Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1900. A Pro-Boer Publisher.

Manawatu Herald, 20 March 1900, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1900. A Pro-Boer Publisher.

We are in receipt of No. 15 of " War against war in South Africa " from the office of the Review of Eeviews in London. It is an eight page weekly paper edited by that very much mistaken man, Mi* W. T. Stead. Not only does Mr Stead issue this weekly, but he publishes the following books and papers bearing upon the war in South Africaand protesting against that war as unjust and unnecessary : — " A Cen-tiu-y of Wrong," by State Secretary Reitz; " /\re we in the right"; '• Joseph Chamberlain, Conspirator or Statesman," by W. *T. Stead ; " Shall I slay my brother Boer ?" by W. T. Stead ; "The Truth about the war," the genesis of a crime and its Nemesis ; and " The National protest against the war." In the issue before us there is a leader " Put not your trust in M.P's." from which the following sentences are taken showing the topsy-turvy views held by this at one time leader, of the people : — " Before another number of this issue appears, Parliament will have reassembled, but there is very I'Ll.lo hope . i Parliament. The condemnation which overwhelms us is so national that there is nothing to. hope for or to expect from either the action of Parliament or a section of Parliament Here and there there may be a few whose sense of right or wrong has not been entirely obscured by calculations of Imperial interest, or of party expediency ; but taken as a whole it is doubtful whether we shall find in Westminster as many men as would have saved Sodom from the burning. • . . . But as it is we stand convicted by our own confession before all the world of having lost our moral sense, and this is even more conspicuous among Liberals than among Conservatives If right were done the question which we should be discussing is not what terms we should exact from the Boers, but rather what compensation we can offer them for the piratical outrage of which they have been the victims The indomitable Dutchmen of South Africa have, indeed, reason to feel proud that their stern decision to die rather than surrender their independence has reduced Lord Boseberry to such a condition that' he feels it quite heroic | to declare that a struggle with such diminutive antagonists has not as yet exhausted the resources of the richest and mightiest empire in the world If this war ia to be prosecuted to the bitter end, by all means let the Tories who began it fight it out. Do not let us, as Liberals, stain our hands in innocent blood, unjustly shed." After reading the above, the charge to the Grand Jury at Lancaster Assizes by Mr Justice Grantham comes as an answer well in keeping with the feeling of the people. Justice Grantham thought he was justified in saying that it had been a proud thing during the past few weeks to see how a spirit of patriotism had fired the hearts of the nation — to seemen volunteering in thousands I directly their country was in danger, and, still better, to find in our country's difficulties even the voice , of the drunkard almost hushed, and the sound of crime almost still. Yet, in the face of these facts, they found the T)p«" ~* "^ 'am had chosen to siauder our i.unon, to throw vile aspersion and falsehoods on brave men "who, in the spirit of true Christianity, we*e leaving father,

mother, wife and children, and all home comforts at their country's call, ready to shec? their blood, if be their lives. The Dean was reported to have said in the pulpit of Durham Cathedral : — " With what spirit do we send out our fighting men ? "With drunken revels, which form the music hall ideas of good fellowship ; the excitement of the gin palace — of London streets — as if the bottle was the best prelude to battle. Above all, hear the cry of the poor Hds selling greedy newspapers, spreading unfounded slanders against our foes." It was not for him, proceeded his lordship, to criticise the conduct of clergymen who used the pulpit to force a congregation to listen to views which were hateful to them, and to give fresh vigour to our enemies. As J our men were leaving our shores — some never to return — it was the duty of their countrymen to protect their characters from such aspersions. He had seen many of them leaving home thronged by almost impassable crowds in the streets of London, and he ventured to say these slanders were unjust, ungenerous, and false. These men were going out in a spirit of sobriety and Godly trustfulness. There might have been cases of drunkenness — unfortunately cases where people forced drink too freely on departing friends — but; compared with the thousands who had gone oat in all ranks of employment, these instances were few. Intemperance through drink was bad enough, and afiected individuals ; but intemperance in speech and tongue was a national crime wKen the words uttered were useful to enemies and insulting to our country. The state of the calendar justified the observation he had made — it was extraordinary the effect that war seemed to have had on the nation, bringing people together and showing what. unity could do for the suppression of crime.