THE GREAT BOER LIE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7373, 27 January 1902, Page 2

THE GREAT BOER LIE.

SPECIAL CABLEGRAM FROM LORD KITCHENER.

THE AGITATION IN GERMANY.

For some time past, amid the many pro-Boer lies which are doing yeoman service on the Continent, one special one, a masterpiece of the art of fiction, has stood out prominently above all the rest. It is the stock in trade of all Boer agitators, and it has travelled from one end of the Continent to the other. Never, according to the reports we have received, has it failed to stir up the audience, and the amount of credence it has obtained is shown by the fact that, as The Times' correspondent at Barlin says, " 680 Lutheran clergy of the Rhineland have revived this filthy lie " in a document of protest they have just issued.

Graspan was fought on June 6th last, when a small British mounted force, under Major Sladen, forming the ad-vance-guard of General Elliott's column, marching from Vrede to Kroonstad, overtook and captured De Wet's convoy of seventy-one waggons. Reinforcements came back from the main body of Boers and retook the convoy after a fierce fight. Only for a moment, however, for General Elliott hurried up with the main column, and, for the third time, captured the convoy. This Boer invention is told upon the authority of Frau (Cremer, who is seventy-six years old, and is alleged to be the sister in-law of a former Colonial Secretary Dutet (Dutoit ?).

She says : —

" When the English on June 6 were attacked by the Boers they ordered the women and children to leave the waggons. Placing these in front of the soldiers, they shot beneath the women's arms at the approaching Boers. Eight women and two children fell through the Boers' fire. When the Boers saw this they stopped firing. Yelling like wild beasts, they broke through the soldiers' lines, beating to death the Tommies like mad dogs with the butt ends of their rifles."

Of course, this story is a fiction — on the face of it — but there are some who may need official evidence, so the Daily Mail telegraphed the above facts to Lord Kitchener, the Commander-in-Chief in South Africa, and simply asked what was the truth of the whole matter. The paper received the following reply :—

" Statement is absolutely untrue and devoid of all foundation.

" One child was killed and one woman and one child wounded by Boers. " Kitchener."

One of the worst cases of pro-Boer mania on the Continent is undoubtedly that of Mme. Lucie Acher, who has published two letters in pamphlet form, entitled " A Petition for the Defence of the Rights of Humanity." Tbe pamphlet, which was issued at Havre, sets forth that the English soldiers in South Africa are avenging their defeats by their ill treatment of the Boer women and children who fall into their bands.

Mme. Acher's remedy for this is a wonderful one, being no less than the formation of a legion, con/posed of the elite of every nation, tbe female element to predominate therein. All the members of the legion should enjoy a reputation for high morality. The duty of this body would be to look after all the women and children. Should they fall into tbe hands of the 3oldiers, the latter should at once seek out the legion and commit them to its tender care.

The lady begs that; all who are in sympathy with her will say prayers daily. As an after thought, and by way of bait, she pledges herself to have all meals cooked "a la francaise " only. French cookery is the best -in all the world, she proudly asserts.

But enough of the legion. Mme. Lucie Acher haa sentiments. Here are a few of them, taken haphazard : "May England's odious conduct be for ever accursed."

" Englishmen are still wreaking vengeance on women and children." /

"Englishmen are worse than barbarians."

"English throats are quenching their thirst with the blood of Boer women and children murdered after having ondured the, most odious treatment."

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