THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1902.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11854, 4 January 1902, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1902.

It is beating the wind to discuss the question of Boer independence, but the very practical and sensible comment on the matter of the leading Belgian paper, the Independance Beige, may well justify reference. This journal, the organ of "a party by no means Anglophile but politically sympathetic -with the Boers, has evidently been finding reasons tor Continental non-intervention and for its party, refusing to identify itself with a Pro-Boer: agitation. In doing so, it has laid its finger upon the crucial point of the situation and has ' served us by asserting . a truth which our patriotism has generally failed to recognise. It bluntly tells Kruger that for Britain to grant the Boers independence is to lose all prestige," that no British Government could resist the national determination not to abandon what has been gained at so great sacrifice. Unquestionably, the status of Britain as a " World-Power is upon its trial. Unless the Empire holds South Africa its possessions in every part of the world will promptly be challenged, for it will I haye confessed that its hands have grown too old for war and its fingers too weak to fight. We may not like to admit that Briton as well as Boer jis fighting for national existence, I but the feeling that it is so is subconscious in every loyal heart. This [is what ; underlies " the unfaltering I support which the colonies are giv- [ ing and the bitterness with which I every loyalist views the renegadism of the Pro-Boer element. We can forgive /the Afrikander who, after all, may only have been carried away by racial feeling. We can even ['find excuse for the " Nationalist" ; who has always declared that " England's extremity is Ireland's opportunity.". But we cannot forgive and cannot excuse those who with pretence of patriotism on their lips and love of country ever prating in their I mouths do their utmost to weaken I our efforts and to encourage our | enemies when we are fighting for l our very place among the peoples of the earth.

If the Imperial Government were so insanely foolish as to shrink from present ; sacrifice and to be discouraged 'by i present difficulties as to restore in any shape or form independence to the Boers, if the British people permitted such a surrender, it would do a great deal more than re-establish in South Africa a vindictive .and unforgiving enemy against whom our kinsmen of Natal and the Cape would sooner' or later have to figlat again under infinitely more desperate circumstances; The horde of enemies ; who . ; beset our world-wide Empire, cowed into quietude by the prestige of the British name and ■thenar of the British arm, would be inspired to raise their heads and to unitedly attack at every point the. frontier that extends round the world, The reverses * of the Crimea were promptly followed by the uprising , of the Indian Sepoys against our rule, and to-day news spreads faster and to more re-

[ mote regions than in the fftios. The ! savages of Ashantee vose in revolt •two years ago because they heu-d | that we were beaten on he ! Tugela and . l\ lC Modder; If Hit were nois-*d/ abroad that affcr years of the most strenuous, endeavour to conquer* the' Boer Statos we had been defeated b\ guerillas and compelled to abandoi. tae country we had annexed, there is not one of the regions where British law is enforced over "sullen brown peoples" which would not be swept by the fires of revolt. Nor' would this be all. It would be the least' of our misfortunes. France would' claim Egypt and the New Hebrides and Germany our East Indian territories ; Russia would descend upon India; Japan would claim the fright to i colonise Australia ; Spain would demand "tae' rock" and Italy want- Malta. . Oriy j our kinsmen; of America, of all tlje nations of the earth, would conspiipi no evil against us, and evei America, being : human, would thin} with satisfaction of -Canada being driven into the Union to find there, a safety and security which the! broken Empire could no longer give. , As for New- Zealand, it is said that Russia had designs on us once and we may be sure "that a dozen nations would risk much to possess and colonise these sparsely-settled ? ; islands of oursi We could escape into the American Union,: \of ; course, • but what; a all it would be ■ for a. colony which objected so stoutly to federation with Australia.;to; become a State like Louisiana and ■'~ take its laws/ from Washington like Connecticut !j;r The ; Empire suits us all, to say nothing of our hereditary affections, and if we yielded _to the guerillas and restored power to Kruger and [ teyn, it would melt around us like snow before the sun; As the Independence Beige says we should lose all prestige and with it would 1 lose the security;■ which belongs only to those who show themselves able to hold their, own.

It is - somewhat idle—any theorising of what might : follow. a national; confession of South African' defeat, for that confession never he made. • But the war continues ; because the . misguided people who lowed ; Afrikanderism to destroy them;; are not yet convinced of the absurdity of such a conception. ;■.They have been' assisted in the maintenance of their delusion by foolish friends on the Continent of Europe and treacherous sympathisers 'in Britain itself. The sooner th© absolute and unshakable determination of Britain and her colonies, to carry the war to a satisfactory con elusion, is realised by the Boers the sooner peace will be . established.. Such intelligent and perceptive articles as those of the Independance Beige do much to bring about this understanding, just, as the utterances of Sir ,W. Vernon ; Har'ciDurt,' , Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and other British politicians do much to prevent it. For the future of South Africa, when once peace is obtained and industry resumed, we need not, fear. The mineral Wealth of the Transvaal will -draw many thousands .of British. gold-seekers. not merely to the known fields ; but; to many parts of the country closed by the : jealousy of Krugerism. Irrigation colonies will doubtless be established and agriculture gradually exceed tho pastoral interests. With the breaking-down of the Taal speech, a common language will unite British and' Boer and. common education disperse the Boer ignorance. The descendants of those who fought each other at Colenso and Tweefontein will amalgamate as completely : as \ the children of those who fought each : other at Hastings, at Bannockburn and at Ciilloden. For no assumption is so erroneous as that which asserts that peaceful amalgamation of peoples never follows conquest.T Dane and Saxon live in :peace: and: fellowship in England, Celt and : Saxon in Scotland, < Prussian >; and Bavarian in Germany. North and South have . t alike forgotten and ; forgiven the war of American Secession. French I Canadians; fought heroically against i Cronje whose grandfathers had risen jin arms against British rule. Afrikander i may > yet -be: a name as honoured lin our ... Empire : . as New Zealander; : the \ grandson of a. De Wet may well lead the loyal troopers of the veldt to hold a distant frontier for the Empire which they have learned to; understand. ■• When swe think of what would happen to the world if we yielded in South Africa and of what will befall even the Boer when the; inevitable .is recognised, it is with no careless meaning that : .''we. can say of' the Empire that its triumph is the triumph of Freedom, of Justice and of Peace. No man will be the worse for its victory and every man would be loser if we were weak enough to allow it to fall. ; :;