HECTOR MACDONALD

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1628, 13 May 1903, Page 13

HECTOR MACDONALD

RETICENCE AS TO HIS OFFENCE.

“BURIED IN OBLIVION.”

The “Ceylon Observer” of 9th April, which has just reached New Zealand, contains what pray be fairly set down «as- tho last words to be said respecting the charges against the late Sir Hector Macdonald. These consist of official and editorial statements, as follows: —We are officially authorised to state that reports which have been published and which have otherwise obtained currency,” to the effect that there had been differences of opinion between the late MajorGeneral Sir Fleeter Macdonald and U.E. the Governor are absolutely untrue. Their relations, social as well as official, were invariably friendly, without even the slightest interruption/ and in a farewell letter ‘ on his way home General Macdonald wrote: “Your Excellency’s uniform kindness to me since I arrived in this colony can never bo effaced, and the manner in which you are advising me is a proof of your continued kindness.” To this the editor appends the following note :—“The pens of tlie calumniators who endeavoured to spread stories to the effect that the relations between Sir West Ridgeway and the late Sir Hector Macdonald were anything but cordial must be effectively stopped by the communique issued above; and we trust anonymous scribblers will now cease from their evil and abortive labours, which serve to keep before the public a distressing incident all wish to see buried in oblivion.”

A reply to a correspondent in the same issue reads as follows: — “A Recent Catastrophe.”—We cannot open our correspondence column to a discussion such as you propose. The anonymous writers you refer to can know nothing of the facts or they would never have written as they have done. The blame and the shame are all on one side, and any one who thinks differently has only to put himself in the position of a parent concerned, and then say how he would feel. Inclined to “shoot at sight,” we should say, and justifiably so. The name and the shame must all be -buried in oblivion.

A number of well-meaning but ill-in-fonned persons in New Zealand have persistently held the advanced by people of tlie same kind elsewhere, thao Sir Hector Macdonald was the victim of a vile conspiracy concocted against him by officials in lugb places, who were jealous of his success and promotion from tho ranks to a position ox importance. The statements quoted from the “Cqylon Observer” must for ever dispose of tl theory. The editor of that journal is a Scotsman aud would, therefore, bo most favourably disposed to pass lenient judgment on the deceased officer; lie is, in addition, a gentleman of unimpeachable character,' whose past career gives a guarantee that, if he suspected the existence of a plot to ruin his countryman, he would have spared no effort to expose it; he was lately called to the Executive Council of Geylon, and his position there has doubtless’enabled him to obtain reliable information as to the ’facts of the case. While, therefore, every * respect must be accorded to the noble instincts of those who cling to the conspiracy theory, and seek to save the name of the illustrious soldier from ignominy, it is now clear that the wisest and most merciful course to pursue is to imitate the reticence- of the Colombo press and allow the distressing incident to be “buried in oblivion.”