THE VLAKFONTEIN MURDERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12587, 23 August 1901, Page 3

THE VLAKFONTEIN MURDERS.

BOER ATROCITIES. "BRITISH-WOUNDED KILLED IN COLD BLOOD. [From Our Correspondent.] LONDON, July 12. Some few weeks ago I uttered an emphatic protest against the Press Censor's m South Africa suppressing legitimate items of news s-Etnt by correspondents to the Home Press, and at the same time allowing tho British public to be fed up with lies concerning Beer atrocities and fictitious victories. Aly term-on was. chiefly .based on th'ci emphatic contradiction by Lord Kitchener of the tale tcud by Renter of the suprise of Beyers' commando ait Warmbaths and the " Daily Mail" correspondent's statement that when Dixon's force was surprised by Kemp's burghers at Vlakfcntein the Boers murdered the British wounded. In answer to cabled, querns concerning both these stories Lord Kitchener

gavo such replies as to lead the public to believe that all war correspondents were liars, and Reuters man and Mr Wallace, the '" Mail's " representative, particularly adept in the art of cabling tba thing wMtih is not. At any rats, Renter's' man was ■ given a good dressing-down both by has employers and by the Press in and Mr Wallace, I am to.ld, had his tad twisted severely by the boss of the Harmsworth Ccomoany. But neither man took his lacking lying down. Renter's representative, smartW under his cable castiga.ti.cn, had the temerity to bail up-Lord Kitchener himself. In effect, he 'said " Look here, my Lord, you've told the people at Home I'm a liar,'so perhaps you'll oblige me by telling them just how much of a tor 1 am ""Was my whole cable wrong, or was the use of the name of Beyers 'only wrontrV And Lord Kitchener was bound to aauict that "the word 'Beyers' was

wrongly used.", The Reiiter cable ms it seems, 'true in: its essentials, namely that a commando 'had' been surprised ana tod been ■deprived-of- lbs -bast part of its supplie.s Jand ammunition, but. it was mo* Beyers' commando. Therefore his -Lordship allows the public at Home to infer that the-whole story was an. invention. No ether inference was pjosisible from Jus reply to the War Office cabled inquiry as officially given to the Press. His Lordship's next move was .'to give an unqualified denial to the alleged shooting of wounded Britishers by the Boers at. Vinkfontein. When the story of Dixon, s surprise and the Boers.' temporary capture of the guns and their subsequent recovery bv the Derbyshires was cabled over, the narrative, contained a.. statement to the effect that .English .gunners 'bad -been, shot by the Bows for refusing to work the captured guns against our own men. This statement was made not only by the " Mail's" correspondent, bub. by Pointers man and by the "Morning Post" representative lb was officially denied in. the Hou*e of Commons, on Lord Kitchener's authority, but Mr Wallace, in his mailed description, of the fiaflifc, repeated the cabled statement, and further alleged that the Boers deliberately rifled, the wounded and then fho't them in cold blood. In view of tho official denial the "Mail" people cabled out to Mr Wallace, and in rep'.y received this message.: "June 28—Let my mailed accoun.t of Vlakfcnteir., stand. Its accuracy in important particulars is indisputable." . They wired once more, asking for some 1 proof, and Mr Wallace has given the- name of his informant, an officer who was an eye-witness. Pending, however, the production of further evidence' on. that point, which, it is stated, will shortly be available, tho correspondent prefers to treat this'matter as being still in- doubt, and the portion of Mr Wallace's letter Which deal® with it is put. in brackets. The remainder, Mr Wallace informs the " Mail," in a cable, dated July 4, is accurate 'beyond question, a fact of which he 'had further proof that dar. , ', i '• Mr Wallace, who does not profess to have been an eye-witness of the affair .at Vl'akfentein, describes the scene, thus: "As the column ■advanced leisurely along the top road, the scouts skirting the grass fire, same shadowy forma were seen to b& moving about. Through the smdasi' they were indistinguishable, but they were challenged, .and replied satisfactorily enough, ' All right; we are Scottish Horse-.' . . . A heavy gust of wind rent for a moment the veil of smoke—and there was the Boer airmy! With a yell tho whole Boer force dashed forward Firing from

their saddles) the Boers cam© on with a rush,.-and as the little English fcrce fell hack in confusion the gunmer officer, sseing that the fate of his gums was settled, pistolled bis horses. The canfusiom was only for % moment, for, rallied by their officers, the'raw Yeomen . . . held the B'ciehj in play, while the good old Derbys . . . prepared to make an attempt to retake the guns. In the meantime the jubilant Basra •had reaohie'd the spcib where the guns stood, the dying horses lying dim the traces and' the victims of the first volley lying around, (and demanded of an officer who had not time to get away an immediate lessca in gunnery. He refused to turn the guns on •to his own comrades—'that goes without saying—a!nJd was .shot dead for his refusal. A sergeant-major .of .the battery met with the same fate.) What happened them 'may be described in the word's 'of my informant: 'A couple of Boers armed with Martinis walked round the forma of the dead audi dying mem who were stretched in 'every conceivable attitude on true ground. Some they turned over to sec if they were dead. If they weren't, one or the other of the two Boers shot them, just' slipping a cartnidge into -the breech of the Martini and shootinig th.snii as you'd shoot an ox. I saw four men killed this way. Tine Boers' wtmit up to Lieuitifmiant , 'of the turned him over. Them, thinking that he was dead, they took off,.his spurs. On© officer was lying wounded, and a sergeant who was slightly wounded went across to him with some water, and a third Boer shot them both dead '(Mjberately. ' One younitT.sit:er —I think he was a Yeomani—pleaded for his life. I heard hion say, ' O Christ, dion't!' and) thea the bang of the rifle. That is what happened. By this time the Derbys wera ready . . . The Boers turned and fled, leaving thoir bayoimeted dead! to be buried." It is, of .course, quite possible that Mr Wallace has had Ms kg pulladl by seme garrulous soldier with more imagination than sense, but in view of the Beyers' incident and the fact 'that.. the Kitchener policy has been one of corjOsalnMnt and half .troths, one hardily likes "tn" dismiss the "Mail" man's tale as puro : iniyention,, in spits ot Lord Kitchener's apparent inability to find any evidence of such an atrocity having been committed. It. has since transpired that Mr Wallace's informant was Lieutenant Hern, of the Im-

perial Yeomanry, who is n!cw on- his way home, and letters received in England! from privates in the mxaiv corps are said to- corroborate" tte stray to-lldi by the "Daily Mail's" cpi-respooidenii. in its essemitials. Meanwhile, tlrei has promised further enqrariesi'tind Lord Stanley, Financial Secretary, to. the War. Office, :hu the House of Oommoos, volunibeered an. " undertaking " that if Mr Wallace's report were proved! to be. fake, "that coiTespondenifc will be most severely dealt with." He* did' nob say who would be severely dealt, with if th'a truth of the correspondent's exposure is established. The inquiry indicated by Lord Stanley is apparently to be confined to the subject which. " the Commander-in-Chief has held not to he accurate in a telegram," namely, the alliuged murder by the Boers of Lieutenant M'Dougall and «■ ser-geant-major of the 28th. Battery, who. refused to turn the captured British. guns against their comrades. Judging from LordStanley's reply, the charges of mutilation and falsification, of Press telegrams.by one or more -of the censors are not to form- part of the official inquiry. The "Daily Mail" has published the mutilated! and falsified despatches, and' shows the extent to which they were■ altered. It .also gives the text of Mr Wallace's protest to the Commander-in-Chief, in. which the blame and lxspcesibifcty is laid upon "a captain cm General Lyttelton's stag." • Since the above was written, abundant cumulative evidence in the shape-of letters from soldiers who took part in' the,battle of Vlakfontein has been, madia public, establishing beyond! a doubt to the- minds of reasonable men that the Boers did kill the wounded in- cold blood. Trooper Rowe, of the North Somerset ■I.Y., writes: —"A chap -close to. am. was thrown from his horse. I. caught the animal to take it ba/ck to the -owmer, but a bullet grazed my horse, making the latter turn sharply. The other horse pulled me clean out o'f the saddle, and) knocked the wicdl out of me. I lay ttoc-ra with our men being -shot down, by dozens. Beers shot our fellows-down infooid blood 1 . Dozens ot them were simply .'murdered. They threw down their awns, ajnd this Boers walked up to them and. shot them in cold blood. 1 lay for some time as if dead, but eventually I joined some foot soldiers, amid we captured! our guns again." An officer, whose letter is published! m the "TinKs" to-day, says:—"The following incidents I know to be true. A wounded! Boer, called Van dfcr Byl, a oolomlst, crawled about amiangst -our wounded shooting thean, and a Yeomanry officer was having his thumib dressed when a Boer came upland blew out his .brains." Mr Brodrick announced; in the House, oi Oommranis yes'tea-dlay that-, in reply .to. his telegram on the-subject,- Lord Kitchener wired on July 8: "It has been, testified by •seven men that they saw Boers shoot wounded mien at Viakfcmiteen. The statements thev made' were see* you by last mail. I have ordered evidence on oath to be taken." Mr Brodrick's first telegram on the.subject referred simply to the murder of Lieutenant M'Dwig'al and a. sergeant-major of 28th -Battery. Lord Kitchener replied that the report of theor -murder was unfounded. On June 11 he wired that Lieutenant- Hern had stated that lie saw one of iha enemy shoot some of our wounded on. the ground. That telegram the-War-Office has withheld for nearlv a- month pending verification. That telegram, too, corroborating the "D-vlv Mail's" ccOTCspo-nden/t was iin- the War'Office when Lord Stanley assumed the •crimsmatety of the correspondent by declaring that if these stntemiEmts could be proved against that coiTCspcoctenib, he • would be most severely dealt with. The blame in this case does not appear to be with Lord Kitcte'er, who, fcur days after he had denied murder of the two manmentioned, wired again Lieutenant- Hem's statement. The responsible, person, as someone in the War Office, who held back Lord Kitchener's sE.ccmd telegram;, and' at the «utß ■time allowed the public to suppose that -there was no foundation, for the correspondent's statement.