The Forrest City times., 1900-03-30
FORh[R CONSUL kACR|jA.
Our Late Representative at Pretoria Before the Foreign Affairs
 Committee.
HIS NEWSPAPER STORY RsITERATED
Said He Asked for Leave to Come Home for Private Business Rcs, sons. ana Also BecRuse He Want, ed to Lay Certain Information Re, fore the Government.

Washington, March 2S.-Charles F Macrum. of East Liverpool, O.. the American ex-consul nt Pretoria. ap. peared before the house foreign affairs committee. and told of the alleged in. dienifies he suffered at the hands of the British during his incunibency When he gave out his statement here, some weeks ago, declaring that his of fcial mail had been opened by British officials, Representative Wheeler, of Kentucky, introduced resolution for an investigation. It was subsequently, arranged that the foreign affairs com mittec shoald take the matter up of its own motion, without any direction from the house, and Mir. Macrum was summoned to Washington to testify.
 There were many visitors in the committee room when Chairman Hit called the committee to order. Mir. Macrum was asked by Chairman Hit to make such statement as he saw fit regarding the opening of his mail by the British censor. In opening. Mir. Macrum recalled the statement he had mode some time ago through the press. That statement he said, practically embodied all he had to cay. He cx- plained that when he asked for leave of absence he desired to come home for private business reasons. and also because he desired to place before the United States government certain facts which he deemed it 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 insor- nation which convinced him that his suspicious were correct.
 He also desired information as to his course when the settlement came at the end of the war. Further. Le had petition from some American resi- dents in the Trnnsvaal asking that the United States maintain absolute neu- trality. which he wanted to present to inc state department. The petition he read to the committee. It was signed by Godron, the consular agent at Johannesburg.
 Asked as to when he was first satis- fled that his mail was being tam. pcred with, he said that war was de- elared October 12. He did not receive any mail between that date and the second week in November. Ordinarily, he had box of mnil every week.
 Did other people receive mail dur ing that period?" asked Mir. Williams, of Mississippi.
 Not that l know of," reulicd MT. Macrum.
 Pressed for specific information as to how he got the int;mation that the British were opening and delaying his mail, he replied that when his mail did not arrive he telegraphcd our con sul at Lourenzo Marqucz, requesting him to inquire of Cape Town why it was being delayed.
 The consul at Lourenzo Marquez re- piled that he also had received no mail. Mr. Macrum said the delay of Bis mail created n conviction m his mind that the British authorities were responsible. The first actual eyidt nee he had was the receipt of two opened
 
 which, he said, contained those letters. One was from a private citizen. ad- dressed 10 the United States consul at Pretoria, and the other was to him by name from Consul Stowe, of Cape Town.
 MT. Wm. Allen Smith, of Michigan, interrogated the witness sharply on the reasons for stating his belief that the British authorities had possession of the state departments cipher
 Mir. Macrum said he could not affirm that fact from actual knowledge, but there were certain facts which con vinced him that su,h was the case. He explained that on Novcmbe4, he had eabled the state department in cipher asking for q leave of absence. That message had gone through Durban. The next day, November {. he said. he had been informed newspaper at Dnrban printed the fact that he had asked for leave of absence.
 "'rhe message" said Mir. Macrum, twas sent in the state department cipher of the Slater code"
 And you claim the substance of that dispatch was made pullc?' asked MT. smith.
 "I do."
 "Where"'
 "In Natal"
 Was it an accurate publication ?"
 ''l do not know
 Mir. Macrum said he had never seen the publication. He had only l cen in- formed that the fact that he had asked leave of absence had been printed. He affirmed that no one knew of this fact save himself.