THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1907. THE KING AND THE DIAMOND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8879, 13 November 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1907. THE KING AND THE DIAMOND.

His Majesty King Edward, perhsps, knows best, but it seems to us, looking at the matter from this distant part of the British Empire, that his acceptance of the Cullinan Diamond was as much a mistake upon his part as the presentation of it was an act of unwisdom on the part of the Transvaal Government. There may be more in the gift—which emanates from the dominant Boer Administration —than is apparent. The efforts of Premier Botha to manifest loyalty have been so striking of late that one may be pardoned for saying "Methinks this fellow'doth protest too much." Gifts sometimes are used for sinister purposes. However that may be in the present instance, it is well-known that the Transvaal is in a bad condition financially, and cannot afford to make such a huge sacrifice on any conceivable grounds. Loyalty does not'require to be manifested by costly gauds; nor does Royalty need to accept as a token of loyalty that which it must know the donor cannot spare without undue stress. Had Royalty of its plenitudeconferred, instead of having received, a gift of, say, a fifth of the value of the diamond, to help the Transvaal to go on its new career in peace and happiness, the world would have been . profoundly astonished, but it would have also been profoundly eulogistic. Time itself would have failed to obliterate the deed, and an appropriate addition to the well-earned surname of the Peacemaker would have been attached to the Royal title of Edward VII. Such an act would certainly do more to establish a lasting feeling of loyalty in the Transvaal than the receiving of a costly gift from an impoverished State. It is possible that

in accepting the gift the King has been moved by the action of wheels within wheels of which we know nothing, and that his acquiescence will do much to secure the tranquility of the newly established self-govern-ing colonies in the heart of South Africa. If so nothing more need be said, beyond expressing surprise that such an action on the part of any State Government should be considered necessary for consolidation of any portion of the Empire. There is something about the whole proceeding that is incomprehensible.