The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-09-13
VIII the Beers Retalfates

telegraphs. in wild haste
and with every appearance OF indignant
wonder that the Boer leaders have ans
wered his impudent and cruel procla-
nation by ordering the instant execu-
tion of all British soldiers captured in
the Orange Free STATE after September
Is. He imparts this dreadful informa-
ton to 10 Chamberlain, upon whom he
car. of course, rely for sympathy, and
so appeals to the credulous n long
suffering British public, upon whom
they both rely for moral backing and
financial succor. 1t is a great play
and 1t ought 70 win, especially with a
people impervious to humor and incap-
able of seeing themselves as others see
them. We haven't the slightest doubt
that England will snort as with a sin
gle throat and call ChriStendom to
witness hat the Beers are STEPPED in
cruelty and wickedness.
Yet. what less can Kitchener expect?
Here for months and months past he
has been burning the homes and devas-
tating the fields Of the Beers. driving
their old men, their women and their
children into corrals n feeding them
according to the reports of reputable
British surgeons n ~nurses-upon de-
cayed meat. rotten vegetables, worm
eaten flour and sugar, &c. Miss Hob
house has investigated the South At
rican prison pens in person and has
proclaimed, through the public prints
of London, that the treatment of the
Boer prisoners by the British author
tiles is savagely shameful, a disgrace
to civilization. The death rate among
the Boer children has been and still is
appalling. All England rings with the
accursed scandal, and Pity hides her
streaming Eyes. On top of this, as
though in an insane endeavor to di-
vert the attention of outraged Chris
tendon from the actual infamy to one
of its least important details, the news
paper organs Of the Chamberlain-Mil-
ner conspiracy ave broken out in loud
complaints to the effect that England's
heavenly charity toward the destitute
Beers is meeting with the most hideous
ingratitude, followed by passionate
announcements of new and still more
energetic measures for the future.
Kitchener, in fact, has made solemn
proclamation of his purpose to exile
all Beers captured in an attitude of
patriotic after the 18th Of the
current month. And yet, in the face
of all this deliberate barbarity and bru-
tai persecution practiced by himself,
Kitchener has the audacity to arraign
lit DOSlS d VI llISlI lHISdI "
retaliate in kind!
Within the past year DeWet, Botha,
Delarey and the other Boer command
erS have, among them. killed no less
than 10, 900 British officers and soldiers
and captured at least twice that num-
Der in the aggregate. Up to this time
they have refused to treat even enc
mics taken in arms with the cruelty
which Kitchener has visited Upon help
less women and children. AS a matter
of fact, the Beers have in all cases set
their prisoners free, not even eXacting
from them either promise or parole.
With their women and children hud-
died in unwholesome prisons, ill-fed,
il-treated. cared for less tenderly than
the British mules and horses, they have
still maintained the policy of forbear-
ance and humanity. But there is a
limit to mortal patience, and the Beers
may well have reached that limit by
this time. We can believe it. We find
it quite conceivable that, driven, hunt
ed, prosecuted as they are, enraged by
the knowledge that their mothers,
wives. sisters. little ones are treated
with the grossest cruelty, goaded be-
yond endurance, and denied the hope
of aid from outside their boundaries
it is conceivable to US, We say, that
as a last desperate resort they may
repay barbariSm with barbariSm, per-
secution with persecution, murder with
murder.
1t is dreadful! Oh, dear, yes-dread-
full, indeed! 1t is dreadful to assassi-
nate soldiers who have ceased fighting
and who beg for mercy on the field Of
battle; but the English set the example
of this infamy at E~landslaagte. It is
dreadful to burn the root over the
heads of helpless women and feeble
children and then coop them up in pris-
ons, where death is a welcome issue of
their sufferings: but Roberts and
Kitchener have done these evil things,
deliberately and systematically and
heartlessly. To home-loving people
like the Beers. passionately attached
to their families and their firesides,
exile is worse than death; yet to this
fate the English have condemned thou
sands without trial and without mercy.
And now what have the Beers left to
them save vengeance? And who shall
blame them if they take it?-Washing-
ton Post.