THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTH CROSS. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1899.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11058, 9 May 1899, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTH CROSS. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1899.

Although President Krugcr is ft man of great natural astuteness, and possessed of finalities which pivo him an almost unquestioned ascendancy over the majority of his countrymen, he is betraying an alarming incapacity to realise the danger to which ho is exposing tho Republic by the unreasonable attitude ho is maintaining in the faoo of pregnant warnings as regards the grievances of the uitlandere. Tho limitation of his qualities .is manifesting itself in what the Journal des Debats describes as a strange obstinacy. It is this persistent refusal to look facts squarely in tho fnco that constitutes tho gravity of tho present situation. Ho has chosen deliberately to shut his eyes to actualities, and to turn a deaf ear to all remonstrances from tho suzerain Power. He goes further, and scouts the claim of Great Britain to that position, Ho insists that tho Republic is an independent and sovereign State, and that the Convention of 1881 does not give to Great Britain tho right to interfere in tho affairs of the Republic. As for the grievances of tho uitlnnders, ho will not. admit that they exist. In spite of the fact that a monster petition to tho Queen, signed by 21,000 British subjects in the Transvaal, has been forwarded to Her Majesty, setting forth tho wrongs they suffer under from the

, present administration of the law in the Republic, ho declared recently that " people on the Rand are satisfied with things at. present," Ho professes to believo that the uitlanders are mere imitators, animated by a spirit of hostility to tho Transvaal, awl aiming at British annexation. "The only grievance of enemies," ho asserted in his Hustenburg speech, "was clearly contained in the sentence, 'Give the Transvaal back to England.' All unrest camo from without." It is evident that so long as President Kruger remains wilfully blind to the existence of widespread discontent among the uitlandcis, and continues to treat the subject in tlio spirit indicated in the extract wo havo made from his speech, the state of things must go from bad to worso until the inevitable climax is reached. Wo published l the other day the chief points of the inlanders' petition to Her Majesty. They show not only that they have grievances which call loudly for redress, but that the distinct promises made by the President at tlio time of the 1895 insurrection have not been kept. After that unfortunate occurrence, Mr. Chamberlain, writing to Sir Hercules Robinson, then Governor of the Cape, pointed out that the people of Johannesburg had laid clown their arms in the belief that reasonable concessions would be arranged by his intervention, and the Colonial Secretary added that "until these are granted or are definitely promised, to you by the President the root cause of the pre-s-infc troubles will remain." The President, it will be remembered, made tho necessary promises, but as the petitioners sot forth, and as Mr. Chamberlain confirmed recently in a speech in the House of Commons, not one of them has been kept. If anything, the position of the uitlanders has become worse. Legislation has been unfriendly, and the petitioners cite as examples the Aliens' Immigration Act, , the Press Law, giving the President arbitrary powers, the Aliens' Expulsion Law, permitting the expulsion of British subjects at the will of the President without appeal to the High Court, while burghers cannot be expelled, a law in contravention of the Convention. The municipality granted to Johannesburg, it is pointed out, is worthless, inasmuch as half of - the i councillors are necessarily burghers, : though the burghers only number . 1000, while the uitlanders number i 23,000. : No confidence is now felt in ; the ' impartiality . or '. independence of i the i High Court which has : been; re- J diiced to a condition of subservience; ' < the revenues of the country. have been 1 'diverted for i the purpose of : building i

fonts at Pretoria and Johannesburg'in order'to terrorise British subjects; the police are exclusively burghers ignorant and prejudiced, and are a danger to the community ; jurors are necessarily burghers, and justice is impossible in cases where a racial issue may be involved. This was illustrated in the case of the murder of Edgar, a brutal and wanton outrage, the perpetrator of which was allowed to go unpunished. The ri"H of public meeting is denied to the uitlanders, who, although possessing most of the wealth and intelligence in the country, are treated as dangerous aliens and subjected to all manner of indignities. The condition of the British subjects, the petition concludes, is intolerable. They are prevented by the direct action of the Government from ventilating their grievances, and the petitioners therefore pray Her Majesty to extend her protection to them, to cause an inquiry to be held into their grievances, to secure the reform of abuses, and to obtain substantial guarantees from the Transvaal Government, and a recognition of the petitioners' rights.

In Great Britain the cause of the uitlandcrs has been taken up with great enthusiasm, and, as mentioned in a recent coble message, 14 public meetings have been held in various parts of the kingdom in support of their petition. How far President Kruger's attitude is endorsed by the Boer Government it is impossible to say, but both in tho Cape and in Germany his stubbornness and perversity aro criticised in anything but a friendly spirit. His "strange obstinacy," to quote tho words of our French contemporary, lias produced a revulsion of feeling among those who were most disposed to sympathise with him three years ago, but this chansro is apparently lost upon tho President and his advisers. At all events it has not had the slightest effect in modifying his attitude, or inducing him to adopt a more conciliatory policy. It is evident, however, that tin, British Government are not disposed to remain passive. They have warned the President that he has broken his promises, and acted contrary to tho Convention. Should he persist in disregarding these warnings, it will be the imperative duty of England to have recourse to sterner measures.