12 DECEMBER 1914, Page 2

Friday's papers contain a manifesto addressed by General Botha to

the people of South Africa, which announces that the rebellion is now practically at an end. The gallant General and Prime Minister of the Union appeals to the people "to cultivate a spirit of tolerance and forbearance and merciful oblivion of the errors and misdeeds of those misguided people' —i.e., the rebels. We are heartily with General Botha, and we sincerely trust that the Union Government will find it possible to deal very tenderly with the rank-and-file of the revolters and also with their leaders, save only when there has been, as in General Bey era's case, a betrayal of a definite and specific trust, or where there is evidence of respon- sible men having yielded to the corrupt overtures of the Germans. In our opinion, it would not be fair to treat the ordinary Dutch burgher who took up arms as a rebel in the true sense.