True to the Burghers.

Hastings Standard, Issue 205, 24 December 1896, Page 3

True to the Burghers.

Tn'o to the liurgliet's " is the keynote of President Kruger's policy, and two Acts recently passed gives unmistakable expression to it. The Aliens Kxpnlsioti ISiil gi\cs t!io President of the Transvaal power to order that any i iilander •• inciting to disob"ilieiice of the law" shall be deponed beyond tiie limits of the Republic without any more trial I hail is ail'orded by a questioning before a (iovernment tribunal ; and any person so deported daring to return is to be imprisonc 1 for six months and then deported again. This process may go on indefinitely, and by this means, apparently, theold-fa-diioned Doers hop-■■ to k< op the c nuttry as a proseivc for " liurg'ners

only. The Act defines a I'itiandei' as one who ih>'s not pos-ess a burgher's ri'-'ht, so that the President may even deport 1 Joers who are opposed to liis policy if they (In not happen to he ivgisti red voters. Jf they are registered voters, hut '• manifest hostility " to the (iovernmeiit, the distinction made between them anil I'itlanders is that while the latter must he deported liist and imprisoned if they return, the discontented Uoer who is registered as a voter is to ho imprisoned for six months and dt ported afterwards, being liable to twelve months' imprisonment if he returns to the country. The new Press Law establishes a censorship over the newspaper Press quite as rigid as that of Russia, Artie!.- •"> of that Act rims a< follows The State President has at all times the right (with the advice and consent of the Kxecative Council) to prohibit entirely or temporarily the circulation of publications the contents of which are, in his opinion, contrary to good morals or di.ngei-ous to the peace and order of the Republic." Another article gives the (io» eminent power to prohibit the circulation within the Republic of any Knglish, French, (iennun or oilier foreign newspaper, and any person " disseminating " any such newspaper is to be imprisoned for a year or lined t'2;>o. it appears to have dawned upon the (lovernnient of the Transvaal that such a drastic Press Law is best honored in the breach, for it will be remembered that the staff of a newspaper who were arrested under this law a few days ago were almost immediately released. It would be simply impossible for people with IJritish ideas of liberty to live in the Transvaal if these laws were enforced. Happily there are hopes that the Transvaal elections early next year will result in the displacing of Oom Paul " by funeral Joubert and in the inauguration of a more enlightened policy towards aliens. Only by such a change can the peace and progress of the Transvaal be assured.