How They Do Love Us!

Southland Times, Issue 14713, 4 August 1900, Page 4

How They Do Love Us!

Following are some of the Anglo-phobe writings which even the best newspapers of Western Europe find space for in their columns. Le Tempp, it will be observed, is conveniently oblivious to tha f*ct that since Waterloo was fought the electric telegraph has come into being, ani that the world now koows its great evtnts within fewer hours than the weeks required to disseminate news in 1815. A nations rejoicing now-a-days is like the explosion of a magazine ; at the beginning of the century it was like unto the desultory crackling of cartridges in a burning ironmongery store : — L'lndependanca Beige. " The official news of the occupation of Pretoria was received by the English with a great outburst of joy. The scandalous scenes which took place at the deliverance of Mafeking weie renewed. Has Great Britain attained her aim ? After eight months' struggle, after having sacrificed 25,000 to 30,000 men, Lord Roberts has entered the capital of the Republic of South Africa, and has to deliver the 5000 soldiers and officers of Her Moat Gracious Majesty, who at the opening of the campaign let themselves be captured by the Boers with a good grace tbat has been suspected in England itself ; but, be that as ie may, it adds nothing to the prestige of the British army. "If guerilla warfare is pursued in the Orange Fre o Btate and the Transvaal at the same time, Lord Roberts will be obliged to spread his troops over an immense extent, while reserving some thousands of his men to guard the lines of communication from Pretoiia to liloemfontein and Kimberley to the Cape. This would be evidently very difficult ; but we must not be under the delusion of supposing that Lord Robsrts would be at any loss in proceeding against the Boats of the North fracsvaal. Great Britain wiil refuse nothing to the man who has planted the flig at Pretoria, and if new sacrifices are necessary they will be made. By one thiDg alone will England perhaps lose her priza. If the events in China are precipitated, if the Powers tike up arms definitely against China, England cannot let herself be behind with Russia. She will be obliged to enter the lines with considerable forces, aad to do this she must reduce her strength in South Africa. Then, but only then, will it be possible to the Boers to hold up their head to the enemy and drive them again to the *oubb." Le Mdtin. "The news of the entry of the English troops in Pretoria has been to London the pretext of the accustomed scenes of brutality and violence." Le Temps. ** It is assuredly natural and legitimate for -a nation to celebrate with not a little intoxication the victories of her soldiers, especially when they have surmounted such difficulties and attained in months what had been promised in so many days. Nevertheless one caDnot help observing the absolute disproportion of the two forces ; the crushing superiority of the British takes away from the suocesa 'more of its moral value ' than would a victory less unequal. The calm dignity, the majestic .serenity with which the generation of Wellington received the news oi Torres .Vedras, of Toulouse or of Waterloo had a grandeur and a nobility for which one vainly ecsks tbe equivalent in the excess of epileptic patriotism to which the English metropolis abandoned itself." La Liberte. " London is ail joy, and one sees renewed the scenes which marked the deliverance of Mafeking ; nothing was missed, nob even tbe exploits of the pickpockets. We understand tbe British pride declares itealf satisfied. " %