A DREAM RAID.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 139, 13 June 1908, Page 3

A DREAM RAID.

«, (N.Z. Times Correspondent.) LONDON, May l.f Tidings of. another projected raid in South Africa have leaked out owino- to the loquacity of General Francofs Joubert Pienaar, ,the ex-Boer leader, who surrendered with v l2oo men to the Portuguese authorities at Komati Poort, in September, 1900, rather than take the risks of an engagement with tho pursuing British force under General Pole^Carew. Pienaar was interned in an old castle at Lisbon until the conclusion of the war, when he was released and left penniless in Europe. He threw himself on the mercy of the Colonial Office, and was so well treated that, he "shed tears" at their kindness. He went out in October, 1905, to Portuguese West Africa, with the intention of settling. .He purchased property, and was elected leader of the Boer colony there. . He went with » a Boer force to assist in an expedition' against a Kaffir chief, and saw so much of the horrors of the Portuguese slave trade that he felt bound to write' to the Lisbon Government. At once a system of persecution arose against him, and he was compelled to leave the colony. He said that if it had not been for tSe B.rjtish Consul he- would not have got out of the 1 country alive. General Pienaar tried in vain to get compensation from the Portuguese Government through the,. Colonial Office, and arrived in this country last autumn to seek redress in person. It is not on record that he got any, hut he appears whils't-'here to h&ve foregathered with-^certain other choice spirits not unknown in Fleet Street, and to have hatched a plot for the armed invasion, of Portuguese West Africa. Among his associates in this enterprise were, it is understood, several well-known London journalists, including our old friend " Smiler " Hales, and Mr Alfred Edmonds, editor of The Throne ' newspaper. Most raids have some humanitarian disguise. In the case of tlie Jameson Raid, it waa alleged t& be desired to liberate the " helots " of the Rand. The Pienaar raid is alleged to be directed against the \ slave trade of Portuguese West. Africa, and inter alia the suppression of Portuguese influence in that country. The conspirators' plans1 on clud'ed the raising of a force of 500 armed men, with two r Maxim-Nordenfeldt guns and a mule train at a cost of £30;000. " Smiler " Hales was to be second in command of the force. Pienaar's English confreres appear to have kept their mouths shut concerning the proposed raid, but on going to America in search of additional capital for the enterprise, the ex-Boer leader apparently allowed the true nature of hi 3 project for the " civilising and evangelising"/ of Portuguese West Africa to. leak out, with the result that the Foreign Office got wind of the enterprise. In December last the General received a plain warning that his contemplated attack " on certain possessions of powers with which his Majesty the King is at peace" woujd entail upon liim as a British subject serious penalties render section 2 of the Foreign Enlistment Act. To this General Pienaar replied disavowing complicity or connivance in any act unapproved by the British Government, but he added: "I cannot refrain from saying, however, that in my own mind I am thoroughly convinced that it is the God-giyen mission of Great Britain to Christianise .and civilise the peoples of the Angola and Congo, j and I cannot see how this is to be S -done unless these countries become British possessions, and I hope when my Government awakens to this fact it will make use of my humble services in carrying out s\ich an ©vent." The British Government, however, with strange and unaccountable obstinacy refuses to take up this "Godgiven mission,"' and has apparently rto use for Pienaar in any role. So he lingers iri America, trying nobly to raise money for the suppression by peaceful means of the slave trade in Africa. So far his success appears to Tiave been inconsiderable when viewed from the financial standpoint. Socially he appears to enjoy in „ New York much the same sort of vogue as was enjoyed a few years ago in London by Buffalo Bill. As he appears' in American society to-day, with, his carefully-trimmed beard and moustache, well groomed, and genera ally fashionably dressed in frock coat,' silk hat, and diamond tiepin, General Pienaar has more in common t with the Parisian boulevardier than the Boer general as usually pictured. \ General Pienaar, however, was always a bit of a swell,1 and believes in going with the times. Being a handsome man, of good proportions, he looks exceedingly well in his smart London clothes, and is a general favourite with the fair sex. Wood?' Great Peppermint Cure for •■•Coughs and Colda never fails. Is 6d and 2s 6d.