1900 - Belfast occupied by Pole-Carew. Lieutenant Cordua shot.
From The Bookman, October 1900.
We have received the following brief letter from a correspondent, who does not give The his name:
"I read your various observations on the Boer War; and without making any comments of my own, I should be glad to have you express an opinion on the shooting of Lieutenant Cordua by order of Lord Roberts, after the lieutenant had been induced by a British spy to break his parole."
Lieutenant Cordua was an officer and an educated man, who understood the established rules of war. He had given his parole not to engage in any hostile acts against the British, and in consideration of this parole he was released from imprisonment. This being the case, it is quite immaterial who induced him to violate his pledge as an officer and a gentleman and to engage in a plot involving murder. He did so violate his pledge; he was discovered; and he was then very promptly and very properly shot. - H. T. P.
From Hansard, 14 May 1901:
Mr Swift MacNeill: I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether the principal witness at the trial of Lieutenant Hans Cordua, a German who went to the Transvaal in 1895, and who was sentenced to death by court-martial in Pretoria last August and shot for an alleged conspiracy to kidnap Lord Roberts, was one Gano, a Spanish half-breed and a member of the English secret service; is he aware that Cordua swore that Gano inveigled him into the plot by pretending to be a pro-Boer in the British employ, plied him with drink, and procured for him the khaki uniform in which in company with Gano he crossed the British lines, and that it appeared from the evidence that all the Boer prisoners who were approached in regard to this plot refused to have anything to do with it; at whose suggestion and by whose permission was Gano given liberty to move amongst the Dutch and their friends with bottles of whisky, khaki uniforms, and the countersign to pass through the British lines; and whether this plot was one of the causes of the issue of a proclamation by Lord Roberts that all burghers in districts occupied by British troops would be regarded as prisoners of war.
Mr Broderick: Gano referred to in the question was a police agent, and necessarily had facilities for movement about Pretoria and the neighbourhood. Through his agency the plot was discovered. Lord Roberts's proclamation was due to the continual disregard of their oaths by surrendered burghers.
Mr Swift MacNeill: Will the right hon. Gentleman answer the second paragraph, or must I repeat it?
Mr Broderick: I do not know the exact details.
Mr Swift MacNeill: Had this man the power to appear in khaki in order to seduce others from their allegiance?
[No answer was returned]
From the 1900 diary of Lt Burne, RN:
Friday, 24th August.—The winter is slipping away, and to-day I am writing in one of those horrible north-west gales of wind which knock our tents into shreds and whirl round us dust as thick as pea-soup. Our kop life is becoming a little monotonous but we manage to get on.
