WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 215, 18 February 1915, Page 5

WAR NOTES.

THE BROKEN DEWET. HIS DISHONORED AGE. PITIED BY SOUTH AFRICA. In view of t)ie Agitation (vide recent cables) that is ' being raised by the Dutch Press,, urging that clemency should be extended to Do Wet, and the deliberate attitude of other British subjects that nothing should be done to embarrass Botljia at a trying time, it may be interesting to review the circumstances of Be AVet's. arrest. Mr C. J. Saltley, a professional entertainer, now in Sydney, was o n Johannesburg station when the captured rebel leader arrived. Describing the scene, Saltley said that prior to'the arrival of the train bearing De Wet, a small force of police, assisted by a squad of military, pressed the crowd back from' the 'platform, and kept a clear space for the prisoner and his guard to march from the train out of the station. The crowd, although intensely expectant, was not at all troublesome, and no one attempted to break the line when the train drew up. An old white-bearded man, with head bowed and carrying a suitcase the worse for wear, emerged from a carriage, followed at a little distance by two guards. It was De Wet. There was none of the dash, the devilry, the dominance of the man who in the Boer War made his name a synonym for clusivencss, resourcefulness,' and" daring, it was an older De Wet, a broken man—a man with his name stained with defeat in n cause which success could not have brought honor. "He did not glanc-.> up once at the crowd viewing him so eagerly," Saltley said. "He almost shuffled along to the station exit, where a motor-car and a de..aclimnit of mounted police were awaiting him. There was a little hootins, and- the slow sibilance of some half suppressed Insses but it was evident Not that they had any sympathy for his rebellious outbreak-, mvt because, he wns the picture of what he was-a man who m old age I,„d i, rokl , n himsol{ ft was Beyers whom they most blamed for to rebellion, and whom they really uted. J her,, was great jubilation when -•(• news came through of his death and die manifestation of rejoicing, eve a among the true Boers, was remarkable."