The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1902. LORD ROSEBERY ON THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue 24, 29 January 1902, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1902. LORD ROSEBERY ON THE WAR.

A short time ago the cablea were full | of Lord Rosebery's speech on thji situation. Lord Rosebery's position is Unique in the political world, and this speech was looked forward to with graat interest, and the Liberal party hopwd it would lead to the uniting of the scattered sections under his strong find able leadership. If possible, it has widened the breach, and rendered; the cause of Liberalism more hopeless than ever. It is Lord Rosebery's views on the war in South Africa that chiefly ' 'interests colonials, who recognise the importance of bringing it to a successful conclusion as soon as possible.'. It is gratifying to find, from our Euglish exchanges to hand by the mail, that Lord Rosebery spoke very decidedly on this question, As reported in one of the leading London weeklies, his Lordship said: On one point he 'was perfectly clear—-that we must pursue this war to the end with all the energy and all the resources of which we were capable. Our honour, our character, the future o£. i South Africa all required that we should bring this war as vigorously and successfully as possible to the promptest and most complete solution. On .that point he had no doubt, and he wtpuld express his views with no ambiguity at all. He did not believe ..we could be in better hands than in those of "Loid Kitchener (cheers). After the. w«r, searching inquiry ought to be m*de as to the surrenders in the field, the purchase of horses and remounts, Hire of transports, and cost of demurrage, the administration of martial law, the refuge camps, and the medical service. He was inclined to think that these inquiries would reveal a very arrange state of things. He could nU in any way support the vile and infamous falsehoods which had been .spread on the Continent with regard /to the behaviour of our Army in thej field, and he equally acquitted our G/overnment or anyone of British birth At* any barbarity in this matter. The uefuge camps were the result of the necessity of clearing the country. ' No doubt they were mismanaged at'j first, but they were not very easy; things to manage. So far from blaming the declaration of martial law when it was made, he was disposed to) blame the Government that it j was not declared long ago. "War was a horrible, unspeakable outrage on humanity, but to be curtailed as much as possible; and, therefore, the more vigorously and the more ruthlessly it was Carried on, so long as it was carried on within the rules of civilised warfare, the more effective and thf> more merciful it was likely to be. If he were to, speak about atrocities he should turn' attention rather to those exercised by I the other side, the constant cold-blooded massacres of natives, tihe flogging of j those burghers who Lave taken thej oath of neutrality, in 'order to induce them to perjure themselves, the murder of our woundeil: soldiers on the I battlefield, and, last of all, the most. unspeakable crime—stigmatised as un- j speakable from the remotest antiquity ; —the flogging and the murder of an emissary of peace in cojd blood last! year. They had nooner or later to 1 bring back 40,000 or more Boer prisoners—Boer njen in the prime of j manhood—from e.kile to settle again in South Africa. If they brought them, back while the Boer colours were still in the field, they were bringing back gunpowder to sparks, and producing a state of affairs which he hardly ventured to contemplate. The/ might ask him what Lis policy would be. He would give it to them fully and fraDkly,. He believed • in the stem, efficient, i vigorous prosecution of the war to its natural end, 'but he believed that its natural end was a regular peace and a I regular settlement-; therefore be should not be dea'r" to any ovortures of peace that came from any responsible authority, morei especially if they came. from the exiled Government which l now existed somewhere in the Low Countries/, and which surrounded exPresident Kruger, By thia he had no j idea of making any overtures of peace to the Boers, That would be mistaken, for a fatal act of weakness, and it 1 would encourage the flagging forces of the eriemy. It had been urged that nothing would satisfy the Boers except independence, He did not believe anything of the bind. If by any' chance they deceived themselves, if by any chance they built on the founda- : tiod, the very crazy foundation, of a handful of men in this country—(loud; cheers) —who might hold out hopes that that independence would be restored, then the Boers were much less shrewd people than he took them for. They could not complain if they were incor-

pora'ed in tho British chose the arbitrament of war j they chose the arbitrament of the sword; they appealed to it, and by. that they 1 must abide. He did not understand I the policy advocated by some of getting rid of Mr Chamberlain and tiord Milner. Lord Rosebery/proceedingj said: —No; I do not believe in independ- ! ence or in Lord Milnor being the difficulties in tho way of peace. The real |difßcuLy tranfpiied in the Kitchener-. I Botha negotiations; it is the difficulty ' lof amnesty. Now, you will reuiember I that on that point two great authorities differ. Lord Kitchener was in favour of amnesty, and Lord Milnar was against amnesty. Now., if you want to consider this point I beg of you to remember the four elementary conditions which are required of any peace in South Africa. You must first recolleot that the settlement'must be a real settlement) not a sham Settlement. It must be a real settlement and a permanent settlement. In the next place you must remember what is due to our loyal and suffering people in South Africa. (Cheers.) You must, in the next place, remember that you do not wish to do anything to humiliate the Boers unnecessarily or to crush the Boers unnecessarily, for they are hereafter to be your fellow-subjects, and, I trust, loyal and important elements in < your Empire. And last, and most important of all, you cannot forget the great, crucial, capital, radical fact of the situation, which is that at the end of the war the two combatant races have got to settle, down and live together in such bar mony as may be in South Af rioa. I wish the Boers to blend wit hour people when that time comes, and aot to settle once mora as a hostile and injured and a sul'eu (amp in the middle of our nation. (Cheers). Well, wither they do or not you b/iv<) to d<al wiiu that capital fact, that ' hey have got to live side by side witb tho Brioisb, and you have to deal with the further fact that you'have got to bring 40,000 of them back from piiso i to thuir own country. I say,' thtn, that in v'n.w of these facts I do not douht on which side my vote would bV cast. I am for as large and as liberal an amnesty as it is possible to give. I want to bind, to heal, and not $3 keep open the mortal wound which is being caused by this war. (Hear, hear). Therefore I would now summarise the policy I have expounded to you in these words—that it is, as regards the war itself, to pursue it with vigour and efficiency, to be prepared to listen to overtures for peace, and then to grant the just and liberal terms, always excepting the closed and the sealed question of incorporation. (Cheers). That policy represents the best advice that I can give the country tonight. What I can do to further it !l will do—(loud and prolonged cheers) |—for my services are, as they I have always been, so far as health and strength can permit—as the services of all British subjects are—at the disposal of my country (renewed cheers). But I am under no illusion. Had I the tongue of ten thousand men and of angels, I could do little cr nothing, for the ceuntry last year parted with its liberty of action for the next six years on the representation that the war was over (cheers), lam quite aware that my policy does not' run on party lines (hear, hear)-but/it is not to party that I appeal (hear, hear). Party in this matter can avail little or nothing. I appeal unto Caesar from Parliament, "witii-its half-heapted but overwhelming Government supporters and from a die-j tracted and disunited Opposition—ll appeal to that silent but supreme tribunal which shapes and controls in the long run the destinies of our people— I m°an the tribunal of public opinion and of common sense. If that fails us we are lost indeed, and I know of nothing else; that remains to avail us. I have doLe. I have only one further appeal to make to you for your friendship if not your support. In this country, I understand, you like a man who speaks his mind (laughter). Well, I have spoken mine (loud and prolonged cheers.)