KRUGER INTERVIEWED.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 246, 25 October 1901, Page 3

KRUGER INTERVIEWED.

lIIS HE MARKABLE STATEMENTS

Tiik Daily Telegraph correspondent; at Ililvovsum reported an interview with Kruger. Asked if his objections to Lord Kitchener’s proclamation were based on international law, Kruger answered : “ International law ! I am not learned in the intricacies of international law ; but unless it be very different from tho rudimentary laws of humanity it must condemn as a crime the attempt to add arbitrary pains and penalties to the awful risks taken by men who are fighting for their homes, their families, and their country.”

“ But it is alleged in the preamble that things have changed since tho war broke out,” was urged ; *• so that the war properly so-called is over, and a guerilla warfare is taking its place.” “ Nothing lias changed except the attitude of the British Government,” replied Mr Kruger, with emphasis ; “ nothing, nothing. We follow to-day the tactics we followed in the very beginning. You called them military c tactics then ; you name them irregular warfare now. They are the tactics of defence.

“ Ever since the capture of Bloemfontein the British have trampled on the code of international law. They- have burned our farms, broken up our families, and treated ourselves as criminals.

“ Your papers are often jubilant about the seizure of transports and provisions, lt sounds like an incident of war. But outfighting men have no commissariat. They live from hand to mouth. It is not for them that the provisions are being sent. Most of the transports now taken are the food of women and children. It is they who suffer when these victories are

scored.” •- But the numbers of your fighting men have dwindled down very considerably,” said the interviewer, “ the warfare now carried on can no longer be regarded as regular.”

“ Not regular ” repeated Mr Kruger, with a look of indignation and a voice of thunder. “ What, then, is regular warfare ? What minimum of soldiers are required for a regular battle ? How many open battles for a regular war'.’ What wars ever fought in history by bravo peoples for their fatherland would be regular if judged by that novel standard ? Outnumbers arc indeed small, but they were never overwhelming; that is the tragic element of the struggle. They are smaller now than they were ; that is the fortune of war.

“ Our soldiers are commanded by officers. the officers are led by generals—everything in a word is done in accordance with the strictest rules of regular warfare, aye, and of civilized warfare, and the results bear out what I assert.

“ Were our successes at Bronkor’s Spruit or at Vlankfontein irregular ? Were the fourteen prisoners we took at the beginning of this week irregularly taken ?

“ The threat of future fines has no meaning for men who carry their lives in their hands, and fear none but God. The throat of perpetual banishment will make them fight until the grave becomes their home. That is the only possible effect of the proclamation on the soldiers in the field,” said the ex-President. Later on the interviewer remarked,

“ The feeling in England is that, whatever may be said of the apparent causes which actually led up to the declaration of war, the British Empire is fighting for its very existence in South Africa.”

“ Yes, yes; I know,” Mr Kruger eagerly answered; "the old and mendacious story of a conspiracy against Great Britain on the part of the two Republics. That story of a conspiracy is a lie. An abominable lie. I here proclaim it before Almighty God to be a lie which has wrought bloodshed and rnin. God in heaven knows I speak the truth, and my witnesses on earth are Lord Salisbury and Mr Chamberlain. “ Never was there a more mischievous, diabolical lie coined since man first appeared on the globe. God alone can now undo the untold evil it has worked in His creation. We did our utmost to ward it off. We wanted peace, we yearned for means of establishing, of safeguarding it. We wished to live in friendship with the other races. God in heaven hnows we did, W’e are willing to purchase peace, and pay a high price for it. “ But peace at least is still possible, peace and that gradual friendship between the Dutch and Anglo-Saxon races which alone can ensure prosperity in South Africa. I long for that peace, and pray God to bring it about, as wistfully and as fervently as I did two years ago. A modus vivendi could have been found before the war. It can be found to-day.”