RIDER HAGGARD'S OPINION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11320, 2 September 1899, Page 5

RIDER HAGGARD'S OPINION.

The author of South A frioan romanoos, la the oodrae of a letter in the London Times, makes the following appeal ;— Whit have wenotalready saorinced there in addition to an enormous expenditure of money P They have cost us a war witli the Zulus in whigh hqndrads of Englishmen lost their lives. They have cost us honor also, Binoe to them, in spite of promises, wo have handed over our old friends and allies, the Swazip, a large portion of the territory of Zulus, and all those poir natives whom at the annexation la 1877 we took under our protection. The Bubjeot nvght be pnrBued further— l have merely touohed Its fringe — but what la the use P Not for one moment do I deny the extraordinary gravity of the BitustioD, for I fear it is poaaible that if war should come, which I devoutly pray may not happen, it will not be oonQnod to the inhabitants of the Transvaal. There exists a sohool of thought whoca followers say that than such a risk anything is better. Well, to be plain, the ' anything ' means, in my view and in that of many others, the fall of our snpremaoy in southern Afrio», for we can aoaroely submit to further rebuffs at the bands of the Transvaal or allow our people to be trodden deeper beneath its foot and ttill remain supreme. It may be argued thai even this would be preferable to the dreadful sorrows of suoh a war, bat it must bo understood that nothing less than lobs of Empire is involved. If we were to keep our prestige one of two things must happen— either President Kruger must give away oompletely and without reservation or we must foroe him to sot. This third alternative, practically, appears to be that we should haul down our flag, desert our brethern and the natives , maroh our foroeg out of southern Afrios as the Romans marched out of Britain, and leave the inhabitants of that turbulent country to Battle their differences as they liked, whioh, after a bitter war wherein many of the tribes must beoome involved, they would do, as I believe, by tho establishment of a republio not too friendly to this country or its oitizanp. I imagine, however, that in the present . state of horn-) opinion no large proportion of the nation would bo founl to forward iioh • policy,