Counting the Slain.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 11, 13 March 1902, Page 17

Counting the Slain.

Here is an extract from its Cape Town correspondent whioh appeared, of all other papers, in the columns of our enthusiastically Imperialistic contemporary, the Dunedin Evening Star : ' Many people wonder, no doubt, how it is that so many are in arms against us notwithstanding the subtractions which our reports account for. An explanation in part may be found in the exigencies of military service. If an officer loseß men in an engagement there will be a black mark against him—it would be almost as well if he resigned — unless he can show that he inflicted a heavier loss on the enemy. To show this is not a work of insuperable difficulty, there will be a check on the number of men captured, but who is to say how many were killed? They are not supposed to return a list of men as being killed unless the dead bodies have been counted ; but it is possible to make mistakes even in counting dead men, and the Commander-in-Chief is not likely to send an inspector round to verify the report; so it generally comes about that we inflict a greater loss on the enemy than we sustain ourselves.' We are waiting with some anxiety to see what is going to happen to the Evening\Btar.