Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-03-29
MACRUM'S CHARGES.
Ex.ConsuI Tells a House Com.
mittee of the Opening
: of His Mail.
BRITISH CENSOR WAS THE OPENER

Also Complains Tint the British Knew
Our Cipher, and Tells of n Pro oosal for
the United States to Prevent the War,
Which the President DeeIin ned-Letter
from Hay Tells of ApoIogy-Lentz
and Hull I'm the Military Committee
Likely to Fight at Amy Moment
Washington, March 29-There We're
Interesting goings on in two commit
tees of the house yesterday. The for
eign affairs committee had before it ex
Consul Macrum to hear his story of
alleged indignities put upon the United
States by the British censor at Dur
ban. The military affairs committee
had a riot nearly and there is no tell
ing what the members of that commit
tee will be doing to each other If things
do not improve. The Macrum inyesti-
CATION had aS the star witness Macrum
himself, and his statement was the
same exactly as he made to the public
after he had settled up his business
with the state department a month or
so ago. In fact he referred the commit
tee TO that statement, saying ii EN-
bodied practically all he had to say. In
effect it was that his mail had been de-
layed by the British and two letters
British had possession of our cable ci-
pher.
Why II Wanted to Come Home.
He explained that when he asked for
81 leave of absence he desired to come
home for private business reasons and
also because lie desired TO place before
the United States government certain
facts which he deemed il essential
should be known here. He understood,
he said, that the British had possession
of our cable cipher. He was not certain
of this. but he had since had informa
ton which convinced him that his suS-
picionS We're correct. He also desired
information as 10 his course when the
settlement came ut the end of the war.
He produced the envelopes which he
said contained the opened letters. One
was from private citizen. addressed
to the United States consul at Pretoria.
and the other was 10 him by name from
Consul Stowe 1T Cape Town.
Cipher 1eIegrams Were Help Up.
The reason he believed the British
knew our cipher was that he sent Il
message i'm cipher to Washington the
subsistence of which was published
shortly afterward AT Durham. and he
had mentioned nothing about his dis
patch to anybody. He read to the COM
mittee Il message from the cable COM
Ddnt IIS tiIIlitI sent DH iliIll
to the secretary of state Nov. ] had
been held mp by the military censor un- |
til Dec. =. Asked if other consuls had
suffered any Inconvenience in the mat |
ter of communicating with their home |
governments. Macrum said the Belgian |
and German cOnSulS both told him |
that no cipher kilograms We're allowed |
to go through. He said he had not |
complained of any of these things TO |
the state department, not even when I
he arrived ut Washington or thereaft- |
er. and that he preferred not to tell |
why he had been silent. This raised a |
laugh in the committee room.
President Declined to Interfere.
Macrum proceeded 10 describe an al |
legged meeting between President |
Steyn. of the Orange Free State, and |
Consul Stowe. of Cape Town. at which |
he was present. in which he said Steyn |
was very anxious that Stowe should |
do something To settle the difficulty |
which WAS brewing. He said that Pres |
president of the United States. and |
that Stowe had replied that he would !
be glad if some such thing could be |
done. And | have reason TO believe |
that the question WAS submitted to |
the president OF the United States" |
added Macrum. ''and that he returned |
an unfavOrable reply" The reason !
was that he was told so by Stowe in |
q letter that is now on the files of the |