COINCIDENCES.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 7159, 9 February 1901, Page 4

COINCIDENCES.

Those who have an eye for odd facts will not fail to have noticed the remarkable number of coincidences which have marked the progress of the South African war. From the begi;imn» the wa^s.ews bas been full of coincidences which would b.^ve ]?een scouted as impossible in fiction. Q7lie "Capture of Oronje on MajubaDay 13. of course, th^ most notable example, and Lord Roberts' entry into Pretoria on the anniversary of one of Sir Alfred Milner's fateful notes is auotber. A grenadier guardsman on Lord Metbuou's staff concluded 4. irt.tn; to his mother by saying thit ns'waa writing to his "dear little wife," who he hoped was all right, and on the same day he wrote the letter his wife died at St. Leonards. A London comedian, Charles Godfrey, died in England some months ago, and his little son, of the same came, died in South Africa on the same day! Two Lincoln soldiers were wounded at Modcter liivei- in tho same Battle: both were twenty-one, both bulictsd the same day, both worked for the same umr;loyerboth had joined the 2nd Coldstreams and beou transferred to the Ist. And so oae might go on through a column or more. Did not a Gronje appear before the Bench at S-ilford (England) on the day General Cronje surrendered at Paardeberg :>

in our hands or had been killed fighfciug against us. Payment was only withheld where the owner was still in arms against us, as it would havo been Foolish to allow large sums in gold to r>ass from us to those who were still in the field, and to thus assist them to prolong the campaign. Colonel Duff mentions that when Prinsloo and his 4000 men surrendered to Sir A. Hunter, their horses, carts, and waggous were not treated as prizes of war, as they justifiably might have been, but officers were sent down who purchased these things from the prisoners, who tbus went off to Ceylon with their pockets full of money. Reprisals were not made when the railway was cut as part of a military operation by an ' organised commando. They were made when the aesidents oi a district or a few irresponsible men under no command aad protected by our passes interrupted our communications. They were made only in occupied territory, were fully justified by all precedent, and are fully acknowledged as true. With regard to the alleged outrages upon women, every Kaffir convicted of such outrage or attempted outrage has received prompt and severe punishment. in most cases, has been death on the gallows. As regards our own men, even Mr Stead admits that there has been no violent outrage, and such an admission from him is of value. He does not attempt to produce one scrap of evidence in support of his contention that the women sell themselves to our men for food. Colonel Duff never heard of such a case, and does not believe any have occurred. Mr Stead merely thinks this to be "inevitable result," ana on this deduction of his own he bases these terrible charges 1 ,