Today’s Tenniel Boer War cartoon I’ve copied was published on 20th December 1899 and it’s entitled “The Sullied White Flag”.
THE SULLIED WHITE FLAG
JOHN BULL “IF YOU ABUSE THAT FLAG, I WON’T ANSWER FOR MY MEN.” |
The caption is :-
JOHN BULL “IF YOU ABUSE THAT FLAG, I WON’T ANSWER FOR MY MEN.”
Now, I’ve tried hard to find out exactly which specific
incident prompted this cartoon, and all I’ve managed to find out is that there
was some incident involving a flag of truce in Mafeking, which was under siege
at the time. What happened, I have not to this point been able to find out.
However, I think that the message within the images seems
pretty clear. The Boer on the left looks sly and shifty. His eyes particularly
are dark and evil looking. If anything his posture suggests that he is cringing
away from John Bull. While John Bull himself looks clean, upright, immaculate
and his revolver is pointed towards the ground and not at the back of the Boer.
The relationship between the two figures suggests that the British have been
having the upper hand, while the Boers have to resort to subterfuge. Yet up to
this point the Boers had very much the better of the fighting and action. When
I look at the caption I am irresistibly reminded of President Donald Trump
threatening there would be ‘no more Mr. Nice Guy’ towards Iran a week or two
ago, with much the same effect. At best it’s a misrepresentation of the state
of the war at this time.
I’ve no doubt that I haven’t seen every cartoon John
Tenniel made between October and December of 1899, but I haven’t seen any
cartoon he made in this period which even acknowledged any setbacks suffered by
the British army. Tenniel could be a trenchant critic of politicians and
governments on purely domestic issues, but when it came to foreign relations he
was strongly pro-British. After he was knighted in 1893 at the age of 73, it
probably shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise that he would be a strong
supporter of the official line on the war.
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