THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 271, 25 November 1901, Page 2

THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR.

THE WORKING MAN’S UNVARNISHED OPINIONS.

(To the Editor of tho-Times.) Sir,—ln the laudable wish to let your readers know how we poor devils of the community regard our betters, that is to say, in what manner wo should conduct ourselves, with lowliness and reverence, to all who are above us, as taught by the dear old fogey the Church of England, the following letter as it stands in the Times of October 11th ult., will be rather a wetted blanket on our colonial lire eaters who are just ablazo to have somebody tread on the tail of his dickey.—l am, etc., G. H. Wilson.

Mr H. Richards, M.P., describing his cxperiouucs during the contest in Northeast Lanark, “where seven-eighths of the voters are actually employed in manual labor as miners anu iron-workers,” says : Sir W. Rattiguu and myself addressed between SO and 40 meetings in a fortnight, and having refused all otters of hospitality I was enabled to lind out the private views of the chairmen and members of the village committees, nearly everyone of whom belonged to the working classes, and except at Mothcrwill I never saw half a dozen black coats on the Unionist platform. Nearly all of the volunteer workers had friends at the front, and in every village there wero somo who had returned and souio who are sleeping on the veldt. The Boers had but one supporter, a gentleman who interrupted, but who on enquiry proved to be one who had returned two years ago, and was again to go back when the fighting was over to earn the old wages. Every man who spoke to me privately had some grievance or other against the War Office, ancf only last night the local chairman of the Conservative Association gave me his personal experience of what the officials had done to alienate the volunteers. But all of my complainants were patriots. They had no word of complaint against Lord Salisbury ; the attack of tho Cecils (Limited) would not go down, Mr Chamberlain’s name was received with cheers everywhere, and the mandate was “ finish the war,” and then finish tho War Office. In all the bitter complaints which have reached me verbally in the North, and now writing in the South, no one has yet made any charge against Mr St. John Brodriek, except that of a good man allowing his underlings to override him. Lord Kitchener’s memorandum on officers’ baggage was no revelation to me, for _ a young volunteer from Cambridge University who has accepted a commission in the Australian Federal, and refused one in tho British Army, told me on the terrace of the House why lie always failed to overtake the enemy. The impedimenta of tho camp was the onlyreason. The treatment of volunteer officers and men at Aldershot this year and last beggars description; and when travelling in Cornwall an officer in uniform described to mo how, when he had brought up a local contingent of volunteers from the far west, arriving' at Aldershot at 4 p.m., they had no food except at his expense until breakfast tho next morning. Nepotism at tho War Office, favoritism in selection, the snubbing of the colonials by those in the field—this is not coffee-house babble, nor the idle talk of the man in the. street, but tiie bitter cry of the Unionist middle class in club, countryhome, and city office; and to-day the presence of ten tbousahd more Australian bushmen .would save the situation. I have now in my possession a letter from an official in the War Offico showing the spirit in which even members’ letters are treated when they call attention to cases of neglect. It is a letter which I shall read to toe House of Commons with comments, for it is one which the Secretary for War has never seen and is not answerable for. I suppose we muwoora are only- units to vote supplies. One word more as to the alleged personal unpopularity of Ministers. Mr Chamberlain, so bitto>-'. attacked by Yihffi ;lnu Jiadical on a Radical platform, always brought down the House. Tire sugar tax has no enemies, and the coal tax but few hecklers. Tne war must be presecuted to i’s own conclusion, and when it is over there must be, war to the knife against one Department, and one Department only