THE H.B. TRIBUNE. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 28, 1917. “DR. JIM.”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VII, Issue 338, 28 November 1917, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 28, 1917. “DR. JIM.”

The death of Sir Leander Starr Jameson reported in a cable message received late yesterday carries the memories of tlrose old enough back for something over a score of years. It was on the last day of 1895 that “Dr. Jim,” who had already brought himself into public prominence by his vigorous administration in Rhodesia, launched his historic raid upon Johannesburg. For five or six years there had been a steadily increasing irritation felt among the Uitlanders in the Transvaal, who formed a majority of the population and owned half the land and nine-tenths of the other property, at the disabilities imposed upon them by the Boer Government under President Paul Kruger. Protests and petitions for redress of grievances and recognition of rights fell on deaf ears. The representations of the Uitlanders, who had converted a poor pastoral country into a. rich industrial one and who provided more than threefourths of the State revenue, were not merely treated with indifference, but with contumely. In 1892 the President said to a delegation: “Go back and tell your people that I shall never give them anything. I shall never change my policy. And now let the storm burst.” In truth, Kruger did all that was possible to provoke insurrection. And here the hand of the Kaiser was made visible, Kruger being careful to make it known that Germany was a firm friend of the Transvaal. The German consul at Pretoria, who had bright visions of ultimate German domination in South Africa, had given the President assurance of the Emperor’s support, and this no doubt had great influence in shaping the Boer policy. Matters went from bad to worse so far as the Uitlanders were concerned, and a petition bearing some 35,000 signatures presented to the Raad in August, 1595, was rejected with jeers and insults, one member calling upon the Uitlanders to “come on and tight” for their rights. A month o. two later overtures came to the Uitlander leaders from Cecil Rhodes, then Prime Minister of Cape Colony, and from Di\ Jameson. These two had come to.the conclusion that they might advantageously intervene between Kruger - and the Uitlanders. Having enlisted the sympathy of Alfred Beit, they submitted their, scheme to some of the. Uitlander leaders. Among them it- was -arranged that Jameson should gather a force of some 800 men upon the Tran^vaaUborder; that the Uitlanders should continue their agitation.; and. that, should no satisfactory concession be obtained from Kruger, a combined movement of armed forces should be made against the Government. The arsenal.at Pretoria was to be seized ; the Uitlanders in Johannesburg were to rise and hold the town ; and Jameson was to make a rapid march thither to co-operate with them. A manifesto setting, out the case for the Uitlanders was submitted to the President, and met with the customary reception. The Jameson conspiracy fared no worse and no better than, the majority of conspiracies in history. .Ic failed in its immediate ; object. . Jameson could not raise mote - than 500 men. Johannesburg had the greatest difficulty in smuggling in and distributing the rifles with which the insurgents were to be armed. The scheme to seize the Pretoria fort had to be abandoned, as at the time fixed Pretoria was thronged with BoersFinally, to make confusion worse confounded. Jameson, becoming impatient of delay, in spite of receiving direct messages from the Johannesburg leaders on no account to move, marched into the Transvaal. On the 2nd of January, 1896, he found himself at Dornkop in a position sur rounded by Boers and with no alternative but surrender. Jameson ami his men were conveyed to Pretoria as prisoners, and were subsequently handed over to the custody of the British High Commissioner, Sir Hercules Robinson, and Kruger, the day after the surrender, received an open telegram from the German Emperor congratulating him on the fact that “without appealing to the help of friendly powers” he had repelled the raiders. Jameson and his followers were tried in London in May, under the Foreign Enlistment Act, the leader of the raid being sentenced to fifteen months’ imprisonment at Holloway, but being released on account of ill-health after serving a year in prison. Thus ended somewhat inglcriously the incident with which the name» of Dr. Jameson is notably associated in the minds of most of his contemporaries. His subsequent career was closely connected with that of Cecil Rhodes up to the time of the death of that great Imperialist in 1902. Later on Dr. Jameson entered the political field in Cape Colony as leader of the Progressive Party, which attained power under his premiership in 1904 and held it until 1908. He was a delegate from that colony at the int-er-Colonial Convention for the closer union of the South African States in 1908, and took a prominent part in settling the terms on which union was effected in 1909. He received a baronetcy in 1911, but the title died with him as he was without an heir.