THE TRANSVAAL WAR.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2087, 30 July 1901, Page 6

THE TRANSVAAL WAR.

LORD MILNER ON THE SITUATION

ANSWERS HIS CRITICS

The following is Lord Milner's reply to the toast of his health when proposed c.t the luncheon given by Mr Chamberlain m his honor on May 26 : I am so taken aback by the reception which has been given to me yesterday and to-day that I cannot find words, and, what is more, I .jam afraid I cannot find, ideas: altogether suitable to the.occasion. To tell the, honest .truth, I am rather ashamed to be here at all with a big unfinished job awaiting me, and with so many men, my fellow-workers, but in positions far more dangerous and more physically exhausting than my own, who are not able to take the rest which they both deserve and need. In these circumstances it would have been more pleasant to me, and, I believe, in a rational world it would have seemed better to all of us, that I should have arrived, and stayed, and returned in the quietest possible' manner. . But .1 fully recognise that, in an age'where it seems impossible for many people to put a simple and natural interpretation upon anything, my doing so would have been misconstrued, and misconstrued in a manner and to a degree which would have been injurious to the interests of the State. If the fact that the leave that I asked for—accorded certainly in the kindest manner, but with the most 'evident reluctance on the part of His Majesty's Government—if this hard-begged holiday could be represented as a veiled recall, then, of course, it was obvious that, had I taken the proverbial hansom from Waterloo to my old chambers, that very harmless action would have been trumpeted over two continents as evidence of my disgrace. It is hard, it is ludicrous that some of the busiest men in the world should be obliged to occupv their time, and that so many of my friends and well-wishers should 'be put' to inconvenience—and on a day, too, when it would be so nice to be in the country—merely in order to prove to persons with an ingrained habit of self-delu-sion that the British Government Mill not give up its agents in the face of the enemy, and that the people of this country will not allow themselves to be bored into abandoning what they have spent millions of treasure and so many precious lives to attain. All I can-say is that if it was necessary— I apologise for it, I am sorry to-be the centre of a commotion to which no man could be constitutionally more averse than myself—l say, if it was necessary, I can only thank you heartily for the kindliness and the cordiality with which the thing has been done. I feel, indeed, that the praises which have been bestowed, the 'honors which have been heaped upon me, are beyond my deserts. But the simplest thing to do under these circumstances is to try to deserve them in the future. In any case, lam under endless obligations. It is difficult to say these things in the face of the persons principally concerned, but I feel bound to take this opportunity, especially in view of the remarks which have been made in certain quarters, to express my deep sense of gratitude for the manner in which! His Majesty's Government, and especially my immediate chief, have shown me great forbearance and given me support, most prompt at the moment when it was most needed, without which I should have been helpless indeed. And I have also to thank many friends, not a few of them here present, and some not present, for messages of encouragement, for kindly words of suggestion and advice received at critical moments, some of which have been of invaluable assistance to me, and have made an indelible impression upon my heart. I am afraid if I were to refer to all my benefactors it would be like the bidding-prayer, and you would all lose your trains. But there is one hint which I may take from the bidding-prayer. Not only in this place, but at all times and in all places, I am specially bound to remember the devotion of the loyalists—the Dutch loyalists, if you please, and not only the British—of the loyalists of South Africa. They responded to all my appeals to- act and, harder still, to wait. They never lost their"cheery confidence in the darkest days of our misfortunes, they never faltered in their fidelity to a man of whose errors and failings they were necessarily more conscious than anybody else, but of whose honesty of purpose they were long ago and once for all convinced. If there is one thing more gratifying to me on this memorable occasion it is the encouragement which I know the events of yesterday and of to-day will give to thousands of our South African fellowcountrymen like-minded with US in the homes and in the camps of South Africa. Your Royal Highness, Mr Chamberlain, ladies, and gentlemen,—l am sure you will nut desire me to enter into any political questions to-day. More than that, I really have nothing to add to what I have already said and written— Ifear with wearisome iteration. It seems to me that we are slowly progressing towards the predestined end. Latterly it has appeared as if the pace wfts somewhat quickening, but I do not wish to make too much of that or to speak with any too great confidence. However long the road, it seems to me that it was the only one to the object which we were bound to pursue, and which seems now fairly in sight. What has sustained me personally —if your kindness will allow me to make a j)ersonal reference—what has sustained nie personally on the -weary road is my absolute, unshakable conviction that it was the only one which we could travel. Peace we could have had by self-effacement. We could have had it easily and comfortably on those terms. But we could not have held our own by any other methods than those which we have been obliged to adopt. Ido not know whether I feel more inclined to laugh or to cry when I have to listen for the hundredth time to these dear delusions, this Utopian dogmatising, that it only required a little more time, a little more patience, a little more meekness, a little more of all those gentle virtues of which I know I am so conspicuously devoid in order to conciliate —-to conciliate what'.' - panoplied hatred, insensate ambitions, invincible ignorance. I fully believe tliffi the time is comingHeaven knows how we desire to see it come quickly—when all the qualities of the most gentle and forbearing statesmanship which arc possessed by any of our people will be called for and'ought to be applied in South Africa. Ido not say for a moment there is not great scope for them even to-day, but always provided that they do not mar what is essential for success in the future, the conclusiveness of the final scenes of the present drama. And now lam afraid, after all. I have trespassed on the field of politics, not, I hope, at any great length. 1 will stop short and only once more thank you, which I do from the bottom of my heart, for the great cordiality of your welcome home, which has exceeded all my deserts, and thrown me on my beam ends, being contrary to all my expectations.

GERMAN TRIBUTE TO TOMMY ATKINS. Writing on the subject of the altitude adopted by English and German soldiers in their quality of policemen in the European quarter of Tientsin, the special correspondent of the '"Frankfurter Zeitung' (a translation of whose letter is sent by the Berlin correspondent of the ' Morning

Leader') says :—" Whenever a German soldier was found committing some offence against the Chinese the German military policeman acted quite correctly, and certainly -with energy enough. In such cases he easily found language which proved him to be a born German sergeant of police But whenever Frenchmen, Englishmen, Italians, or Russians were the offenders, the German policeman showed that he had too much of the German Michel in his character to do the right thing. It is astonishing to observe how even the simple German soldier treats the foreigner with every indulgence. " How differently the self-con-scious English soldier-policeman acted. Whether it was an Englishman, a Frenchman, a Russian, or a German who was discovered committing an aggression on the Chinese, one could bo perfectly sure that the English policeman, even though he could not make himself understood in the language of the offending party, with the utmost politeness, but with a dignity which suffered no contradiction, took away his loot. And the rank of the delinquent was a matter of the utmost unconcern. I once saw, a Russian officer with his soldier servant ride deliberately into a column of Chinese coolies, although the latter had, in accordance with regulations, left half the roadway free, and begin to amuse himself by thrashing the frightened natives with his riding whip as they fled before him in all directions. The English soldier-police-man was on the spot in a moment, and had hold of the bridle of the officer's horse. The Russian riding whip was raised in the air preparatory to a blow on the policeman's shoulder, ' but the Englishman looked straight at the officer and said quite calmly : ' You try that, and I'll bring you down in a moment.' Whether the Russian understood English or not I cannot say, but I do know that lie did not strike, and that the Englishman led his horse and him without resistance to the free half of the road." HOW THE BOERS TREATED SCOUTS. John Bok, one of three Namaqualand border scouts taken prisoners by the Boers when they raided Pella on March 2, arrived at Ookiep on May 14 with his back terribly lacerated. He was taken with the othei two men to Kakamas, where all three were cruelly Hogged with a trace, Bok receiving 112 lashes and the other two 150 and 107 lashes resjjectively. The three were then sentenced to death, and were made to dig their own graves; but the sentence was eventually commuted to one of enslavement to a burgher. . Bok was taken to Brypal, and there he effected his escape. Upon arriving at Ookiep he reported to Colonel Shelton, who ordered him to be medically examined. He was found to be still suffering from the brutal treatment he had received, and the Commandant ordered photographs to be taken of his back. Bok stated that he fainted while being flogged. Froneman was judge, and the well-known rebel, John Louw, was on the bench when sentence was given.

BOER GIRL AND DYING VICTORIAN TROOPER. The following touching letter was read at a recent Sunday service by the Rev. Edward Isaac at the George street Baptist Church. Fitzroy. Melbourne. The letter was written to' the mother of the youngman who lost his life in South Africa by the Boer girl who tended him in his last moments :—- " Liehenburg, Transvaal, South Africa. " Dear madam, —After waiting for more than a month, at last I have obtained your address. I thought you might be glad to hear from one who, though an utter stranger to you, yet God granted to be at the bedside 'of your dying son, and before I tell you of- him I want to tender my sympathy to you and the family. I know such a loss must be very great. I might mention that I am not a professional nurse, only an amateur, trying my little for my country and people/ The hospital belongs to the so-called Boers. Your son, with four of his wounded companions, was brought here by some of his own people because they were mortally wounded, and could not be taken on to the field hospital. They were all in very great pain, poor lads'. Your son was a general favorite in the ward. I always used to call him 'My Laddie,' which he seemed to like very much. One day, after dressing- wounds and giving the young men something to drink, vour son asked me to hand him a photo, 'which he had in a case in his pocket. After taking it out of the case and gazing at the portrait he closed ins eves and pressed the photo against his breast; he always kept that photo next his bed. One afternoon, when one of Lis wounded comrades had died, he called me to his bedside and said: 'Miss Mathews. you've been so good and kind; may I show you this photo?' Of course I was only too pleased to be shown your photo, ;md he said : ' Poor mother! How 1 wish I could be back with you in Australia. So I told him we were going to make him quite well and send him back to mother. We all expected him to pull through, but God willed it otherwise. I tried everything to make his last hours pleasant—everything I thought vou would have done had'you been with him. 1 sat on his bed fanning him, and gave him everything he asked for. Once he looked sad and despondent, so I said : ' Poor laddie, you will be better to-morrow.' Fixing those large blue eyes on me, he said: 'l'll be on the wav to the happy land.' I said : 'Are you looking forward'to it?' He replied 'Yes.' He did not want me to leave his bed. If I knelt before his bed fanning him he would say : ' You're too good spoiling me in that wav.' I thought I would spoil him for your'sake. I remained at his bed holding "his hand until he died. He fixed those large blue eves on me until I closed them. There I remained; I could not leave my laddie. I thought my heart would break, and those tears that fall for your people as well as our own dropped on the face of that laddie whose mother and sisters were so far away. I kissed him for all your sakes. Tell" his sisters that I tried to be a sister to him. I am only nineteen, and he twenty, so he must have adopted me for one, and we try to be even kinder to patients coming from the other side because their loved ones are so far. We had him buried in the graveyard; his grave is marked with a cross, on which is written his name and regiment. His coffin was covered with beautiful wreaths. I attended to his grave as if it were one of my own people, so don't trouble about that. I pray God that He will comfort you all, as He alone can comfort. —Yours truly, " Edith Mathews."