian" eagerly accepted a New York pro-Boer paper's version of a Canadian officer's letters and published them without attempting- to discover whether they we're genuine or not. When Lieutenant Morrison himself declared indignantly that the letters were distorted and garbled, the "Daily News" replied

that there was no real difference betw.een Hie falsified version and the original. When they tired of traducing the private soldiers the.se journalistic ghouls fastened on the officers and gcneraJs. The stories that Sir Alfred Milner had practised rifle shooting on a dummy Kruger, and that Kitchener had given orders to kill prisoners, were reiterated with absolute disregard of their denial. The climax was reached a few weeks ago when a certain English newspaper declared that De Wet, if he caught Kitchener, would be perfectly justified in tying him up to a tree, flogging him, and shooting him with his own hand. It is not long since the crime of treason included not only "levying war against the King," but "aiding and abetting his enemies." and the excesses of the pro-Boer partisans must almost make patriotic Englishmen regret the lenient construction attached by our modern law .to active collusion and sympathy, with our country's foes.

The charge of barbarity made by Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman thoroughly deserves Balfour's vigorous criticism. The testimony of foreign officers and Boers, and of disinterested aliens like tin.1 Swiss Consul at Pretoria, prove the truth of the assertion that, as far as the British

troops are concerned, no modern war has ever been conducted on such humane principles. The barbarity has been all on the other side. We do. not confuse men of 'the high character and standing of Mr. Morley, Mr. Courtney or Sir H. Campbell-Uaniier-1 man with the Little Englander journalists, whose conduct we have condemned. But surely these gentlemen might recall the outrages of

which The Boers have been proved to be guilty—the "'white Hag" incidents, the shelling of hospitals and women's quarters, the murder of British soldiers under cover of khaki uniforms, the flogging of prisoners, the manacling and ill-treatment of colonial soldiers, the; inhuman treatment of the peace delegates, the shooting of Kaflira, and certain well attested cases of the deliberate killing of wounded, men. Against all this, the utmost that can be truthfully urged is that h has bee;i found necessary to devastate portions of the country to ensure its subjugation.

One would imagine that the proBoer critics' had never read any cle-

seription of any war, ancient or modern. In the American civil war Grant told Sheridan to make the Shenandoah Valley a desert; and Sheridan .reported, when his work wa«- done, that a crow would not be able to live in it. In the same war Pope issued orders that for every solr dier shot by guerilla troops five prominent Confederate citizens should be-seized and shot. J« the FrnncoPrussian and Knsso-Turkish wars relentless severity was employed in dealing with irregular troops, without rousing any comment. Those who describe British methods of warfare- as barbarous- are either- thor-

oughly disingeuuous or utterly ignorant of the rules of warfare. No one pretends that war is a humane occupation. War, in Sheridan's graphic expression, is hell; but it may be none the less a necessity; and this war at least was inevitable. So long as it lasts it should be the bounden duty of every citizen of the Empire to aid so far as he may in its successful prosecution; and if rebellion and treasou have any real meaning, the agitators who have striven to aid the Boers by the unscrupulous means we have described deserve to be regarded as "traitors-to the King and rebels t,o the Crown."