Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-02-15

ton or the reply to my first cable.
Upon receipt of this reply, which was
on the goth of November, / Immediately
wrote to the department accepting the
refusal to grant my leave and stating
in that letter that / would abide by the
decision of the department. and attempt
to convey an intelligent idea for the de-
partments guidance on conditions there
In mail dispatches. On the fourth OF
December | received a reply from the
department to my cablegram Of the 14th
which | had been informed two days
previously had just been forwarded. 1t
read as follows:
You may come home. Put After
bury temporarily in charge. Depart
ment will send mar from here
This was signed Hay Thereupon
| cabled the department as follows:
Sail 18th by Naples
This cablegram was sent on the Sth and
in the meantime l prepared to go. A few
days later | received a telegram from Mr..
Hollis, consul at Dell goa Bay, stating that
be had been instructed to come to Pre-
toria to take charge of my office during
my absence, and until a man should arrive
from Washington. Mr.. Hollis arrived on
the 14th of December and was thoroughly
posted in the routine of the office and I
introduced him to the heads of all the gov
eminent departments and to my consular
colleagues.
i Left Pretoria
the night of December 16. l went straight
to Paris. notified the department of my
presence there while waiting for the Amer
lean line boat to sail for New York. l
arrived in Washington on Monday, the 5th
of February, and reported to Assistant Sec
rotary Hill, of the State Department, who
officially informed me that Secretary Hays
son had been appointed in my place and
that he was on his way to Pretoria.
Il appreciated the seriousness of the con-
dittons in South Africa to the extent that
on my way to Washington, believing that
| was still the consul to Pretoria I refused
to make any statement that would in any
way involve the department or embsr-
rass 1t. My one object was to lay the in
formation before the department as to the
true state of affairs in South Africa. If
the department thought these facts Were
of a value sufficient to warrant the ex-
pense of the trip l had taken / expected to
be remunerated and return to Pretoria,
leaving the department to act as it saw
fit upon the facts which l laid before it.
Instead of this, L find that Secretary
HAY, whether acting upon the reports in the
newspapers or upon advice from the Brit
ish government, or some other motive, I
do not know, saw fit not to wait until l
could present my reasons in person and had
a silent or conn:ving partner to discredit-
ing reports of my official acts. I came
home to find an attempt had been made to
tear down my personal reputation. I wish
to state right here that when l accepted
secret alliance between America and Great
Britain and that / had seen nothing in the
regulations which made the consul of the
American republic subject to the whims
and caprice of
An English Military Censor
at Durham. l came to America with a mo-
tive, of which I am not ashamed.
There is not one soul who can point to
a single official act of mine which departed
from the s~trictest neutrality. My confiden-
tial dispatches to the department contained
information which will show my sympathy
for the republic, but which time will
prove to be unbiased as to actual facts.
my acts as a public official are all re-
corded at the department. My acts as 2
private man can in no way involve the
public service and I simply make this state
which have come from the department, Sc
cretly and officially.
(Signed) CHARLES E. MACRUM."