BRITON AND BOER.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 437, 9 June 1902, Page 2

BRITON AND BOER.

TI-IE KITCHENER GRANT. IRISH MEMBERS VIOLENTLY OPPOSE THE GRANT. FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH BOERS. NO HITCH ANYWHERE. IMPORTANT SPEECHES GIVEN BY STATESMEN, GRATITUDE TO THE COLONIES, ADDRESS BY THE QUEEN, By telegraph—Press AssociationCopyright. LONDON, June 7. In the House of Commons Mr Balfour moved, and the motion was very

heartily supported by Sir H. A. Campbell Bannerman, that a grant of fifty thousand pounds be made to Viscount Kitchener, Mr Dillon objected to the motion. Mr Redmond accused Viscount Kitchener of making war on women and children. A violent .scene ensued. The closure was applied. The grant was voted hy 380 votes to 4-1. Labouchere and Cremer were the only Radicals in the minority. The votes for grants for soldiers and sailors was carried by 383 to 43. Sir H. A. Campbell Bannerman then again expressed the country’s admiration lor both services.

Mr Chamberlain, in acknowledging a message of sympathy from Birmingham, said that the terms granted to the Boers-, although generous , would secure all for which Great Britain had been fighting. It would prove to he the foundation of a lasting settlement.

The British Government has congratulated Viscount Kitchener on the energy, skill and patience that he displayed in the conduct of the campaign in South Africa. The Government also asked him to convey to the troops the Government’s profound sense of their spirit and endurance in meeting every call, their bravery in action, and their excellent discipline and humanity throughout a trying period. Viscount Kitchener replied, sincerely thanking the Government on behalf of the army.

General Slialkburger, addressing tiie Pietermaritzburg concentration camps, advised the people to forget and forgive. It was, the Boer leader said, hopeless to struggle longer, and it was best to act up to the terms of the surrender.

General De Wet, speaking .at the concentration camps on the Vredefort road, urged the burghers to show what good colonials the Boers, could make. Viscount Kitchener reports that 1154 Boers have surrendered arms in the various districts.

On Thursday tire Commissioners delivered speeches, the Boers responding with three hearty cheers for Kitchener and His Majesty .the King. Tiie best possible relations exist, ‘ There is no hitch anywhere. President Roosevelt has asked the Hon. Arthur liaikes, Secretary to the British Embassy at Washington, to convey to Lord Salisbury his kind and sincere congratulations on peace being attained.

The House of Lords unanimously concurred in the grant to Kitchener. A like unanimous decision was given in regard to the grants to the forces.

Lord Salisbury made an impressive speech in dealing with .the subject. He said that .Great Britain had been content to attract the defenders hy motives of honor and patriotism, .which they would never have cause .to regret. Never before, said Lord Salisbury, had there been such abundant cause to thank their colonial fellow-subjects for the support tendered when most needed.

The more the difficulties. increased, said Lord Salisbury, the warmer and clearer grew the loyalty or the colonies, “enabling us to impress upon all our opponents our ability to umnnchingly carry through a conflict of which there were few examples in our history.’’

Continuing, Lord Salisbury said that “ whatever was the extent of the animosity of our opponents, there was strength enough in the steadfastness of L'ngiishmen, and above all, in the steadiast aflection of our oversea kinsmen, to frustrate the efforts of our opponents, ’f

England, he said, was never safer

than during a period of apparently the greatest danger, and she had emerged irom the conflict much stronger than she had entered into it.

Lari Spencer cordially seconded tljj motion, and in doing so said ihat the difficulties overcome had been unprecedented^

In the House of Commons, Mr Chamberlain said that assistance .to restore the people to their homes would be applied to all Britishers in South Africa. In the House of Commons Mr Balour stated that the promised enquiry into the management of the war was engaging the attention of the Government.

Mr Chamberlain, in opening the Colonial Troopers’ Club, said that Canada and Australasia had sent to South Africa an army greater than was the British army; at Watery “If,” said Mr Balfour, “our need had been greater, the colonial forces wouM have been multiplied manifold.” He said that the Club was a proof of the sympathy and brotherhood animating the whole race.

Her Majesty the Queen, in thanking the Mayoress and women of Leicester for a peace address, said that she would be thankful if she could be instrumental in any way in lessening the sufferings and privations of those who had fought so nobly and bravely for their beloved country^

VIENNA, Jun. 7. The Austrian Field-Marshal, Ratzenhofer, in an article in the Nieufreeresne says “ The manner in which the British fought the engagements, in the penultimate stage of the war and Lord Kitchener’s systematic occupation of the theatre of war, command the greatest respect on the part of an expert. The army may look with justifiable pride on an achievement calculated to en-

hance the military prestige of Great Britain, whose world-wide dominion is in no wise impaired.”