REMINDERS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12859, 6 May 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

REMINDERS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR.

SCANDALOUS CONTRACT FRAUDS. THOSE GUARANTEE LOANS. [FBOU OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London. Match 25. The South African war still has its disagreeable memories always with us. Its sequels seem endless. During the past week or two its scandals have occupied a good deal of Prliamentary time and attention, and the cud is not yet. It will be remembered that more than a million tins of jam—1,130,816 to be exact— which were supplied to the troops as containing one pound each, were found to be short in every case by a quarter of a pound. All that could in the en .' be elicited after much fencing, was that all this short-weight jam came from Australia, and was obtained through the Agents-General. This has not particularly pleased Australians in London, a good many of whom openly express the opinion that an attempt is being made to shield certain favoured British contractors by throwing the onus undeservedly on Australia.

One cannot help suspecting that the end aimed at in publishing the full list of contractors, instead of merely giviug those .whose supplies had been condemned, was to arouse ill-feeling against thequesri ntsrs. a I'd by this means to draw a red herring across the scent. If so, the attempt proved a dead failure. Not merely from the Opposition side of the House, but also from die Ministerial side, question after question continued to pour in, and the disclosures thus elicited have created almost as much public indignation as did the historic report of the War Commission, Afc the cSi'd of the war an immense quantity of perfectly sound and good, and, as they are termed, "imperishable," .-tores found a watery- grave through being de- j liberately loaded on board vessels and eon ! demned wholesale into the sea at what was deemed a sufficient distance from land to Tender it improbable tba they would be washed ashore again. A large steamer was chartered, and was despatched from Capetown loaded with cases of tinned meat, the ciders being to throw the cases into the sea when a) safe distance from the shore had been reached. Unfortunately for the suc- • cess of this astonishing scheme, which was carried out with the greatest possible secrecy, the cases refused to sink,-and a few days later were strewing the shores of Table Bay. Hundreds of the cases were picked up by the unemployed of Capetown and sold to Hebrew dealers, the provisions in many instances finding their way back to England, where they were sold again. Not. a shadow of doubt 'exists that the whole of these stores thus shamefully watted were absolutely good and sound. Further. Mr. Robert Che.ve<*. manager for Messrs. Spence and.Company, of the Reunion Sugar Estates, in Natal, has made a sworn statement that at the time when the military condemned large quantities of army rations he bought from them about 250, - cases of tinned rations for the purpose of manuring his cane crop. The terms of the agreement required the tinned food to be carried away at the expense of the succe-.siul tenderer, and to be used for manuring purposes only. Every day for two or three months truck-load upon truck-load of cases of military ra- . tions left Durban for the Reunion estates. So coon as each, consignment was received an army of Indian coolies was set to work to open"the cases A case of army rations contains six dozen tins, and therefore a consignment of 250,000 cases would amount to .18.000,000 tins. The wood from the cases was used to teed the furnaces on the estate, and the. contents of thousands of tins were strewn over tho cane fields to act as a fertilising agent. A curious sequel to this transaction occurred some time afterwards, when two natives were sentenced m the Court at Tsipingo to a month's hard labour for stealing some of the unopened tins. The natives asserted that they bad taken the rations for food, and a native witness stated that he had been eating the food ever since it arrived there. All those implicated in stealing the tins were of healthv and well-conditioned appearance, and dot a single case of ptomaine or anv other poisoning has come to notice : indeed,, . it is. stated that the Kaffirs are still living on these condemned rations. These are only a few of the extraordinary revelations which have just been sprung upon the public. The subject comes up daily in the House on some motion or question, and there is a tolerable certainty that we are going to hear a great deal more about it yet. It is to be hoped that certain other people also will hear a good deal more about itnamely, those fraudulent and rascally contractors whose nefarious tricks and swindles have been exposed. Another "remanet" from that unlucky South African war has also come under notice this week. It will be remembered that when Mr. Chamberlain visited South Africa ]« went thither fully persuaded that he could obtain a promised contribution of 100 millions sterling toward the 250 millions or so that the war cost the British taxpayer. It will also 1* remembered that be came back triumphant at having secured, as was alleged, a promised contribution of considerably less than one-third that amount —namely, 30 millions—and also a promised guarantee) by the mining millionaires, who (had benefited so enormously by the war, of ten millions sterling toward the South African contribution. It was rather a lamentable falling off from tho original conception, and the British taxpayer did not feel overwhelmed with a debt of gratitude, especially as there was to be a quid pro quo even as to this diminished recoupment, one condition being that the Imperial Government was to guarantee a loan of £35,000,000 for the development of the country. That condition lias been duly carried out &y England, and now the question has naturally arisen : What has become of the promised 30 millions contribution and the ten millions guarantee. The present Colonial Secretary, Mr. Alfred Lyttelton, dealt with the matter a day or two ago in a long and elaborate speech in which lie. described the situation with quite masterly skill in the art of "putting things pleasantly," and "putting a good face upon" the disappointing and unpalatable announcement he had to make. Stripped of descriptive and palliative verbiage, his announcement amounted to this: That no real security or guarantee whatever existed either in respect of the 30 millions or tho ten millions. Both pledges rest in fact on mere conversational suggestion or proposal. Neither promise has been carried out, nor has there been the f-lightest attempt to carry out either. Nor is it in reality at all probable that the Brit- ' fib taxpayer" of the present generation will #et back from South Africa a single penny in recoupment of the 250 millions sterling that he disbursed in the war. When the House was in Supply on Wednesday evening opportunity was taken to bring forward the matter again, and a desperate effort was made to extract some fragments of consolation from the Colonial Secretary. But the best that Mr. Lyttelton could say was that th*- 30 millions constituted a " debt of honour" on the part of the Transvaal, He contended that this promise could hardly be carried out until the Transvaal received representative government, which was to be given to ii almost immediately. Being asked whether the Government held any security foi the payment of this "debt ot honour," Mr. Lyttelton " replied : "We do not as a rule take security for a deb*, of honour" statement of ques- ; tionablc accuracy I believe even with reference to thos? gambling transactions to which . the term "debt of honour" is so strangely misapplied. It is not surprising that this : ▼irtual admission of the utter cloudiness of '. the whole thing was received with loud ■ cries of derision. Members then pointed out that every year during which this "debt of : honour" remained unpaid meant a loss of one million sterling to the British taxpayer, i and the opinion waj strongly expressed that I the House of Commons had been hoodwink- : ed by this fallacious, promise of 30 millions '. into guaranteeing that development loan of 35 millions. Immeasurable ridicule was 1 H poured upon the idea that candidates for election to. the new Transvaal Parliament : would take as a hustings cry their willingness that.";'. this contribution of 30 millions 1 ;; should tie paid, . 1 1