The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-16

Boer families are now in possession of articles of loot which might be consid- cred as heirlooms of English families they might not graciously return them
 
 Some incidents relating to the British officer and the civilian at the Cape have been made the subject of inquiry in par liament and given much concern to the war office. They are peculiarly interest ing. Any one who has looked into the matter must admit that the outcome of the Cape ''ragging' case is not very sat isfactory. MT. Stanford, the victim, seems to have been a very harmless sort of person. There are several gentlemen in London who make it their business to aid hostesses to get up their social func- tions, to provide them with a list of whom they ought to invite and to find dancing men for their balls; for in no foreign metropolis Is the habit of wealthy hostesses giving parties to peo- pie whom they do not know, in order to acquire some sort of social currency, car ried further than in London. Mir Stan ford was a gentleman of some means who resided at Cape Town. where his father and grandfather had lived, and he seems to have amused himself by this sort of occupation.
 OtNtfhl OlHceFS rom the lFOnL WnO were at Cape Town, l presume for their health, wanted to give ball, and they seem to have applied to MT. Stanford to invite the Cape Town ladies to it. and to act as one of the hosts On asking Colo nel Cooper. the Base Commandant, to grant them a military band, the colonel consented, provided that all the hosts were military men. MT. Stanford, who had invited most of the ladies. insisted that he, having done so, must remain one of the hosts. Hence the dispute. the ball took place, he attended it with apparently the full consent of the off, cers. but whether as host or a guest is not clear.
 The ball over. several of the officers got him into room with them, and on their own admissions tortured him for several hours finally beating him with a stick or cane, until they forced him to sign document admitting that he had deserved this treatment. He brought an action for damages against them, and the action was finally withdrawn, with the consent of the chief justice of Cape Colony. after the jury had been empan- elled, on their paying s75OO and apologiz- Ing for their conduct. The position, then, was this Mir. Stanford, in his statement of claim, had claimed damages for acts or indecency committed on him, and for acts incident to "ragging." The off cers, rather than allow the case to go on had paid $7,50o and apologized for their conduct A MT. Barclay. a friend of theirs, had been present at the rag ging. He had---as one of their wit nesses in the civil court-been examined on commission, and he had admitted that he witnessed not only the ragginH but acts of the grossest and most bes- tial indecency. It would be an entire mistake to suppose that conduct such as that of the Cape Town rag sers is ap- proved of by the vast majority of our officers There are rowdies in every profession, and they are, of course, to be found In the army. But they are fortu- nately rare exceptions. Our officers are generally speaking honorable and high minded men, keen, as all soldiers ought to be, on questions of honor, and sin cerely anxious that high tone should be maintained in the army. They may very likely think that some exceptional bounder In the army is not greatly wronged by a little rough play But very very few of them would for a mo- ment justify the conduct of the officers towards MT. Stanford at the Cape.