DON'T-CARE CABINET.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9304, 18 November 1901, Page 1

DON'T-CARE CABINET.

"NEITHER PEACE-MAKERS NOR WAR-MAKERS." Mr Thomas Gibson Bowles, M.P., robbed, for a brief space of time, of his privilege of criticising the Government from the floor of the House of Commons, turns to the columns of the Times with a strong condemnation of "the ablest and strongest Government of modern times," which is "also .the most unfortunate." "With all its boundless resources," he says, "the Government has been unable either to treat or to fight with succcess. It can neither make peace nor -war, and now, after two years, it continues its feeble and fruitless efforts to make both at once without drawing nearer to either." The member for King's Lynn speaks of "blood and money poured out like water," "a Government of unlimited means and unchecked power," which has made things no better, but far worn, than they were a year ago. . "Neither the priests of Birmingham nor the Levites of Hatfield, neither the disciples of Blenheim nor the links of North Berwick have availed. Souls, Cecils, sycophants ,and Socialists are alike found wanting, and there has arisen the! most profound exasperation with the Ministry which, when so well provided, has done so ill." The Government can neither wage war nor make 'peace. "Peace*, as many hold, might have been made by Lord Roberts after the capture of Pretoria. Peace, as no reasonable man can doubt who will read the Blue-books (Cd 528, pp. 2 and 5, and 663, p. 1), could m all probability have been made by Lord Kitchener m March last, had he only been allowed to make it. But when Lord Kitchener had drafted his letter of March 3 to General Botha ('who showed very good feeling and seemed anxious to bring about a peace') he was ordered by the Government to make m it changes which Lord Milner 'regretted,' and to which Lord Kitchener 'was even more strongly opposed. '" Having prevented Lord Kitchener from making the peace that he and Lord Milner thought possible, the Government (says Air Bowles) have failed to provide him with the means of making war. Instead of sending him draft* of troops, they have sent him drafts of proclamations. Members ofl the Cabinet have gone calmly away to Beaulieu, Scotland. Newmarket, wholly indifferent to a perilous national emergency.