BENT ON BOTHA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8867, 18 July 1907, Page 3

BENT ON BOTHA.

The London correspondent of the | Sydney Daily Telegraph writes ; “Mr. T. Bent’s striking individuality has already brought him into prominence in Great Britain. He does not at all share the enthusiastic • acclamation given to General Botha, and speaking recently, he said, * We will not in my country echo this acclamation of him. We have too many broken legs, too many wooden arms, and too many sorrowing widows there. I hope in the future Botha and his friends will keep their word, and be as true to the Empire as we in Australia.’ Some of the papers were very indignant with him for saying this, and waited on him to get' him to retract. He explained to the papers that waited on him that it has always been his policy to speak what he thinks, and his ex planation reads as follows : ‘ I first spoke out what was in ipy mind at the moment, as I make it a rule always to do, but I cannot help it if my utterances do not always appeal to everybody. But I added theit it was difficult fpr ’ Australians to join the English people in acclaiming General Botha just at present, for we had, in Victoria especially, only too many evidences of the South African war still remaining with us. When the conflict brolre out thousands of o\iu best men threw up everything to aid the Motherland, a land which they had always been accustomed to love and look upon as their own real home, and we find it Very hard to forget that many of them have never returned. As Treasurer of Victoria, I could only I, say that I had .to deal with so many [ eases of pensions to armless men, men with wooden legs, and poor widows, tha one found one’s memory very retentive.”