GERMANY IMPEACHED.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 11663, 23 January 1902, Page 4

GERMANY IMPEACHED.

The finest- presentation of the _ British case against Germanv that has so far been made m Xew Zealand, in connection with recent slanders on our Army and nation, ■was that delivered by the Rev. Mr *' ; ! n " cloun'h at the Duneain patriotic meeting on friday last. Mr Fairclough m the course of his address said: —There are few holier things outside of religion than t'he Victoria Cross. It is "for valour, for self-sacrifice, for chivalrous help to an unfortunate comrade. Hundreds have deserved it and not got it. (Cheers.) It appears that these regards If've been iepresented as the rewards of brutal lust, distributed to villainous criminals by Queen Alexandra in the presence of her daughters. (Hooting.) This is not only a brutal libel on the nation's badge of honour, not only a reviling of oar heroes, but a base and malicious calumny on our women through their pure and beautiful head —the Queen. (Applause.) When the Germans simply aided and abetted the enemy, when they simply magnified and laughed at our losses and belittled our victories, when they sirnplv wished ns to lose, we bore it. When they scoffed at our commanders and burned Mr Chamberlain in effigy, we were silent. But now that they say our very glory is shame, our life and character are brutal and foul, when they specifically and circumstantially lie to besmirch the persons and things that we hold dearest, it is time to resent the slander and impeach the slanderers before the bar of civilised mankind. We do impeach them, at the bar of history, in the name of consistency we impeach them, for we have done nothing that, with less provocation, they did not- do themselves: in the name of gratitude we impeach them,-for when, a hundred years ago, they lay at the proud foot of a conqueror, we were their only friends, and sent them gold in their need; in the name of liberty, which they accuse us of crushing, for "liberty began with us, has spread from us, and is most perfect under our flag; in the name of civilisation, which they accuse us of outraging, for hundreds of millions are learning it under our sway — (cheers); in the name of human rights, which they accuse us of trampling in the dust, for* we have chivalrously afforded an asylum to the oppressed and the spokesmen "of the oppressed of every nation—(cheers); in the name of humanising and broadening commerce, we impeach them, for we hold a thousand ports in trust for all. and none are more eager to share the privilege than our revilers. The greatest and most splendid facts in this world are the monuments of British character and worth, liberty, representation of the people, trial by jury, trial before one's peers, emancipation of slaves, a thousand charities, and what not. Before these facts, as witnesses, I impeach our calumniators of accusing us of crimes foreign to our nation, of foulness opposed to our sentiments, and of policy wholly and totally alien to our traditions and unknown to our histoßr. A SIBERIAX PEISOX. Ac interesting ""description of a Siberian prison is given by a special correspondent of the London " Daily -Sews." He seems to have been very agreeably disappointed -with the Russian treatment of their convicts, as illustrated in the prison he visited. "It is a pleasure,* he writes, "to find things so much better than sensational writers describe,and he sums up his impressions in these words: —"The great thing that got wedged in my mind was how different everything is from the popular idea in England ot-wliat a Siberian prison is sure to be." The Governor of the gaol, instead of being brutal in appearance, harsh and forbidding in demeanour, might have been taken for the conductor of a German orchestra. He assured the correspondent, with a smile, that the convicts weie much better cared for and fed in prison than they would be out of it, and the visitor, after a personal inspection, not only agreed with tue statement, but also declared that the prisoners were too well treated. Bat the Governor thought otherwise. "If we are doing anything to make the lives of these poor tellows a little brighter," he said, "we are doing right." Certainly those are not the sentiments of a harsh taskmaster. A visit to the prison workshops disclosed a band of men making boots for their fellow prisoners, and others engaged in rough-and-ready tailoring. In another large room tables, chairs, and wardrobes were to be seen in course of manufacture. Yet another room was devoted to men who had a faculty in a particular direction, and the visitor describes "how he saw one man bookbinding, another designing patent locks, and others variously engaged in making watches, mending con- . certinas, doing crewel -work, and so on. The men'are anxious to work ,ior idleness palls even on the most hardened, and on the other hand a worker is always allowed a wage, however small, which he can expend in the purchase of such luxuries as white bread, cheese, sausages, cigarettes, and so forth. The correspondent affirms that as he watched the work proceeding, the idea that he was in a prison—one of the dread Siberian prisons—slipped from Ms mind. " Instead of convicts," he writes, "the workers looked like a body oi wellcontented artisans. There was no hindrance to conversation, and many of the men were smoking cigarettes." Half in jest, he remarked to the Governor that it was a wonder they did not have a" theatre. 'We have," was the immediate reply. " Thfe is the only prison where there is such a thing, but" I believe in amusing my men.'" And, sure enough, the visitor found a large upper room fitted with stage and sceneiy and drop curtain complete! On the same principle the prisoners are allowed the xun. of the library every day, and even newspapers are not prohibited. After all this, one reads without surprise that the Governor of the gaol has very little trouble with escapees.