THE TRANSVAAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10084, 20 March 1896, Page 4

THE TRANSVAAL.

In a cable messacre from London, published a few d.iv ';uo, it was stated that Mr. Chamberlain was ready to abandon the British suzerainty over the Transvaal, on condition that the Government of the Republic conceded the franchise to the Uitlanders. We did not credit the statement, and a cable message today practically contradicts it. The English Government has already realised the value of the proviso whi !i secures to them the control of relations of the Transvaal with outside Powers. It is quite certain also, from the furtive negotiations carried 011 with Germany in the late crisis, that President KrUger's Government would like to have the power to check English influence by making a counterbalance j with Germany or some other State. But although Mr. Chamberlain would like to see the English residents of tho Transvaal possessed of their political rights, it is no part of his duty to purchase these rights by bartering the powers conferred 011 Great Britain by treaty. Those powers we have already paid a large price for by ceding th* whole country to the Boers, when we might easily have kept possession of it. Besides, the very worst thing which Mr Chamberlain could do for the British residents in the Transvaal would be tc enable President Kruger to enter into independent relations with a foreign State. The British section of the population must obtain their just rights in the course of time, without Great Britain being called upon to make a sacrifice for the privilege.