The age-herald., 1900-08-13

move with weary, listfess footsteps on the march. People high up in authority may deny this, but he who denies 1t sullies the truth. This Is what the soldiers get to eat, what they have been getting to eat for a long time past, and what they are likely to get for a long time to come, unless Eng land rouses herself and bites to the bone in regard to the people who are responsible for It.
 "One pound of raw flour which the sol- diers have to cook after a 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 sum- If a soldier Is lucky enough to pick up little he can go to the nearest water of which there Is plenty, mix his cake without yeast or baking powder and some sort of a wretched mouthful.
 ''He gets one pound of raw fresh meat daily which nine times out of ten he can not cook and there his supplies end.
 Where Has It Gone?
 What has become of the rations of rum, of sugar, of tea, of groceries geenraly? Ask at the snug little railway sdings where the goods are stacked-and forgotten. Ask in the big stores in Capetown and other seaport towns. Ask In your own country where countless thousands of pounds worth of foodstuff lie rotting in the warehouse, bound up and tied down with red tape ban dages. Ask, yes, ask; but don't stop at asking-demand somebody high up in power. Don't let some wretched underling be made the scapegoat of this criminal state of affairs, for the taint of this shameful thing rests upon you, upon every Brlton whose homes, privilege and prosperity Is being safeguarded by these furnishing men. The folk In authority will probably tell you that General Rundle and his splendid fel- lows are so isolated that food cannot be obtained for them. I say that this is false, for recently. I, in company with another correspondent left General Bundles camp without an escort. We made our way In the saddle taking our two Cape carts with us to Winburg railway station, leaving our horse flesh there, we took the train for East London. Then back to the Junction ana down to Capetown where we remained Tor forty-eight hours and then made our way back to Winburg and from Winburg we came without the escort to rejoin General Bundle at Hammonia. "If two war correspondents could tra- verse that country and get through with winter supplies for themselves within six days, why cannot the transport peo- pie manage to do the same? The transport people affect to look with contempt upon a war correspondent and his opinion on things military, but if we could not man. age transport business better than they do, most of us would willingly stand up
 h .la
 Men Are Famishing "Our men on the fields of war are fam ishing whilst millions worth of food lies rotting on our wharves and in our cities, food that ought with ordinary manage ment, to be within easy reach of our fighting Generals. Britain asks of Gen. eral Rundle the fuflment of task that would tax the energies and abilities of the first General in Europe, and with stout heart he faces the work in front of him, faces it with men whose knees knock un- der them when they march, with hands that shake when they shoulder their ri- f1es-shake, but not with fear; tremble, but not from wounds, but from weakness, with poverty of blood and muscle brought about by continual hunger. Are those men fit to storm kopje? Are they fit to tramp the whole night through to make a forced march to turn a position and then fight like their fathers fought, next day? 'I tell you, no. And yours be the same if the Empires flag be lowered-not theirs, but yours-for you-what do you do? You stand in your music halls and about chorus of songs full of sentiments of pride for your soldiers; full of pride for his patience, his pluck and his devotion to duty and you let him go hungry, so hungry that I have often seen him quar- rel with negro for a handful of raw mealies on the march,"