A NATIONAL SIN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IX, Issue 2901, 13 May 1885, Page 3

A NATIONAL SIN.

(Argus Cocmaponiient.) It is corioas how one snWject pushes another ont of the pnblie mind, like pellets in a popgun- The general interest in Eirypt is fadiny and failing as that in grow* and s■veils. Bofuro tfis> autumn comas, it is probub'e tEi.it the whole SoaJ.ta <(Ueati»n will haw? Barfed oat, and an expedition to Khartoum be advocated by a section as inconsiderable as that which now opposes it. How natural it is even for honest man to ignore what is amiss when it is done by "their own people is curiously illustrated by the incident of the destruction <'l the desert wells, in order to facilitate the retreat of oar soldiers. To destroy a well in the desert is a crime againat humanity—worse than catting down the palm trees that form an oisis. The memory that snch offenders mast leare behind them amose those to whom " the water is life most bo one of eternal esaemtion, yet I notice that only one question was pat in the House cuccurninsr this (reported) military outrage, and that it received no reply. The only charitable explanation of the matter is that the destruction of a welt is only, in fact, a temporary obstruction of it, and that after a few <&ys, or with a rery little trouble, the water reappears strain. Otherwise, to my mind, there is no feature so repulsive as this deed (if it did in fact take place}, presented by the whole campaign, or one of which we hare sach reason to bo ashamed. In the morals of warfare the line of what is permissible fa always (apposed to be drawn at "poisoning wells f bat what is the difference between slaying one's enemies—nty, noncombatants, and those who are not one's enemies—by poison or by the slower agony of thirst I