Sir Edward Grey on South Africa.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXI, Issue 5422, 18 July 1901, Page 4

Sir Edward Grey on South Africa.

Addressing bis constituents at Ber-; wick on May 30, Sir Edward Grey, j dealing with the aestion OBsetHeraent j of the South African colonies st»id :— j Aa to the setjtlecuent, fonr things, he hoped, would be assured. First, the war must be carried to ft successful conclusion, (Ohem) He claimed th»t they had lost vary qjuclj from -heir want 61 foresight and ut> preparedness, bpfc at any ratf, the war roust be carried through. (Hear, hear) The oext thing wag thnt, when the war was ended, we moat maintain annexation el the new territories. 4 We c;>uld not restore »n independence wh eh proved a Hanger to oar whole position in South Africa. (Hear, hear) tn the third place, when the war wsb over, iher* EWIt, b"e a»n, interval of direct Imperial administration leading to eventful colonial representative government. That would, indeed, be assured by the inflow of ft British population; Bis fourth point was that Lord MiUier, eg he was dow, must be the administrator of the tj«w territories. (Oiieer>) He wished personally to sen that, because he believed that Lord Milnerhad not only now great experience of the people with whom hs had to deal, bat, knowing him, he believed that he was % man incapable of that blatant partisanship which some people who did not know him attributed to him. (Hear, hear) Supposing he were recalled, what would happen to whoever was sent out 1 They wora'd like to sfrid a »<\n who would be £sh par tit! as between both races, but it Lord Miiner wnrw recalled, the nian who succeeded him would be under the suspicion, of both races. If he gained the sympathy of the» Boers, ha would alienate the confidence of the Bri - iah. If he laid hirnaelf oat to gain the syrnpfithy of the British elements then he would for ever destroy any chance of gaining the sympathy of the other element, Lord- Miiaer at any rate possessed the confidence of the element to start with. They knew he maet have incurred the distrust and antipathy of the Boer element, lhat could not be avoided by the circuros'ances of the case. But he believed Lord Miiner'a real desire, wheti peace was secured, was to exercise that gentle and forbearing statesmanship which in time would j?ain him the confidence of the Boers themselves. He was convinced he was the man already possessing the confidence of the British of Booth Africa to such an extent that he would be strong enough after the war was over to be impartial. (Oheers). When any one of these questions was challenged in the House of Commons he should vot<? in accordance with the view he gave utterance to thafc evening. But since the last election not one of those* questions had beeri challenged. But, would it be be* lieved, Mr, Chamberlain was positively discontented instead of pleasod that thofce issues had not been challenged in the House. The Colonial Secretary would like to have those last issues challengrd once a week. (Laughter). On the Monday he wnuld like to have a stojp-thp-war debate on th« Tuesctay a debate about; the conditions of settlement, on the Thursday to h*m a debate ou the question of anmxa- \ fcion, And on the Friday he would l;bv to hive a Miln^r debate. As far »9 he could ]udg<? from Mr Chainberlaiti'd speeches, he was discontentfid that Itioae issues ware not oftener raised *nd prfssed to a v^t". Pc believed that to be bid statesmanship, to be bad in the interests of the country, that any mm cou2d wish to eoe the^e things raised as a drect issup. (Hear hp*r.) If they were rais'-d, it would mean that they were far leas tett'ed than he believed them to be ; and he beliftvwi that, the really patriotic course instead of taunting the Liberal party to raJBo these things as a direct issue, because it might suit the UoioßJßt party* for electioneering purposes, would be to dwell on the fact chat they had not been raised as evidence that tfapy were quite secure and that the GOisntry was determined about them, (0h«?er&) !