THE BOER GENERALS.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 119, 15 November 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE BOER GENERALS.

On Wednesday the Boer generals issued an appeal to the civilised world which must, we fear, be described as thoroughly bad in tone, when coming from men who have taken the oath of allegiance, and who have declared it their intention as honourable men to be for the future loyal citizens of the British Empire. But j apart from this matter, which we do not care to dwell on further, paitly because we are willing to make as much allowance as possible for the malign influences to which the Boer generals are exposed on the Continent, and partly also because General Botha's letter to Mr. Phipps enables us to put a better construction on the appeal than that conveyed by the document as it stands alone, the appeal will, we fear, prove a very great disappointment to the Boers. It shows that they are still under the impression that the Continental sympathy I for their cause was real, and free from all disingenuous elements. In their manij festo the Boer generals assert that since , they have not been able to obtain from ; the British Government "the further" assistance' 1 v which they declare is needed by their people, they appeal to the peoples of "Europe and America for hel^. After reciting the miseries of their 1 people, the ruin of their homes, and the need for money to educate their children, the appeal proceeds to declare that the desire of gie generals is "to acquaint the world with their great need, and in no wise to stir up feeling anew." The Boers have, of course, every right to appeal for funds, and no one here would dream of objecting to their doing so if they showed a different and less hostile spirit. It will be curious to see what sums are received. If the sympathy expressed by the Continent was real and not factitious, the fußd should quickly reach two or three millions sterling. France should at least be good for £500,000, Germany and Austria together should be able to provide £750,000, Russia ought "not to give less than France, and as her people are generous s.hould perhaps give more, while another £500,000 should come from the re.st of the Continent if their generosity is anything like equal to their strength of language. If this be accomplished, and the Boers find that their Continental friends are friends in need and friends indeed, they will have justified their action, at any rate from their own point of. view. If, however, the funds raised by them abroad are disappointing in amount, they will find they have committed a grave error.- They cannot then fall back on the generosity of the British public. An appeal first to the Anglophobia of the Continent and to the persons who declared that our officers and soldiers outraged women and 'starved children to death with hellish satisfaction, and then to the fathers and sons, wives, mothers, and daughters of those same officeis and soldiers, is rather toowide a "straddle," to use a useful Americanism.