Mr. Iwan Muller contributes a very able and most useful
letter to Tuesday's Times, in which he shows not only that we are well within our rights in our treatment of train-wreckers and persons of that kind generally, but that the Boers them- selves set us the example in the present war. He points out that in November, 1899, Commandant Grobler issued a pro.. clamation at Colesberg—i.e., in the Cape Colony—in which he laid down certain rules and regulations. Among these he applies the penalties of martial law, including death, to all persons who do not.constitute a portion of the British army, who, among other things, destroy bridges, railways, and tele- graphs. It will be noted that this proclamation practically took away belligerent rights from all the loyal subjects of the Empire, and accorded them only to the disciplined British forces. Mr. Muller further quotes a very interesting account of an interview with President Steyn, in which the President made it clear that the portions of the Colony occupied by the Boers were held by them to be annexed to the Free State, and that the inhabitants, loyal as well as disloyal, became ipso facto burghers of the Republic. And yet there are plenty of Pro-Boers who honestly believe that the Boers had no aggressive intentions, and were merely resisting our advance when they invaded the Colony and Natal. In truth, they came bent on conquest and annexation.
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