The general feeling in the country is that these sentences,
though adequate, are by no means too heavy. Consider what was the punishment to which these terms of imprisonment are the alternative. If Dr. Jameson and his associates had not been tried under the Foreign Enlistment Act they might have been shot on the field at Krugersdorp. They have, in fact, escaped very easily. The question now is whether Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Beit were not also guilty of an offence against the Act under which the prisoners were sentenced, and
whether they ought not now to be placed on their trial. Mr. Rhodes's solicitor has very properly anticipated this demand on the part of the public by announcing in the Press that he has written to the Solicitor to the Treasury informing him that Mr. Rhodes is ready to come to London and take his trial. It is to be hoped in the public interest that the Treasury will prosecute Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Beit. They may have a perfectly good defence, but there is certainly enough prinzei-facie evidence against them to justify a prosecution.
