The Portland daily press., 1900-03-15
THE SIN OF WlTCHCRAFT.
Kipling Writes of South
Africa.
Complains Of official Hinking at
Disleyalty.
Loyal Citizens the Ones
to Suffer.
Effect This viii Have on Other
| noIa,sao
Effect This Will Have on Other
Colonies.


from Rrdyard Kipling since he went to
south Africa will be printed in this
weeks Issue of Harper's Weekly. Mr..
Kipl'ng cables long account Of British
disloyalty which he calls "The sin OF
Witchcratt."
The burden Of his complaint Is that
British civil officials In Cape Town
wink at ssmi-tres sonable acts and TO
quote his own words: 1.-The government
will take care IL does not pay i anyone to
be loyal" He taysi
"Ths loyalist on the border has his
house ripped inside out by Beers or
rebels. or beth; the disloyalist's farm is
respected and In return he supplies the
enemy with food, horses and informa-
tlon. His risk is small. He may possibly
but not II his friends can ttop it-be
arrested on a charge of treason. He may
then be sent down country TO be tried by
q sympathetic jury. He hopes and not
with ,ut reason, to have his farm restored
| to him after he has undergone some ab-
surdly inadequate punishment. Mean
while tho loyaiist's piano Is lying wire
less on tie versnda; photographs OF his
house show the rooms rs though cyclones
lad met to wresils there; his fiocks and
herds are gene; and the haby's linen is IL
ingson the dung heap. He and his family
crawl into Cape Town In oyerpacked
from singing 'Britons Never Shall be
Slaves on the platform. Then do
Messrs Kruger and Stsyn enter into our
rsspondence with Lord Roberts IS to the
atrocities commute, on viatuous popula-
tion by brutal and lioentious soldiery.
"The loyalists declare that. properly
handled, open disloy atty conld be reduced
to a psglsctable quantity. What then,
they demand. is the senss of creating
and propping and supporting the thing
as you created and propped and support
ed the Transvnal till 1t bit you They
have certain amount of reason on their
side and It may as well set cut to defeat
to delay to evade and nulliiy the work
in7s Of a just punishment, at first eau.
tiousiy. but later made bold by toierR-
tion with an insolent oarelessness Of sc.
curlty, to preach sedition under guiss Of
abjeot loyalty. To malign unscrupu-
lousy and to lie malignantly and with
knowledge among an ignorant people is
n merry and profitable game while 1t en-
dures. The players, however, do not see
or, busy with their small intrigues, will
not realize that for each man whose neck
they save arises another aud yet anoth-
er, desiring nothing leis than their necks
It IL 9 brutal way to pat 1t, but things
ara not all cream and honey In Cape
Town Just now and / confess it gives me
the cold oresps to watch these smooth
talking. smiling men explaining to the IL
intimates as they have explained these
ten years past how this and that will
surely b. softened in the interest OF
some inn erilled retel; how help will
come from here and support from anoth.
sr quarter; and how little in any case to
be fsared is tbs British government. The
homo government In weak and of many
kinds; they are present omnip'esent; they
maintain intimate relations with all
sides; with the front and the far more
important back front which begins
at Pretoria"
The colonial troops see this disloya atty
which the government does not punish,
and Mr.. Kipling voices their feelings in
these words;
"Now. men who are used to dust in
their food do not care to have Ii thrown
In their eyes. Five,ssix and seven thou
ands miles away, anxious young commu-
mites are waiting for word of their
men. No detail Of their doings goes
unrecorded by thu big dailies whose