The Press. SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1896. THE TROUBLE IN THE TRANSVAAL.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9305, 4 January 1896, Page 6

The Press. SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1896. THE TROUBLE IN THE TRANSVAAL.

It was inevitable that serious trouble should arise in the Transvaal sooner or later from the anomalous conditions which prevail there. But for the discovery of gold no doubt the Boers would have been allowed to plod along in their phlegmatic way, and would have remained in peaceful and undisturbed possession of the country. The Witswatersrand " rush," however, completely altered the aspect of affairs. A tremendous influx of foreign population poured into the country, developed its mineral resources, and raised it at once from poverty to affluence. Johannesburg sprang almost like magic out of what was previously a dusty desert. Of its life and social aspects we have had something to say in another column ; suffice to remark " here that' it is a city of 80,000 or 100,000 inhabitants, able to boast of shops and public buildings that would do credit to either Sydney or Melbourne. It is the foreigners—chiefly the English—who have made Johannesburg what it is; it is foreign capital which owns and works the mines whence comes the great wealth of the country. In Johannesburg the European residents—mainly English, Germans and Jews—outnumber the Boers by about three to one. The Boers, however, retain all political power in their hands. The English residents have no more to say in the government of the country than the Kaffirs, who are little better than slaves. The latter are not allowed to walk on the footpaths of the city, but are arrested and whipped if they are caught straying from the roadway, which they are expected to share with the dumb, driven cattle. The Boers have hardly ventured so far as this hi their treatment of Englishmen. For some years, however, the English and all other " Uitlanders,'' or aliens, resident in the Transvaal, although denied the franchise, were conroelled by the Boers to undergo military service or pay a war tax. This practice of " commandeering," as it is called, caused a great agitation in Pretoria a little more than a year ago, and it is probable a serious disturbance would have occurred at that time but for the intervention of Sir H. Loch, who induced the Transvaal Government to exempt British subjects from military service for the future.

The present trouble seems tb have arisen in the first instance from a demand on the part of the Uitlanders for a new constitution in which Boers and British should have equal rights. On what ground Dr. Jameson felt himself jastific- in taking such a very pronounced part in, the proceedings as that which has caused so much embarrassment to the English Government during the last few days we have yet to learn. Mr. Ckamber_.ux has soon found out that a Chartered Company has its disadvantages as well as its blessings, and probably he will now be less eager to hand over the Northern Territory of Australia to an organisation of this kind; We heed hardly remind our readers

that Dr. Jameson is Mr Cecil Rhodes's right hand man in the Chartered Company of South Africa. It was he who conducted the Matabele campaign, and his career possesses mauy points of interest. The son of a Scotch journalist, he took up the medical profession in early life, and had made his mark as a doctor before Mr. Cecil Rhodes found out and utilised his talents as an administrator. He had a very good practice in Glasgow before he migrated to South Africa, and on the diamond fields he speedily established a reputation and acquired a competence. He was on the point of retiring from practice and returning to Scotland when Mr. Rhodes persuaded him to remain and enter the Chartered Company's service. That he is a man of great decision and courage has been amply proved. It was also believed that he was a man of prudence and judgment as well. Whether ho is to retain this reputation will depend upon the explanation he has to offer. Only in the dire extremity of danger to his fellow-subjects in the Transvaal could he be justified in leading an armed force against a people with whom his Government was at peace.