Evening Post. SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1900.

Evening Post, Volume LIX, Issue 112, 12 May 1900, Page 4

Evening Post. SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1900.

POLITICAL ASPECTS OF THE WAR. 4 During the last lew days our cable messages have revealed clearly certain political aspects of the war. Three important points are evident 'from the news senib out to us. In the first place, the Portuguese Government is displaying a friendly attitude towards Great Britain, and so far as a neutral can is hampering the Boers. In the second" place, the European Powers, influenced no doubt by their investors, have been alienated from Mr. Kruger's causdt by the threat to destroy the Band mines. And, thirdiy, the people of both Republics are weakening in their zeal for the war. Each of these events is advantageous to the British, and, when considered in conjunction with the answers to the two 'Presidents' appeals for iforeign inter•vention, they are significant of the complete politicail isolation of the Boers. These developments indicate that hopes ■of an early cessation of hostilities are iiot altogether unfounded, although it 'may yet be some time before the Boer 'leaders can bring themselves to that un'conditionafi surrender which alone will ■be acceptable to Her Majesty's Government. To-da-y's advices suggest that the Boers as a people have had their fill of fighting, and Would be willing to suomit if their rulers gave signs of yielding. The Free Staters, in fact, would seem 'to be urging submission, in spite of their •President's sanguinary threats and stubborn persistence in a war that Appears

] to have been, so far as the Free State ! -was concerned, official rather than popular. Kven the Transvaal Vo'Jcsraad has authorised the Executive to "adopt peace d:eMon-s according to circumstances," and in Natal and Cane Colony there is a general belief that the Boers are on the verge of a collapse. This view- may be over sanguine, but it will require all the obstinacy and force of character of Mr. Ivrugcr to prolong iho war. when his undiscip'.ined forces have lost their former ardour. The action of lh& p Portuguese Government must be a revere blow to Boer hopes, for tho new Governor ha 3 practically closed Delagoa Bay to them. Ho has pub in force the severest regulations 'against contralband, and, so we gather from our cable .advices, has made contraband as inclusive a term as international law will aLow. By placing the Beira railway ab ithe disposal of the British Government a.nd stopping all alleged contraband at Delagoa Bay, the Portuguese have in aJi bub name become allies ol the British. That at the samo timo the European Power 1 ' should, as tihe London Standard asserts, have intimated that if the mines are destroyed Gr&a-t Britain Tr O uld be Tequcsted to exact personal compensation from the .uoer authorities, h very much like the proveibial last straw, and it is not surprising that in the^e circumstances there should be talk of peace and submission in the Transvaal and Free State.