The Daily News. MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1904. AFFAIRS AT THE CAPE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 118, 23 May 1904, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1904. AFFAIRS AT THE CAPE.

Tho unification of South Africa must necessarily be a slow process, and the bitterness engendered by the war between the Dutch and the English factions can only be softened by the lapse of time. That tho new Ministry in office at Capetown is desirous of cultivating better relations with the Dutch element is clear from the fact that one of its first acts is to pardon all rebels still languishing in prison for their disloyalty during the war. This act of clemency must tend to promote a better feeling in Cape politics, indicating, as it does, an honest effort to forget the unhappy past and to. remove the sense of injustice rankling in tho minds of a large section of the people of Cope Colony. The position of the Cape rebels, indefensible as it was from a legal and patriotic standpoint, says the Otago Daily Times, was ono to excite a great deal of sympathy in very many instances. It arose through the close affinity of a large number of Dutch families to the men who were fighting against the British in the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal, and in being loyal to their kith and kin they ignored the larger duty of loyalty to the Crown. Doubtless they shared the Boer hope and ambition to see the progress of events create a United States of South Africa under a Dutch Administration, which would exercise a rule in keeping with Boer ideals and traditions. Being so close to the theatre of war, the Cape Dutch had a view of tho struggle, in which the perspective was all wrong, and, influenced by their sympathies, the initial Boer success inspired the hope that the end of the British rule in South Africa was at hand. To throw in their lot with tho Boers was a suicidal step which could onlv result in a bitter awakening when the superior force of British arms swept tho Boers oil the Held. The British Government had bo option but to deal severely with us many of tho disloyalists as it could lay hold of, and many and bitter complaints were made during the war that loyal colonists were suffering for their devotion to tho British cause while the duplicity of their Dutch neighbours secured an immunity from many acts of violence and oppression. But loyalty, like many other things, is, after all, a matter of degree. The best test of a man's loyalty to the Crown during the war was his readiness to shoulder a rifle in the firing line, but among the Capo Dutch there were numbers' of men who, although opposed to the war, could see that the Boer cause was foredoomed to failure, and solved to take no part in the strugglo whatever. They seemed unable to understand that neutrality is an untenable attitude on the part of any person when his country is at war. This class was most frequently met with in the rural districts in Northern Cape Colony, and those who composed it could scarcely hope to escape tho suspicion of extending moral and probably material support to the enemy. Their disinclination to join tho Colonial Defence Force was natural, as they had no desire to turn their rifles on their kinsmen who were fighting on the other side. But the fact remained that a very large number of the Cajw Dutch sooner or later threw in their lot with the Boers, and in the closing hours of tho war, one of tho factors which contributed to the delay that ensued before the conditions of peace wore agreed upon was tho question of an amnesty for the Cape rebels. The Boer leaders fought hard to secure the best terms possible for those who had helped them lead a forlorn hope, and tho rigid determination of the British Government to submit to no dictation as far as the Cape rebels were concerned helped to prolong the struggle. The only reply vouchsafed on the subject was that the Cape rebels must trust tu British clemency, and subsequent events have shown that the trust was not misplaced. The future of South Afiica, however, still presents many grave problems. The ideal of a United States of South Africa under British (not Dutch) rule is now cherished in many quarters, but the land has not yet been ablo to shed the blighting influence of the war. The defeated Boer seems to have retired sullen and delimit to his farm, while the industrial discontent and unrest existing among the very people to whom the war promised a deliverance can only tend to foment political agitation of a very extreme type. A Constitution is still denied tho newly-acquired Crown colonies, and although the future may bring brighter days it is clear that South Africa has a trying time to pass through before her people aro so favourably situated as the inhabitants of any of the other selfgoverning colonies within the Empire. ON THE FOURTH PAGE. Okato News.