VIEWS ON THE ISSUE OF THE WAR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7, 15 February 1900, Page 3

VIEWS ON THE ISSUE OF THE WAR.

So much as regards the views of Catholics and others on the ori-jn.ul justice or injustice of the campaign. The question has long hii.ee passed beyond that stage. We merely refer to it here because, by a contemptible piece of journalistic trickery, the views which many Catholics and Catholic newspapers share with nonCatholics upon the subject have been, as in the case of the extract with which we are dealing, tortured for a purpose into an accusation of rank traitorism, just as Cobden and Bright were dubbed traitors and burned iv effigy for their honest and manly opposition to the declaration of the Crimean War — a war which has long since ceased to find a sane defender. As to the present campaign in South Africa : fresh issues have, since its inception, arisen which have made the original cause of quarrel pale into comparative insignificance. Chamberlain, in forcing on this war, has undoubtedly committed not merely a political blunder, but a political crime of the first magnitude which, we trust and believe, will in due course relegate him for the remainder of his days to the dishonoured obscurity which his o'ervaulting ambition so well fits him to adorn. The triumphal march to Pretoria which he anticipated or professed to anticipate over the bodies of a few strong Boer

outposts has — as General Sir William Butler long ago fairly warned him — reached the proportions of a fearful and deadly struggle which has taxed the utmost military resources of the Empire, threatened the existence of British rule in South Africa, and created a crisis in its history comparable only to that of the Indian Mutiny. In the circumstances the Engligh Liberal Party t and many of those who, like them, strongly opposed the forcing on of this miserable war for the sake of a handful of capitalists mostly wish German names, hold that a policy of ' scuttle ' or surrender in South Africa now might prove the beginning of the break-down of the Empire, and that it therefore behoves the Government to • see it through.' This opinion has found frank expres «on in many leading Catholic papers, as, for instance in the Sydney Freeman's Journal and, we believe, in all but two of the Catholic weeklies published in Australia. Of the possible alternatives before the British in South Africa, we may regard the following as the chief practical or working ones :—: —

1. A British conquest coupled with the ' wiping out ' of the two Boer Republics from the map of South Africa. This - was the purpose of the disgraceful Jameson raid. It has long been the open and undisguised object of the capitalist party in South Africa and of their organs in the Jingo Press in G-reat Britain. We are glad to feel that the general voice of the civilised world and of a sane and healthy section of the British public would be raised against the utter spoliation of the independence of a free people. We are aware that one or two Catholic papers favour such a course. But as for us, we are opposed to it with all our strength.

2. Another alternative is such an ending of the campaign — and may it be a speedy ending ! — as will bring an honourable peace and preserve a safe measure of independence to the two Republics, with due guarantees as to armaments, etc., a full measure of civil and religious liberty for all citizens, and such provisions for future good understanding as the racial hate engendered by the present illstarred campaign may still leave possible. Such is our personal wish with regard to the final issue of the campaign, and we believe it coincides with the views of vast numbers of our fellow-Catholics throughout the Empire.

3. There is another possible, though, highly improbable, issue to the war : it is the final defeat of the British forces and the complete or almost complete subjugation of South Africa to the rule of the Boer. This we should regard as a great calamity for Catholic interests in South Africa. The matter has been recently dealt with by Cardinal Moran in an interview with a representative of the Sydney Freeman's Journal, His words will be all the more appropriate as they were spoken with direct reference to the calumnious attacks of the insignificant ' Christian ' weekly which has furnished us with a text for this war-discourse. Cardinal Moran said : ' I have heard it said that I am such a deadly enemy of the Empire that I could rejoioe in the defeat of her arms in South Africa. I can only say that so far from rejoicing in the overthrow of the Empire at the present day, especially in her colonial Governments, I would regard the decay of the Empire as one of the greatest blows that could befall the civilised world at the close of this nineteenth century. Viewing matters in a religious light, no one can rejoice in the triumph of the Boers, for they are the greatest enemies that the Catholic Church has at the present time. They retain all the bigotry and the fierce opposition to the Church that' were shown by the old Huguenots of France and by the first Dutch followers of Calvinism. That is the reason why there is scarcely a single convert to Catholicism among them. A few distinguished South African Dutchmen have joined the Church, but comparatively few. From the time the Transvaal and Orange Free- State were settled, the converts have been almost all from the Basuto3 and other natives ; but among the Boers themselves the religion of the Catholic Church has scarcely made any progress, and no Catholic has been allowed to hold any office in the State higher than that of a policeman, and even that privilege was only accorded a year or two ago. They have no right to vote for the members of the Raad or Parliament. Am I likely to sympathise with men who, when the first priests landed in South Africa, refused to allow them to purchase their daily bread, and obliged them to go back to their ships — would not even allow them to land on Boer territory 1 Well, no matter who wins, that sort of tyranny must come to an end. If we have another United States in Africa corresponding to the United States of America, asserting their freedom, those restrictive laws against religion cannot possibly continue to exist at the present day ; whilst, on the other hand, if the British arms are victorious, we will have a United South Africa, with all the freedom and the same institutions that we have in Canada at the present day and here in our Australia — that is to say, the Church will have perfect freedom to pursue her mission of enlightenment and beneficence. The opinion, indeed, of many of the best friends of religion in South Africa is that the triumph of the Boers in the present war would be a deadly blow to the progress of civilisation in South Africa.'