The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, APRIL 27, 1896.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 98, 27 April 1896, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, APRIL 27, 1896.

fn thi wwtue that laeka asaistancs, ?er tha wong tost »oed» rnuistanco, E<x- tile future ia tbe tfiaUuioa. Ani the siod that we ea_ _o.

The situation in the Transvaal is not improving. A cable message published to-day states that it is now definitely delermined that President Kruger will not visit England to confer wilh Mr Chamberlain, his presence being required at the meeting of the Volksraad, which opens its session on the 4th of May. From Johannesburg papers to the 21st ult., we learn that the hopes of the uitlanders in the Transvaal were centred on this visit. The President i4iight, if he had chosen, have convened an earlier session of the Volksraad and obtained permission to proceed on his projected mission. That he failed to do so was exciting suspicion in Johannesburg a month ago. The " Star "of Match 21st says : It would be almost criminal to disguise the feelings of grave disappointment and mistrust with which tho news has been received here that no special session of the Volksraad has been convened, and that tho negotiations, so far as they have ab present proceeded, will only be submitted to the ordinary session on May 4th. Up to this tuomenb we were inclined to believe without reserve in the sincerity of Mr Krugor's desire to proceed to England, and to give him full rope with an eye to tho extreme diuiculHea he has to encounter with his own butchers. But this unreserved trust has now been considerably weakoned. Men are beginning to aek themselves whether, all this time, Mr Kruger has nob been playing a deep and crafty game ; whether he has ever actually contemplated accepting Mr Chamberlain's invitation ; whether he has not been fooling the British Cabinet for tho paeb two months in order to gain time. For what purpose should he wish to gain time ? Tho answer to that question men are beginning to frame for themselves, and to contemplate tho possi-1 bility of complications which must of necessity embroil the whole of South Africa. It is the time to " talk; straight." Has Dutch opinion arrived at the conclusion thab the supreme moment for a final struggle with England for the possession of this Continent has come ? The phrase which rose to the lips of at least one man high in power in Pretoria when tbe news of the Jameson surrender was received was this : "Hetis de geboortedag vandeZuid Afrilcaansche natie": li is tbe birthday, of the South African natioa. That pregnant epigram is attributed to Mr Justice Jorissen, and tho dream that it connotes is believed to be ! shared by many others who are engaged in guiding tho destinies of

South Africa. During the progress of the negotiations, what has Mr Krnger been doing ? His emissaries, his Commandants, have notoriously been despatched to every parb of South Africa. The farmers all over the country have drained the magazines. They have held wapenschouws ab which prophecies of impending trouble have been freely uttered. At Burgheradorp, ono notorious speaker warned the farmers that bboy mighb have to fight for their- beloved South Africa afc any time, against nabives or other foes. Whab could this expression mean, coming from the lips of a Cape Colonisb, in whose country the responsibility for the maintenance of internal peace remains with bhe Imperial Governmenb ?

After referring toKruger's conference with the President of the Orange Free State, and other indications of tbe trend of public feeling in South Africa, the " Star" says: "We know what the officials themselves think, and have thought since the beginning of the year —that a race war is inevitable. We have turned away our eyes from this dreadful contingency so long as it was humanly possible; but it is as well now to look that contingency squarely in the face-"

The "Transvaal Advertiser" takes pretty much the same view of the situation. It says :

Mr Kruger has proposed conditions to tho Imperial Governmenb which ho has known from the first would not be acceptable, and he has made those conditions expreosly bo be refused. They have been reiused, aud Mr Kruger will nob go to England to meet the Colonial Secretary. Not only has the Governmenb impoßed impossible conditions, but it has been extremely busy in making provisions against all eventualities. Munitions of war have been imported in quantities for which there is no need for tho subjugation ef native tribes, or as a precaution ugainat attack from a foreign enemy, and those accumulations have boen going on for some time past. Emissaries of tke burghers have been eugaged in sounding the disposition of their Dutch kith and kin in Nabal and the Capo Colony, and members if the Volksraad have boen engaged in this business in order to ascertain whab amount of assistance may be relied upon in the event of a struggle with the Suzerain Power.

The Government of the Republic has certainly followed up its victory over Dr. Jamieson vigorously. The papers to hand contain accounts ol police raids upon premises where the concealment of arms was suspected. Floors were being torn up and walls sounded. The uitlander population are realising to their sorrow that when they allowed Jamieson to march into a trap without moving a hand to help him, they doomed themselves to bitter humiliation and degiadation. For men who wiil strike no blow for their own .mancipation one cannot stir up a great amount of enthusiasm or sympathy. The courage and activity of the Boers stands in disagreeable contrast to the pusillanimous conduct of the uitlanders, who comprise a majority of the population of the Transvaal, and the worst of it is that they have fomented trouble in Natal and Cape Colony, where the two races were getting along comfortably together. The native uprising in Malabeleland, with the attendant loss of life and desolation of peaceful homesteads, is also attributable to this lamentable fiasco.

But whatever our feelings may be with regard to the conduct of the English population in the Transvaal, the interests of the Empire in South Africa are too important for the Imperial Government to allow British prestige to suffer further humiliation. The policy of Sir Hercules Robinson at this juncture seems extremely weak and unsatisfactory. The menace offered by the general arming of the Boers ought to have been met by a similar show of force on the part of the British. In all probability such a display of resolution would have done more to bring about an amicable settlement of differences than any number of diplomatic communications. Hitherto, the wily President of the Transvaal has shown himself quite a match for British statesmen in the game of diplomacy.