Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-02-19
HOT ROAST.

in the whole United States is the
Chicago Inter-Ocean. But some of the
doings of this administration are too
much for even the stomach of the
I~nter-Ocean. 1t retches violently at
the Anglomania of the administration
at Washington and takes the state
ment of ex-Consul to the T~ransvaal
Republic, Mr.. Charles e. Macrum, as
the text OF a scathing arraignment of
the State Department for it's humiliat-
ing lack of A~mericanism.
"By what right" asks this leading
Republican journal of the west, 'does
the British censor at Durham detain
dispatches addressed by the American
consul at Pretoria to his government?
By what right does the same British
official open and read letters bearing
the seal of the United States and adj
dressed to its consul? Why does an
American Secretary Of State permit or
condone such unwarranted interior
ence with the foreign interests which
ne is sworn to safeguard? These ques-
lions are raised by the public state
ment of Charles E. Macrum, lately
consul at Pretoria" Our contempor-
airy summarizes the situation detailed
by Mr.. Macrum:
"Mr. Macrum was convinced by the ac-
ton of the State. Department, in ordering
him to look after British interests in the
T~ransvaal, that Mr.. Hay was uniformed
or misinformed as to the situation and
the sentiments of American residents
there. He applied for leave Of absence
to come home snd report the facts in per-
son. This request was denied. On Nov.
IA he filed a cable despatch offering to for
felt his post If he could not give satisfac-
tory reasons for his return. This dispatch
was held by the British censors at Durham
until Dec. 2, when that official saw fit at
last to forward 1t, and so informed Mr..
Macrum. Meanwhile, on Nov. IS, Mr.. Ma
crum directed the attention of the State
Department to the fact that three previous
dispatches, which he repeated, had re-
manned unanswered. On Nov. 20 he re-
ceived a new injunction to remain at his
post. Finally, on Dec. 4, he received an
answer to his belated dispatch Of Nov. IA,
permitting him to come home.
For over four weeks after the opening
of the war Mr.. Macrum received neither
official nor personal letters, all mail for
the Transvaal being held at Cape Town by
order OF the British high commissioner
When the release of the official mail of the
United States was finally obtained by Con-
sui General Stowe, then as Mr.. Macrum
well says, I had the humi1ist ton, as the
representative of the American govern
ment, Of sitting In my office in Pretoria
and looking upon envelopes bearing ahe
official seal Of the American government,
opened and officially sealed with a sticter,
notifying me that the contents had bsen
read by the censor at Durham"
THE American people may well ssk
of Secretary John Hay" continues our
Republican contemporary, why he
permitted the dispatches of an Amari-
can consul and the dispatches Of his
own department to be made subject to
the whims and capriees of a British
military censor. Where in 'interna-
tional law does Mr.. Hay find that one
belligerent may use it's discretion as
to forwarding or opening dispatches of
a neutral government to it's official re-
preventative, or from such representa-
tive to his governments"
The Inter-Ocean says the Macrum
affair constitutes a significant part
Of a series of events which discredit
at once the sagacity and courage of
our Secretary of State. Already the
American people have been sorely
tried by the false position which they
have been complied to occupy toward
the two republics struggling for exist
ence in South Africa. They have re-
sented the weakness which led our
State Department, in Difference to a
vague obligation which never should
have been incurred, to throw the
weight of American influence to i'm
perial England, and thus to strength
Sn hNA AZ hCi SAOA 10 W CluSu OuI pup
ular government on the dark CONT
nent. They have been sorely tried by
the spectacle of an American consul,
Secretary Hays son, who succeeded
Mr.. Macrum) stopping on his way to
the South African Republic to con-
suit with the foreign Office in London.
They have been exasperated by the
complaisant assent of u State De-
partment and its London Ambassador
to the Anglo-American demonstration
foisted upon the world by means of
the hospital ship Maine. And just at
present they are irritated by the easy
recklessness with which Secretary
John Hay is striving to throw open
wide the door on this continent to the