The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-07-01
BURDETT-CoUTTs's CHARGES.
Dramatic Scenes I'm the House of Com
mons-BaIfour fl N Passion.
THE Associated Press.I

The Associated Press.1
LONDON. June 30.-The spectacle of a
man OF American birth, William Ashmead
Bartlett Burdett-c outts, Conservative
member for Westminster. standing in the
House of Commons amid storms of cheers
and jeers and exposing to the world the
horrors and abuses that follow in the wake
OF British victories proved as dramatic as
II was unprecedented. For over two hours
Mr.. Burdett-Coutts, once known as the
young husband of the millionaire baron
ess." but now growing gray with his fifty
years, his face bronzed by the sun of South
Africa and his hands clenched nervously
behind him, commanded the attention of
the hostile majority of the House and drew
a succession of CHASTITY pictures that in
grewsomeness of detail eclipsed the hor-
rors of the Crimean war. The task was
terribly difficult. Mr.. Burdett-Coutts has
seldom spoken in Parliament and never be-
fore at such length or with the whole ma
ton waiting to hear what he had TO say.
He Is nothing of an orator. and was obliged
to present a mass of detail that now and
then grew tedious. He, nevertheless, held
his audience by the strength and gravity
OF his statements. His declaration that
every statement that / have made is true"
was made with an earnestness that atoned
for all his rhetorical defects.
His terrible arrangement of Great Brit
aims care OF her wounded, sick and dying
made Friday night by far the most notable
occasion of the present session. The speech
of the parliamentary secretary of the war
office. George Wyndham. which preceded
Mr.. Burdett-Coutts's. and that of govern
ment leader and first lord of the treasury
A ]. Balfour that followed were both
0mnrfc that naffhar hoa ~. tAs-
year at any rate. The government was
awake TO the seriousness OF the crisis, and
with surprising oratory and imagery, Mr..
Wyndham took it's critics behind the scenes
of the great campaign. In graphic lam
guage he described the enormous difficult
ties OF the communications and exposed
for the first time the daring conception
OF Lord Roberts's plans n the risks he
ran. In short. without firing his hearers
with too many statistics. the under secre-
tary for war gave such a fascinating pam
Drama. INTERPRETING facts to prove that the
War Office took all precautions, reiterating
that war must always be fearful, that his
hearers wellnigh forgot the sick and
wounded In their admiration of the sue
cess or the great general. But the Times
poiats out to-day all this crumbled away
before the "damning details presented by
Mr.. Burdett-Coutts, who spoke with the
advantase oil having seen whereof he
spoke.
Mr.. Balfour for once lost his self control.
Flushed and trembling with passion, he
oenounCeu the attacks, Wnlcn, he declared,
merely amounted TO unjust criticisms of
Lord Roberts. This the opposition denied.
and In point OF fact the whole tenor of Mr..
Burdett-Coutts's speech was an attack on
the methods OF Lord Kitchener, instead of
Lord Roberts, though this was not openly
stated.
As a result OF the dramatic debate public
opinion seems fairly evenly divided be-
tween two verdicts. First, that the War
ONCE Is guilty of criminal neglect; Sec
ond. 10 reserve all judgments till the par
~liamentary committee reports. Mr.. Bur
dett-Coutts has suddenly become one of the
most prominent men in the House, and the
government has still to face the agitation
which has stirred the country almost to a
greater extent than did the declaration of
war itself.