IMPERIAL PROGRESS IN SOUTH AFRICA

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1618, 4 March 1903, Page 13

IMPERIAL PROGRESS IN SOUTH AFRICA

THE ROMAN AIMS OF JOSEPHUS AP RIO ANU S.

The Imperial Progress of Mr Chamberlain through his loyal dominions, which began in the luxury of a “Royal train,” and will culminate in the squalor of a Transvaal Concentration Camp, is naturally taken very seriously by his trusty subjects. If “Diplomaticus,” tvho occupies the first place in the new “Fortnightly Review,” were a humourous writer, he might possibly have made his disquisitions on this subject more enlightening; as it is, he is overwhelmingly serious, and. to tell the truth, a little dull. Three years ago, when the South African war broke out. “Diplomaticus” summed up the matter by telling us that though our case was an excellent one, Mr Chamberlain had muddled it atrociously, and put us altogether in the wrong. “Diplomaticus” has changed his mind. He is now convinced that while Mr Chamberlain ha,s failed in many of his Imperial schemes., the reason is that the circumstances were difficult for him, though his handling of them was perfect.

“Bipiomaticus” believes m Mr Chamberlain now. He is the “Mahdi of the Pan-Britannic gospel”; his aims are Roman. If he failed in his Colonial Con-ference.-that is not his fault; and his attempts constitute an unfinished monument of splendid audacity. “Diplomaticus,” however, insists that Mr Chamberlain's great opportunity has now come. It lies in South Africa, and he is equal to it. He will bring to the solution of the question lofty ideals, indomitable courage, a spirit of scrupulous fairness, and an unrivalled talent for administration. That h© will succeed may, in spite of “Diplomaticus,” be doubted, for “Diplomaticus'' goes on to inform us that circumstances now, as ever, are fighting against Mr Chamberlain: “His aim in South Africa was. I believe. worthy of him and of the best inspirations of his statesmanship. His reward has been of the cruellest. He neither sought nor expected war, and if he hoped to realise Lord Carnarvon's project of South African unity, he did not imagine that he would have to build on, the foundation of a devastated, distracted, and disaffected country.” THE DISLOYALTY OF “LOYALISTS.”

The “Cornhill Magazine” for December publishes an appeal for the Cape loyalists by Miss Anna Howarth, - who writes under the date October 13th. It appears that “actually the rebels are in a better position than the loyalists.” Englishmen who fought for their Empire are ruined, while many Dutchmen who went on commando returned to property safely kept for them by their friends. The lady declares that she has had an opportunity of observing the alleged race-hatred. The temper of the loyalists may be inferred from the exclamation that “the behaviour of Englishmen at home appears to be generosity gone mad.” “The motto of England is ‘Equal rights for all but just now and just here it seems to be ‘More rights for rebels than for loyal men.' ”