The Washington weekly post., 1899-11-28
Falsehoods About the Beers,

/ The censored dispatches from South
| Africa continue to furnish US with all
sorts of accuse tions against the Beers,
charging them with treachery, inhuman-
| ity. and every form of brutal wickedness
and violence. We have them as savages
and murderers, dishonoring the obliga-
| tions of the Red Cross and using the
flag of truce for purposes Of homicide
There is strong and very suspicious
family resemblance between these vicious
cock-and-bull stories and the infamous
slanders circulated so industriously and
with such organized vehemence by the
British press for the past eight or ten years
ISLANDERS without shadow Of justification
and intended in cold blood to prepare the
public mind for the vile and cruel war
which Chamberlain has at last contrived
They are conceived in the same spirit of
| falsehood that inspires the official dis
patches telling US of British victories in
buckram and myriads of enemies slain
| upon Gad's Hill.
II is interesting, however. to thresh out
this rotten straw and to occasionally
come upon clean and wholesome sheaf
of fact. Young Winston Churchill who
was captured by the Beers, not long ago.
and taken to Pretoria, the TransvaaI
capital, has quite recently made a state
ment to the Associated Press which is
worth second perusal:
The Beers have treated US with much
hlhuhess 1hls was the case from the
outset They praised our defense of the
aTmored train and expressed surprise that
the locomotive was saved from becoming
hopeless wreck, as they expected, under
their artillery fire. We were then march,
( ed through pouring rain 10 Colenso.
proceeding the next morning TO the Boer
camp, near Ladysmith, and then going by
rail TO MOdder Spruit, finally arriving
here on November Is
On the journey great numbers of
ourghers crowded 10 see US, but there
was only one who made insulting re-
marks, the others courteously Offering ms
cigarettes or showing such marks OF at
tention'
MIR. Churchill said the confinement in
the Model School was close and severe,
ground for complaint
w hen asked regarding MS general i'm
presSions, ne said he had had MANY dis
cussions with the Beers as 10 the tights
OF war, and had been much impressed by
It'll =
had found that most OF them regretted
the conflict, asserting that IL had arisen
as the result OF Observation-Disclosures So
Tar as ne could learn. however, the spirIt
OF Ihe burghers In the field, despite their
privalons, was most determined. and
there was no chance OF an early peace
fear, said Mr.. Churchill, that The
struggle viii be bloody and protracted.' !"
OF course. We did not need the assur-
ance Of Mr.. Winston Churchill TO per-
suade Us that the war is likely "a he
bloody and pro,racted ANY student of
history-especiaily the history of the
South African Dutch republics. believed
as much without waiting for his testi.
mony. The point OF consequence is in The
faet-of which young Churchill is really
competent 10 speak-that the Beers treat
their prisoners with humanity. even kind
ness. And this fact is particularly sig
niacant and notable in his case. since The
Beers had every right TO put him TO death
under the circumstances He was a nom
combatant- taken in arms against them
and gl4ringly conspicuous through his
own acts. In similar cases during the
Franco-Prussian war OF ls70-i. men were
shot without a second thought. The
Beers. whom the British lingo newspa-
pers have been persisteniiy describing as
ssmi-savage monsters. not only spared
young ChurchiIIs life, but treated him
with the utmost kindness and considera-
ton
We have slight expectation that this IL