THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1900.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11314, 8 March 1900, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1900.

It is a matter of much greater importance to us that public opinion in America should be pro-British than that public opinion on the Continent' should be pro-Boer. And though no one who is in the habit of reading the leading American newspapers can fail to discern a distinct note of sympathy with the Boers in the comments of some of them on the war, there is good reason, to believe that the American people, as a whole, are on the side of Great Britain. Public interest in the campaign is quite as keen in the United States as it is in England or the colonies, and the operations of our troops are being followed with almost as much sympathetic eagerness. When the news of the British victory at Spionkop reached New York it was received with general rejoicing. Large crowds surrounded the newspaper offices, and cheers were frequently given.. In the theatres, too, pro-British features, introduced in the course of the performance, are nightly greeted with hearty applause. We believe that this feeling will grow stronger as a better understanding obtains among the American people of the real merits of the question which has led to the war. President Kruger and his advisers have done their utmost to confuse and misrepresent the essential issues underlying the present conflict, in order to foster in the American mind antagonism to Great Britain. The time-honoured lie that the war was resolved upon with a view to the personal aggrandisement of a handful of capitalists, who saw in the extinction of the Transvaal Republic a golden opportunity for increasing their millions, has been systematically dinned into the ears of the American people by artfully concocted messages from Pretoria, and Dr. Leyds' Continental factory for the manufacture of mendacities, until one ceases to wonder that a considerable section of the public of the United States should view the action of Great Britain in a wholly erroneous light. Knowing little or nothing of our case, and taking the Boer manifestoes at their own value, they are perhaps to be excused if they should, in the first instance, have regarded the war as a deliberate attempt on the part of a great Power to crush out of existence two tiny and feeble Republics, in order to increase its territorial possessions. But they are now having their eyes opened. They have been quick to note that the unprepared,? ness of Great Britain, however disastrous and deplorable in the light of subsequent events, was at least an unmistakable proof that she was not secretly getting ready for war, that, indeed, she had no thought of war, believing that the difficulty that had arisen between the Boers and herself would- be settled by diplomatic means. Had Great Britain entertained the ' sinister designs imputed to her by Dr. Leyds and his satellites in the pro-Boer press, and by the Pretoria oligarchy, presided over by Oom Paul, she would not have allowed herself to be caught at a disadvantage, and forced to take the field outnumbered and outgunned by the enemy. It is now dawning upon the Americans, and, we fancy, upon the nations of Europe,' that the sinister designs were entirely upon the side of the Boers— the " tiny and feeble" Republics had been slyly making formidable preparations for a war of conquest, and had, while professing to be animated by a love of peace and the spirit of righteousness, been hatching a colossal conspiracy that would have drenched the whole of South Africa with blood, and shaken the British Empire. It is not surprising, therefore, that public opinion in America should be turning in our favour as it becomes better informed. This change is probably not so apparent in the press of America as it is in the conversation of Americans themselves, for the American press is a notoriously unreliable barometer of public opinion. Mr. Richard Harding Davis, the American novelist, who was recently interviewed in London, made some interesting observations, which we believe may be accepted as an accurate account on the whole of the attitude of a large and growing section of the American public towards the war. He stated that everywhere in America he found the one predominant note of friendship for and sympathy with England. As for the antiBritish meetings, at which pro-Boer resolutions have been passed, they have not, he declared, been got up by Americans. "I do not know," he said, "a single anti-British meeting that has been called together and generally attended by Americans. Some organisations, such as the various Hollander societies, have tried to get up gatherings in favour of the Boers, and what may be called the regular anti-British machinery has been set in motion. Then one or two politicians have tried to use the Boer war to obstruct the Government. But no American takes these things seriously; and you must remember that the people who talked 'against the war got their example from your side. They learned their lesson from the agitators against the war in London, and from the men who talked treason when Chamberlain went to Dublin. The regular Irish political element, headed by such men as Bourke Cochran, has been for the Boers; but you must remember that Bourke Cochran is a professional anti-British politician, as Albert Chevalier is a professional enter-

tamer; and it is his business to say 1 anything against England whenever he can. But he does not represent American opinion." As for the Irish, who are always to the fore in America in any anti-British agitation, they Me/ according to Mr. Davis, no longer the power they were in American politics, and Irish agitators there are no more to be accepted seriously than' Michael Davitt, for instance, is to be accepted in America as a serious exponent of British opinion. Some American Irish societies have offered to raise a million dollars to send to the Boers, but Mr. Davis thinks it improbable they will get more than five hundred, and that ilis Boers will be lucky if they get forty. " The great reason," Mr. Davis says, "for American sympathy with England in this war is that we are friends, and during the past two years (he majority of our people have been regarding all your actions with a friendly eye. We remember your friendship for us; we remember how when the States of Europe sought to form a hostile coalition against us to aid Spain, England intervened, and prevented it. Our people will not readily forget this, and for it we are very grateful. Our present Administration is as friendly to England as it is possible for it to be. That friendship is patent in all its acts. All this is eminently satisfactory, for there is nothing, we believe, so pregnant with promise for the progress and tranquillity of the world as a close and firm friendship be'iw.n the two great families of the AngloSaxon people. Besides, America could not, upon any conceivable pretext, range herself against England in this war, for we are spending our blood and treasure to secure equal rights for English and Dutch alike, and'for all who care to settle in South Africa. British rule in the Transvaal and Orange Free State will mean the establishment of a form of Government affording protection of life, liberty, and property for all irrespective of nationality or colour, in place of the narrow, non-progressive, and corrupt domination that has existed so long in the Dutch Republics.