FEELING IN JOHANNESBURG.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9433, 3 June 1896, Page 5

FEELING IN JOHANNESBURG.

Feeling rau very high in Johannesburg iv consequences of the severity of the sentences. One of the principal local newspapers, in referring to the affair, spoke as follows:— *' The Actiug Justice, Mr Gregorowski, who passed sentence on the Reform Committee, has himself received sentence at the bar of civilised opinion. He can read his condemnation iv the horror with which his bloodthirsty sentence was received by oue section of the public, and the contempt which it awakened ia the minds of those who at once discerned its impossibility. From his utter lack of judicial impartiality, he is evidently a mau perfectly unfit for the office to which he is aspiring. 'We may assume that he comes of some race that knows little of the feelings of free,men; but it is difficult to see how even then he could so utterly have missed the fact that there must be two sides to such a question aB that which was before him. Never Burely was the moustrous injustice of such a sentence more promptly deuounced by public opinion, and never was such a sentence more promptly reversed." The Star, writing the day after the infliction of the sentences, says:—" The State Secretary is reported to have stated yesterday that Government is perfectly prepared j for and quite anticipate immediate re-mohstrauc-.frpm every European Government direosjr; or indircotly interested J in the Reputilte agaiust the appalling severity ofKthe-Sentsuoes ; but that Uuvt-ru-ment wUl.ibrbbk no deinoaßtratiou fiOia Johannesburg. What that may precisely mean we cannot say; but if it means that Johannesburg is to refrain from the slightest public expression of the sense of horror, pity and indignation which these sentences have produced in all ranks of the community, ib is asking What uo Government has the right to demand, aud what no self-respecting, people has the .right to concede. 'Beyond that there is not the slightest fear that Johannesburg will go • but there is no power or authority in the world that can dare or hope to stifle a legitimate, salutary; and indispensable protest against an exhibition of judicial ferocity so immeasurably beyond all the necessities of the situation, and so profoundly falaifying every assurance given of the desire to restore internal concord. Business remains suspended to-day, and, save in the essentials necessary to the daily life.of the community, that paralysis will continue; and every day that io is prolonged the situation will indubitably become more tense and grave Confidence has been terribly shattered, and can, even with the utmoso haste, be only with great difficulty restored. There has been created an unfathomable abyss of resent—cut which au immioent and largest clemency can hatdly hope to fill. Government, for the first time since this tragedy began, has made its one false step; it has placed itself utterly in the wrong. It permitted a confident belief to be engendered in tha minds of the reformers, as well as in the minds of the whole city and in all foreign circles, that the accused were to be treated with the utmost leuienoy. For it cannot be gainsaid, despite the denials of the State Attorney, that frequent ooufereuces were held between the counsel for the prisoners and the counsel for the State, aud that from those conferences certain very defined impressions were derived. . . . Government has blundered in first lulling the public mind by these assurances of moderation, and theu out-distancing all the most pessimist and gloomy calculations. We cannot think that this was deliberately done in order to give a peculiarly ex'Smplary weight to the sentence in the public mind. If it was, it is the worst tactical error ever committed." A sad feature of the affair was that Mr John Hays Hammond, one of those sentenced to death, was in an exceedingly grave condition, and was apparently not expected to live many days. He is, as the cables printed above state, still alive. The business people of Johannesburg expressed the deepest sympathy with the Reformers. The Stock - Exchange was closed on the day following the receipt of the news. At a crowded emergency meeting of the Mercantile Association the Chairman said he wished to take the opportunity of impressing upon the mercantile inhabitants of Johannesburg the

necessity of closing their establishments in view of the severe sentences passed upon the Reform prisoners. He did not like to lake upon himself the fall responsibility of asking the merchants of Johannesburg to show their sympathy in that way—or their feeling—by desiring the mercantile community of Jbhaunesbnrg to go &c it were into mourning over the action of the Government in passing these severe sentences. He was informed that the Executive wo aid meet at. foar o'clock, and he believed it wae expected, at all e\ents some people were hoping, that the sentences would be considerably reduced. In view of that it had been strongly impressed upon him that he should aak the whole of the gentlemen present not to discuss the sentences or aoythiug of a political character with regard to the matter, but that they should decide whether in view of the sentences they should not close their establishments the following day. He might say that when he read the neutences paeeed, it came upon him as something that he could scarcely realise. He had not realised yet what it fully meant to a large number of those connected with the I mercantile and commercial interests cf the town and he thought they were justified in showing their deep sense of the effect these sentences would have on the trade and commerce of the town. (Hear, hear.) Mr David Holt explained that a good many of the business people of Johannesburg had already arranged to close their premises out of respect for the men who in the paat had ' acted with the best intentions. He along with others had seen a good many of them, and in no single iuafcance bad they been refused, and people had voluntarily come forward and offered to close their premises, not only the following day, but until such time as the Chamber might think it necessary. Ho had received pledgee already from thirty or forty ehopkeepere that their shops would be closed on the following day. ▲ motion to cloac ail the buaiaesa pit-

mwes in Johannasbufg on the following [day was unanimously agreed to.