THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 272, 26 November 1901, Page 3

THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

(To the Editor of Times.)

Silt, —" Patience,” in your issue of the -j!iK{ inst., gives a letter of a M. S. Boulter. This appeared in the London Times of October 11tii ult. Your friend " Patience” should have also given your readers—perhaps ho may yet do so —the letter appearing in the same paper signed J. G. Bowles, also another, in same issue, from H. C. lvichards : M.l\, English House of Commons, dated October 6th ult. If these letters had been sent to the Thunderer of Printing House Square on the same date last year they would have been scornfully rejected, but “ haughty dugs oft partake of dirty puddings.” Prom your mission—the education of your readers—l am sure you will give these letters the full benetit of your cxleustvo and extending circle.—l am, etc., G. H. Wilson.

THE OOVKUNMENT AND THE WAR. Sir, —“Now tiiat the war is over our people have scarcely realised how difficult a war it was. No other nation ou the face of this earth, however great its military force, could have done what wo have done.’' Thus said Jfr Chamberlain at Coventry ou October 1, J.9UO, and now, more than a year later, it seems only too sadly true unit no other nation could have done what we have done, or would so long or so patiently have endured the guidance which has caused it to bo done to no purpose.

Far the wav, even now, is not over. ' When the G ivernmen: w.n first formed i i i ] Mr Bait' ir exp lamed to the | world ! hat " no able ' bony of uu : v •re j ever in the head of the Imperial Depart- 1 merits of the State th«v» those who .<■ r cently b,. n appointed "--he hin self being one of them, and thereo.v especial'v i competent to judge. Since then that same j Government, having appealed to thejeountry at a moment of national emergency to confirm its majority in Parliament :wu thus to strengthen its hands in order to enable it to finish the S Kith A; i.-an w ir, has ntn it- appeal most generously an 1 , amply responded to y he electors. I, • h Salisbury then further strengthened it. Without depriving it of anv one oi the four members of his own family, m which bo had already tceognoted such unusual ability, lie added to it his son. Lord Oranborne. and his son-in-law. Lord Selbovnc. Having thus gilded the refined gold of the Admiralty and painted the lily of the Foreign Office, he withdrew himself from ail departmental labours and took the honorary position of Lord Privy Seal, as though, like a modern Charles \., ho had abdicated, retired to a monastery, and only sought to celebrate his own political ob sequies. With the strongest Government of modern times made still stronger, with a majority voting like sheep, with the Ministry taking their lleece like shepherds and making shearing rules as they went along ; with blood and money poured out like water; with no Opposition to control the Minister and scarce so much aseritieism to ruffle him—with a Government, in short, of unlimited means and unchecked power, the country naturally believed that the end for which it had placed at the disposal of the Government the majority, the supplies, the power, the honour, and the glory would now at length bo reached, and that the war would bo brought to a speedy and honourable conclusion. Yet now, after the lapse of another year, things are not only no better, they are far worse. Neither the flock nor the fleece has sufficed. Neither the priests of Birmingham. nor the Levitos of Hatfield, neither the disciples of Blenheim, nor the links of North Berwick have availed. Souls, Cecils, sycophants, and Socialists are alike found wanting, and there has arisen the most profound exasperation with the Ministry which, when so well provided has done so ill. We are forced to conclude that, while this Government is, as stated, the ablest and strongest of modern times, it is also the most unfortunate. With all its boundless resources it has been unable either to treat or to light with success. It can neither make peace nor war, and now, after two years, it continues its feeble and fruitless efforts to make both at once without drawing nearer to either. Peace, as many hold, might have been made by Lord Roberts after the capture of Pretoria. Peace, as no reasonable man can doubt who will read the Bluebooks (Od. 528, p.p. 2 and 5, (jot!, p. 1), could in all probability have been made by Lord Kitchener in March last, had he on ly been allowed to make it. But when Lord Kitchener had drafted his letter of March the Srd to General Botha who showed very good feeling and seemed anxious to bring about a peace ”) he was ordered by the Government to make in it changes which Lord Milner “regretted" and to which Lord Kitchener " was even more strongly opposed.’’ The consequence of the orders of the Government was that for the draft letter of March the iird. which it is clear both Lord Kitchener and Lord Milner believed likely to open up a fair prospo-t of accommodation, there was substituted the altered letter of Ala'-eh the 7th, wireh opened up no such prospect, and which General Botha, as was inevitable, did not “ feel disposed to recommend to his Government.’’

It should horr. bo noted that, whereas Lord Kitchener had proposed to promise the Boers that we would, “as soon as circumstances permit, establish representative Government,” this was whittled down to a promise to “ introduce a representative element.” This indicates that the alterations which rendered these promising negotiations abortive were made in order to maintain Lord Salisbury’s inconsiderate declaration in the House of Lords on the preceding December 6, “ wo can never allow, and never have allowed, that any shred of independence can he left.” Lord Kitchener seemed to leavo some shred, small, indeed, bnt still a shrei; the Government would leave none, and the negotiations failed. Having prevented Lord Kitchener front making the peace that both he and Lord Milner thought possible, the Government seem to have as completely failed to provide him with the means of making war. Apart from the Yeomanry, who “ could neither shoot nor ride,” they have given him no further forces adequate for his difficult task. Instead of sending him drafts of troops they have tent him drafts of proclamations, and the war continues not more but less satisfactorily than a year ago, with its “unfortunateincidents,” its terrible losses, and a daily addition to the most serious political dangers which its continuance opens up in other quarters. No wonder the people of England arcbeginning to feel disappointment and exasperation, to ask how such things can be, and to resolve that they must not he and shall not be much longer. One reason for the present state of things is that the provisions whereby in our system of Government counsel has hitherto been made to precede action have been contemptuously set aside. There is practically no Cabinet to consult and no Prime Minister to direct its consultations. In each department there is an uncounselled, uncontrolled ono man, who dees as he thinks lit. That, however dangerous, was perhaps excusable,so long as Lord Salisbury was Foreign Minister as well as Prime Minister, for the work of the former post left him inadequate time to perform j fully the duties of the latter. But it is now no longer excusable or even endurable.

I Nevertheless, though there is not a real Cabinet, there is a semblance of one. But it has not met since the month of August, in spite of the daily increasing national dangers and difticulties. its members have gone calmly away to Beaulieu, to Scotland, to Newmarket, taking their leisure, their golf, their motor-cars, and their horse-racing as though wholly indifferent to a perilous national emergency. It would really seem as though they cou d not bring themselves to take any interest in their own business, and feci the most cynical contempt for the destinies the country has committed to their charge. Very different was it when Lord Palmerston had to conduct the nation through such times as these. In 1855, during the Crimean War, when he was Prime Minister, he h- Id no fewer Can fj>. C,mi' 10t Councils in the mouth of September, tive October, and five in November, and thus showeu ovcu in holiday time he took some interest in the great events then impending, attached some value to the advice of his colleagues, and felt the responsibility that lay upon himself. Nor, indeed, would the Cabinet of that day have submitted to any other treatment, neither would the country then have endured a complete abstraction from affairs of its Ministers. Are things now so smooth that the counsels of the Cabinet arc unnecessary, and is the Cabinet itself so spiritless as to acquiesce in its own suppression ? Surely it is time that Ministers left their play and came back to attend to their business with a determination to do it better in the future than during the past. The country will not much longer endure a shameless display, either of indolent lassitude or fly-pant cynicism.—l am, etc., •T. Gipson Bowles. Lowndes Square, London.