Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-02-16
MIR. MACRUM,s POPULATIONS.

steadfastly maintained while there
was a possibility of any official lmpro-
priety in his speaking many we'll mean
ing people and a very large portion OF
the press Of both parties have been
misled into much ~undeserved rid
icule and abuse of the ex-Consul to
the capital of the Transvaal Republic.
Mr.. Macrum's plain and straightfor-
ward statement is a startling revela-
tion of the extent of the secret COM
pact between Washington and London,
which will turn all of this ridicule and
abuse, which was not partisan and
malicious, into sympathy for the East
Liverpool man and open the eyes of
his critics, from whom an apology is
due him.
The astounding situation prevailing
in South Africa and the knowledge
that he could not transmit a word of
it to his government that would not
pass under the scrutiny of a British
censor-an unheard-of outrage in such
a case as this-and that the fact that
nearly all American citizens in the
Transvaal, disguised with the anon
alous policy of the administration at
Washington were resigning their
American citizenship and enlisting I'M
der the standard of the Transvaal Re-
public, amply justified Consul Ma
crum in pursuing the course he has
pursued. In fact, a personal inter-
view at Washington vas the only
method open to him under the circum-
stances.
Now mark the grossly unfair and
~disgraceful treatment pursued by the
administration through the State De-
partment toward Mr.. Macrum. 1t has
no parallel in American history.
First, Washington knew that Mr..
Macrum strongly sympathized with
the South African Republics. That
fact sounded his official death-knell.
Second, Aot even the courtesy of an an
swer was vouchsafed to his most ur-
gent dispatches. Third, the admins
tration, without protest meekly allow
ed the British censor to open and read
and delay in transmission as long as
served the British purpose these Off
cial dispatches from an official of a
friendly government to that govern
ment. Fourth, Mr.. Macrum without
being notified in any manner whatever,
was superseded by the son of the Sec
rotary Of State, whose first stopping
place OF his way to South Africa was
the London Foreign Office! Mr.. Ma
crum did not know he had been dis
missed and superseded until he had
reached Washington.
Evidently Mr.. Macrum is convinced
from the facts in his possession that
the secret Anglo-American alliance
about which so much has been written
pro and o is a solemn and establish
ed fact beyond dispute. He con-
cludes his circumstantial narrative as
follows:
my one object was to lay the informa-
ton 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 expense of
the trip I had taken 1 expected to be re-
munerated and return to Pretoria, leav-
ing the department. to act as it saw fit
upon the facts which 1 laid before it.
Instead of this, l find that Secretary
Hay, whether acting upon the reports in
the newspapers or upon aivice from the
British government, or some other motive,
l do not know, saw fit not TO wait until l
could present my reasons in person and
had a silent or conniving partner to dis
crediting reports of my official acts. ]
came home to find an attempt had been
made to tear down my personal reputation.
81 wish to state right here that
when 1 accepted my post as consul
L knew nothing of any secret al
lance between America and Great
Britain and that had seen nothing
In h regulations which made the
consul of the American pub
subject to the whfms and caprice
of an English military censor ut
Durham.
81 came to America with a motive. of
| which l am not ashamed.
There is not one soul who can point ia
a single official act of mine which DEPART
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