From the rest of the seat of war there is
little news of any moment, except that contained in a telegram from Lord Roberts, dated April 25th, which records that there was "good news" from Mafeking up till April 10th. There can- not, we fear, be any doubt that Mafeking. is hard pressed, and is beginning to suffer greatly, but the garrison say they can hold out till the middle of May, and by that date Lord Roberts has promised to relieve them, and Lord Roberts is a. man who has a knack of fulfilling his promises, especially in the matter of bringing relief to those in peril,—witness Kandahar, Kim- berley, and now Wepener. Lord Roberts, who is most honour- ably careful in anything which approaches to an accusa- tion against his enemy, ends his telegram as to Mafeking with the statement : " The Boers captured several native women trying to escape from Mafeking, but (these) were turned back after having been stripped and sjambokked." The massacre of thirty-two natives before Mafeking previously reported has not been denied, but we will not dwell upon it
till it has been endorsed by Lord Roberts. The statement as to the flogging of the women cannot, however, help making an impression upon those who have of late been inclined to credit the suggestion that the Boers treat the natives better and in a more humane and kindly spirit than the British. Of course, in reality, the exact reverse is the case. Englishmen have doubtless done many brutal things in South Africa, but if the offences of the two races in the matter were to be weighed in the balance, the result would tell very heavily against the Boers. The essential difference seems to be that a Boer, who is otherwise a good man, will treat the natives cruelly and will not admit that he has done wrong, whereas the Englishman has a conscience in the matter, even if he does violence to it.
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