The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-20
ALLIES IN WAN.


British sympathy with The United States,
or. as they insist saying. with Amer
ica,' is so pronounced in this war and ap-
pareiltly so genuine that it is surprise to
find even a small discordant note in the
comments of the press. This appears in a
Glasgow paper, which thinks ut lis a dis
appointment, after their rather ostenta-
tious display of humane and philanthropic
motives at the commencement of the war,
to find the Americans accepting as allies
the insurgents in Cuba and the Philippines
and thus becoming parties to their uncivil-
lied modes of warfare" This comment is
unjust, and, from a British source, in very
poor taste. In the first place, our allies
are not of our seeking. If it is true that
politics makes strange bedfellows it is still
truer that war sometimes makes strange
allies. The present war, undertaken by the
United States in the interest of the suffer-
ing Cubans and to rid ourselves of dam
gerous and treacherous neighbor, could not
be prosecuted at all without quasi all-
ance with the Cuban insurgents the estab-
lishment of whose independence is one of
its main objects. AS for the Philippine in
surgents, alliance with them was forced
upon US by circumstances, as the islands
themselves were. The whole world knows
how Unexpectedly the occupation of Manila
harbor and cooperation with the insurgents
were forced upon us. 1t was as if by the
imposition of an unseen hand The United
States could not abandon just war be-
cause the allies which circumstances COM
PEELED them to accept were not altogether
to their liking.
This much might be said, If our allies
were semi-savage or were practicing
civilized modes of warfare but such is not
the case. Thus far they have done nothing
to justify such a charge. Like all bellig-
erents they are fighting to win. 1t is not
to be supposed that they have any particu-
lar affection for Spania rds, but they have
not violated the rules of civilized warfare.
Those in Cuba have not mutlated the dead
bodies of enemies, nor placed captives in
the front of danger in order to protect
themselves, as the Spaniards have done,
while the Philippine insurgents have shown
real moderation and self-control The ma
tive Spaniards are more uncivilzed at heart
and more brutal in their methods of war
fare than the insurgents in either of the
islands.
But if it were true that the insurgents
are uncivilized and that we had solicited
their alliance the charge would come with
poor grace from British paper. Great
Britain has never hestated to use savage
or half-civilized allies in her colonial wars
to the utmost extent that she could COM
mand their services. She did it with the
Indians in the early wars in this country,
and she has done it in India, Africa, and,
indeed, wherever she could. In our revolu-
tionary war she did even more despicable
thing in having employed Hessians, hired
at so much head from petty potentates
colonists In that war Great Britain sent
to this country upwards of 1900 of these
hirelings, brave soldiers, but without par
ticle of interest in the war or its causes,
and who became her allies by a bargain
and-sale transaction with little German
princes who were paid so much in advance
for every man they furnished, so much
year while they remained in the service,
and subsidy for one full year after the
war was over and the troops had returned
to their homes. This was long ago, and
there is no occasion for the slightest feel
ing on the subject now, but when a British
paper criticises the United States for it's al
lies in the present war it should be re-
minded that there are others.