A GERMAN NEWSPAPER ON THE WAR.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR., SIB,—I do not know whether the enclosed translation—as literal as it well can be — of the principal article in the Dresdener Nachrichten of Tuesday, September 3rd, will seem to you worth even partial publication. You may very likely deem it wiser to ignore these exhibitions of ill-feeling, so frequent since the outbreak of the war, both in the leadhig German and Austrian papers. The present is indeed but a quite ordinary specimen, and some one or other of these papers produces almost daily something of the kind. We in England live, I think—unless we happen to have reasons for following Continental journalism—in a blissful ignorance of the true feelings with which we are now generally regarded in both Germany and Austria; yet I cannot but think that it would be, in many ways, more wholesome if we for once realised our Teutonic neighbours' attitude towards us as such exhibitions as the enclosed show it to be. Or are we here to
see but another proof of what Dr. Leyds and his funds can achieve ? This one is unwilling to credit, at any rate, of one of the otherwise most reputable and most widely read of North German papers.—I am, Sir, &c., X. X.
"Tux WAR III SOUTH AFRICA.-‘ God has forsaken no people which had not forsaken itself.' The hope that these words of H. von Treitschke will after all finally prove true in the case of the Boers c uses again within the range of possibility by the latest news i m the seat of war This regulation of the English Commander-in Chief Li. e., Kitchener's proclamation as to September 15th and after], which mocks all the principles of military and national law, has had as a consequence that the war is broken out anew and its conclusion further postponed than ever. It is indeed just the shameless lack of all consideration Piickvientslosigkeit J displayed by the British mode of warfare which appears to have renewed the Boers' courage and refilled
their ranks [On the state of affairs in the Cape Colony.] To all appearances it is the exasperation and bitterness
created by the inhumanity and barbarity by which the British seek to end the war that have led to this kindling of the flames of rebellion in the Colony itself. There the compatriots [of the Boers] can no longer remain mere spectators of the ghastly tragedy which the English are playing in South Africa, solely with the object of satisfying their lust for gold. The barbarous process of extermination which Chamberlain's executioners [Henkersknechte] are employing, since the Boer Republics refuse to be destroyed by other methods, has made the Afrikander realise the fate that would be his also did the British succeed in obtaining unrestricted power throughout South Africa. That the
Cape Dutch are now taking up arms is a proof that the end of the war must be still .doubtful and moreover
that the English are carrying on the war against the Beers by methods of such refined cruelty as would not be employed even by the most savage tribes of the Black Continent in the extirpation of their foes. The inhabi- tants of the Colony, who prefer rather to die with their fellow-countrymen than longer to suffer the British yoke, are eloquent witnesses to British barbarity ; the man whom such appeals cannot call to arms must indeed be without all heart ! In the 'concentration camps' the wives and children of the Boers are herded together, to die slowly of starvation and misery. Because the Boers had the ill-fortune to have cultivated, by long years of toil, lands which contained rich gold-fields which they refused to hand over gratis to the English, the whole Dutch race is to be systematically extirpated from South Africa! Such must be the conviction to which the Cape Dutch have by degrees come, in the face of such abominations as those practised by Kitchener and his fellows, at the bidding of a Chamberlain. On the vague assertion of an English officer that some one had told him a Boer had, at Vlakfontein, shot a wounded Englishman. Lord Kitchener is required from London to condemn to death the leaders and chiefs of the still fighting Bons for this 'murder,' in case it be • proved ' that they is ere, not indeed the authors,
but even the spectators of it The very elements which were originally inclined towards peace have been forced by British brutality to the decision lather to fight to the last dr la of their blood than submit to an enemy who has divested himself of all the instincts and feelings of humanity. Nor can the unlimited lying of the English news-avency any longer deceive as to the fact that the tactics of Lord Kitchener, defying as they do the rights of nations, have produced just the opposite
of the results expected of them All the operations of the English gentrals result in complete failure, and the lists of ' captures ' which Kitchener's reports contain do little to help matters here. It is by now evident that the British commander reckons as 'prisoners of war' every sort of human being whom the English troops are able to lay hands on : women, children, old men, every class of non-combatants in short, as well as all who voluntarily surrender. One of these lists of 'prisoners of war' reaches the noble total of eighteen, the names of two among whom have been revealed by an indiscreet correspondent one was the niece of ex-President Steyn, the other the mother cf General Delarey ! It is likewise characteristic that such lists have far less to tell of captured arms than of the total of slain, wounded, or surrendered Boers. According to Lord Kitchener's bulletins his 'army has already ' conquered ' as many horses, oxen, cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, and the like as the whole of South Africa contained ! An end must once and for all be at length put to this English swindling system, and the truth must come to light."
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