PRO-BOER AGITATION IN EUROPE.

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

PRO-BOER AGITATION IN EUROPE.

THREATENED INTERVENTION. < Writing on October 20, our London correspondent says: According to a telegram just received from Marseilles, and published to-day, Dr. Leyds has arranged that Mr. Kruger is to disembark from the s.s. Gelderland at Marseilles; and Baron de Landes, the captain of the warship, has received instructions from the Dutch Admiralty to land Mr. Kruger there. He will afterward visit Toulon and Paris, where, as at Marseilles, sympathetic public demonstrations, engineered by*the Boer agency at Brussels, will be organised. Mr. Kruger's visit to Park will be designedly arranged to' take place at a date following the close of the Exhibition. It is stated by a Frenchman, connected with the Transvaal Embassy at Brusells, that Dr. Leyds and the delegates

at The Hague are sanguine of ultimate intervention by the Continental Powers toward resfecuring to the Transvaal a large measure of autonomy under rigid British suzerainty and control. It is asserted that France and Russia have agreed upon intervention, in the material as well as the diplomatic sense, provided they can obtain the approval or passive acquiescence of the German Emperor, in connection with which Dr. Leyds' recent visit to Mr. Edward Lippert (the Transvaal dynamite concessionaire) and Mr. Woermann (of the German Imperial East African Steamship line) in Germany was of great significance. Further, it is alleged that the representations to the British Foreign Office from the Quai d'Orsay, whence M. Delcasse will take the initiative, will be based on the pretence that French mining interests on the Witwatersrand and elsewhere, are suffering grievously under a prolongation of the war, and a consequent cessation of mining operations. According to the same authority, France has been assured of the support and active co-operation of Russia. Both Powers are now awaiting the result of " feelers," sent to Berlin by French agents, in the Dr. Leyds, while it is asserted that " at present the German Emperor is wavering, and has as yet signified neither definite approval nor disapproval." It is, however, confidently believed by the Boer agents that he will soon throw in his voice with the Franco-Russian

proposals. As to the alleged certainty that all classes of politicians in England would indignantly reject and resent so preposterous a proposition, and that England would fight the world -rather than yield an inch of the ground it has so dearly bought, the comment was: "I/know that is the popular feeling in England, and Mr. Chamberlain's fixed determination. But I can assure you that this dream of intervention, hitherto dismissed as a fatuity of the Boer brain, is daily gaining tangible shape and vigour. The Unionist Cabinet will see the impossibility of arraying class against class in South Africa, in blind antagonism for ever more, with no hope of permanent peace. There may be much more in Bismarck's prophecy than many suspect. Bismarck foretold that the South African Republics would sooner or later prove the downfall of England, or at least would bring about the ultimate destruction of the British Empire as a worldwide Power. We on the Continent have bided our time, and from a Continental point of view your huge and unwieldly institution has grown much too menacing. In the event of France and Russia moving in this matter a joint note will be sent, as was done vhen Great Britain coquetted with Turkey. This, if the German Emperor can be persuaded to cast in bis Imperial lot, will be followed by a threat of armed intervention. We'll teach your Colonial Minister manners !"

On being asked what material objects would be gained by France and other Powers in the Transvaal, and what material advantage would be derived from a resuscitation of Kruger's corrupt regime, it was answered : " The ' mining interests' plea is only a blind, just as Mr. Kruger is merely a puppet at Paris and elsewhere where he may be put on view. As a matter of fact, we have been able to work the Continent

very easily, because the Continent ' an fond' fears England's bigness and England's aggression. Mr. Chamberlain would have made war with the Transvaal in 1895 if Germany had not intimated that a war at that time did not lie in her general scheme of policy. The idea from the beginning was to let England worry with South Africa, to exhaust and impoverish her, until the opportune moment came to cry ' Stop That time lias almost arrived. If the burghers can hold the field, and continue showing some sort of resistance for a few weeks or a month or two longer, you will see their 'dream of intervention' take the tangible shape of a living reality." According to another statement it has been arranged that Dr. Leyds and the Republican delegates—Messrs. Fischer, Wolmarans, and Wessels—proceed to Marseilles early in November to meet Mr. Kmger, and a Press Bureau, controlled by Dr. Leyds, lias been established at Dordrecht, in Holland. This agency furnishes the principal German, French, Russian, and American papers with pro-Boer intelligence; and is the journalistic centre and foundation of the anti-British movement on the Continent. Over 150 Belgian societies have already decided to take part in the reception which is to be given to Mr. Kruger on his arrival in Brussels. Lists of signatures to the address, to be' presented to the exPresident, are being circulated throughout Belgium, and gigantic plans are in progress for welcoming President Kruger in Europe. Boer agents are everywhere arranging addresses of welcome, demonstrations of sympathy, and testimonials of friendship. It is impossible to say what the great Anglophobe campaign may not lead to. The Courrier du Soir says that the French Government will receive Mr. Kruger with the honours due to a chief of a State. On the other hand, there are some reassuring symptoms that all Continental statesmen are not deluded by the Boer agents. In France, MM. Waldeck-Rousseau and Delcasse are strongly adverse to any countenance being given toward proceedings which might involve or induce a renewal of unfriendliness with England. But the danger is that they may be carried away by a wave of artificially manufactured popular sentiment. In Germany, too, the present disposition at headquarters is distinctly hostile to any pro-Boer policy. German statesmen have not forgotten the disagreeable results of the Kaiser's historic telegram to Mr. Kniger, and do not desire a repetition. Even in Belgium, where Anglophobism runs riot, probably because Belgium owes her existence to England, and has always found England, her best friendthat is the Belgian character all over! —a good deal of nervousness is manifested over the agitation which Messrs. Leyds and Co. have formulated in favour of Kruger, and actually in Holland itself, voices are being raised counselling caution and abstinence from toopronounced hostility to England. Possibly Queen Wilhelmina's betrothal to a German Prince may tend to enhance German influence, which at present makes for non-in-tervention. But it would be idle to ignore and silly to deny the existence of certain antagonistic influences with which we may have to reckon very seriously. And the pivot upon which all the present machinations really turn is—China. Russia is playing her old game. Vociferating stentoriouslv that she sought no Chinese territory, and would annex none in connection with hei part in repressing the Boxer movement, she has already incorporated the vast and valuable district of Manchuria into the Russian Empire. It is, of course, declared to be a purely temporary measure, with a view to the restoration of good government and order_ and so forth. It is just the story of Khiva and Merv over again. We may rely upon it that once annexed by Russia, Manchuria will never again be disgorged, unless as the result of a cataclysmic 1 war. Neither is it a all likely that she will consent to give England adequate" compensation in the Yangtse Valley, even if England were prepared to strike such a bargain after declaring so definitely against the partitioning of the Chinese Empire. How Lord Salisbury and his Government viewRussia's attitude is not yet known. It is noteworthy that Russia took care to choose the time when England was engrossed in a general election to make her latest move. But now Lord Salisbury is re-established in power, for seven years nominally, at .any rate, the question is: What will he deem it right to-do in existing circumstances?- I cannot shut my eyes to the singular duplicity and insincerity of Russia's methods in ; { public affairs. Observe, so as the ftfcjyw

Powers had got themselves inextricably mixed up in the Chinese mess, Russia calmly announced her intention to withdraw. And now that the Powers have begun to disagree among themselves as to the treatment of the case, Russia quietly proclaims her annexation of Manchuria and her determination to retain there the vast army of 300,000 men she has already managed to accommodate on the spot! What can any other Power do against such a force? And yet it may well be that England will find herself compelled either to attempt resistance or to accept humiliating defeat. ; And so Russia keeps up her isleeve this card of South African intervention. If England strongly oppose Russia's move toward the partition of China, or demands more compensation than Russia chooses to concede, then we shall hear more of the intervention on behalf of the Boers. France will then be cajoled into supporting the shifty ally who takes all and gives nothing. For the Exhibition will be over, and the after reckoning will have to be faced with all the tremendous financial losses involved, and the attention of the Parisian public will need to be diverted. Truly, it does seem as if the month of November, 1900, might have a sinister influence upon the fortunes of the British Empire, as has so often been predicted. Very much may depend upon the ability of our forces in South Africa to bring the war early to a real and final close. Then a pro-intervention cry would not be so easy to work. That the decisive vote of confidence and support given by the people of England to Lord Salisbury will operate in some degree as a deterrent to those who are plotting against this country, may well be the case. Just as the attitude of the Radical party last- year unquestionably encouraged the Boers' to continue in the fatal course on which they had embarked, so will the emphatic endorsement by the British nation of the course pursued by the British Government tend to discourage those who are plotting the overthrow of the British Empire. Still, it would be folly to shut our eyes to the fact that the horizon is threatening and that danger looms ahead. It behoves us to be thoroughly prepared.