TO COMBAT THE BOND.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11483, 16 January 1903, Page 4

TO COMBAT THE BOND.

The recent assertion by the travelling correspondent of a Transvaal paper, to tbe effect that Cape Colony k rotten with disloyalty, gives interest to the attempt now being made in that colony to set up an organisation in opposition to the Afrikander Bond. That famous body's attitude towards Great Britain is too well known to need explanajtion. Actively, or passively if open action was dangerous, it has asWfited to foment rebellion and sedition throughout the Cape, where it is strongest loyalty is at its lowest ebb, and it is reasonably suspected of having numbert what should have been the actively loyal policy of Cape Cabinets. While the Bond holds power and has to face only a disorganised and divided loyal opposition, racial bitterness will never die out of South Africa. Internally, the effect of its stagnant policy has been to retard the progress of the colony for twenty yearpast. The Progressive party, the sworn foe of the Bond, appears to have been severely shaken by the death of Mr Cecil Rhodes, but an effort is now being made to re-unite the divided ranks on one platform, and present a solid front to tbe domination of the Bond. The first of the principles of the proposed South African Progressive Association gives the keynote to its chief reason for existence. The members are required to subscribe to "an un- "" alterable resolve to support the existing "supremacy of Great Britain in South " Africa, and a strenuous opposition to any "attempts that might be made to weaken "or destroy that supremacy." The promotion of Progressive legislation, of good government, and of amicable relations among the various South African colonies, are other ■ planks in tho platform, which will no doubt prove of value in the general elections towards tbe endi of this year. But the outside interest in the fortunes of tne South African Progressive Association will be due to its leading principle, and Britis-i loyalists throughout the world will wish it success in its campaign against England's most dangerous enemy in South Africa.