A PRO-BOER SOCIETY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4606, 10 March 1902, Page 4

A PRO-BOER SOCIETY.

The Wellington Peace and Humanity Society has made itself ridiculous by the series of resolutions it has adopted, the substance of which appears in another column of this issue. As the three tailors of Tooley street regarded themselves as the people of Great Britain, so the half-dozen or so persons forming this society presume to traverse the course and conduct of the war, advocate a peace on terras which would be equivalent to a surrender on the part of the British, viciously insult all classes of public leaders, and withal lay the flattering unction to their souls that they are the people representing- public opinion and conviction in this country. They have deluded themselves, and are attempting to mislead others who may be as weak and credulous as themselves. It is, however, amazing that any, person in a British community should at this' lath hour in the South African struggle display such consummate ignorance of the position. Great Britain has insisted on the surrender of the enemy, and to facilitate the end of the conflict has offered the Boers certain conditions. It is just a year ago since the overtures to a peace were made by the' British Government through Lord Kitchener, and no abatement has been made in the terms on which a lasting peace might be concluded. For the continuance of the war the British are therefore not

responsible. Tho Boer generals have intensified the misery of their followers; they must be held responsible for many lives; and they cannot escape the ignominy of being now regarded as marauding freebooters and desperadoes. But the Peace and Humanity Society of Wellington considers it desirable that the future of the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies, with the thousands of loyal British subjects dwelling there, should be handed over to the tender mercies of the Do Wets, the Bothas and the Steyns. Great Britain knows what her duty is, and her statesmen are aware that there can be no permanent peace in South Africa until the Boors still in the field are entirely broken and subdued.

There is one point on which all classes of Britishers will agree with the Feace Society, and that is in deploring the loss of life that is still going on in connection with the war. But the Boer leaders are tnemselves responsible for this. They could have ended the war by laying down their arms at the moment when they knew that the struggle was hopeless. That they were refused, and righuy so, “ the incontestable independence of both Republics as Sovereign International States,” was no reason for their continuance of the conflict, since they had admitted that the longer tho war was prolonged the worse would be tho hardships and privations their followers would undergo. All right-thinking persons, a phrase on which the Peace Society lays considerable stress, are ready to accept a peace that would bo lasting and would ensure justice to the loyal subjects of his Majesty in South Africa, but to grant the Boers an “incontestable independence ” as a sovereign people would be simply to invite a recrudescence of the very conditions that created so much discontent and worked so much iniquity when the Kruger oligarchy was m power. War at all times is to be deplored, but the teachers of Christianity, against whom the Peace Society hurls an exasperating invective, would not be loyal to their country and their cause did they fail to concur in tho vigorous prosecution of the war as the only way to tho establishment of an abiding peace. When this precious Peace Society attacks also our politicians for glorifying themselves on account of tho war, one is astounded at its audacity, and the conclusion is forced upon us that this organisation is not a Peace Society at all, but one for the propagation of pro-Boerism. They who belong to a society of this kind are not loyal to the country which has granted them protection, and if they were true to themselves they would be found, not among the patriotic and loyal people of New Zealand, but among the camp followers of Do Wet or Botha. Yet the impudence of this society ' knows no bounds. It has the assurance to appeal to the press of this country to tell the truth about the war. The truth is that the Boers issued an insulting ultimatum to Great Britain, carried war into a peaceful portion of the Empire, avowed their intention of driving the British into the sea and hoisting the Transvaal flag at Capetown. They have not recanted or disavowed their desire to expel the British from South Africa, and were the press of this country to cease to urge the complete subjugation of the Boers it would utterly fail in what is its plain public and patriotic duty. We are as anxious for peace, however, as any member of the Wellington Peace and Humanity Society, and we are satisfied that all Christian clergymen, politicians and Ministers of tho Crown in New Zealand are earnestly desirous that the war should be brought to an end; but it must be in accordance with' tho terms already stipulated, and until the enemy accepts these terms the war must go on. It is a mistake to imagine that we are sending out contingent after contingent to prolong the war. Our object is that it may bo quickly concluded, and what little Help wo are able to offer to that end is an evidence not of our desire to seek “our oivn glory or our own selfish interests, but rather the honour of the Empire and the respect of our fellow loyal subjects in South Africa. The British Government has a duty to perform to the loyalists throughout the whole of South Africa, and this duty prevents its abating one jot of the terns already offered to the enemy. Besides, there are, it is calculated, more burghers who have sworn allegiance to Great Britain since the opening of hostilities than there are now Boers in the field. If the terms of peace wore less than unconditional surrender they, who have wrought all the mischief and are still prolonging the agony would be regarded as the equals of those who yielded and of those who remained loyal when it would have been easy to be rebellious. No settlement would bo feasible or fair that would overlook the claims of South African loyalists, and since Kruger, De Wet and Steyn are still insistent on “ incontestable independence,” the proper course to the end of the war is to keep the peace door open to the enemy while the British soldier presses him .persistently in the field. It would be both futile and dangerous to pursue any other policy, and the members of the Wellington Peace and Humanity Society are neither loyal subjects nor friends of Ihe Boers when they advocate those terms of peace which, if agreed to, would be but a prelude to a further war. This is the conviction of all loyal New Zealanders, and it would be according our peaceful and humane friends a fictitious importance if we allowed it to be imagined abroad that they represented more than an insignificant fraction of the people of this country.