Mr Longdill’s Opinions.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 36, 12 February 1901, Page 4

Mr Longdill’s Opinions.

A REPLY TO “ TOMMY ATKINS.

To the Editqb of the Times.

Sir, —A correspondent of your valuable paper, who, with an amount of cowardice that might be expected from an individual who accuses a small band of some twenty thousand men fighting to the death against some 250,000 of what are supposed to be the best trained and best equipped troops in the world, shields himself under a nom de plume “ Tommy Atkins ” (as I presume Tommy Atkins is not a person who has anything to lose by exposing his name), endeavors to excuse the British for robbing this noble though small race of people of their homes and country by accusing them of cowardice, and generally of violating all the rules of civilised warfare. I am pressed for time, and in truth have little inclination to waste time or ink upon a man of “ Tommy Atkins’ ” temperament. Tommy Atkins'is rather to be pitied for his ignorance, however, and I would ask him if he can show me anything in the whole annals of British warfare as plucky a handful of men as the Boers now are, holding out month after month against overwhelming odds ? Can he show anything more despicable than some 250,000 men hounding a peaceful race of people out of house, home, and country merely from lust for gold and government. Can he show anything more despicably cowardly than Englishmen bayoneting the Boers in the dead of night under then- tarpaulins, regardless of their shrieks for mercy, as the papers proudly put it.

Can “ Tommy Atkins,” or anyone else, show anything more (despicably inhuman in the whole history of warfare thnn transporting these brave Boers, after robbing them of all that is clearest to the luman heart—wife, children, hoine, woperty, country—to a country like Ueylon, where it is well known white )eople can barely exist, and, where, thereore, it amounts to a certainty these mfortunate Boers will perish in great lumbers, and the balance become so ebilitated that they will be totally unfit : ever they return to cope with their blows in the hard struggle for existence, iiicli is a characteristic of English overned countries. There are many other instances of ritish cruelty and avarice which might 3 cited as well as columns about British stupidity—if not cowardice—written: such as shooting then- own men for Boers, etc. ; but I have not time to go further into the matter. But I maintain that byproper diplomacy and patience, this lamentable war could have been averted ; and now that it has been begun, the I sooner it is terminated the better; and the Boers admitted freely into every British possession, and treated as the bravest of people. “Tommy Atkins” concludes his last insulting letter in reply- to “ Another Resident of Gisborne ” by saying “ when fools are’ born they must be reared.” This reminds me that the great Carlyle said “ England is made up. mostly of fools,” and as the majority of English, as well as colonials, appear to have pitted themselves against the Boers, it would appear that the wise minority are on the side of the Boers, and the fools, of which “ Tommy Atkins ” is evidently one, against them.—l am, etc., C. P. AV. Loxgdill.