The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-01
GRAVE OF ENGLAND
WOULD HAVE BEEN FOUND IN
SOUTH AFRICA.
BoER GENERAL DEWET SAYS.
HAD 1T NOT BEEN FOR MANY
FALSE BURGHERs.

DeWet Has Written n Book Called
''Three Years war"-It Is a vtgor-
Gus and ForcefuI History of the
Struggle I'm South Africa He
Writes He Fought, Fearing
None, and the Book Teens with
Criticfsms-His Views Clash with
the Public's Regarding Merits.
London, Nov. s0.-"Had not so many
of bur burghers proved false to their
own colors. England, as the great Bis
marck foretold. would have found her
grave in South Africa"
That is the keynote of the Boer Gen.
DeWet's book. entitled Three Years
War" published by Archibald Consta-
BILE & Co. in London, and dedicated
by the Boer general to My Fellow
subjects of the British Empire
1t is perhaps the most remarkable
book by the most remarkable leader
that any recent war has produced. The
concise. simply-told tale of the extra
ordinary campaign is marked through
out with the stamp Of truth. The bald
ness of the narrative only serves to
bring into striking relief the fiery pas
sages where a strong man literally
blurts out his soul in pathetic regret or
bitter denunciation.
In thus taking the public into his con-
fidence, DeWet loses none of the CLAM
or with which his exploits in the field
surround him. In criticising he spares
no one: Boer and Briton come equally
under the lash.
Butler, Roberts and Kitchener.
DeWet declares that whatever the
English people may have to say in
discredit of Gen. Butler. he had to
operate against stronger positions than
any other British general. Through
out the work the Boer general has but
slight praise for Lord Roberts and lit
tie more for Lord Kitchener
Gen. Knox is almost the only Brit
ish general who seems to have struck
DeWet as a commander with real mill
itary genius.
OF Tommy Atkins" he has many
kindly words to say, and declares the
British were far from being bad shots.
The comparative immunity of the
Beers from harm, DeWet constantly
ana most fervently attributes to the
interposition of God.
III any reader" he says. is eager
to know how II was 1 kept out of the
enemy's hands. can only answer, al
though / may not be understood, that
1 ascribed 1t to nothing else than this
lit was not Gods will that should
fall into their hands. Let those who
rejoice at my miraculous escapes give
all praise TO God"
strategies lie Employed.
Nevertheless the book teens with
accounts of military and other STRAIT
egies by which DeWet outwitted his
pursuers.
Frequently he recounts cases of de-
sertion and panic among his own men
when his entreaties and ''sjamboking''
were all of no avail. DeWet pays a
tribute to Gen. Cronje for his bravery.
but declares he lost at Paardeburg on
ly because OF his fatal obstinacy
against leaving the lager, as he was
advised to do by Gen. Botha and by
the writer himself. Regarding his kwn
forces, DeWet writes:
1T was far easier to fight against
the English army than against treach-
cry among my own people, and an iron
will was required to fight both. Once,
If only our orders had been carried out
little more strictly and If only the
most elementary rules of strategy had
been observed in our efforts to break
the British lines of communication.
Lord Roberts and his thousands OF
troops would have found themselves
shut up in Pretoria, where they would
have persisted of hunger. 1t was the
skill of their COMMUNICATIVE ief that
saved them"
On the blockhouses DeWet is frank
ly contemptuous. The blockhouse pol
ICY" he says. might equally we'll be
called the policy of the blockhead.'
Condemns the British Methods.
The writer emphatically defends the
right to blow up railroad lines and
trains as the usage of war. and he de-
clares he never missed an opportunity
to do so.
The so-called war against women and
the misuse of the white flag by the
British are denounced by the Boer
general, who says: That such direct
and indirect murder should have been
committed against defenseless women
and children is a thing 1 would have
staked my head would never have
happened in a war waged by the CIV
ilized English nation, and yet 1t hap
pened."
His last word is an injunction to his
fellow-countrymen to be loyal to the
new government. Loyalty" he says.
pays best in the end. Loyalty alone
is worthy of nation which has shed
its blood for freedom"