ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Tuesday, April 16,1901. THE POSITION IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXV, Issue 85, 16 April 1901, Page 2

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Tuesday, April 16,1901. THE POSITION IN SOUTH AFRICA.

It may take some time to drum it into the heads of the more ignorant section of the Boers that the British do not intend to entirely ignore the Dutch element in the carrying out of their policy in the two conquered Republics, and Sir Alfred Milner and Lord Kitchener will have to contend against the " slimness' 'of the irreconeilables who persist in spreading the lying report that the Dutch are to be treated as a people having* no civil rights. Sooner or later, however, it will be made clear to the suspicious Boer that the British will use the powers which, victory has given them with justice and a fair discrimination, and prove to the most bigoted doppcr" that the charge that the British would exclude the Dutch from all offices of trust under the new administration was utterly unfounded. Already the Boers have been shown that the British policy is one of conciliation and of justice. At Pretoria, at Johannesburg, and in various other populous centres in the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, positions of trust and confidence under the British administration have been given to men of the Dutch race, and already the news of this excellent ne^p -ddpaftt!i?©4uxs, we are told, created ( a most favorable impression?- -A— egptali? amount of discretion will, of course, have to be exercised by the British in making appointments to the niagistraturc, and in other directions-, and mere " lip loyalty" must necessarily be mistrusted. Where, however, Dutch residents of standing give satisfactory guarantees of their loyalty, and are suitable, by reason of their local know*! ledge, for appointment to positions of trust, their selection by the Government for the discharge of responsible duties is to be commended without qualification. The appointment of such men will be an admirable and conclusive reply to those mischievous persons of strongly-developed pro-Boer sympathies, men to be found, we regret to say, in London as well as at the Cape, who have sedulously spread the mendacious statements that the object of Sir Alfred Milner and his officials was to deliberately exclude the Boer from the exercise of all administrative functions in the conquered territories. De Wet is reported to be insane, and his followers are said to be .daily disobeying his orders. This may or may not be correct. We confess to regarding the report with a certain amount of suspicion. Tlio famous "Flying Dutchman" may be mad, but it must be confessed that in the past there has been an amount of method in his madness, which lias been too much for the average official sanity of the British commander. Judging De Wet by the ! results of the guerilla warfare which he has conducted with such strikingability, it would be well indeed were the average British general in South Africa afflicted with a little of the De Wet dementia. Color, we admit, is lent to the rumor by the reports of the abominable atrocities inflicted upon loyal colonists who have fallen into the hands of the Boer leader, but wo are afraid that many of the cablegrams relating to De Wet which we receive from London are not to be relied on. Time after time we have been told that Do Wot or Botha, or some prominent Boer leader, has been surrounded and forced into a position from which escape was morally impossible, but the fact remains that only a few days later —in some instances only a few hours later —there has come a second despatch conveying the irritating intelligence that the enemy has succeeded in making his escape to some other district. Whether De Wet bo mad, or be only "shamming- Abraham," with

a view to carrying out some exceptionally " slim" manoeuvre for the fooling of the particular British comnuuulef who happens to be at present, in his neighborhood, we cannot tell; j but, putting the famous guerilla chief, his state of mind, and his policy for the future qirte out of mind, it is distinctly gratifying to note that the general position in South Africa is decidedly improving from the British point of. view. The row to be hoed before peace and safety of life are secured in permanence is, no doubt, still very long and hard, but each week sees some good step accomplished towards the goal that we have at heart. j More troops, of the right stamp, arc being; pouted into lug 'country, scattered parties of the enemy aw uoiitinually being captured, and, although, here and there we hear of some slight reverse, the goneral trend of the intelligence we are receiving from the Cape is of a highly safsfactory character,. All that is required is patience on the part of the British public, and care and common sca»so on the part of the British commanders. The *'Little JjJnglanders" may rave and the proEoers imglne % Yftta tIUDf, fort $Jjq

day is steadily approaching when British power and prestige will be fully restored in South Africa, And when that day comes the education of the Boer on broader lines of progress and, maybe, of material prosperity will commence, and the foundation be laid for. the better feeling between the two races which rmist necessarily have been retarded by the bitterness of racial sentiments provoked by the war.