HOW MUCH MONEY HAS KRUGER GOT?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11540, 27 November 1900, Page 6

HOW MUCH MONEY HAS KRUGER GOT?

GREAT EXPECTATIONS WHICH MAY BE DISAPPOINTED. How much gold has Mr. Kruger amassed, where has he hidden it, and what will he do with it? The estimate of one journalist, which puts the amount at £12,000,000 sterling, is grotesquely excessive (says the London Daily Mail). The war emptied the Treasury, the old sources of revenue ceased, and no such fabulous store could have been accumulated, even if every ounce of gold won from the commandeered Uitlander mines had been They rather hope Oom Paul's money will tinental banks. . This was not the case, as large quantities of gold were paid away, and it was no unfamiliar sight six. months ago in Pretoria to see hangers-on of the late Government walk about the streets with heavy hunks of shining metal. The mint was the depository whither streamed the gold .of the nationalised" mines of the Witwatersrand and the Lydenburg district. Only the richest patches of the richest and . best-developed mines were quarried; an improvident manner of mining, certainly, but a system by which the notorious Munnik, Acting-State Mining Engineer, secured the best outputs. There were not inconsiderable " leakages" at the mines, and the illicit gold traffic was rampant on the fields. OUTWARD BOUND BULLION. Each alternate week, ok as often as a Germ in or French boat sailed from Delagoa Bay to Europe, between 20 and 25 cases of bar gold were conveyed out of the State by the officers of the Johannesburg Banque Franchise, Mr. Kruger's gold-forwarding agents, who were replaced at Lorenzo Marquez by young gentlemen attached to the Secret Cabinet and Foreign Office at Pretoria, and who travelled constantly between the Transvaal capital and the Legation at Brussels. It used to take two sturdy Kaffirs to lift one such case, and as there were between 12 and 16 consignments of an average of 20 oases, each weighing approximately 1001b avoirdupois, the " commandeered" gold now in Europe may be assessed to represent a value of, roughly, £1,000,000 sterling. This, sum, then, is the surplus in the commandeered bullion account .of Kruger, Leyds, and Co. Assessing Mr. Kruger's private fortune, now entirely withdrawn from South Africa, with the exception of his proprietary interests in several farms and immovable properties,'at £150,000, a very modorate figure, the aggregate assets in Europe to be controlled by the ex-President will amount to about £1,150,000. A part of the Kruger treasury has, however, been , paid out to Loteryman, Gillingham, Tobianski, Hendrik Schoeman, " Jaapie" Celliers, and other patriotic contractors or contracting patriots who purchased clothes and foodstuffs for the commandos. And, of course, collapsible "pom-poms" and such things introduced into the country in the disguise of pianos and lard, had also to be paid for; while no small sum is being daily absorbed by the gentlemen of the Embassy and the delegates, who are living and travelling in princely splendour. WHERE THE MONEY WILL GO. What will Mr. Kruger, whose personal wants are few, do with his hoards in the Nederlandscho Bank, in the vaults of the Comptoir d'Escompte, the parent house of the French Bank's manager at Johannesburg, in Belgium, and at his German banker's ? Will he honour the cheques "referred to drawer," which impecunious ex-officials in Holland now importuno Dr. Leyds to pay, troublesome applications the worthy doctor dismisses on the ground that he has no authority" to cash his country's cheques ? Perhaps he will, perhaps he won't. Speculators in Amsterdam are already offering 25 per cent, of the face-value of these briefjes with a view to their ultimate liquidation by the British Government. Netherlands Railway Company shares have not dropped very much for the same reason.

The giant share of Oom Paul's money will, however, be diverted to a much more disturbing and insidious purpose. While Mr. Kruger remains sequestered at one or other chateau in Holland 01 Belgium, his agents and propagandists will be active in the capitals to embitter Continental opinion, already acutely Anglophobe in France. The plan is to conduct a persistent agitation against England with a view to securing eventually " een vrij Zuid Afrika," and the restoration of independence to the Transvaal and Orange River Colony. This scheme is to be set on foot by replacing the Mauser by the Mugwump, and by newspaper-mon-gering and pamnaleteerin?, all these processes to be financed with the spoliated gold of the Uitlanders. AND WHERE IT IS WANTED. The people of Holland, we learn from our Amsterdam correspondent, will scarcely lend themselves to this pre-conceived campaign. They rathtr hope Oom Paul's money will be devoted to assisting the Transvaalers swarming there, who have now to be sheltered and fed by philanthropic townsmen, back to their homes in South Africa. But the last thing they would wish for would be to embroil themselves with England, or their Ministers with an anti-English policy. It is understood over there that Queen Wilhelmina only assented to the sending of the war-vessel to Krugpr after securing the approval of the other Powers and the indulgence of Great Britain. The act was forced upon her First Minister, who was rapidly waning in popularity among a number of frothy irresponsibles in the Staten Generaa.l, and as such it was merely the act of an Opportunist. Men and bodies of influence in Holland are, however, not going to courticommercial, if not political, disaster by wantonly flouting English susceptibilities. Divested of political embroidery, the sending of the ship is reduced to an act of courtesy towards the ailing old man rather than to the ex-potentate, and being only this and nothing more, the welcome to be extended to Mr. Kruger when he disembarks will not be allowed to partake of an official character. In any case, Dr. Leyds has been given to understand that Holland is not to be compromised into "excesses of sympathy," and that Mr. Kruger will receive neither royal nor official recognition as President or exPresident of the Transvaal, even though the melodramatics of an exuberant populace cannot be repressed, and are passively approved. )