Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-08-13


Correspondence Of the Associated Press
LONDON, August 4.-Mr. a. G..
Hales, representative in South
Africa of the Daily News, is the
latest war correspondent TO at
tack the methods ana the red tape
OF the British war office. He says:
Let nae tell you how our army
is treated by the incompetent peo-
pie of the good. city of London.
pledge my word as a man and
journalist that every written word
is true. l will add nothing nor
detract from, nor set down aught
in malice. If my statements are
proven false then let me be
scourged with the tongue and pen
of scorn from every decent
Briton's home and hearth forever
after, for he who lies about his
country at such an hour as this is
of all traitors the. vilest. 1 will
deal now particularly with the
men who are acting under the
command of Gen. Sir Leslie
Rumble. This good soldier and
courteous gentlemaA has to hold
a frontage line from Winburg, via
Senekal, almost to the borders of
Basutoland. His whole front, ex-
tending nearly a hundred miles.
is constantly threatened by an
active, dashing, determined EN- my,
an enemy who knows the ground
far better than IAN English fox
hunting squire knows the ground
he hunts over season after season.
To hold this vast line intact Gen.
Rumble has TO march from point
to point as his scouts warn him
of the movements of the tireless
foe.
Gen. Rundleis task is colossal
one, and any sane man would
think that gigantic efforts would
be made to keep him amply sup
piled with food for his soldiers.
But such Is not the case. The
men are absolutely starving. Many
of the infantry men are so
weak that they can barely stagger
along under the weight OF their
soldierly equipment. They are
worn to shadows, and move with
weary, listless footsteps on the
march. People high up in author
ity may deny this, but he who de-
MES 1t sullies the truth. This is
what the soldiers get to eat, what
they have been getting to eat for
long time past, and what they are
likely to get for some time to come
unless England rouses herself and
bites to the bone in regard to the
people who are responsible for it:
Zone pound Of raw -four, which
the soldiers have to cook after
hard days march, is served out to
each man every alternate DAY. The
following day he eats one pound of
biscuits. In this country there is
no fuel excepting little OK dung
dried by the sun. If a soldier is
lucky enough to pick up a little, he
can &C to the nearest water, of
which there is plenty, mix his cake
without yeast, or baking powder,
and make some sort of a wretched
mouthful. He gets one pound of
raw fresh meat daily, which nine
times out of ten he cannot cook,
and there his supplies end.
What has become of the ra-
tons Of rum. of sugar, of tea, Of
cocoa, of groe.%. generally? Ask
at the snug ltttle railway sidings
where the goods are stacked-and
forgotten. Ask in the big stores in
Cape Town and other seaport
towns. Ask in your own country,
where countless thousands OF
pounds worth of food stuff lie rot
ting in the warehouses, bound up
and tied down with red tape
bandages. ASK, yes, ask; but don't
ntop asking. damn somebody high
up in power. Don't let some
wretehed underling be made the
scapegoat OF this criminal state of