UNKNOWN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 110, 17 August 1910, Page 4

UNKNOWN

his raid was about, and if the enquiry that took place in London in regard to it is any guide, the rash politician who was the tool of Cecil Rhodes did not know either. Rhodes, who was Imperial j in his declarations, at least gave evidence to the effect that he had taken the matter of the raid in his own handsi because he thought some other Power than Britain was interfering in Transvaal affairs. How this justified' a more or less British raiding force marching into republican territory, presumably to fight a foreign Power, was never explained when Jameson was feted and tried in London. For sheer foolhardiness that raid has never been excelled. The force raised by Jameson was one of adventurers, and many of the survivors fought ultimately against British ' rule in the big campaign. What these raiders were going to do at Johannes- 1 burg has never transpired, but the simple facts are that a Dutch commando hemmed them in on a neighbouring hill. The raiders had a couple of Maxim guns, and trained them on anything and everything until theyjambed. As usual, the Dutch commando refused to become a target, which was very wise of them. The rest was easy, and what happened ! at Bronkhorst iSpruit years before might easily have happened outside Johannesburg, if the Dutchmen had not treated the matter as a rather serious joke. They did not absolutely wipe the raiders out, and for a reason wholly unaccountable, I these mercenaries from Rhodesia were, in England, feted and petted as herpes. Cecil Rhodes' story of a Taiding force being sent to the Transvaal because it was necessary to protect British interests, is a reasonable as would be the story of a pirate who mentioned that he scuttled a ship for the good of,humanity. At this late hour, Dr. Jamfcson mentions, so the cables tell us, that the Teason of the raid' was- not to protect any interests of the kind, but to place Lucas Meyer at the head of the Republic of Transvaal. That is to say, he led a conspiracy foi' the deposition of Kruger—a conspiracy fomented' by Uitlanders in Johannesburg, and who were armed ready to rise when Jameson should arrive. The Johannesburg conspirators were not wholly Britishers, and when Jameson, who had' no authority whatever for his action (except that of Rhodes'), said that this civil war was to be fought "under the British flag," the Rand conspiratprs, who wanted republicanism, and nothing but it, cooled down. The Dutchmen are not ibad hands as. conspirators, and the fact that this piratical attempt was to be made by an unauthorised adventurer was known long before he got to the famous hill where his men did not raid. The Uitlander element in Johannesburg, although it was an overtaxed' element, was a very rich one, and it wtas merely by way of attempted protection of' Uitlander interests as against the ruling element that Bhodes authorised and equipped the raid. Although' the Uitlandere groaned under the burden of Kruger i taxation, they went on becoming milI lionaires. ■ The interesting point nowadays is that, on Dr. Jameson's own admission, the raid was a republican measure "under the British flag." If Jameson had been able to stir up civil war in 1895, and to have placed Meyer in Kruger'9 chair, there are possibilities that the fat financiers who caused the ultimate war would have been content to let the slaying stop at the point to which Jameson could take it. The easewith Avhich the Krugerite soldiers "verneuked" the Jameson party might have taught subsequent troops some lessons, for the history of all such encounters had shown how very "slim" the doppers were. ■ I