The Irish standard., 1901-06-29
The Infamous Policy of Farm Burning is
Denounced in Bitter Terms
by the Scholar.
The Honest Englshman is Indignant at
:vsa:s55i,s.n a55ss Barbarities Perpetrated on
Brave People.

My friends urge me to send you Il
letter about the "Return Of farm burn
ing, South Africa (Cd. 524O" but
doubt if you would print anything
which could fully express my own
feelings on studying it and l know
that this incident is merely part of a
far larger whole, writes Frederic uar
rson to the London Daily News. How
ever, If your readers would care to un-
derstand something of "the panoplied
hatred'' with which my friends and 1
regard this very brutal episode in an
infamous war, l will put our case be-
fore them In plain words am neither
"little Englander" nor "pro- -Boer," nor
Cosmopolitan crank" but patriotic
Englishman, who does not think his
country's greatness needs to be ekcd
out with more Klondilles and Ugandas,
and refuses to applaud every folly and
crime into which demagogucs in office
may contrivc to delude the nation.
The official return has disclosed
barbarous, vindictive, systematic at
tempt to terrorize and crush n brave
enemy in arms by devastating coun-
try which it was found impossible to
conquer, by running the homes Of SOL
dlers with whom we were waging war,
and by exposing their wives and chill
dren to misery and want
This was violation Of the rccog
nized laws Of civilized war, and was
expressly forbidden by The Hague con-
ference. 1t was especially Infamous
when resorted to against an honorable
body of citizens who were defending
the existence Of their country. 1t was
insane folly in the case Of people
whom It was designed to incorporate
in the empire, who had actually been
proclaimed MS our own fellow country
men.
1t was policy so degrading in plan
and so revolving in its consequences
that any honorable soldiery would have
been justified in declining to undertake
such butchers work.
But our commanders, accustomed to
wholesale slaughter and devastation in
warfare with savages in Asia and in
Africa, and unaccustomed to fight
with any men Of European race, were
found Willing to act on 1t. And min
listers Mt home were found willing to
pallate it with cheerful Indifference
and evaslve sneers. Both soldiers and
ministers may count on this, that their
names will live in history with those
who ordered and executed the barbara
ties of the Thirty Years. war, the
devastation of the Palatinate, and the
dragonnades Of Louis XIV.
Barbarities Of the kind became only
too probable when our rulers entered
with light heart'' on war to con-
quer and crush one of the toughest,
bravest and most independent races in
the world, and gaily announced that
mot shred Of independence would
be left to men of proverbial courage
and obstinacy, who for many genera
tions have faced death, famine and the
extremes Of suffering in order to live
free-and especially free of the hated
British bondage
When the swndlers and braggarts
told us that a little show Of force
COW these Dutch farmers, that, even
If war did result it would be over in a
few weeks and would only cost few
millions, when they entered on one Of
the most formidable wars Of the CEN
tury with ignorance so laughable and
arrogance SO blind, it became clear to
all who knew the history and nature
of the Boer and the physical conditions
Of the task that CHASTITY ferocities
would be resorted to, and that our
British name would be dragged down
| from each meanness and atrocitv to
still lower depths.
The horrible side Of this war to us