New-York tribune., 1901-08-04
KIPLING'S WAR TRACT"
4 STUDY IN THE SCIENCE OF
REBELLION.
THE WRITER OF MANY TALES OF
FIGHTING ANALYZES THE TAG
TICS or THE BOND AND RE
LATES AN ALLEGORY

LATES AN ALLEGORY
There viii issue from a printing press in
london IN a few days a small pamphlet bearing
On ifs cover these words: THE Science Of Re-
belion: A Tract for the Times Specially Writ
,en for the Imperial South African Association
br Rudyard Kipling." From proof sheets Sc
cured 10y its London correspondent The Tribune
Is able to print herewith the full text of this in
terestInc tract.
Cape Town, February 1901
II occurred to an eX-minister Of Queen Victoria
on the day after the death was announced to go
into Cape Town with a red flower in his button
hole. All color was wiped out OF the streets; the
Malay women had stitched black armlets
their sleeves, and the pillars of Parliament
House, that was slow last year, 10 rejoice at
the relief of Ladysmith were heavily draped
with mourning. ln the generations TO be, those
now children viii tell their children what trivial
thing they were doing when the news came that
cut across their play and they listened, awed
and curious, 10 the booming of timed guns from
the Warships. The eX-minster sworn servant
Of the dead woman had chosen this day Of all
others 10 parade his oafdom before the sun. His
position, his education, he owed to the Queens
peace: under the forms Of freedom devised by
her stewards. he had been enabled TO work
peacefully and honorably toward the disintegra-
non of her empire; and his sole notion of graft
tude iWho is debtor for the very breath in his
nOstrils 10 the long habit Of order and restraint
established through three generations under her
rue) was 10 run about the city with red flower
in his coat.
day. in gay talk to an acquaintance. he said;
we mean to keep the going till the income
tax is doubled. Then there will be plenty OF
pro-Poers in England"
Taking this for our text let US now consider
the progress of the war at the front-which
front is precisely where il has been for the last
vear-neither in the Transvaal nor the Orange
River Colony, but in Cape Town and Cape
Colony
Fyou re-read the letters of advice and reproof
sent 10 Pretoria and Bloemfontein shortly before
the outbreak OF the war by responsible min
isters' and highly placed officials at Cape Town,
YOU VIII that they so much single
minded eNhortations addressed a possible
enemy as respectful counsels OF prudence from
officers in command Of an unprepared right wing
20 impetuous generals who propose TO fling their
centre into action at once.
one X-minister put the case exactly when he
wrote in effect: Give way now. Later we can
tighten the string AT our pleasure The right
wing of he republican" armies, represented
by The Bond and its allies-the men who have
preached hate for a generation-was in truth
not pleased with the brutal headbreakngs Of
actual war The more careful among them sin
cereiy objected, because they saw their way to
win their ends constitutionally-tha is, by en-
beZZlement rather than by highway robbery.
They looked for sudden, jarring upheaval,
but gradual ana. in spots, state aided deli
quescence Of the race that had abdcated its
sovereign position at Majuba. Yet once called
into the strife, we must own that they did their
duty uohly. For the last twenty years. the
Bond has been practically the sole instructor OF
the upCountry farmer in the cOOny-an organi-
zation able and willing TO trust and TO reward,
politically and personally-a power to be feared
in all relations working without scruple or
change on the emotions Of perhaps the most
ignorant breed of whites and semi-Whites In the
world. Therefore, the upcountry farmer. and
the downcountry one as well, have contributed
from ten TO twelve thousand armed men TO the
ranks Of the enemy. and held passive from thirty
TO forty thousand British troops on the line of
communications. We shall never wholly know
how much information the leaders of the Bond
sent TO the TransVaal and the Free State in the
early days of the war lit takes them over a
week now To send news TO the Northern Trans
Vaal4, and til the documents are printed we can
only guess at the thousand quiet and unostenta-
tious ways in which il hampered and delayed
the efforts Of an army none too wise. As body,
as individuals, in press, in pulpit in caucus
and IN congress. the Bond never forgot that they
were the right wing Of the republican armies
And our own folly helped them. A year ago
some thiTtyeight rebels. their rifles hot in their
hands, were caught at SunnVside- within the
colony and sentenced to various terms or i'm
prisonment A fortnight since. a Dutchman
said 10 an Englishman at Piquetberg Road
where a column is now looking for a commando:
If you'd shot those Sunnyside chaps when
you'd caught 'em We shouldn't have this bother
now There are at present some thousands Of
rebels scheduled for trial. and under the new
treason 5ill-the utmost that could be squeezed
out Of loyal colony-the bulk Of them may be
deprived Of their vote for five years II IL can be
proved that they did not rebel under compul-
We are waiting now to see how far the Dutch
in the colony will accept this invitation TO loot
and free shooting Meantime the farmer to
whom the Bond with the Dutch Reformed
Church have taught the obligations Of hatred,
gives food, forage, horses and information TO
the commanders that have come in from the
north. Very often he acts as unarmed scout in
advance of them. and when he meets police
man Ct wandering patrol, says that he is look
ing for strayed cattle. So he rides back at
leisure tC give his friends the lie or the land.
The farmer believes himself TO be velvet. If
az long last the republics" lose he will present
enormous bills for compensation 10 the British
grsrE G,sp NgwfF In hnN
spoil, viii swear that he was Of all most loyal
II the republics" win. he is promised the pick
OF the loyalsts' farms, and since the loyalist is
seven times out Of ten a progressive, with grade
stock, clean sheep, and We'll arranged water
supply. the inducement is simple and direct
The lootng Of small shops. where the women
take the calico and the timed foods. and the
men the tobacco and whiskey is foretaste OF
the good time coming. In any other part OF the
world these things would be called common
theft but here they seem TO be political offences.
And so the game goes on: the Bond lifting not
finger 70 check II. The Bond says, i'm the first
pace, that their people are misguided They
should have resisted at this eleventh hour the
Teaching of the Bond-should have flown in the
lace of every influence brought to bear on them
from their youth. Secondly tthis point is gener-
any developed by persons Of Continental eXtrac-
non who have grown TO Importance under Brit
lsh rule, how can the Bond hold these mis-
guided foik from sympathiZng with dOwntrod-
oeh patriots OF their own breed-lawful over
l9Ios OF the soil? Thirdly. a Dutch rising Is
always probable-rnost regretable, but still quite
or The cards. No one, says the Bond. can forsee
Where such a rising might end. Would IL not be
uetter then 10 consult South African sentiment
N The settlement"-and under threat of a
Duteh rising. condone all the acts OF their allies
~ cape colony2 In plain English, acknowledge
me Dutch the dominant power in South
-Atilca. Sometimes the Bond adds touching APP
pals against the danger Of waking further race
ss1ted, Ignorant OF the fact that had the empire
-I three months been actuated with one-tenth
=, VI me race hatred these men have taught their
Msguded constituents for the last twenty