THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1901.

Grey River Argus, Volume LVII, Issue 10520, 16 December 1901, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1901.

The question as to whether this colony should send an eighth contingent, to South Africa is being discussed. Members have been boldly askedfor a frank expression of their opinion, and they have given it. The result is a faithful reflex of the public mind. Naturally, we.do not -readily.reconcile ourselves to 'seeing the flower ■of our. youth drawn offfrom the coloafr But. the question of the welfare and stability of the Empire becomes aserious matter ; and when that is endangered in any way there can be no hanging back. The colonies] are mere outports of the Empire; they are entirely dependeafc

upon it for their very existence. Without the old Mother Land to protect us we would be only a tempting morsel for some great Power to snap up as opportunity served. The Boer war has turned out to be a complete surprise, a revelation and a disappointment. No one succeeded in piercing the future. The unexpected happened with a vengeance. A comparatively few disorganised Boers (according to all military precedents) have foiled and baffled all the operations of a well organised army of 200,000 men for two years. It would be a waste of words to discuss the cause of the war now, we have to deal with the position alone. Unfortunately for the British, the bulk of their force is on foot. Hence the preferencefor colonials of all kinds. All that is now wanted in South Africa is an overwhelming force of mounted men to follow the Boers like sleuth hounds and finally run them down. Our interpretation of the late cable news is that the Boers feel that they eannofc possibly hold out much longer. The country has been made an absolute desert, and the traveller may ride from day to day without seeing aTfarm house or a hoof of stock of any kind. How, in the name of common sense, can a successful resistance be hoped for in such a distressing state" of circumstances? The Boer leaders, wemay be sure, have realised this thoroughly, and are consequently inde^pair. In the extremity of their distress they have evidently, as a last hope, like the' drowning man clinging to a straw, stirred up their friends and emissaries in Europe to a last effort to jcreate a diversion. As intervention is admittedly quite out of the question, Leyds, "Woolmarans, and Wessels have apparently worked up the German and Belgian Press to try to excite — vain hope— the Foreign' Powers to some overt action in a matter that aftords no possible justification for intervention of any- kind. There could not be better evidence that the Boers feel they are at the. last gasp. While we could well afford to smile at the vapouring of the German Press, whose independence is so extremely limited, and althbngh it is not absolutely necessary that the Australasian Colonies should do anything to show that the Press sneers are baseless, it would be a crushing reply for New Zea-' land to send an eighth contingent to the front. The aid is not absolutely necessary ; but it would undoubtedly be better that a fewmore corps of colonials were sent to South Africa to help hunt down once for all the wretched remnants of the military force of the South African Eepublics that tried to drive the British into the sea. There can be no possibility of making terms of any kind withtheßoers. They must simply be beaten down andsmothered with the strong hand. They have always been treated too well, and violaed every conventioninthemostshamelessfashion. To grant the Boers anything in the shape of their former privileges under the suzerainty of Britain would be worse than idiotic— it would be criminal. South Africa now possesses a value in the affairs of the world thab it did not possess 50 years ago, or even 30 years ago. But during that time it has developed an exceptional national value, and to that extent that to lose the supreme control between the Zambesi River and Capetown would threaten the integrity of the Empire. Thef ull merits of the problem involved 'will not probabiy be apparent to the mass of the British people ; but their race instincts are sufficiently true to enable them to be relied upon not to sanction any line of policy that would include autonomous government for the ' Boers. No ; their day as a race has gone for ever. Their destiny is to be ; absorbed and enrich the Anglo-Saxon race, whose world-wide success so inflames the envy of the French and Germans. It is refreshing to read the remarks of the Hungarian Premier when he said that the-' 'great British nation deserved to be esteemed."