The Irish standard., 1900-11-24
HOME FROM IHa bo1R War.

~VAEA
On the front page of this issue will
be found graphic description of the
reception given last Sunday in Chicago
to the returned Irish-American heroes
who risked their lives in fighting with
the Beers against British aggression
in South Africa. The interviews with
Captain O'Connor, Lieutenant Daily
and others will be read with avidity
by the readers of the Irish Standard
from Mississippi to Pugte Sound. The
accounts they give Of the fighting be-
tween Boer and Briton are very diff
ferent from the censored reports sent
by British correspondents from the
dark continent during the year just
closing.
The Chicago boys started last Feb
ruary for the scene of war as an AM
bulance corps, but on arriving at LOU
renzo Marques, via Lisbon, they as
certained that John Hay, the pro Brit
ish lackey who acts as secretary of
state, had sent instructions ahead of
them to the effect that they We're not
to be recognized as a Red Cross corps
but as individuals. Consequently they
We're received with suspicion and no
particular attention was paid to them
in the Portuguese port. They paid
their own expenses and resolved to
depart. for Pretoria, where they Of
fered their srvices to Paul Kruger to
protect his republic from British in
vasion,
That they fought with characteristic
Irish valor goes without saying. Two
of them We're killed, several were cap
tured, and some of them remained be-
hind to fight to the end of the war.
OF the forty who left Chicago nine
months ago only twenty came back.
They are all workingmen who resigned
their positions in the cause of liberty
and humanity, and in appreciation of
the sacrifices they have made and the
uiStiiNIloA tiicS nave Nou Ill LIE cause
of freedom the United Irish societies
of Chicago have undertaken to secure
employment for them.
The war in South Africa was insti-
gated by British greed. 1t was in
augurated in the interest of clique of
London Stockholders with whom mem
bers of the Tory government We're in
partnership. The object was to obtain
possession of the gold-bearing terri
tory of the Rand. The British papers
controlled by Cecil Rhodes. especially
the London Mail, declared that the
British miners We're maltreated by the
Beers: that they were taxed without
representation; that "Britons never
shall be slaves: and that the whole
military strength of the empire. if
necessary. should be employed to
cInStisc the ignorant and insolcnt
Dutch farmers.
Ii was so done. and what has been
the result? About 100000 British sol
diers have been killed and disabled
and the British taxpayers have paid
$5O0.n0O.0O0 for the prosecution of the
war. But more money is needed to
bring 1t to an end. and the end is yet
far off.
The English press maintains that the
war in South Africa is in the interest
of civilization and progress, but the
independent American press knows
better and is frank enough to say SO.
In a recent issue the Philadelphia,
Times says:
Beyond all question the mines were
the original cause of dispute, and indi.
rectly, if not directly, they brought
about the war. 1t is righteous retri.
button that the greed of gold that has
cost England such an incalculable loss
not merely in money. but in prestige
should suffer the severest punishment
The gold is still in the ground, but tho
speculative pursuit of it, so reck.
N;SSlN CuIIleN VII. His uucitNJ SuuSeN
the wreck of fortunes"
The worst thing that England has
done to show her weakness during the
nineteenth century is the sending OF
her troops into Africa to destroy the
Dutch republics and convert them into
British colonies. 1t required an army
ten times as large as that with which
she confronted Napoleon ut Waterloo
in the zenith of his power, to subjn.
gate the Beers, and they are not yet
conquered. She has lost more soldiers
from Boer bullets than the number OF
males in the two republics who We're
able to bear arms at the outbreak of
the war; and with all her loss of blood