THE LUST OF CRUELTY.
of mixed nationality in Peru, far from the blazing light of publicity, committed crimes of a dastardly order, you write an article full of indignation, and endeavour to commit our nation to a still greater crime and an act of folly.
There was a story current many years ago of a small boy at
a public school consigned to the care of an older boy and mentor. The child's name was Buckley. When trouble area° the mentor called out, "Show me the boy who struck Buckley." If the aggressor was a small boy the mentor and protector gave him a good hiding. But if the aggressor turned out to be a big boy the diplomatic mentor said, "Serve the young beggar right, he is always in trouble !" I wonder if you see the analogy. Where was your pen when ill-treatment of natives was rife on the Congo P In that case I read many platonic articles of yours advising diplomatic pressure. But did you ever ask for a naval demonstration off Antwerp or on the mouth of the Congo P I stand for correction, but I, a very constant reader of your paper, never saw it! No, Buckley's aggressor then was a big boy.
I have lived twenty years in Latin America. I have seen
these young nations struggling through darkness to light. I know how sensitive their rulers are to European criticism, and I well know the difficulties under which Britons live there. Your article, coming from the pen of a responsible Englishman, will give deep offence to all Latin republics working out their own salvation under a new environment, and doing it better and more quickly than did our fore- fathers here in England. These young nations are not children to be threatened with a big stick. You dare not threaten with naval demonstrations Portugal or Belgium. They live too near home, and European complications would at once arise. Why, then, by your article make more difficult the lives of your own co-nationals living in distant and hospitable lands P They have their own local difficulties to contend with, and their path is not made smoother by publishing here in England articles which embitter the relations between the Governments which give them hospitality and our own. Peru can, and will, put its own house in order. Peru requires no Monroe doctrine, nor any interference from Englishmen or North Americans. Sir Edward Grey was a wise man when he limited himself to publication of the facts
That was sufficient and diplomatic. The course you advocate would defeat its own ends. It is not diplomatic, and is lacking in ordinary tact.—I am, Sir, &c., [Our correspondent cannot have been a very diligent reader of the Spectator if he thinks we did not dare threaten the Congo or Portugal with a naval demonstration. As to the Putumayo outrages, we would advise him to read the Blue Book, and not merely the extracts in the Press, which give an entirely inadequate impression of the horrors disclosed by Sir R. Casement, before he condemns our protest against the failure of Peru to punish the perpetrators of infamies and tortures worse than death.—En. Spectator.]
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