The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1900-11-27
ONLY AMUSES
The BRITISH
INDIFFERENT TO FRENCH
HOMAGE OF KRUGER.
OF SIRDAR
War Critic Attacks Kitchener.
Thunderer Levels Bolts at
United States.

OulLcu 0CdLcS.
London, Nov. 24-Kruger's trium-
plant passage from Marseilles to Peris
is regarded with curiosity and unex-
pected Indifference in Great Britain.
Every detail Of the remarkable ova
ton has been regarded with interest,
but the underlying feeling here is
more one of amusement than ir1ita-
ton. The nation that boiled over
with fury when Queen Victoria was
caricatured by Partisan journalists
accepts the French homage to its arch
enemy as an exhibition of inevitable
enthusiasm not likely to effect inter-
national pursuits, or to create more
serious friction than already exists
among the populace Of the two coun-
tries.
The recognition Of Kruger as being
still president of the Transvaal by
both the French government and the
Queen of Holland calls forth from the
Westminster Gazette the remark that
this apparent u~nfriendliness is due to
Great Britain's fault in not communi-
eating to the powers the annexation Of
the South African republics. So long
as this is not done, Kruger, according
to this English authority, has the per-
feet right to be treated as a sovereign
raveling incognito. This failure to
notify the powers, the same paper de-
c%lares, initiates still more seriously
against Great Britain, for until this in
ternational formality is observed, no
right exists to treat the inhabitants of
the Boer republic as rebels.
The forthcoming promotion Of Ma
jor General Lord Kitchener to a lieu
tenant generalship ELECTS from Charles
Williams, one Of the leaders If the
war critics, the bitterest Indictment of
the general ever published. In Eng
land, he declares, General Kitchener
meditates reckless and ruthless exter-.
mination of the Beers, hoping to exc
that at the tomb of the Mahdi. He
believes British officers and men will
not endure this and that Kitchener
will stand revealed to the country as
a scourge memorable. Williams apollo
gizes to Satan for mentioning him in
the same breath with Kitchener and
maintains that the return Of several
general officers and the removal of
General Kelly-Kenny from Bloemfon-
tein confirms the suspicion that they
would "have nothing to do with
Kitchener's dirty work" .
It is almost needless to say that this
bitter attack by no means represents
the average opinion.
What exercises Great Britain more
than the progress of the wal in South
Africa and Kruger's. visit to France,
is the illness Of the ear. The shadow
of the Bear couchant is ever present as
a source of dread and suspicion to the
average British statesman. How
much more would he be feared if ram
pant is evident from the grave tone of
the editorial articles of the London
press when their writer's contemplate
what might happen should the hand
Of death remove the present pacific
ruler Of Russia. The possibility of an
anti English regency with
aggressive proclivities looms up so
that it is doubted if the daily
bulletins from Lividia are awaited
any more keenly in Russia than in
Great Britain.
The bitterness with which the Lon
don Times attacks every move made
by Washington in Chinese matters
to increase daily and is all the
more surprising on account of the at
titude Of the British foreign Office.
The principles laid down in Secretary |
latest note were given to the
representatives of the Associated Press
by a British official before the Gecep-
ton Of Hays note as voicing the opin-
ion of the British cabinet. Yet the
Times comes out today with a Wig
orous protest against the very idea of
principles being considered.
Referring to the Cincinnati speech of
WI Ting Fang, Chinese minister to
the United States, after saying that
his promising the United States better
chances when peace is re-
stored would, III some countries, be
resented as an insult, the paper adds:I
"But WI Ting Fang seems to have
known his audience. All the COM
ment an influential American paper
makes is that WI Ting Fang knows
that the Americans, like all others,
give their W interests first place."
The Times then compares this atti-
tude with that of Ii Hung Chang on
his trip around the world, during
which, it is asserted, he acted upon
the conviction that pecuniary self
interest was the sole guiding principle
of the peoples and governments, it
adds. Which proved unsatisfactory
to the recipients of the m%ultidinous
promises which he failed to redeem.