War Under "Red Cross.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11754, 3 October 1902, Page 4

War Under "Red Cross.

CHARGE AGAINST GENERAL

BULLER.

An extraordinary charge was made against General Sir Redvers Buller at a recent meeting in Manchester of the British Medical Association.

In the Avar of 1881, said Surgeon-General Hamilton, Sir Redvers Buller used the Army medical waggons with the Red Cro *s on them for the purpose of taking ammunition to the front, and armed the bearer companies and used them as escort. He had that information from the principal medical officers to whom the orders were issued.

These remarks were made in the course of a discussion on the abuses of the Re! Cross during the recent war, when Surgeon General Hamilton and Lieutenant-Colonel Hyslop excused th 9 shelling of Red Cross waggons by the Boers on the ground that at long range the badge was noib clSstinguishable. Lieutenant-Colonel Hyslop said the Boers boasted of having used the Red Cross to deceive us, and that ambulance waggons had been used to carry ammunition; but if Sir Redvers Buller did that twenty years ago, we could not blame them for adopting the same tactics. What was wanted, said Inspector-General Porter, R.ST., was a uniform badge of strictly regulation -'■attesTi and material, not capable of being counterfeited. Abuses should entail definite punishment, which should be swift and sure.

This accusation, made by Sttrgeon-Gene-ral Hamilton, was, however, withdrawn by that gentleman. "This I find is incorrect." he wrote to the Times, ''as Sir Redvers Buller had not then arrived in the country.

"At tlie same time," says the writer, "I was correct in saving that ambulance waggons were used for the conveyance of military stores from Newcastle to the front, and, further, that a bearer company was armed and acted as escoi't to a train of military waggons carrying stores, ammunition, etc., from Pietewnaritzburg to Port Amiel."

The charge is thus transferred from Sir Redvers Buller to someone else.