The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-20
WITH BoBs AND KRU-
. GER.
By Frederic William Unger.
Published by Henry T, Coates
. & Co., Philadelphia.

Mr.. Unger was the late correspondent
in South Africa for the Daily Express
of London. He Is an American news
paper man of wide experience. HIS
book. as one would expect, is extreme
Nv interesting and must be of perma-
nent value.
Mr.. Unger had the unique experience
of representing on the Boer side a great
London daily. He states that his per-
sonal sympathies in the conflict were
somewhat mixed, having made many
warm friends while campaigning with
Lord Roberts forces, having been
treated in a most hospitable manner,
his first sympathies were on the Eng
fish side. When he was sent over to
the Beers he was much impressed by
the sincerity of these people and by the
pathos of their struggle with over
Whelming Odds
Now that 1 am nearing the end of
my story" he says, II feel that there
is still something to be said concern
ing the ethical side of this war. In the
preceding pages I have, with all fidel-
ity, recorded the varying sympathles
for both sides which occasions CHANGED
to promote. / feel that in my heart l
oscillated from one side to the other,
and that in so doing the mere acciden-
tai hating of my sympathies with
either side would furnish no criterion
that it was right and the other side
wrong. Now, writing six months after
nv departure from the theatre of &C
ton, viewing the situation from dis
lance of a half worlds circumference
1 feel better able to think dispassion-
ately.
1.-THE war started as the result of a
plot. That plot at one and the same
time enlists and alienates American
sympathy; it alienates because it was
an assault against a friendly power
a conspiracy to undermine and drive
everything English out of South Africa
and entirely uproot the last vestige of
the Anglo Saxon civilization and plant
in its place that of the Hollander-Bo er
peoples, which, while it may be just
as good, yet is at heart everlastingly
hostile to everything British. AS !
have said earlier in this volume, am
convinced that the world-interests OF
England and America are identical-so
the South African war affects us. On
the other hand, the conspiracy ELECTS
American sympathy because it was a
natural movement toward the estab-
lishment of a United States Of South
Africa, for the same reasons that we
ourselves exist as a nation, today. AS
an American, believing in the republic,
1 find the admission that South Africa
can be better administered by England
than by the republics is an admission
that the imperial form of government
may be better than the republican, and
this, 1 thank God, I am not ready to
do.
''Viewing the subject dispasslonate-
l. T ha 1iffIn ranr1hliPd haU-
ing committed a technical blunder In
invading a British colony and starting
the war, have already been sufficiently
punished. Having seen enough Of the
conflict to understand what General
Sherman meant by saying WAR is
hell" I am now for peace. The re-
publics have lost their cities, the
burghers have seen their homes burned,
their herds driven off, their crops de-
stroyed, their brothers, sons and ia
theirs killed, manned or captured, and
their families broken UP. The results
of half a century of work have been
blotted out. The conquest of the veldt
has to begin anew. The Beers are the
only people who can or desire to do it.
Today, their armies are fighting for one
thing only-for their flag. It seems to
me that even if they are entirely in
is too great a punishment to inffict
Cut away three-quarters or nine-tenths
of their territory; force them into the
most barren, arid and unproductive
part of their country; cripple them by
treaties and restrictions, If you Will;
but leave them their flag-the vieuX
couleurs and, though weighted by the
deadening pressure of an indemnity
that it will require an eternity to pay
the burghers will accept the terms
cease their heart-rending conflict, and
there will be peace in South Africa,
This is the opportunity Of England
Viewed in this way, the act would be a
graceful acknowledgment Of American
sympathy for the republics, and would
90 far to cement the friendship of our
people for England. Neglected, I feel
sure 1t is only a question of time
that America will stretch out her hand
across the seas to grasp that of a new
United States, which will have wrest-
ed liberty and independence away from
England the hereditary enemy of our
own privileges, and which will have
done 1t without even our moral sup
port. to our lasting shame"