OCR Text |
Show A SPICY LETTER. Ambassador Chontc was taken' to task recently by a sturdy Englishman, who took "exception to his gust and laudation of Lord Roberts because of his . supposed victories in the Boer republic. The trouble trou-ble with our. representatives to foreign courts is that they do not represent the people. Dazzled by the glitter of royalty, and aping aristocracy, they forget the dignity of a true American citizen. In their aspirations to be ranked among the nobilitv, they crawl at the feet of royalty, and sacrifice not I only their manhood, but that of the country they arc supposed to represent. How our ambassador to the court of St. James gave offenxc to the Englishman Eng-lishman is told in the following letter, published in Reynold's Newspaper: "Sir The rules of good sense, good manners and good taste alike proscribe that a foreign resident resi-dent in a country shall refrain from public expressions expres-sions of his personal views on the domestic affairs of that country. The obligation incumbent on those who have no representative character is of immeasurably greater force in the case of one intrusted in-trusted by his fellow citizens with the duty of representing rep-resenting them in a foreign country. You have trampled under foot the rules of good sense, good manners and good taste, and, still worse, you have allowed yourself to throw to the winds all the restraints imposed upon you by the high office you hold. On a recent occasion you prostrated yourself before Lord Roberts'. You told your hearers that his fame had filled three continents. conti-nents. "Let us," you said, speaking in the name of the United States, "let ns ltave a little share of tl!S glory. T do most cordially invite him, both in my official and in my personal capacity, to cross the ocean. I can assure him that he will have a rccep- tion such as no other Englishman has had in the .United States or in any other country." 'Sir. I wilfrnot stay to ask whether you were authorized au-thorized thus to speak in the name of the country of which you are the accredited representative. That is a matter which rests between you and those whom you represent. J am concerned only with the fact that these words were spoken in England by a foreign ambassador. "You cannot but be aware that the mere mention .) I'Lonl lMvrts' name brings blush to the cheek of thousands of the bct. men .-uid the best women of this country. What is this fame which has"filled three continents ?his'glor, of which you desir? a share? It is the fame of the devastator, the glory of the man who deliberately set himself t destroy all the works of peace in a vast P-rritory. Not as a painful necessity of warfare, but o' fixed purpose. pur-pose. Lord Roberts destroyed thms:i:,d of 'farmsteads, 'farm-steads, burnt sehoolhiU-'es. out down fruit trees, trampled crops into the earth, broke down irrigation irriga-tion dams, destroyed sheep, cattle, the very implements imple-ments of husbandry.- Two of your -fellow country, men. Messrs. Putnam and Van Dor Weyde, have energetically protested against the imputation that, a precedent for this destruction could be found in the deeds wrought in your civil war. "Hut this is not all. Unable to conquer the men who, like your brave forefathers in the war of independence, inde-pendence, wore fighting for their freedom. Lord Roberts made war on their women and children. Six years ago only six years from now President MeKinlcy addressed to congress a celebrated message. mes-sage. He denounced the method adopted by (h'n-eral (h'n-eral Weyler in his war on the Cubans. "Reconoon-tration, "Reconoon-tration, adopted avowedly as a war measure to cut. off the resources of the insurgents, worked its predestined pre-destined result. It was extermination. The only peace it could beget was that of the wilderness and the grave' With what, sincerity, or want of sincerity, you can judge better than T. he declared that the adoption of these methods left to the United Unit-ed States no choice but to intervene in the sacred names of humanity and civilization. 'The war in Cuba,' he declared, 'must stop.' Lord Roberts bettered bet-tered the instruction of General Wevler; the graves of more than 15,000 children testify to his success. "I will not dwell on Lord Roberts' earlier career. I have not to tell here of his deeds in Afghanistan, where he carried fire and slaughter into unresisting villages. It is not those exploits that have caused you to prostrate yourself and your country before him. ell killed two republics, ruined a vast land, and instituted his foul 'camps,' in which these thousands thou-sands of children were done to death. It is those deeds which have carried his fame through three continents; it is for those deeds that you invite, him to cross the Atlantic to receive the homage of America. "Sir, with grief I say it, you need not to have left your country to find fitting subjects of your eulogies. You have at home soldiers whose fame has filled the world the practicers of the 'water cure j' the general who gave orders to 'shoot everything every-thing over ten'jiu a word, the butcher of the Filipinos. Fili-pinos. Co back to your country, and there worship wor-ship at the .shrine of militarism a militarism which has revived the methods and the infamies of the sixteenth century. In your own country preach the gospel of fire, sword, slaughter, famine, desolation, desola-tion, the murder of innocents. The area of the I'nited States is wide enough; be content with it. There you will be within your rights. Here we do not need your aid. AX" ENGLISHMAN." A |