The Marlborough Express. Published Every Evening. Wednesday, February 3, 1897. GREAT BRITAIN AND THE BOERS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXII, Issue 28, 3 February 1897, Page 2

The Marlborough Express. Published Every Evening. Wednesday, February 3, 1897. GREAT BRITAIN AND THE BOERS.

» Mr Chamberlain does not lack determination, and he has got his own way as to the re-appointment of a Committee of Enquiry into the Transvaal raid. Evidently his feelings towards President Kruger have undergone some change, for underlying his remarks on the present situation m the Transvaal, it is easy to see there is a suspicion that the Boer President has hitherto had all the best of the negotiations, and that it is time Great Britain adopted some measures to ensure a more equitable treatment of British and other Uitlanders by the authorities at Pretoria. Up to the present Great Britain has done her utmost to prove to Oom Paul and his burghers that she is completely out of sympathy with the mad and wicked "raid" of which Jameson was the hero and Cecil Ehodes the promoter, but on the other hand the Boers have received the British concessions m a very ungenerous way. Ever since the raid the restrictions put upon British traders and settlers m the South African Eepublic by the Boer Government have been even more drastic and more annoying than were those imposed before the Jameson trouble occurred, and worse than this, there is now a widespread and grave suspicion that Kruger and his Secretary of State, De Leyd, are plotting a . general combination of the Dutch, German, and Boer settlers all through South Africa, with a view to a general rising against and attempted overthrow of British authority. Recent ' cablegrams from Capetown prove ' that a fear of such an event has made itself felt amongst members of the Legislative Assembly, it being ' openly asserted that emissaries from [ the Transvaal and the Orange River Free State were busy attempting to stir up sedition amongst the Dutch farmers m the southern and older settled districts of South Afrioa. More than this, several stories, hitherto quite uncontradicted, have appeared m South African and English journals of standing, to the effect that the Transvaal and Orange Free State Governments have recently imported immense quantities of arms and ammunition from Germany and other Continental countries, and that the services of German officers have

been engaged for the purpose of instructing the burghers m the use of the new and improved artillery and rifles which have been purchased by the Transvaal War Department. Against whom can all these warlike preparations be taken as an indirect menace if not against Great Britain ? And as if with the direct purpose and intent of forcing a conflict with the British at the Cape, the Transvaal Government have of late left no stone unturned to spread about and encourage a feeling of contempt and hatred amongst the burghers against all who are of British blood and who may happen to be residents within the borders of the South African Republic. No English firms are allowed to contract for any State works ; no Englishman is allowed to undertake any civil office, and a recent immigration law, of a most drastic kind, is evidently intended to prevent the advent of any more [ Britishers into the Transvaal. Apart from all this, it is a matter of notoriety that no Englishman nor any one suspected of English leanings can obtain justice m the Transvaal courts, and many English traders, storekeepers, and others, some of whom have been long years resident m the Transvaal, have been driven almost to ruin, owing to the fact that their Boer. debtors openly repudiate their just debts, and that m the Transvaal courts it is next door to an impossibility for an English trader to get judgment against a Boer. However wrongly Rhodes and Jameson may have acted, all this deadly hatred of and open m j ustice to British sellers and traders is a disgrace to the Transvaal Government, for it cannot be said that when the English Government got hold of the truth about the raid it did not at once begin to make such amends as lay m its power. Indeed, Mr Chamberlain has been much blamed by a certain section of the Tory party for going too far, and as they put it, humbling himself and the British Government unnecessarily, before the bumptious " Oom Paul." Jameson's raid was a bad business from first to last, and that the Boers have had reason to distrust and dislike the British m South Africa cannot be gainsaid, but it is impossible that Great Britain can allow the policy of reprisals and revenge to go much further without being checked. Mr Chamberlain therefore, we may feel sure, has arrived at the conclusion that it is just as well that the whole position of British relations with the Transvaal should come before a select committee with the view, no doubt, of placing Parliament m the possession of reliable information. Later on, when the committee have reported, and Mr Chamberlain, as we expect desires, finds his hands strengthened by public opinion, we shall not be surprised to see the ' bullying Boer' brought up with a round turn, and compelled to treat British citizens within his borders with a little more consideration and justice. As to a war between the Transvaal and Great Britain, the results of such a lamentable struggle must infallibly be the downfall of the Boer power. It would mean the expenditure of a very large sum of money, and not improbably the loss of much valuable life, but the Boers would be crushed, for Great Britain would never permit the loss of her power and prestige m South Africa, -wheraJjApintftreßts ftro-so^fcupendoua. The Boers are notoriously the most ignorant of all allegedly civilized races, but they are reckoning without their host if they imagine, as seems to be the case, tha.t they can wantonly oppress men of British blood without danger of being punished therefor.