THE BOER COLLAPSE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4289, 23 February 1901, Page 4

THE BOER COLLAPSE.

After many delays, the final collapse of the unfortunate*, misguided Boers is apparently within measurable distance. Maiiy of tlieir own people have been telling them so for some time, foremost among them their famous General, Schalk Burger, and after him Piet De Wet, brother of the greatest guerilla commander the war has seen on either sidA Much lias been said of the tenacity and virtues of the Boer race, the best of It from the pen of Dr Conan Doyle, who likened their stock to iron and lire —the Dutch iron, and the French Huguenot fire—and called it the first racial' combination in the world. Theirs is, at all events, a combination of qualities width has enabled them to face and conquer many formidable enemies, hut i be most formidable of all their enemies they have been unable to conquer. These enemies are of them own household; they are their own leaders. A cable message this morning tells us that “There is accumulating evidence that the Boer leaders represent to the burghers that Mr Chamberlain’s conciliatory proposals are signs of weakness, and mere bridges for them to surrender.” The murder of Piet De Wet’s peace envoys is strong 1 proof of the truth of this statement; for j i‘, demonstrates that the Boer leaders] \

imputed falsehood to these poor men, whoso statements wore in contradictimi of theirs. On no other pka could even atrocious murder hare been done. Another Philo-Boer, writing i.iu:y, haiku I with satisfaction the Doer invasion el Cape Colony, for then, he add. they would learn the truth from the newspapers. These protests against the male-: guerilla, warfare have culminated in remarkable letter from Philip Sdivcm t, the Boer’s friend, who finds it Ins "painful duty” to declare that the only thing for these misguided men to do is to surrender. It is easy to see from bis communication that, the honest but ignorant

burghers have been grossly deceived l.y the enemies of their own household. 1 must be conceded that, though Ivjcr ignorance is phenomenal, and, indeed, encyclopedic, it cannot be called wholly unjustifiable. In two things very much better instructed people have boon much deceived as the Boers themselves. These two things arc the attitude of a section of the Liberal party at Horn**, and the intentions of "the Governments abroad Had these little Englanders, who so freely offered their sympathy and advice to the Boers, kept still longues at a critical moment, there might, have been no War. But it docs not follow that the Boorswere unreasonable m taking then at their word. As to the intentions of foreign nations, which ;:;o Boors so-fondlytbelieved to be in the direction of intervention, the Iretiuont mobilisation of our fleets, and the determined. character of our diplomacv, argued something like...participation in tho Boor idea. The wildness of the utterances of the foreign press only cruve homo to “Oofrt ■ Paul’’ ■ himself v. hen ho got. among , the foreign. Governments, and received the'respectful hut admittedly useless homage of some .vcciions of tho Continental public. One can hardly, therefore, blame the uneducated Boor for believing he had powerful British ami European friends to eventually lighten for him the gigantic struggle on. which be had entered with so light a hear!. Again, he could not be expected to understand the active strength of colonial loyalty. Indeed, the rat of the world was just as much surprLx-d as he w.is

I -when that loyalty threw £raed men inti the field. One side was; rgr-.-yably surprised; the other.was si mpiy m,founded. But the Boer loaders might, when thenforces wc>o hopelessly beaten, have told their men the truth which they themselves knew. They deserve the .severest condemnation for inciting their ignorant countrymen to lose everything they possessed in a struggle as useless as it is hopeless. Mr Schreiner, having made up his mind that all is lost to the Dutch. Sees not stop half way. He goes bo baas to advise the abolition of Ihe Dutch language throughout South Africa. Virtually ho tolls the Boers that they cm be of no more account as Dutch, and that they must become English, and be as soon as possible like the English in the other colonies of the Empire, jf.'s argument that, had they won, the Boers would have exacted: the. very same terms —“taken the last penny,” as l.c puts it—is clinching Mr Sch'roiner’s counsels may not prevail, though the rough handling De Wet’s commandoes arc getting makes it likely that they may. In any case, Ms letter is tl;o most sensible, hopeful ami logical utterance that has been put before the Boers since the fall of Pretoria.