"INJUSTICE TEMPERED WITH EQUITY."

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 41, 18 February 1901, Page 5

"INJUSTICE TEMPERED WITH EQUITY."

ENGLAND AND THE ORANGE

FREE STATi

PAUL BOTHA SPEAKS JUS MIND

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, December 21

A remarkable pamphlet entitled "From Boer to Boer and Englishman" has just been published in England by Messrs Hugh Kees, of Pall Mali, it is a translation from the Dutch by the author's

son of an appeal to the burghers of the Erie .State, written by Paul M. Botha, member for Kroonstad in the late Orange Free State Volksraad. Paul Botha was a member of the Raad for twenty years, and was an active supporter of Mr .Praser in advocating President Brand's policy of friendliness toward England. Now, sitting' amidst the ruins of the war, Paul regrets bitterly that he did not make greater efforts to save his country, but, poor man. he was but one crying in the wilderness, his voice drowned in the jackal cry, "Kruger and Closer Union.' His people, inflamed, led astray and duped to an incredible degree by ambitious leaders, barely tolerated his cautions, and the fact that he was not in favour of the Transvaal alliance was thrown in his teeth as traitorous, and nearly cost him his seat In Parliament at the last election preceding' the war. in his preface. Haul says:— In proof of this I may state that at the four previous elections for the town of Kroonstad I was returned unopposed, while at the last, which turned entirely on the Closer Union Question. I was elected by a majority of only three votes. My opponent was Mr J. N. Blignant, a most violent partisan of Paul Kruger, a man who publicly said. "I wish that all the English had only one neck between them, and that I had the axe to cut off that neck!' Paul Botha was threatened with personal injury when he tried even in his own constituency to hold a meeting to protest against the war. So, "with a heart full of sore forebodings," he remained silent, saying to himself that if he insisted on a hearing he. would not only weaken the little influence he still possessed, but would deprive himself of any future opportunity of being listened to in tho Interests of his country. Now he speaks earnestly both to Boer and Englishman, neither sparing his own people nor us. and imploring them to recognise that under no other flag than the British are peace and prosperity possible for South Africa, and beseeching us to govern the country well in the future, realising that it is because of our own mistakes that it has been possible for unscrupulous lenders to dupe an ignorant people, This is the profitable lecture of "an old man, belonging to the soil n{ the country, and come of a family which has fought and done, as much as any other to make the Orange Free State." Paul Botha's rebuke to England is f*>r not recognising her responsibility to govern the country, for blowing hot one .lay and cold the next, for being weak nnd spasmodic in her policy, and thus making the Boer distrustful and contemptuous of British statesmen. It is upon the ignorance of a people isolated on the veldt that the party adverse to England have played, one parson even telling his congreß.it ion that God must help His chosen people, otherwise he would lose his Influence. Mr Botha defends! them from other charges, especially that of treachery, and says that Boers have been lashed with the sjambok and languished in prison because they would not break their oath and take up arms again. It is his opinion that just and firm Government with uniformity of treatment will control and satisfy the

triers. Put lie warns us that "it Is tkt erky hand on the reins which makes hem jib."

H was a sad day for the Orange Free State, says Mr Botha, when Eraser was defeated at the polls by Steyn. For we depended on him to continue President Brand's policy, an/1 to rectify (lie muddle created by Reitz. Explaining this policy —a policy of friendliness to England and frank recognition of British preponderance in South Africa—Mr Botha says:

England protected us from foreign invasion, and li' the presence of Great Britain had not restrained it. we would havo been plunged into continual civil strife in South Africa itself. To anyone acquainted with the turbulent history of the' Transvaal this will be clear. From the very birth of that Republic there havo been acute Internal squabbles. The people now splitting up, and even coming to blows, for separate little Republics, such as Lyndenburg; then, again. Church disputes rose to such fury that, only the dread of England's interference averted civil war. They always united, however, when there was a chance of raiding or grabbing territory. They raided the Orange Free. State, they raided Bechuanaland, they raided Zululand. and founded the "New Republic," now Vryheid, and as recently as 1891, they attempted to acquire territory in Rhodesia. The Jameson raid was possible only because the Transvaal was misgoverned, and showed that a ( certaln section of the English element was ready to be as turbulent as the Transvaal. Further, but for the presence of England, European adventurers, like Leyds, would have exploited the country far more. If it were possible to imagine that England's restraining influence, were withdrawn, we would have witnessed in South Africa scenes such as I. have read of in South America. Mr Botha further says that although England undoubtedly behaved in soiij'c cases as a big boy does to a little boy, "yet our powerful neighbour's injustice wits tempered with equity—an equity which we did not experience in our relations with tho Transvaal." fie illustrates this position with examples from the history of the Republics in their dealings with each other as contrasted with Great Britain's dealings with them, and concludes: When, therefore, I ✓compare the conduct of the Transvaal, "our friend and brother," according to Reitz and Steyn. with that of England, "our enemy," then 1 can only say that for myself I prefer to deal with my enemy. It was because he felt that the policy of "Kruger and Closer Union" would inevitably result in disastrous war with England that he fought against it.

As to the lies with which the commandos • were fed, tho following is instructive:

One of my sons, who was taken prisoner by f heron because he had l^ld down Ids' arms, told me, after his escape, that it is common laager talk that 00,000 Russians. Americans and Frenchmen were on the water and expected daily, that China had invaded and occupied England, and that only a small corner of that country still resisted, that God was killing the British all over the world with the bubonic plague. They declared, "We are now only fighting for tho cost of the war. as our independence is secured!"

Mr Botha adds that the of marauders now continuing the war are of the disreputable class, who themselves pillage farmhouses. Even the widows whose husbands have been killed on commando are, he says, not safe from their depredations, and there have been cases where they have set fire to the dwelling-houses while the inmates were asleep inside.

A powerful appeal is made by Mr Botha to England to send its best men now to clear matters up. If we had sent a capable, strong man like Sir Alfred Milner years ago ho would have understood the situation, and thi* bloodshod might have been avoided. But the

English men sent out "must recognise that this is a country without caste. The lofty and superior demeanour affected by some of the men from England is most galling to the independent mind of the colonials who are accustomed to consider one white man as good as another, so long as he. behaves himself decently."

This striking pamphlet concludes with a strong appeal by the author to his own people to rerognise that they have been duped, and to work for peace and prosperity under the British flag.