LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
PRO-BOER JOURNALS AND THE WAR.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] StR,—We have lately witnessed in the attitude of some of the leading journals in their criticism of the recent appoint- ments to high' command in the Army examples of the finest traditions of the British Press. But it should not be for- gotten that there is an antithesis to this patriotic spirit. Only those who often read the Pro-Boer journals can realise the depth to which bitter and unscrupulous party spirit can degrade journalism The Daily News is one of the worst offenders in its violence against the Government, and its systematic misrepresentation of the progress of events in South Africa. There is no whole-hearted repudiation of the outrages and murders, the shooting at women and children, of which the Boers have been guilty. Every check our arms bare received, every success even, by perveree ingenuity is twisted into a lash wherewith to flog his Majesty's Government. Nor does this once high-minded journal stop here ; its articles contain darker features still,—direct in- centives to the Boers to defy our authority and to continue their opposition. The leading article of the Daily News of Monday, October 14th, states : "It is announced from Pretoria that eighteen Boer leaders captured since the 15th of September have, in accordance with Mr. Chamberlain's pro- clamation, been permanently banished from South Africa. Such a decree is a mere threat, and has no authority what- ever. It purports to be made in the name of Lord Kitchener, whose jurisdiction will cease with the war." The Yellow Press at its worst has not made a more mendacious or mis- chievous assertion than this astonishing deliverance of the leading Liberal organ. The writer of the article knows the proclamation is more than a threat of Mr. Chamberlain or Lord Kitchener. It is the expression of the will of the vast majority of the British people at home and in the Colonies. It is more than a menace, for it is already acted upon. The Boers who come under its rigour know it is a reality. Yet the Daily News in its unwarrantable statement directly en- courages Boer resistance by stigmatising the proclamation of the Government as a "mere threat." Suppose the Mayor of a riotous town as he warned the leaders of the mob of the con- sequences of their acts were held up to ridicule by the local Press, would not the whole community thrill with indignation at such lawless anarchy ? It is this spirit the Daily News reveals in its criticism of the Government and its message to the resisting Boers at the Hague and in South Africa. There is another feature in these recent articles which discloses the amazing deterioration the Daily News has suffered in capacity and morale since the days of Walker, Robinson, Cook,—it is the perpetually breaking beyond the bounds of truth and fact which characterises its articles on the war, both political and military. Here is an extract from the issue of Monday, October 14th, which is a fair sample of the futility and confusion which characterise the series. This is written of Itala and other combats:—" The truth about the last fortnight is that after a series of petty reverses in the south-casters corner of the Transvaal and in Zululand, galling and humiliating in themselves, dangerous in their aggregate effect, we have so fax failed in what might have been the chief stroke of the past year. To balance this Lotter (and some one else) has been shot. Scheepers is captured." How this writer can show that our defensive action in those places could have been the chief stroke of the past year puzzles one. And the assertion that Lotter's execution is put forward to balance this failure is simply shameful in its cynical levity. Could the bitterest enemy of England write more adversely than this eminently religious and philanthropic journal ? All this and more occurs in articles in which the truth, the whole truth, about the war is vehemently clamoured• for every day, and the War Office and all concerned are violently denounced for concocting wholesale false- hoods for the British people. The War Office will not find a model of accuracy in the present Daily. Arms, nor will the Liberal party find a stimulus to enlighten Imperialism in these anarchistic assaults upon that order and
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justice which slowly but surely bring peace. This. We's' 2etence of leadership in its journals is one of the chief eases of the demoralisation of the Liberal party, and has helped to make it the most helpless Opposition of modern times. When we hear the Pro-Boers calling for the annexation of the Transvaal and the Free State, and yet denouncing the only steps that can lead to annexation, we feel that mental confusion can go no further. What should we say of a German who advocated the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine, and yet condemned the efforts and sacrifices which made that absorption possible ? Such folly does not exist in Germany, because the Germans are a politically educated people. The political instruction of Englishmen in their responsibilities in the world leaves much to be desired. The first step in such a process is to cast off the sentimental glamour of a feeble, futile, and fanatical Press.—I am, • [Our correspondent's indignation is natural, but we think he takes the ineptitudes of the Daily News much too seriously. To begin with, the effect of such writing as he quotes is absolutely nil. Next, he must remember that you cannot have freedom of speech (and the value of absolute freedom has been abundantly proved in the last two years) without the risk of excesses such as those of which he com- plains. The freedom to say the right thing necessitates the occasional saying of what is wrong. The defence of a man arraigned for a detestable crime by an advocate sometimes seems to be carried too far, yet it is far better to allow even a man of whose guilt there is no moral doubt to be defended as cleverly and as persistently as possible than to forbid the em- ployment of counsel in charges of felony, as they did in the eighteenth century. The nation's cause is surely strong enough and sound enough to allow us to ignore the Pro-Boer news- papers, especially when their views, though so foolish and con- fused, and expressed with such violence and want of taste and dignity, are at bottom honestly held.. We believe that the Pro-Boer Press are fond of accusing us, the Unionist news- papers, of corruption. We have not only no desire to retort in kind, but we are glad to express our unhesitating belief that they are as honest in intention as they are stupid and ilmannered in act.—ED. Spectator.]
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