Evening journal., 1902-12-01
SAYS TREACHERY
SAVED ENGLAND
So Declares General De Wet
in His Book Entitled
"1hree Years War"
KIND WORDS FOR TOMMY ATKINS

London Dec. 1.-"Had not many
Of our burghers proved false 20 their
colors. England. as the great Bismarck
foretold, would have found her grave
in South Agrica." That IS the key
note of the Boer General De Vets
book. entitled Three Years War;"
published by Archibald Constable &
Co.. in London, and dedicated by the
Boer general ITO my fellow subjects
of the British empire"
It 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
badness of the narrative only serves
TO bring into strong relief the fiery
passages where a strong man literally
blurts out his soul in pathetic regret
or bitter denunciation. In criticising,
De Wet spares no one: Boer and Bri-
ton como ~qually under the lash He
declare . Mt whatever the English
people u lave to say in discredit OF
General EULER, he had to operate
against stronger positions than any
other British general. Throughout the
work the Boer general has but slight
praise for Lord Roberts, and little
more for Lord Kitchener. General
Knox is almost the only British gen
eral who seems to have struck De Wet
as a commander with real military
genius.
OF Tommy Adkins" 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 De Wet constantly
and most fervently attributes to the
interposition of God. Nevertheless the
book teens with accounts OF military
and other strategies by which De Wet
outwitted his pursuers. Frequently he
recounts cases of desertion and panic
among his own men, when HIS en-
treaties and "sjambohng" were all Of
no avail. De Wet pays a tribute to
General Cronje for his bravery, but
declares that he lost at Paardeberg
only on account of his fatal obstinacy
to leave the laager as he was advised
TO do by General Botha and by the
writer himself.
Regarding his own forces, De Wet
writes: "It was far easier to fight
against the great English army than
against treachery among our own peo-
pie, and an iron will was required to
fight against both. Once, if only our
orders had been carried out a 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
perished of hunger. It was not the
skill Of their commander-in-chief that
saved them"
or the block houses De Wet is
frankly contemptuous. "The block
house policy" he says. might equally
we'll have been called the policy Of the
bloclShead."
The so-called war against women
and the misuse of the white flag by
the British is 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 I should have
staked my head could never have hap
pened in a war waged w the civilized
English nation. and yet 1t happened"
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, and loyalty
alone is worthy of a nation which has
shed its best blood for freedom"