The Imposition Of Personal Penalties Upon The
Officers Of An Opposing Army Is A Step For Which It Is Difficult
To
quote a precedent, nor is it wise to officially rule your enemy
outside the pale of ordinary warfare, since
It is equally open to
him to take the same step against you. The only justification for
such a course would be its complete success, as this would suggest
that the Intelligence Department were aware that the leaders
desired some strong excuse for coming in - such an excuse as the
Proclamation would afford. The result proved that nothing of the
kind was needed, and the whole proceeding must appear to be
injudicious and high-handed. In honourable war you conquer your
adversary by superior courage, strength, or wit, but you do not
terrorise him by particular penalties aimed at individuals. The
burghers of the Transvaal and of the late Orange Free State were
legitimate belligerents, and to be treated as such - a statement
which does not, of course, extend to the Afrikander rebels who were
their allies.
The tendency of the British had been to treat their antagonists as
a broken and disorganised banditti, but with the breaking of the
spring they were sharply reminded that the burghers were still
capable of a formidable and coherent effort. The very date which
put them beyond the pale as belligerents was that which they seem
to have chosen in order to prove what active and valiant soldiers
they still remained. A quick succession of encounters occurred at
various parts of the seat of war, the general tendency of which was
not entirely in favour of the British arms, though the weekly
export of prisoners reassured all who noted it as to the sapping
and decay of the Boer strength.
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