THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1899.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11149, 23 August 1899, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1899.

While all hope of peace being preserved between Great Britain and the Transvaal has not yet been extinguished it must be admitted that the situation is growing daily more acute. The tension is now so great that unless relieved immediately it is difficult to see how war can be avoided. President Kruger and his Executive show no signs of giving way, and are steadily completing their military preparations as if they had made up their minds to fight rather than yield. Vast quantities of arms are being imported into the Transvaal; troops are being sent to occupy strategic positions on the frontier, and rifles are being distributed among the burghers. A section of the latter are said to be urging the Government to break off diplomatic negotiations with Great Britain, and the Rand Post, the organ of Krugerism, advocates war. It was this journal which some time ago made the infamous suggestion that in the event of hostilities occurring the residents of Johannesburg should be massacred and the city reduced to ashes. On the British side there is the same activity being displayed in getting ready for the worst contingency. The military forces at the Cape are being strengthened, an army is equipped for active service at a moment's notice, and a British general has left England to assume command of the troops in South Africa. There is every reason to believe that the preparations of the War Office are so complete that in the event of the necessity arising a strong force could take the field within a very short time. This, then, is the position of affairs at the present moment. While both sides are still parleying, both are arming and preparing for war. The issue now depends upon President Kruger. England has made her determination sufficiently clear and unmistakable that she will not accept any proposal that falls short of the irreducible minimum of concession stipulated for by Sir A. Milner at the Bloemfontein Conference. Should the Boers persist in refusing that much an appeal to force will be inevitable. The proposals of the High Commissioners, and which the British Government are now insisting upon, were four, namely, (1) That the number of years for the acquisition of the franchise should be fixed at five, with retroactive effect; (2) that the naturalisation oath should be modified; (3) that a fair representation should be granted to the new population; and (4) that naturalisation should immediately carry with it the full right to vote. That proposals so fair and reasonable should be obstinately resisted by President Kruger at the imminent risk of bringing about a catastrophe, is a proof of his narrowness and intolerance and his ignorance of the obligations of civilised Government. The uitlanders do not demand more than is accorded naturalised subjects in almost every country in the world. All they ask for is that they may possess the right to share in the government of their adopted country. And this is all that the Britisn Government is insisting upon on their behalf. The independence of the Transvaal is not in question. " Her Majesty's Government," to quote from a despatch written by Mr. Chamberlain, " earnestly desire the prosperity of the South African Republic. They have been anxious to avoid any intervention in its internal concerns, and they may point out in this connection that if they really entertained the design of destroying its independence, Which has been attributed to them, no policy could be better calculated to defeat their object than that which, in all friendship and sincerity, they now urge upon the Government of the South African Republic, and which would remove any pretext for interference by relieving British subjects of all just cause of complaint." President Kruger, however, is apparently unable to see that by granting the uitlanders the political privileges which they demand he would be not only strengthening the Republic by depriving them of the right of appeal to any other country, but adding to the peace, progress, and 'prosperity of the Transvaal.

How far the President, in his Uncompromising attitude, is supported by the Boer population it is not easy to say. According to a, correspondent whose letter appeared in the London Times, neither he nor his Executive Council properly represents the majority of. the burghers. They rather represent their own personal "interests, and their disregard for the welfare of the State has been demonstrated i over

and over again. The Volksraad is almost entirely under the influence of the President, who has at his disposal a large sum of secret service money. But among the burghers, especially among the younger and better-educated classeß, there is by no means unanimity of opinion on the wisdom or policy of the Pretorian oligarchy that rules the country. At a great meeting of uitlanders held in Johannesburg recently, one of the speakers said the resolutions passed at many of the burgher meetings showed that there was as strong a feeling against the governing class in Pretoria amongst burghers as there was amongst the uitlanders. But unfortunately the influence of the more enlightened Boers,. those in favour of progress and reform, is without much effect on the reactionary rulers of the country. The latter are deaf to all reason and argument, and it is impossible to predict to what length they may carry their stubbornness and prejudice. It may be that in their ignorance they will resolve to enter upon war, but we still hope that that calamity will be averted, and that at the eleventh hour President Kruger will give way. We confess that appearances afford little, if any, encouragement for such a hope, but we cannot believe that the President is so utterly blind to the consequences of a war with Great Britain that he is prepared to enter upon it rather than do an act of justice to the uitlanders in the Transvaal. The Dutch in Cape Colony have the same political rights as the British ; the British in the Transvaal claim the same political rights as the Dutch. If there is to be peace and unity in (South Africa there must be equality all round. President Kruger may be opposed to this, but that he should carry his opposition to the point of war, a war which would overwhelm the Republic and blot it out of existence, seems inconceivable.