SOUTH AFRICAN WAR SWINDLES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8147, 3 July 1906, Page 4

SOUTH AFRICAN WAR SWINDLES.

That most unsavory subject, the South African war swindles, still occupies the attention of the Royal Commission under Mr Justice Farwell (writes the London correspondent of the " > T ew Zealand Herald"), and voluminous evidence continues to be given and daily published. Swindling of the most irrcckless character seems to have been carried on wholesale, and many officers, both of the commissioned and non-commissioned classes, art' tarred with the brush of dishonest v and dishonour. Some of the io.nrt.iß i-ioned officers, even men of high standing, appear quite unable to realise the disreputable nature of the transactions in which they confessedly engaged, while their non-commissioned brethren actually chuckled in the very presence of the Commissioners over the ease with which tliey had defrauded various [persons. One sergeant proudly boasted that he had " cheated " —his own word—one contractor of fcltioO in a single transaction by obtaining payment for oats never delivered Another non-com. missioned officer was plainly told In the Commissioners that there was abundant evidence of his having destroyed, by burning, documents that n. corded facts which voild have in u i d him in years' improvement had they been disclosed. The accused contented himself with declaring that the statement was " absolutely false." Several of the witnesses have already receiyed plain warning that subsequently tliay will " hear more of" the matters touching which they have been examined. It is almost consolatory to learn tha some of the contractors were in their turn defrauded, for the extent to which they appear to have fleeced the nation is so vast as to be well-nigh incredible. The whole matter adds another testimony to the abundance already existent of the amazing incapacity and negligchceof the War Office during that unhappy South African War.