The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1901. EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE WAR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 192, 27 August 1901, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1901. EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE WAR

The following extraordinary and fascinating story of the war has been received by the Auckland He/raid from its London correspondent. The publication at Home of the facts therein roatained is do'ibtiess responsible tor the sterner measures now being adopted, aod which our colonial troops have always held are necessary for the subjection of the Boers:—A most curious change, in two respects, has come over the South African war situation as it presents itself to British eyes. It has come, moreover, during the past fortnight. In the first place the pro- Boers have had a very "nasty one." Just us they seemed to have begun to make some j impression by their persistent recitation of the demand for " conciliation " —which in plain English meant another Gladstone scuttle like that of 1880, but in the circumstances even worse—and when they had virtually captured Sir Henry Campbell-Banner-man and tbe bulk of the Radical par .y, the Boer leaders most unkindly and inconsiderately took all the wind out of their sails by publishing a proclamation in which Kruger, Botha, and all the chief Boers concurred in declaring that they would accept nothing but absolute independence, and that until this should be conceded they would fight to the last man, and die in the last ditch. This h*s placed the Kadicjls in a very awkward fix, especially just; now, when the frankly loy»l, plain speaking of Mr. Asqui'h, Sir Edward Grey, and Sir H. Fowler, has made it quite clear that if the Liberal Imppr ialist section of the Liberal party are driven into a corner and forced to choose between the Badical party and the Empire, they will ftssuredly not consent to sacrifice the latter to the former, as Mr. Gladstone did in 1880, aod sought to do again in 1886, But, indeed, even Sir Henry Campbe 1-Bannerman and the bulk of the Radical party, are entirely committed to the decision that independence can "never again" be granted to the two Boer Republics. Their clamours for concession and conciliation being thus rendered utterly nugatory and absurd, they next tried to get up a secsition on the ground of the cruelty and barbarism of the British methods of war as compared with the magnanimous consideration and forbearance of the British fcrs. But here again the ground was suddenly cut from under them by a most starting and sensational disclosure, which, however, was a very damaging b'ow to the Government also. The Daily Mail published two letters from its special correspondent, Mr, Edgar Wallace. These letters contained—(l) Definite statements concerning the slaughter of British wounded by tbe burghers under Kemp, who surprised General Dixon at Vlakfootein on M*y 29 ; and (2) an indictment of the mill tary censorship which, though it had been hinted at by r early every correspondent who hijd been at the front, had never before puo into Rich plain and forcible terms. Previous'y the storv of Vlakfontein, one of the mcst thrilling affcirs of thn war, in which 51 were killed and 127 wounded, had only been told in brirf cable messages. One of the incidents—l he shooting of the gunners—wbi h was reported by the Mail's correspondent, by Reuter's agent, and by the correspondent of the Morning Post, was officially denied in tbe House of Commons on the authority of a telegram from Lord'

Kitchener. When the denial wai made, on June 7, Mr. Wallace was asked for his explanation, and on June 27 the following telegram come in reply:—"June 28—Let my milled tc ount of Vlikfontein stand. Its Eircur,jcy in important particulars is Indisputable." The papsige iu that i" mailed ae ount" to which I desirj to direct sprvial attention, and on which tha indijj.ianb attention of the H'hol.i I world lv become fixed, is as follows: j" The jub'laut Boers had reiehod the j sp-it Wjjeret.fce guns sftnd, the dying 1 horses lying in the traces, an.l the victims of the fiisft volley lying around, and demanded of an officer who had not tim<s to get away an immediate lesson in gunnery. He refused to turn the guns on to his own comrades—fchut goes without saying—and was shot dead for his refusal. A sergeantmajor of the battery met with theaamr fate. What happened then may be described in the words of ray informant. ' A couple of Boers armed wiih' Martinis walked round the forms of the dead and dying men who were stretched in every conceivable attitude on the ground. Some they turned over to see if they were dead. If they weren't one or the other of the two Boers shot them, just slipping a cartridge into the bre./ch of the Martini and shooting them as you would shoot an ox. I saw four men killed this way. The Boers weDt up to Lieutenant - of the —, and turned him over. Then, thinking that he was dead, they took off h's spurs. One officer was ljinp wounded, ai,d a sergeant who was slightly wane acro.'s to him with some water; a tbird Boer shot them both dtad deliberately Oee youngster —I think he was a Yeoman —pleaded for his life. I heard him say, " 0 Christ, don't!" and then the bane of the rifle.' That is what happened. Now, are not these j tj rtemeots enough te make the blood of ey c ry British subject —Homo or colonial—boil with rage, and with longing for vengeaiea on ruffians ?. Not so thought the Daily Kewa. It simply termed the statement " A Lie Re-lied," and tried to gloss over the whole affair. Oh, yes, British soldiers, and especially colonial ones, may be barbarian*, probably are —in the Daily Nevis' opinion—but tht j

Boers cannot be otherwise than angelic. If any statement convicts them of conduct inconsistent withangelbord—such statement mvat obviously be a He I That is] the pro-Boer gospel as in!erpreted by the Daily Hews. 1 wi-h 1 could stop at that and leave the proBoer crew to colon'al appreciation. But the truth must bo told. Naturally the publication of this letter arous-d a tempest of indignation tbroughon' Britain, and directly the Bouse met a question was put-, to the Governmeii on the subject. S'raoge to say, Lo°d replying in the absence of Mr. Brodrck, the Minister fer Wot', a"tually assumed that t lie corresponded was telling an untruth, and wen l ; on to say—"lf this statem»nt delib ri'e'y

made in aletter'whichthnCbmmander in-Chief has held Dot to bo accural in a telegram, can ba prove! to be fa'se, that con e-poDdpnt will b« most severely dealt with." Quite proper, no doubt, that Mr. Wal'ace shou'd ba most punished if convicted of falsehood on such a point. But Lord Stanley hud to admit that he had not even read Mr, Wallace's letter when he gave this reply. That was remarkable enough. And it has since come out hat tbe Government bad actually been

o possession of the same informatioi* rent by Lord Ki'cbener himself, as to he murder by the Boers of the British vo'indsd, for four weeks,' and had leliberately concaaled it from Parlisnent and the public! Here we have mother illustration of the d' adly fear vbich the pro-Boers in this "country wve inspired in the Ministerial breast. Etither! han give offence to Labourer* l , ■Wad, Morley, Lloyd George, nnd 00,. 3V publishing the infamies of their Boer pete, the Government actually ionceals such a hideous crime ai tha io'd-blooded murder of our own gallan> soldiers bs thsy lay helpless with their wounds, and even goes so far as to imply mtruth on (he part of the journals (vho has disclosed the horror in spite ol svery possihle obstruct! n on the pari jf the military censor at the front. Sc ieep is the disgust excited by this unworthy conduct on the part of our Go eernment, that were it not that every body keenly feels that a Kadical Minis try would b<> a veritable leap " from th< Frying-pan in*o tre fire," the Salisbury Government would not lax* anothei week It has seen its majority of 13! drop to 28 over a vital question durin/ the pi»st week, and this is a diaigree able sign of the times. But this shamn ful hushing up of the deliberate murde; of our wounded heroes is almost mon than the nation can stand. Even thi is not all. It now turns out that sages and letters of special c>rrespon dents from the seat of war have beei grossly garbled and falsified by militar; censors. Not merely have portion been struck out in such a w»v as wholh to alter the fens', but actually passage, hava b : en inse' ted, such passiges beinj utterly false, some " craeking-up pur ticular officers who were men tioced. or wou'd h:ive been mentionei at all by the r-orreapondent! Aod in m case were these altera' r ons due to an' precautions against useful informatioi being afforded to the enemy. No they wee made with no proper 01 justifiable objec l ; whatever, ai I shnl unw show. For instarce, Mr Edgai Wallace writes: —" A couple of monthi ago, when I was with Henniker on th< trail of the wily De Wet, there was I censor attached to General Lyttelton'. staff who carefully eliminated from f wire which described the taking of D< Wet'sgUDs every reference to the Yeo men, the Australians, and the Irregulai Oorps, and inserted in their stead - statement which, not to put too fine i po'nt on it, was an absolute falseh od What h'"s object was in du'ng this heaven only knows. But *o me, tak in» an ordinary, matter-of-fact view o the case, it seemi very much like ai exhibition of jealousy, and an attemp to boycott corps with, in the pipin; times of peace, do not figure in th< army list." Mr Wallace's message (I as written by him and 12) as falsify by the censor is published in full by h'i paper, and affords, as is truly remarket "an object lesson in falsification." Hi might well write to Lord Kitchener ai to the scanda'ous garbling of his lettei —-girbling done purely to keep nut o: sight the fine work accomplished b< eoloninl troops :—" If your Lordsbij will take the trouble to compare th two you will observe that not only ha all reference fcj the work of the Aus traliaos and Yeom mry been caret'ulb eliminated, and everylhirg pessibl" done by erasure to minimise the gooi work accomplished by these irregulars but matter hes bien inserted b' the ceDSor which is absolutely inaccu rate. The officer responsible for this i I believe, a captain on General Lyttsl ton's staff, who at the time was at T>< Aar. It was the Victorian Bushmei Contingent's first fight, with the ex ception of at Phillipatown, where i

squadron was engaged, and I consider it essential in Imparial interests that their, performance should be made as widely known as possible, for at this time your Lordship will remember the attention of the English people wns directed towards the recruiting of now Yeomanry and Australian contink"snts.:' What van censor did-was to! s'riko out thr;o separate rcferencs to C .pfetin Marker and sorae other officers and to tlio coloui il troops, .ml to insert i a wholly uoauthoris id inference to a cor- : iin Colonel Owen, who wns not men- | tioned at all by Mr Wallace! Mr Wallaca wrote :—" Victorians charged spot where guns supposed be. This another extraordinary thing for our horses beat and by time Victorians teachfld place where guns were only naplain Marker, Coldstream GuaHs Ilenniker's staff officers and three Vico ians Mr, rest VicVrians galloping i' hind. Marker with three m«n took two guns." The censor struck out all this, tmd substituted the following, outrageous f»brication:—" Colonel Owen charged the spot where the Boer r illery were supposed to b<, md captured the whole of it!" »gn"n, Mr Wallace wro'e:-"Boer guns taken by Marker Guards with three men. Victorians we took over 100 prisoners." The censor struck out all but the first three words! Again Mr. Wallace wrote in his talegiam:— "Dawn Plumer left Wekevonden moving North-east. Crabbi's Brigade lfadiDg Henn;k r's support Jeffrey's »ight Cradock's left section bearer company under Crook-LawlfS3 Guides. Oe Wet's patrols fired on Thorneycioft's forming Orabbe'n advance s'op shortly after Australian Battery M. battery under Captain Powell came action sh.ling B.ers «ho retirdd along right buik river. Both Australia s and Horse A till ry made ixcellbut practice. Gr nv.lle Smith's Vicfci.rians u der .YKj r Clarke farming part Hennike 's with 65 atd 71 Yeom-nry then to k ridge Boers clearinp. De Wet br ught p, m pom bc ion bui so>n e'hel t'en rtir mer.t one riiOit extriorc! nay Mg ! .t-> witnessed war t.h< y broke into our cav dry mourned infantry crashing through thick un.lergrowth in as furiotH pu suit ov«r 100 prisoners taken." Will it bi believed that the censor acttml y <<x>ise'J the whole of this ex- >:• pting the first six words—no o' her rason c«n b suggested than that the portion w.ich was sttuck out eubg'sed the g.) d work of the colonial troops! But, to return to the graver question, Mr. Brodri k was promptly compel'd o " face the music," and had to admit in the of Commons that so long •go as June 11 he had received iuformition from Lord Kitchener of the murder of wounded British soldiers by Boers, which had been testified to by no fawer than seven British soldiers, ■ye-witnef ses, and by Lieutenant Hern, also an eye-witness of the crime. It sterns thit on June 7 Lord Kitchener alleged the reports to he unfounded, hut on June 11 he telegraphed :—" An Imperial Yeomanry officer, Li«utenant Hern, who was wounded at V'akfontein, has made a statement that he saw one of the enemy shoot some of our wounded on the ground." The message wis suppressed by the Government. Similarly, Lord Kitchener declared lleuter's statement that a British force bad defeated Beyer's commando at a certain place to be also " unfounded," but it has since turned out that the action was fought as described, but that the wrong name of the commander was given, and so the action did do 1 . f ake place according to the censor. The report was " unfounded 1" It must in fairnes be svid, however, that tbis answer was in a large measure elicited through th« stupid and clumsy way the War Office put the query. On the 9th inst. Lord Kitchener telegraphed to the War Office:—" In reply »o your teleunm of yes trd-iy, it has been testified by seven m°n that they saw B ers shooting wounded men at Vlakfontein. The statements they rafide were sent to you by last miil. I have ordered evidence on oa'h to bo taken." Then one soldi?r named Rawc s writes :—" We bad one of our officers and, a sergeant murdered in co'd blood. Lieutenant Spring was wounded in 'he thumb, and Sicgeant Fiolay was binding up his wound when a Boer came up and shot one through the nye and the other through the throat." Lieutenant Fitton-Jackson, R. A., says: —" Poor McDougal was killed at his guns, and 13 of his men were killed and nine wounded. He stood to his guns until the Boers were on him. He was first hit on the forehead, and that bowled him over. He then got up and held on to a wheel of the gun, and was trying to load the gun himself, as all h's men were killed. The Boers came up to h>ra and shot him through the heart. There he lay, and they took his two guns and opined fire on us in camp." Sergeant Frdur's statement is: - " The B ers were dressed in khaki. lam sorry to say son.e of tbem murdered our wounded. W» caught one at it and shot him" Trooper George, of 69fch Company of Imperial Yi omanry, wro efroru Jobant esburg Hospital: -" The c*m° up behind the smoke, and we had a i ■ rrible fight. We got mix-d up with 'hem, and could hardly tell them from our own mmb' cause they were dre*-:e.j in khaki. lam sorry to say that some ' f tbem murdered our wounded. We caught one "t it, and shot him in the stomach." And Trooper Albergn, of the 69fch Company Imperial Yeoai irry, fta'ed : —" On Thur-d'iy we buried 55 i>f the men, many of whom were actually Murdered by the B ers. One man was I >hor. in the wri~t, when a Boer c »me and | took all he had, and then shot him in the stomach, killing bim instantly. ; One of the officers was shot in the ' haad with his own revolver after hav- i ing been previously wounded." The Bishop of Chichester writes as follows: !

—" It miy possibly open the eyes of S'.tae parsons in England as to the treatment of our wounded by a portion at least of th' se who, under the general name of' B jers,' are bearing arms against us in South Africa, if you will allow me to quote a few words from a k-t'er jus) received by me from my son, who wrnt out in Februa-y last in the reitiforcfment draft of P>iget'a Horsp, ' He waß dangerously wounaVd' at Biaglagte en Tune 4tb, in a r. ari'liard action on the top of a hill, I quote his own words:—'An officer dashed up with the 01 der, " Retire at all costs, and leave the wounded," and we were left lying where we were. No sooner had our men lpft the hi 1 thm about 20 Boers d»shed up, and a more heterogeneous collection of scoundrels I have rev r pern. They ami up to us and proceaded to strip us of everything we h«<d.' They even tried to drag off the ring from the finger of his wounded arm. He continues: ' Thpy then went round the other sids [of th* hill to windwaH and li* a vwldt [fire, with the double object of covering their own retreat and burning us out, i.and we lay watching the firs approaching us with a roar, with the cheering prospects in our minds of being roasted

alive in minutes' time; however, just at tho right moment, when tho fire had got within 40 ysrds of us, a troop of our men dashed through it, and carried us to a phce of safety bayond.' Sir, comment on such conduct is u;in6ce«ary; the facts spsak for themselves''