The Boer Generals.

Manawatu Herald, 4 October 1902, Page 2

The Boer Generals.

It is understood in diplomatic circles in Berlin that Great Britain does not object to the Kaiser granting an audience to the Boer Generals, but the Imperial Government declines to officially recognise their visit, lest such action should ba interpreted as a ratification of the statements contained in the manifesto recently issued by the Generals. In such case, it is said, the,Kaiser will refuse the audience

Reuter’s Agency at Berlin states that in official circles regret is expressed that the proposed audience should have given umbrage to Great Britain. It was, and is, hoped that the audience, if sought, would be granted through the usual diplomatic channel, and that it would tend to dissipate some misunderstandings between Germany and" Britain, and not be injurious, but rather favourable to Britain’s interests.

“ Figaro," commenting on the. proposed audience, says:—“ The cordiality between Britain and Germany is of a frail structure. Doubtless matters will be patched up, but what a small thing the friendship with Germany is!”

The chief soreness in Great Britain over the manifesto is that the Generals did not take the nation frankly into their confidence.

This feeling is embodied in a remark by “ The Times ” that if the Generals had submitted to the British people a plain statement of their wants, supported by adequate evidence, and giving a guarantee that any funds supplied would not. be applied to undermining what had been achieved, that charity which had never been refused to Continental nations would assuredly nob be withheld from,those who were irrevocably incorporated in the Empire. The Vienna correspondent of “ The Times ” says that the Emperor Francis, who is a soldier heart and soul, never manifested any inclination to see the Generals. Emperor Francis, the correspondent says, is Britain’s best and safest friend on the Continent. The correspondent adds that it is notioable that Anglophobia in Austria-Hungary has all but disappeared. Subscriptions to the Boer fund in Switzerland have suddenly decreased since the issue of the Boer Generals’ manifesto.