Page:England-a Destroyer of Nations.pdf/23

 in the highlands of Scotland, two centuries ago. We moved on from valley to valley lifting cattle and sheep, burning, looting, and turning out the women and children to sit and weep in despair beside the ruins of their once beautiful farmsteads. It was the first touch of Kitchener's iron-hand—a terrible thing to witness. We burned a track about six miles wide through those fertile valleys. The column left a trail of fire and smoke behind it that could be seen at Belfast....

"Nobody who was there will ever forget that day's work. About 7 o'clock in the morning our force seized the town after a little fight. The Boers went into the surrounding hills, and there was nobody in the town except women and children. It was a very pretty place nestling in a valley. The houses had lovely flower gardens and the roses were in bloom. The Boers drove in our outposts on the flank and began sniping the guns and amid the row of the cannonade and the crackle of rifle fire the sacking of the place began. First there was an ominous bluish haze over the town, and then the smoke rolled up in volumes that could be seen for fifty miles away. The Boers on the hills seemed paralyzed by the sight and stopped The town was very quiet save for the roaring and shooting. On the steps of the church a group of women and children were huddled. The women's faces were very white, but some of them had spots of red on either cheeks, and their eyes were blazing. The troops were systematically 'looking the place over' (looting), and as they got quite through with each house they burned it. As I stood looking, a woman turned to me and pathetically exclaimed: "Oh, how can you be so cruel!" I sympathized with her and explained but all the same that it was an order and had to be obeyed. But all the same it was an extremely sad sight to see the little homes burning and the rose bushes withering up in the pretty garden, and the pathetic groups of homeless and distressed women and little children weeping in abject misery and despair among the smoking ruins as we rode away."

Such is the sad story told by an officer of the British army. Nothing remains for us, but to ask if men, who do not show courage enough to resist against their degradation, to hangman's assistants, have any claim to the title soldier, a name, that should mean a "defender of the right, a protector of homes and the weak."

A brief extract from a letter, written by President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, to Kitchener, in August 1901, throws strong light on the behavior of the British defenders:

"Your Excellency's troops have not hesitated to turn their