Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1899 The Transvaal.

Manawatu Herald, 6 July 1899, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1899 The Transvaal.

Everyday the possibility of war between Great Britain and the Transvaal becomes more probable, and from the news received from Capetown the chances of a settlement peacefully appears almost an impossibility. Under these circumstances it is well to thoroughly understand the difficulties that have arisen between the Boer government and the Uitlanders, or strangers who are settled within their gates. Mr Arnold White in the " National Review " insists that " the time has now come for the British government either to act decisively in the terms of the Colonial Secretary's declaration, or to acquiese in the renunciation of a suzerainty they are unable to define or unwilling to maintain." We may briefly recapitulate the history of the Transvaal so as to lead to a better understanding of the question as to how Great Britain is involved in what otherwise would be but a local measure of dispute between a nation and its inhabitants. The South African Republic was founded in 1840 in the Transvaal by the Beers who migrated from the Cape Colony, and its independence was recognised by the British Crown in 185*. The Kaffirs. rose against the Republic and defeated their forces in 1877, and the Boers being unable in anyway to withstand them it was feared that their weakness would be taken as a sample of the strength of the rest of the South African colonies, and therefore the British Government sent troops against the natives and having quietened them the land was proclaimed British territory. The Boers having got more settled objected to having their Republic deposed and rose in arms and defeated the British troops at Majuba hill. Unfortunately the late Mr Gladstone was then in office and instead of thoroughly asserting the power and might of Great Britain, acknowledged the defeat and recognised the Boers'

independence. This independence was recognised by a Convention the terms of which set out the powers yet retained by Great Britain, and for some reason there was another Convention in 1884 by which the power of vetoing any treaty the Republic might make with all foreign powers was retained. All the present trouble rests upon this consideration for a very weak power.

The Uitlanders appeal is concisely explained by Mr Arnold White in the following passage ;-—" The petitioners, whose appeal to their fellow-country-men is now under consideration by the Government, are suffering from that class of injury which is the direct cause of every successful rebellion which has yet been made by people of our race. * The chief burden of taxation is thrown upon their shoulders. They are refused by their Boer masters any share in its disposal. All representation is denied them. Education of their children is withheld. The use of the Boer dialect, or the taal, a barren tongue, which has not yet bloomed with one literary flower, is enforced; while the English language, which is compulsorily used in the schools of the yellow men in the Far East, is forbidden in the Transvaal after children have passed the Third Standard, although the Queen is Suzerain. They ask that Great Britain shall protect her subjects in the Transvaal from a system of highhanded oppression which has grown more severe with the lapse of years and has now become intolerable.

The question at issue is not one thai interests merely the people who have chosen to settle in the Transvaal as at Capetown, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, and Queen's Town resolutions Were passed to the effect that Great Britain must not countenance the intolerable oppression and tyranny of the Transvaal Government, and should it do so its dignity and prestige would be lowered in South Africa and would endanger the loyalty of the colony. Some interesting official communications have been published, in one of which the State Secretary of the Republic denies the suzerainty of Great Britain, alleging that the 1884 Convention drops the Suzerainty and that the Republic is an independent State. The Colonial Secretary points out the difficulty the Republic places itself in by this contention that as the preamble to the Convention of 1881 established the suzerainty, and it was uot abolished or named in the Convention of 1884 it is in full force today, but if the Boers do not acknowledge the Convention of 1881 as binding, then as that was the time their independence was acknowledged, they would have no claim at all to recognition. It seems clear that the Boers have not been successful in their correspondence, as if they desire to retain their independence it can only be done by proving the suzerainty of Great Britain, denying that, they lose everything.

The High Commissioner has had a difficult task and he must have felt his responsibilities for he is stated, when speaking at Capetown the other day, to have said that if troubl >us times were exparienced in South Africa during the next two years he hoped the colonists would remember that he had tried to do his duty. It may not be known that Sir Alfred Milner was once employed in journalism in conjunction with Mr Morley, and then with Mr Stead, on the Pall Mall Gazette until 1885. He has since that period been engaged in responsible positions, until to-day he is the High Commissioner of South Africa with a salary of £8000 a year.