The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 1898.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 257, 10 March 1898, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 1898.

In view of the fact that there seems no alternative but force with regard to the Transvaal, a review of what is apparently South African public opinion is interesting. We have gathered the following facts from various sources : There are two principal political organisations, the Africander Bond and the South African League. The name of the former has been familiar for many years, but. the latter is not so well known. To begin with, the former has absolutely dominated Cape politics for some years, and has held the power to make and unmake Cape Ministries. It has always been disloyal to the connexion of the Cape with the Crown. The goal the Bond has always had in view is a united South Africa under a Republican form of government, absolutely independent of British rule. They have not gone to work in a demonstrative manner, but have steadily undermined British sentiment and British rule in the hope that in the day of trial it would fail. This has been done so steadily and quietly that the suspicions of the Imperial Government have not been aroused (ill a quite recent date. The Bond had a compact organisation in Parliament, the members representing it have avoided office, but by their block vote have bent every Ministry to their will or turned them from office. It appears at the present time that they aro using money derived from Transvaal sources to bolster up their waning influence at the Cape Colony elections. The position became intolerable, and the outcome has been the South African League, formed in 1896, which is now said to have an equal membership in the Cape Colony, and some 2000 adherents in the South African Republic, and some 800 or 900 in the colony of Natal. The League claims not to be aggressive, but defensive, having been founded to maintain the existing positions. Each state has an independent organisation of the League; there is no central or controlling body. There are only two obligatory planks, the maintenance of "existing" British supremacy in South Africa, but precludes from making efforts to render British supremacy over the Republics stronger than is the case at pres3nt. In the Transvaal something more is meant —the suzerainty—as defined by Mr Chamberlain. Tho other principle is practically " equal rights for every white man from Capetown to Zambesi." The charge is made that the League is a racial organisation antagonistic to the Dutch. This the Leaguers deny. On the other hand the Dutch are not at all sparing of insults to the British. The leading Dutch paper has written that " third-class carriages wero meant for Englishmen and Kaffirs." The use of a Dutch school is only granted for a concert on condition that the National Anthem is not sung. Mr de Smit, the Railway Commissioner of the Transvaul, said not very long ago—that there was no place for the Englishman in South Africa except as a helot. It is not necessary to repeat any more expressions of this sort. There is, however, a considerable section of the Cape Dutch heartily loyal to the English connexion. There is a larger class of Dutch whose attitude may be termed " passive disloyalty," that is to say that although they are not prepared to support actively any revolutionary propaganda, aro not prepared to lift a finger in defence of British rule. This class pleads that whenever a struggle has ceme England has invariably ended by a capitulation and left her supporters to face the victorious party, and thay quote freely tho example of the loyalists in the Transvaal, the Swazis and other cases in support of their contentions. If these people could only be pursuaded that England was not going to yield her just portion, they would accord her their full support. The military position is held by competent authorities to be extremely weak. The colonial forces, with the exception of the Cape Mounted Rifles, are badly armed aud badly organised. The British garrisons are concentrated at points distant from the frontiers which are difficult to defend. It is said that it would not be difficult for the combined Republics to move four columns —one upon Kimberley, cutting the railway line between the Colony and Rhodesia; one upon

Mamvpoort Junction; one upon Bushman's Rock, and one into Natal. This, it is said, could be clone iu forty-eight hours. From the* above facts it is manifest that we must prepare for war, which must be lookocl upon as inevitable. Tho Transvaal Boers seem determined to ignore the suzerainty of Great Britain and the only course open, if the honour of the Empire is to be upheld, is to go one step further than suzerainty, and wipe qhe Republic out of existence.