A Hostile Country.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 3, 7 June 1900, Page 3

A Hostile Country.

The uninterrupted communi cation thit is maintained aloiig ihe line of the Bntish advance between Capetown and Johannesbuig excicea almost as much surprise as do Lord Roberts' brilliant marches uito ih^ heart of the rebellious Republics. When an enemy en tors a hostile country, it is not only the enemy's troops that have to bo feared. The hostile inhabitants have algo to be taken into account, and the commander of the invading army has to see that his lino oi eommumca tion is &sroQ,« enough to resist any attack that is likely to be made upon it. If the inhabitants take part directly or indirectly in hostLlo enterprises, there must be reprisals, and in this direction Lord Eoberts, it must be admitted, has so far treated the Boers with groat leniency. It i& recognised among military authorities that reprisals should be avoided as far as possible, but Yon Widderu, m his military history of the Franco-German War, says that in an invaded country justice, though it must ba respecto'l, must necessarily be of a lower order than that which holds sway in criminal courts in times of peace. When the Germans marched on Paris, they were averse to taking reprisals on the population, and abstained from doing so, perhaps, longer than was wise. They were, however, inach severer on the Frencb than the British have been on the Boers. So long as olfences could bo traced to individuals, the individuals were punished, but if an offender could not bo found or identified, the community oi which he wasamembor, or the community at tho place fl bore the oitence was committed, had to bear the penalty. Persons who were caughj lighting, were shot by order of tho military judiciary on the spot. Houses Irom which the inhabitants had fired on the Germans were burned, and the same course was adopted in tho case of a house of a maire who had obstinately refused to pay his share of a fine inflicted on a village and in that of a farm' whicn had been used by the French troops for shelter. The most common punishments wor^ fin^s, many of which were sums of raonoy which the .inhabitants 'of the districts were ordered to get together the best way they couid. In onj case, a district was ordered to oay a certain number of francs for each German soldier who had been captured or cirripd off in ate engagement that took plaoe in the district. Hostages were also utilised for security, not only on the engines of the railway trains, but also as companions of the garrisons at the small poatß. The Ger-uans had the utmost difficulty in keeping their railway lines intact, and Yon Widdern averts that for every four or five soldiers at the front, one soldiur had to be employed in j for them their supplies of food and ammunition from Germany.