The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3. THE WONDER OF THE AGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 175, 3 November 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3. THE WONDER OF THE AGE.

To King Edward the Peacemaker is due the wonder of British South African Union now being! happily consummated with all due ceremony by his brother, the Duke of Connaught. The events that (have culminated so marvellously the greatest possible tribute to British diplomacy, British fair play, and British admiration for the most stubborn foe she 'has met in modern times and the staunchest friend she is likely to have in a country which will always be dangerous for the white man. The Union of South Africa is, outside the heart of the Empire, immeasurably the greatest event of Imperial interests of this century. One must marvel at the extraordinary tact, statesmanship, and mere everyday com-mon-sense that have achieved the apparently impossible. A short repetition of the phases of transition are excusable. The General Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of the dead republic became the commanding figure on the political stage when a peace that was honorable to both sides and not humiliating to the brave soldiers of the ex-republics was consummated. Racial animosity there was, inI deed, even when the rule, nominally British, became again Dutch, although under the Crown of Britain. Racial animosities there are still, and will be until the two white races are so intermixed and so bound up in the general desire for advancement and peace that the past is altogether forgiven, if unforgettable. The sentimental side is not lightly to be passed by. It was infinitely appropriate that the son of the great home-ruler, Gladstone, should have been chosen as first Governor-General pi the unified States which ivere generously conceded homerule. The sentiment that induced the people of South Africa to present to the late King the largest diamond on earth —the Cullinan —was a small indication of the people's feelings towards the person of the Sovereign and the Emperor of the Britains, the carefulness with which any suspicion of, aggression on the part of Britain was avoided in dealing with a peculiarly sensitive people —all these things tended to cement the bond of unity. The small acts of grac6 are remembered by a people when the great acts of diplomacy are forgotten. Let us illustrate. During the South African war General Botha concentrated 5000 women at Barberton believing that Barberton was inaccessible to the British andt)uc of the area of activities. General French made Barberton accessible, and held that town fdT six weeks. Barberton was then, of course, in British territory, but the Boer women naturally and pluckily refused to concede so much. Kruger's birthday happened during this period, and the British General not only permitted these five thousand women to parade the streets in celebration, but allowed them to sing their national songs and to fly the "verkleur," just as if Barberton were still Republican. It was French's concession to sentiment. Harsh measures would never have been forgotten or forgiven, for there is no soil

so fruitful for sowing the seeds of hatred as the hearts of women whose men are fighting in a great and losing cause. In the great celebrations which have taken place in Capetown it is to be observed that British dominancy has not been obtruded.' Apart from the Imperial significance of the functions, the reproduction of the greatest historical event was the most interesting. The landing of Van Reibeck pictured to all Dutchmen the beginning! of things. It would bring back to the minds of the partners in South Africa the days of the brave old doppers, who typified all that is finest in the pioneers of any race. To-day it is no treason to admire the qualities in a Dutchman that we may be disposed to believe solely belong to Britons. It is to be remembered that the Afrikander Dutch were born and grew and thrived under conditions of constant stress, surprise and danger. Handfuls of men, women and . children moved constantly and surely over vast areas of veldt swarming with the most powerful black men on earth. In the annals of determination no stories can exceed in interest those of the early Dutch settlers who laagered every night for protection against wild beasts and from the more terrible foe, the savage black man. It is difficult to forget Bronkhorst Spruit and the graves of many British soldiers there, or not to remember Majuba Hill, but the marvel is apparently happening and the achievements are less the result of war than trust in the erstwhile enemy and present fellow-citizen of the Empire. The political unity of South Africa, by which rival parties who had sworn war to the political knife now unite for the benefit of a great land, is one of the wonders of all time. We have before taken the liberty of declaring the belief that, not only is political unity absolutely necessary as a protecftve agency, but the unity of the whites is essential as a safeguard to physical existence, j South Africa contains comparatively few i white people and an immense population ] from within can be only infinitesimal in comparison with the increase of the blacks who inhabit a land favorable to them and in whose laws there is none against a plurality of wives. The undisturbed natives of South Africa are wonderfully healthy, extremely happy and harmless when uninterfered with. A Keir ITardie or two, together with some of the educated "Ethiopians," might light the fire of a black and white war in South Africa that could not be settled at a less expense than miHions of lives. So the union of the two wETte races is a protective union and one that makes for tile true advancement of one of the great countries forming th> British Empire.