The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1899. PRESIDENT KRUGER'S LAST CHANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 212, 7 September 1899, Page 4

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

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1899. PRESIDENT KRUGER'S LAST CHANCE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that noedß reoistanoo, For the futuro in the distance, And tho good that we can do.

Almost every item of news that readies us from London or South Africa is calculated to shake our oft expressed belief that actual war between Great Britain and the Transvaal will be avoided. We frankly own that

at the present moment there is little foundation for our faith except in the apparent paradox —• referred to in a previous article—that the nearer the

two nations approach to blows the greater the chances are that the Boers will yield; and we further confess that this latter assumption is based on the supposition that the Boers are endowed with sufficient saving common sense to realise the utter folly of talcing up arms against England. Obviously the feeling in Johannesburg

and South Africa generally gives little .support to our peaceful hope. The

inhabitants of the golden city have been seeking to leave the Transvaal more rapidly than the trains can carry them, and throughout the whole country the opinion is strong1 that war is inevitable. Of course the circumstances of the case give ample occasion for the gravest apprehension, but it is far from improbable that the general panic which appears to have seized the people is not altogether warranted. We' are- inclined to place more reliance on the news that reaches us to-day as an indication of the real state of affairs. It is cabled that the staffs of the large financiers are joining in the general exodus and taking the office books with them. Business men having large interests in Johannesburg would not take this step unless they felt the position was very critical indeed. The information to hand from London also suggests very strongly that the final stage in the negotiations to secure a settlement

on peaceful terms has been reached, and that unless the recalcitrant Republic shows an immediate willingness to meet British demands armed coercion on the part of England will inevitably ensue. The report says that, at the meeting1 of the Cabinet an ultimatum will probably be submitted to the Boers for their acceptance or rejection, and the same message iudieates that the latter are as little disposed as ever to give way. But it will not be till the ultimatum is actually dealt with by President Kruger and his Councillors that we shall know how much of their present attitude is mere bjuff. It will not in the least surprise us, but rather be a happy confirmation of our belief .all along, if when England makes her final offer of peace or war the Boers accept the former. Kruger's game has all along been to shuffle and delay, and it wili not be until he is driven into a. corner from which there is no escape thatho will speak his final ojiinion. With a patience that has been extraordinary England has borne with his conduct but it is certain she will bear no longer. If, enough has not been already done to exhaust her patience the report that the Boers are seeking to procrastinate till the rainy season sets in should be sufficient to stimulate her to immediate action. It would be a repetition of the folly that has characterised her former operations against the Boers if she were to allow the opening of the campaign to be delayed until the rainy season, when the climatic conditions would be very much in favour of the enemy. In operating, as England will certainly have to do against a foe whose tactics will be defensive, except when an opportunity occurs of striking a blow with every hope of success, the weather is a very important factor to reckon with.

Public opinion at Home is rapidly undergoing a change in regard to the Transvaal crisis. Some time ago there was undoubtedly a strong feeling in some quarters that armed coercion on the part of Great Britain would be unfair and unjust. Latterly, however, even the rabid apostles of peace have been forced to modify their views by the circumstances that hare come to pass, and the new lights that have been thrown on the question. It is now very plain to everyone that if war should be necessary it will be a conflict waged in the interests of justice, pure and simple, and no mere bullying of a small, weak state by a big strong one in order to serve the purposes of a few capitalists and money mongers. "Diplomaticus,' 4 in the "Fortnightly Review," declares that the results of Sir Alfred Milner's report show:—"(1) That the bulk of the suffering uitlanders are neither gold-bugs nor carpet-baggers; (2)

that their equitable naturalisation and enfranchisement on European lines would not swamp the burghers; (3) that the local problem is much worse than we imagined, and that the hostility of the, Boers to the Uitlanders is animated largely by hostility to the Paramount Power and the political settlement of 1884, and further, thut the hostility is stimulating- a dangerous disaffection among1 the Dutch in Cape Colony; (-1) that although Dr. Leyds is no longer State Secretary, the President is as intransigeant as ever on the Franchise question, and consequently there is no prospect of an early settlement." After pointing out the legal right which England has to interfere —a right which we have already argued rests on the broad basis of justice, quite apart from the fact that England has never relinquished her suzerainty over the Republic —this same writer goes on to speak of the wisdom of interference. His view of the matter is that until the Transvaal is made to feel

that suzerainty is a real thing there will be no chance for a South African Confederation. If ever the suzerainty is abandoned he believes the Dominion of South Africa will never be; and he adds: "It may be doubted, indeed, whether in that event a British South Africa will long endure." Sir Sidney Sheppard, in the "Nineteenth Century," expands this last idea, and contends that much larger issues are involved than the survival of British South Africa, "We are at the parting

of two ways," says he, "and if we i take the wrong way we may lose South Africa. If w e lose South Africa, we shall inevitably lose ; India, and therewith our whole Colonial Empire. The~question for England is one «of life or death. No British Ministry honestly desirous of maintaining the integrity and safeguarding the future of the Empire could hesitate for a moment as to the duty of supporting the High Commissioner in his fair and reasonable demands." The present British .Ministry evidently do intend to support the Commissioner. Mr Stead declared some time back that he would support Sir Alfred up to the point of war—a very ineffectual support one must say in a question of this kind, and one that to us seems foolish and illogical to offer. But Lord Salisbury's support will not be of that ineffectual kind. The troops are already in Africa, and more are awaiting- the ultimatum may even no.w be drafted whose acceptance or rejection will seal the fate of the Transvaal.