The Beer Generals.

Manawatu Herald, 2 October 1902, Page 2

The Beer Generals.

Many people in England interpret the manifesto issued by the- Boer Generals as an ill-managed attempt to bluff.

The Boers at The Hague deny the fugitive officials seized the Transvaal State moneys. They maintain whatever sums were available were divided among the different commandoes in the Transuaal and Orange State before Mr Kruger’s departure. The Dutch newspaper reporters, who have not been contradicted, recently represented General Botha as publicly thanking the Dutch and other Continental nations for having forwarded the chief relief in connection with the concentration camps.

General Botha, in a letter, complains of the reports of his last Monday’s speech, and repeats that he then stated that assistance to the Boer widows and orphans had not emanated from the Netherlands alone.

General Viljoen, in the course of an interview in London, declared that the Boer Generals were unwise in discarding the friendship of Great Britain. The Boer Generals will visit Berlin in the middle of October.

They intend to seek an audience of the Kaiser.

The newsoapers, in announcing that the Kaiser will give an audience to the Boer Generals “ as soldiers,” urge that a course cannot offend Great Britain, inasmuch as he will be giving an audience to British subjects. The report that the Kaiser will grant an audience is not confirmed, but one organ which is often inspired declares that, the Generals having solemnly dissociated themselves from any political agitation, or demonstration, the Kaiser will receive them if

they are the bearers of credentials from the British Government.

General De Wet declares that the .•amour as to the intentions of the Generals is p armature. “ The Ti.'.nw ” doubts if.the,..Generals would be so imprudent as to seek an audience, and thinks it hardly credible that the Kaiser, who is a, statesman of great experience and tact, contemplates a step which would arouse deep indignation throughout the British Empire. General Botha, speaking _ at Rotterdam, said : “ We were driven to make peace by hunger and sword. yfp made peace, however, and,, like men,, we wish to abide by that peace knowing that the Lord God disposes of all.” .. The Berlin correspondent of The Times quotes newspapers to show that Germany is tiring of the Boer appeals and rustic cunning, a* embodied in the Generals’ manifesto.