DE WET'S BOOK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2, 2 January 1903, Page 2

DE WET'S BOOK.

iA. PI'ATN UNVARNISHED TALE.

AI/LEGED TEEAGHEBTI :

"THE BLOCKHEAD SYSTEM."

LONDON, November 29,

Messrs Archibald Constable and Co., the publishers of General De ■Wet's book, have courteously supplied Beuter's Agency -with an advance, copy of the work, which is dedicated to "My fellow-subjects ol"the British Emipire."

It consists of 3? chapters, extending over 500 pagt-s. and tells a plain and unvarnished iale of the war.

It is severely critical but not acrimonious, and strives to distribute praise and blame impartially. There is a fund of anecdote in the book, betraying a keen sense of humour.

General De Wet denounces in scathing terms the National Scouts, and alleges treachery on the part of Commandants Prinsloo, Hans Smithj Vilonel and Weilbach.

He disparages the generalship of Earl Roberts, while he considers that General Sir Redvers Buller had the most difficult task to perform. The Boer general apparently respects Lord Kitchener and admires the gallant Colonel Le Gallais, and General Sir Charles Knox. The blockhouse system is dubbed the "blockhead system," but the drives, he says, were irresistible. The Boer leader praises General Cronje's personal bTavery, but attributes the disaster at Paardeburg, which he calls the greatest blow of the war, to Cronje's stubbornness. He also eulogises ex-President Steyn, Generals De la Bey, Hertzog, Botha, and others. General De Wet indignantly alleges barbarities towards women, children and old people, on the part of the British. He does not specify cases, but says that he can produce proofs of hundreds of such. After narrating in an attractive manner his various adventures, his numerous escapes from which are attributed Uo the dispensation of Providence, the Boer leader concludes with an appeal to the Boers to be loyal to Great Britain.