OCR Text |
Show WANT OF FORESIGHT. k Morley Says England Stumbled Into War in the Dark. London. Jan. 24. John Morley, addressing ad-dressing his constituents at Forfar, made but little reference to the present aspects of the war in South Africa, confining con-fining himself chiefly to a renewal of ; his indictment of the "policy which j led to hostilities." He ridiculed "thel notion that a few Boer successes entitle en-title the Transvaal to be described a first-class military power," and declared de-clared that "the fact of the Boers ponding pond-ing the ultimatum no more disposed of all other questions than the defiance of the American colonists in throwing the tea into Boston harbor disposed of all the questions of the war of American ( independence." "It is quite certain," continued Mr. Morley, "that had the government appreciated ap-preciated the temper of the Tran.sva.al people and foreseen what was coming what we all know in these black, gloomy days there would have been no war. It if dreadful but true that a want of foresight and decent information informa-tion led the government to stumble into war in the dark. t "Lord Salisbury's menacing speech of July L'S, if applied to a great power, could only have meant war. It was absurd, ab-surd, if the government really believed in a Dutch conspiracy, to epend time in negotiations regarding the franchise. The conspiracy was an afterthought of the government, conjured up to make a hideous and ghastly blunder." In conclusion Mr. Morley declined to commit himself as to what would happen hap-pen in the future, but he warned his heirers nut to be duped by the idea that 1 - ' r,.. the Boers, after defeat, would settle down quietly. With reference to the point at which the conflict would come to an end, Mr. Morley observed: "Something depends on a chance which, I hope, is remote, but is certainly. not invisible, or our being be-ing called off to meet dangers in other quarters." |