THE PELORUS GUARDION, AND , MINERS’ ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, 2nd DECEMBER. 1902. A Breach of Faith.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 16, Issue 93, 2 December 1902, Page 4

THE PELORUS GUARDION, AND , MINERS’ ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, 2nd DECEMBER. 1902. A Breach of Faith.

The South African War Commission, whose sittings were commenced last week, have begun with what the man-in-the-street has condemned as an act of folly. They decided to hold their meetings practically in camera. It is true that at the end of each sitting the Commissioners propose to issue a short statement to the press, but if the sample statement given out at the close of the first meeting is any criterion the ink the secretary will use to write the official report will be ink wasted. The public get no definite information whatever that will assist them to form a judgment upon the many points at issue as they are taken by the Commission, and until the issue of details of the evidence taken in the form of a ponderous Blue Book—it' may be a couple of years hence—which only the leisured few can possibly find time to read, the mass of the people will be no wiser than they are now. The country expected an open inquiry, and when Mr Brodrick, in making the Government’s promise to give a Commission last June, and said “ that it might be desirable to take some part of the inquiry in private” people remarked that for many people a little secrecy would no doubt be extremely desirable, but not for the nation or the Empire. After Mr Brodrick’s words, which imply an open inquiry, at all events in part, the action of the Commission in declaring the whole inquiry secret is an outrageous breach of faith. The whole nation has suffered, and is still suffering from the unreadiness of the War Office, from the scandals of the contracts, and from the incompetence of some generals. It is only fair that we should know •“ the reasons why,” It may be very unpleasant and inconvenient for prominent men to have their negligence or incapacity exposed, but almost the greatest disaster that can befall a nation is a growing suspicion that something is being concealed in the interests of guilty parries who happen to have “ the ears of the gods that be.” If the Commission persist in their determination to exclude the public and the reporters, they might just as well disband at once, for all the influence their report will have on the public mind. We want our information now, and day by day, so that we can digest it piecemeal whilst the memory of disaster in South Africa remains with us to stimulate us to try to understand the real nature of the. deficiencies which rendered our army so much less formidable than their numerical strength indicated thejj ought to be, And we want to be assured that the punishments, if punishments are involved by the inquiry, are inflicted upon the really responsible offenders, and not upon a few unfortunates whose misfortune it is not to possess “ influence ” and who can be sacrificed with impunity. The Commissioners,, .oi Course, are gentlemen-of probity, but it will not fall to them to mete out justice in accordance with their report. For the rest, we. know that, with every Intern tion to serve the nation honestly, Royal Commissioners, are prone, in cases where the honour or capacity of individuals is concerned, to make generous use of the whitewash brush. We had a good illustration of this when the report of the inquiry held into the purchase of remounts in Hungary and elsewhere came to light,