Omaha daily bee., 1902-12-01
DEWET WRITES OF WAR
Says Beers Lost Because Of Traitors Within
Their Lines.
PANIC AND DEsERTloN FREQUENT EVENTS
Praises BuIIer, Knox and Private SOL
, .diers, but Thinks Little of Either
berts or Kitchener and De-
-es BIockhouse system.

LONDON, Nov 80.-"Had not so many OF
our burghers proved false to their own
colors, England, as the great Bismarck
foretold, would have found her grave in
South Africa" That is the keynote OF
General Dewet's book entitled Three
Years War" published today and dedi-
Gated ITO my fellow subjects OF the British
empire"
II is perhaps the most remarkable book
by the most remarkable leader that any
recent war has produced. The concise,
simply told tale Of the extraordinary cam
paign is marked throughout with the stamp
of truth. The badness of the narrative
only serves to bring into strong relief the
fiery passages in which a strong man liter
ally blurts out his soul in pathetic regret
or bitter denunciation.
In thus taking the public into his con-
fdence Dewet loses nothing of the glamor
with which his exploits in the field sur
round him. In criticizing he spares no one,
Boer and Briton come equally under the
lash.
Praises General Buller.
Dewet declares that whatever the Eng
lish people may have to say in dscredit
Of General Butler, he had to operate
against stronger positions than any other
British general. Throughout the work he
has but slight praise for Lord Roberts. and
little more for Lord Kitchener General
Knox is almost the only British general
who seems to have struck Dewet as COM
mander with real military 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 and most
fervently attributes to the interposition Of
God.
"If any reader" he says, "is eager to
know how IL was l kept out OF the enemy s
hands can only answer, although l may
not be understood, that l ascribed it to
nothing else than this, 1t was not Gods
will that 1 should fall into their hands.
Let those who rejoice at my miraculous
escapes give all the praise to God"
Nevertheless, the book teens with ac-
counts Of military and other strategies by
which Dewet outwitted his pursuers.
Frequently he recounts cases OF desertion
and panic among his own men when his
entreaties and "sjamboking" we're all of nc
avail He pays a tribute to General Cronje
for his bravery, and declares he lost al
Paardeburg only on account of his fatal OBJ
stinacy in refusing to leave the lager, az
he was advised to do by General Botha and
by the writer himself.
Hard to Fight Traitors.
Regarding his own forces Dewet writes;
"It was far easier to fight against the great
English army than against treachery among
my own people, and an iron will was re-
quired to fight against both. Once, II only
our orders had been carried out a little
more strictly and IL only the most element
airy rules OF strategy had been observed In
our efforts to break the British lines oi
communication, Lord Roberts and his
thousands of troops would have found
themselves shut up in Pretoria, where they
would have perished Of hunger 1t was moi
the skill Of their commander-in-c chief that
saved them"
OF the blockhouses Dewet is frankly con-
temptuous THE blockhouse policy" HI
says, might equally we'll have been called
the policy OF the blockhead."
| He emphatically defends the right to blow
up railroad lines and trains as a usage o.
war, and declares he never missed an op-
portunity to do so.
The so-called war against women and tn,
misuse of the white flag by the British II
: denounced by the Boer general who says
THAT such direct and indirect murder
| should have been committed against de-
fenseless women and children is thing
would have staked my head would have
never happened in a war conducted by
. civilized English nation, but yet it hap
pened."
! His last word is a plea to his fellow
! countrymen to be loyal to the new nation
Loyalty" he says. pays best in the lonl
run, and loyalty is most worthy OF the ma
tion which has shed its blood for free
/ dom"
The book contains a magnificent portrai
| of the author by the American painter
! John s. Sargent