THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1901.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11724, 5 August 1901, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1901.

Events in South Africa are evidently approaching the stage when drastic measures will be forced upon our Imperial authorities, in much the same way that the war itself was originally forced upon us. This morning': cables show that great indignation is rising- at Home because of the atrocious methods now being openly adopted - by certain of the Boer commandos against natives in British employ. • ' Kruitzinger's threat to shoot at opportunity all natives, aimed or unarmed, v who enter.the Imperial service in any capacity is acutally in operation. Such ' cold-blooded murders distinctly place those: guilty of them outside the pale of humanity and demand prompt and adequate punishment unless our declared protectorate i over these unfortunate natives is to become a ■ mere farce. Doubtless many occasional acts of indefensible brutality have been perpetrated by the worst class of Boer since the breakdown of the regular military tactics of the late republics and I the resort of the irreconcilables to guerilla warfare. But acts which were at first occasional have evidently been steadily becoming more and more I frequent, until at last a fiendish policy is openly declared by a recognised Boer leader. Nor is this; policy confined by the guerillas to their treatment of natives who venture to enter the . Imperial service as scouts, drivers or. camp-fol-lowers. After much; difference of opinion and after a chivalrous denial by the War Office the truth; of certain charges brought against Boer commandos, it is seemingly proven that the alleged atrocious murder of two ; British prisoners who refused .to work momentarily captured guns was actually true. Now; we have another instance of a wounded Yeoman being murdered on the field in cold blood •.:".in, mistake for ;'&;; Cape boy." Last, month De la Rey pleaded that; it was ; impossible to maintain complete discipline-among loosely organised % men. .This month we have. Kruitzinger avowing in writing his intention to murder all natives in our employ. Next month we shall find some other desperado, declaring "war to the knife" and entering upon an open career of murder against all who serve the King or admit north of the Orange River any authority but that of the gueiilla Junta. The Imperial authorities are treating murderous rebels ' with the severity they deserve. It is high time that murder be treated as murder, throughout South Africa,' whether it be committed by a rebel 'or an irreconcilable, ; or be committed against either white or black. Sooner or later this I course will have to be adopted, and it hat? far better be. adopted now than after thousands of loyal men ' have been ruthlessly butchered. We have spoken of the wilful butcheries of which -the Boers have; recently been proven guilty as placing them outside the pale ;■ of humanity. As for the pale of civilised law they have been outside that for a year. The - commonly accepted laws of war have neither been observed by our enemies nor insisted upon by our Imperial -authorities,; whose \ forbearance has excited the wonder of every ! European and American4nilita'ry expert who has followed the course of the M struggle. • While the British Pro-Boer has been insanely raving at the barbarity of our; military ; occupation, the military authorities of the world have combined .to criticise our conduct as fallaciously humanitarian by virtue of the; encouragement it has afforded to inveterate and misunderstanding enemies. ; We cannot f say that we regard the humane ' policy instituted by Lord Roberts, and persisted in as far as possible by Lord Kitchener, to have j been, altogether bad. It has doubtless had the effect of convincing the many thousands of honourable I and intelligent Afrikanders I and Boers that it is their duty to combine with their British neighbours to a Law and Order so benign and so tolerant. But we have long passed the stage when forbearance to ignorant fanaticism and toleration of murderous animosity could bear good fruit. Possibly we have not yet reached the stage when a fixed date should be set after which all found in arms should be treated and dealt with as outlaws. But we have certainly reached the stage when a clear distinction should be drawn between acts of war and acts of criminal- violence. Nor should we hesitate because it is the native who suffers most, and first by this gradual degeneration of the Boer movement from ; an organised national war | to a disorganised partisan resistance, to guerilla raiding, to manifest outlawry and brigandage. .The I inferior and subordinate position of ' the native in South Africr only increases * his claim to the protection ' of our laws, only increases our duty to. see that he is not wronged. And if we cannot feel this imperative duty, ; we ; shall assuredly be driven to it by the growth; of the murder policy which .will gradually be ; ap;plied to white as to black, to the man in khaki ,as to the peace-desir-ing Boer. <; This > unblushing murder-threat of Kruitzinger has nothing in common with : the "mutual determination of Briton and i Boer to make the war "a white; man's quarrel." The fact that the estimated millions of South Africa are four-fifths coloured and that it would be criminal to arm and j drill this ffiMß of naked savages for J

r the purpose of le ting them .loose c upon the civilised minority, was 'as* 1 patent to the Brit sh loyalist as to , a the Afrikander. : Nor is the most ■■ * loyal Britisher, th( most Imperialisi, tic statesman, incined to set even i ;theihighest;coloui;d race against a 1 people nearly alii d to us in blood 0 and soon to be absorbed inalienably into;the free dominions of the comt plex Imperial ream. The tacit agree- , ,_ ment that the war should be waged ; by white troops has been kept by the a , Imperial Government much more y. loyally than by che Boers. But we have conquered jhe military " repub- - lies" that invaded our borders, we have annexed |hem, we have assumed over tlem full sovereign i ', rights. The employment; of natives I as scouts, as drivers, as messengers, in any one of tie many functions for which they are (peculiarly fitted and f in which they nave been commonly employed by cur enemies is essential to our occupation and no breach of the tacit agreement, even suppos- - ing there were'an organised 'enemy i with whom suclj agreement could* be i kept. The cause of the Boer threat x against the native is identical with 3 that of his treatment of the Peace 3 delegates; with his violence against - -every man who accepts.British au- » thority and is designed to terrorise f the native population ; and thus to 3 deprive us of the assistance which i the Boers know by practice can be 3 obtained for tnem.>' As for shooting 1 a' ; nigger" that is much; less serious ) a thing in Boer eyes than flogging a 7 white man, and we have all seen the readiness with which this " God-fear- . ing" farmer flogs all who differ from ! him. , The brutal treatment of n'el groes by a; Boer in 1815, his at- . tempted arrest by British officials, . the resistance made by his neigh- . bours,' the killing of officers of the law and the subsequent .hanging of £ five leading culprits, was the blrama . of \ Schlachter'a; Nekthe great pa- , triot memory ;i of Boerdom. The , ; abolition of slavery in British do- } minions in 1833—an abolition for 5 which ; : the British tyrant paid full t value Out of his own pocket the . deadly wrong which led to the great , trek that led to the founding of the I Boer republics. For the Boer whom , a certain section of British people , delight in glorifying' holds it ;.• as :ah , article of faith ;. not merely that the j man of coloui is not to share ,; go- . vernance with the white man, but , that the man of colour has no human I rights,: is to be ; treated like a deg [ and shot like a rabbit. These Boers . did not mean to shoot the wounded , Yeoman, "they mistook him for a. L - Cape boy." And they must be : taught, no . matter at what; cost of ; reI prisals, before British Law, in ~i the , sight of British Justice, -white.and J; black, ', : : high/and ' low, citizen and foreigner, are; absolutely and alto- "- gethev equal.