25 JANUARY 1902, Page 19

It is,impossible to review this case without expressing sur- prise

and indignation at the carelessness shown by the supporters of the Boers in the Press and out of it in reposing political confidence in Dr. Krause, who ever since his coming to Europe had been in close communication with and in the pay of the Boer authorities. A man may feel it his duty to side against his country, but surely when he does so he should exercise the most scrupulous care in the choice of his in- formants and the selection of those enemies and ex-enemies on whom he relies for evidence against the cause of his own nation. This salutary caution has again and again been disregarded with a recklessness little short of criminality. Instead of showing care and discrimination in such matters, the Pro-Boer really seems to regard the fact that a man has fought, or intrigued, or written, or acted against the Mother- land as a kind of passport to belief and confidence. The result is that, as in the case of Dr. Krause, a plotter of private murder is accepted with open arms by those who condemn all war as wicked and unjust. In truth, the Pro-Boers too often seem intoxicated with the heady wine of self-righteousness.