Lord Kitchener has forwarded to the War Office a state-
ment as to murders of natives by the Boers. The despatch deals in all with some forty cases, in eight of which full par- ticulars and the names of witnesses are given, while the re, mainder are mostly attested by resident magistrates, and further evidence is being collected. To take one instance out of many, we may quote the case of five natives murdered near Wilge River:—" On capturing a train near Wilge River, Transvaal, on 11th March, 1901, the Boers took five unarmed natives on one side and shot them, throwing their bodies into a ditch. Corporal Sutton, of the Hampshire Regiment, saw, after the surrender, a Boer put five shots into a native who was lying down. Other soldiers on the train vouch to seeing one man deliberately shoot five boys in cold blood." In more than one case the victims were mutilated as well as murdered, Where a reason is assigned it is nearly always that of giving information to the British, but the general character of the evidence and the lack of sufficient motive fully justify Mr. Brodrick's view that the murder of Kaffirs and the outrages committed on them are not committed in moments of passion, but are part of an organised system for covering the enemy's tracks from possible information. There is no need fot
further comment. Where the natives are concerned the Boers always show the cruelty and callousness of the slave. holder. The black is to them an animal.
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