WAR- CHRONICLE

22
as to the German prisoners' camps can be contradicted by reports
of several neutral witnesses. Among others, the American Ambassador
in Berlin recently stated that the English prisoners received
suitable treatment as according to his own investigations.
We do not-believe that in face of this statement Lord Kitchener
of all others has any right to make complaints. His name has been
coupled for all time with the ill-famed concentration camps, in
which so many unfortunate women and children lingered miserably
during the Boer, war. The statement that our troops wantonly
shot defenceless prisoners, does not surprise us as made by
Kitchener. The English Army Administration fosters the belief
among its troops that in case of their being taken prisoners, death
or some equally cruel fate awaits them. The reasons for this are
so obvious that we need not further discuss them.
If Lord Kitchener quotes international conventions for justification
of his accusations, we object on the ground that the history
of no nation in the world is so full of examples of the cold
blooded non-observance of such agreements as is the English. A
nation which furnishes its troops with ammunition which tears
cruel wounds, like the British infantery bullet, ought rather to
desist from all discussion about the Hague Convention. A nation
which sends coloured barbarians against a European race, giving
free course to their predatory savage instincts, ought rather not
recall the Dervishes, in whose history the day of Omdurman is
certainly no proof of English gentleness and mildness.
A nation which attempts to starve the German race together
with its women and children, because it feels too weak to conquer
by force of arms in open battle, should abstain from appealing to
the human feelings of others. For it is not its, but owing to our
deserts if we can laugh at this method of warfare and English
honour, which has been indelibly stained for all time, is saved a
blot, that a plan be carried out the disgracefulness of which cannot
be lessened by the helplessness of those who conceived it.
If Kitchener deprives us of his further esteem, because our
conduct in war does not coincide with his ideas of military honour,
we shall bear this in the proud knowledge that by this distinction
between us and him we can only increase in our own estimation.
Inaccuracies in the English Report of the Sinking of the
"Dresden."
On 15th March, the British Admiralty published the following:—
On 14th March at 9 o'clock in the morning, the "Dresden"
was surprised off the Juan-Fernandez-Island, by the cruisers "Glasgow"
(Captain John Luce), the auxiliary cruiser "Orama" Captain John
R. Segrave), and the cruiser "Kent" (Captain John B. Allen). A