SAN FRANCISCO MAIL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2429, 3 October 1900, Page 9

SAN FRANCISCO MAIL NEWS.

(Per Mariposa at Auckland.)

THE BOER, WAR

A London cable to the New York Tribune says De Wet's escape has done some damage" to the reputation of Lord Kitchener. Lord Roberts sent Lord Kitchener to take fuil charge of the operations which were to end in the cornering of De Wet. Generals Lord Methuen, lan Hamilton, and Smith-Dorrien were to co-operate, as well as General Broadwood's Cavalry Brigade, so there must have been 30,000 men endeavouring to intercept the 7000 Boers. After having been. buoy sd iv,with the hope that this superb British force would eventually round up the evasive enemy, the public wero not at all pleased to hear that De Wet has got clear away again, outmarching Methuen and Kitchener, and going ncrth to join De la Hey, who has ]DOssession of Runtenburg, and seems to be master of the country almost up to Mafeking. The few military men left in London &ay De Wet's march across the Free State and north to Rustenburg is one of the finest performances of modern campaigns^

The British steamship Maxonamo has^just arrived irom South Africa, after having touched" at St. Helena for repairs. Captain 'Mann was permitted to visit the Boer prisoners on the island. He rode uu five miles of a winding road to the top of Vupert Hill, in Deadwood Plain, where he found the prison of General Cronje's 2000 men. The Boer captives are confined within a barbed" wire enclosure a quarter of a mile square. Twelve feet from the fence on all sides is a section trocha liko the first. It is death for . a Boei prisoner 6o cross £ lip of *- lip - "">or

pen, and one Boer was shot by a sentinel for j doing this. The British soldier was then ! tried and acquitted by court-martial. " Whiie the British soldiers sleep 13 men in a tent," said Captain Mann, " the Boers sleep only 10 men in a tent in order to afford them all the ,room possible. The British have allowed the Boers to cut bamboos for shacks. These bamboo frames' the Boers have ingeniously covered with canvas, and with slabs of tin, which latter they obtained in a curious way. There were on the island a great many paraffin canp, which the Boers carefully flattened out for tin sides and roofs to their shacks. Some of the prisoners are permitted to work for farmers on the island, and thereby earn a' little money. There are many men 70 years old, and just as many boys of 15, 16, and 17 years. The Boer officers are allowed to do pretty much as they please, and their names are ported at the St. Helena Club. The British officers entertain them at afternoon teas, and General Cronje is practically a steady guest of the Governor. A cable now runs to the island from South Africa, and bulletins from the seat of war are often struck off and sold to the prisoners at a penny a piece. -A Dutch ship anchored while I was there, but was requested to leave, which she did. The British were afraid some of. the Boers would get away in their covisin's ship. THE TROUBLE IN, CHINA. Taku, August 30 (via Shanghai, September 30). - - " ■ The Chinese in the Peiho Valley are paying clearly for the folly of their Government. From the beginning the, conduct of the Russians has been a blot on the campaign, and a recital of the notorious facts speaks more forcibly than coiild any adjectives. When entering Peking, a correspondent of the Associated Press sgw the Cossacks knock down i Chinese women with the butts of their guns, i and pound their heads until they were dead. They would also pick up children barely old enough to walk, hold them by the ankles, and beat out their brains on the pavement, j while the Russian officers looked on without protest. While General Chaffee was watering 'his horse at a stream under the wall of Tung Chau, the Russians found a feeble old man hidden in the mud*, with the exception of his nose, and they dragged him out by his queue. Shouting gleefully, they impaled him or their bayonets. General Chaffee remarked, "That's not war; it is brutal murder." The American officers at Taku, days after the fighting was finished, saw the Russians bayonet children, and throw old men into the river, clubbing them to death when they tried to swim. The Russians also killed women who knelt before them and begged for mercy. Everybody was disposed to be friendly towards tli6 Russians in the early days of the fighting at Tientsin because of their bravery, but such incidents as the foregoing have been so prominent a feature of the campaign that no one who is supposed to" report important facts can ignore them because they are so numerous as to force one to the conclusion that they are not isolated episodes, but ordinary practices of Russian methods of warfare. The Russians on the walls of Peking would apparently shoot all the Chinese within" range on the outside. The correspondent of the Associated Press found many nearly killed in the fields outside of the Russian section of the wall. Some of the bodies were those of women, and none seemed to be the bodies of ' combatants. Coolies were killed while tottering along tho S£?M with their lojjids^ and feraasr m^ i-®

| same fate when trying -to gather in their grain.

AMERICAN SUMMARY. Conflicts between the white, and black races have occurred in various parts of the country within the past few weeks, reminding the American nation of the danger of an x uorising of negroes in the South. In New York city, three policemen were murdered at different times on the same beat. The whites were soon attracted neai; the scene of* the latest crime, and began a search for the assassin. The police attempted to disperse the'erowde. and .street fights ensued. Mobs attacked negroes wherever v they could find them, and beat and injured a numbei of unoffending- persons. At Akron (Ohio), a similar outbreak occurred" as the result of an assault by a negro man upon a. little giri. The negro was arrested,' and the mob tried to take him, from the gaol. -The guards fired "upon the rioters, and in the nxelee a little boy and a girl were killed. The troubles- are aggravated by whites sympathising with the negroes' alleged wrongs. Miss Lillian Clayton Jewett, a beautiful and -accomplished Boston girl, - has founded an anti -lynching s league, rthe lynch law being considered by her too severe a... punishment for the, crimes of negroes againsfc | white women, and children, and_she wants to | be another Harriet Beecher ,Stowe, and iswriting a,book of the style of " Uncle Tomfs Cabin." , Her-. followers, while disclaiming•a desire -to incite negroes to outbreaks, ara intensifying their discontent, and- doing as much to precipitate a racial war, which has become one ol the greatest menaces to the peace of the nation. There are 15,000,008 negroes in the United States, and the training of negro troops for recent wars has al£o added to the danger, for the negro is now beginning to feel a white man's .equal, and when pro- ' yoked is tempted to try concisions wi*-'-him. i