MR. DAVITT ON KRUGER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11540, 27 November 1900, Page 6

MR. DAVITT ON KRUGER.

THE NATIONALIST ADDRESS IN A STRANGE LIGHT.

In view of the extraordinary address t.om Irish Nationalists which Mr. Michael Davitt proposes to deliver to Mr. Kruger, the following statement by Mr. Douglas Story, who acted as war correspondent with the Boers for an English paper, is exceptionally interesting. Mr. Story writes : —Mr. Davitt made one initial error in South Africa, On his arrival in the Transvaal he allowed himself to be cliaperoncd by the Government. Furnished with introductions to discreet leaders, he heard nothing of the deep discontent in the laagers, of the conviction which pervaded the Boer forces that the struggle was useless. He wrote enthusiastic articles for his papers, and imagined he had discovered a national resolution to do or die. But he was imbibing opinions prepared for him. Later, on May 7, I saw Mr. Davitt in the Raadzaal at Pretoria, under the protection of Mr. Attorney Hofmeyr. Two days later he was staggered at the exposure of the Government's corruption when Mr. Kruger introduced his proposal to sell to a group of speculators the bewaarplaatsen rights valued at from twenty to eighty -millions sterling for two millions. He learned for the first time the attitude of the unofficial Boer, the discontent against the perfidy of the oligarchy. Within a fortnight he had seen the full force of the debacle, and stood aghast at his self-decep-tion. I saw him the day he left Pretoria, broken and dispirited. "I have been deceived," he said, pointing to the Government Buildings, "by those men. They have lied to me, played* false to me, misled me. lam a poor man, and this journey has cost me more than I could well afford ; but I would give £100 to stop the articles I have sent to Europe. Prom start to finish I have been a dupe. What a contrast— boastful assumption of indomitable resolution and this pitiable exhibition of cowardice ! " I went across just now to ask for information, and I was told matters at the front were very satisfactory, the burghers *vere fighting stubbornly, and the battles were all in favour of the Boers—was told that, when my own countrymen straight from the i cene of action say the Boers are running like rabbits, and neither Steyn nor , Botha, nor all the powers of blackness can make them stand ! "That old man, Kruger, instead of grappling with the situation, has been interviewed by a blind boy who says he has a voice in the back of his neck that predicts a great victory for May 18, and the declaration of peace for May 26. And the old man believes it and rests content ! " What an opportunity these fools nave missed ! If only they had the courage to say to Great Britain, ' Stop ; we have fought our fight. We have demonstrated that our love of independence was real enough to die for; but it is suicide to stand longer with 20,000 men against 200,000. We throw ourselves on your generosity and unconditionally surrender.' " That would have been diplomatic, dignified, and the whole world would have stood up for the little nation in its hour of death. Instead we have this miserable rout." Such was Michael Davitt in South Africa. Listen to him in his great Nationalist address to Mr. Kruger : — " Honoured Sir, — . • • Seldom _in history has such a noble stand for political liberty been made by a small band of freemen against an overwhelming horde of mercenaries in the pay of those who coveted land and gold and hated independence. The names of the mountains and plains of your Republics take their places in history beside those of Marathon and Sempach and Bunker's Hill, as incentives to strivings for human liberty."