Truth BOTHA BOTHERS BOODLE.

NZ Truth, Issue 91, 16 March 1907, Page 4

Truth

BOTHA BOTHERS BOODLE.

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SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1907.

COSMOPOLITAN CAPITAL'S CREPITATING CRY.

The simulated! surprise of the plutish press of. Australasia at the result of the . elections m the Transvaal is almost as ■ comifcal as it is crafty. The British Government went to war with the Boers, and slaughtered their men and; immolated their children, and drove, many of their women to .destitution, or even vice— and yet the pinchpenny press, of Australasia is astonished because, a majority of Boers m the Transvaal have elected a majority: of Boer members. of Parliament ! It would have been astonishing ii they had done anything else; Judas Joe' Chamberlain and those w,ho conspired with him pretended that they wanted South Africa^ jor Britons, and that their object m beating down the Boers, and carrying on a shameful, wicked, and wanton war with the Boer farmers and their wives and children was to. secure justice and prosperity .for. people of British blood ; ,yet when, after one of the most costly and destructive wars of modem times, the Bqers were overwhelmed, Britons were shut out from many avenues of employment m the mines';" and their places were taken by— inaentured coolies! In spite of i this fact, .there is astonishment at the electoral' triumph of the Boers ! ' ■ ? I'.Hi'J. ■ 7 ..V •■-.»■ • . .'; ■

The gang 'jresponsible" for the wax, and for thd -.flooding of , South Africa with, Chinese criminals and slavey are, ofw! courise, . merely reaping, what they! hS^e" sipwrt; : :They / were, guilty of a gr(iss\iljr*ij;(2h-of faith with the peoTrte^f^jSa^^^ electqf&i'punistie'd them, at the earliest qpjp^rtunily ,, by placing m pOwer a" Governmenir that has given to the Trarisyaal \ 'Gonstitution -that en.ables the 'Boers to rule ; and, after all, whyJshould they not rule m their Qwn'-cdtintßy ■•? ', v . jfer the, mine-owners desired Britishv'tmel m the /Trarifevaal, theyicoiuld have secured it by, filling their. 'Sniines with Briton's, : but,: in•steaS of doing 'this, they, have- preferred\ohinameh—and must - s^ancl the T|iat they do not like Boer rule • is certain' ; the Wicked War was brought about -by the minieowners 'because they bitterly resenitj ed the restrictions' imposed on them, by the pld'Bqer; Government. "Owing to' these restrictions, the mine-own-ers were .prevented from recklessly undermining the streets, and thereby endangering life and property, and they were not allowed to treat pre-: cisely as they pleased the laboring ' kaffir. These very proper curbs ,upon •the capitalistic cupidity and callous cruelty of the mine-owners ! were resented by .these covetous "captains" of industry,; as scandalous and outrageous violations of individual liberty, *and great was the clamor thereat. ■ ':■: <■' ' ':• ' '

The logic of events has shown that the Boers acted m a perfectly proper, and, indeed, patriotic manner m seeking to check the rapacity of the mine-owners. -With, regard to the kaffirs, the Boers were not, m the slightest . degree, too severe. Indeed, the ' Kaffirs, themselves, thought that the Boer's were not severe enough, and their chiefs took the matter into their own hands by refusing, m many cases, to allow their tribesmen to work m the mines. This was because of the little security provided therein for life and limb. Apparently, the mine-owners regarded the life ,of a kaffir as little less valuable, than that of a dog ; and this was reported to the chiefs. In consequence of this temporary difficulty m. ■ obtaining kaffirs , induced by the carelessness, cruelty,' and cupidity of the mine-owners, the capitalists owning the mines declared that it was utterly impossible to obtain sufficient •unskilled labor without importing Chinamen, ami thus it is that, instead of the South African war creating new avenues of employment for natives of the British isles, it simply made more work for Chinamen,. Great- Britain poured out blood and treasure, sacrificed the lives of some of the besi; of her citizens— in orde x r that Chinese convicts and coolies might be made to work for the Jewish owners of mines m South Africa !

The moderation of the Boers of the Transvaal is as striking as tne callousness of the mine-owners is repulsive. The new Boer Government, of which Lord Selborne has requested the brave, "brainy," Boer Botha to be Premier— him ,who as General Louis Botha fought so gallantly during the war— lets the world distinctly understand that it is not embarfccfi upon a policy or revenge. In fact, its mildness appears, wnen we consider all that the Boers have suffered, mo -it marvellous. So remarkably restrained was the manifesto

that Louis Botha issued to the electors, to whom he recently appealed, that one is almost unable to recognise m it the General Botha Who rivalled De Wet as , a determined fighter against Great Britain during the Wicked War. What one might suspect would be that Botha was indulging .m the form of deceit known among the Boers as being , ''slim," were it not that, before the outbreak of the war, Louis Botha was wellknown as an opponent of Kruger, and as, indeed, a "Progressive; " This fact is something that makes one feel 1 slightly suspicious of : even so gallant a Boer soldier as General Louis Botha, for were not the "Progressives'" the party of the mineowners, and were they not used to pull the capitalists' chestnuts out of the fire f

This Botha Boer is, really, no little of a puzzle; for, while,, as we have said, he did his duty, to his fellow countrymen during the Wicked War with rare courage and admirable skill, yet, now that the war is over, he really seems, although a member of the Boer Het Yolk organisation, to have a loot m the camp of the Progressives as well ; for this is the way m which he addressed the electors m his recent manifesto :

He declared that after Vereeniging King Edward became the Boor's king, and the British flag became the Boer flag. He maintained that the Boers entertained no hostility of the mines and mineowners. To talk, he wrote, of wholesale Chinese repatriation, if the Boers came to pofcer, was all nonsense. Nothing would bo done to embarrass the mines m regard to unskilled labor. The Boers, he added, were prepared to accept English as a compulsory language, to the extent required by the constitution-. ' • .■"■■• •«

Boer Botha seems to be "bothering" Boer-baiters, but he also seems to be puzzling others, including some who, not only never baited Boers, but sought to prevent the': outbreak of the war, and to stop it when it had been started. Perhaps, however, it is politic for the leaders.vof a beaten people like ,the Boers, who are regarded by many persons as merely enfranchised rebels, to be extremely cautious m utilising the poWer that has been placed m their hands as the result of the revolt of the^ British people against the dietestable and damnable domination of Chamberlainism. No doubt if the Boers showed any tendency to exact everything that is thfeii\ due, they might arouse again the latent Jingoism of John Bull, and, although it is not at all probable, yet it is possible that the hooligans of • Britain that howled for war, and the .ignominious intriguers that pulled *he strings, of State m favor of war, might again succeed m hurling the might of England against the Boer farmers of the Transvaal.

Premier Louis Botha, of .the Transvaal, might, nevertheless, succeed m doing his cause some harm by "moderation" that is really conservatism- He appears likely, for instance, to make a mistake with regard to Chinese ' labor. Nothing more outraged British sentiment than the fact of the mines being filled with Chinamen as soon as the war had Men. fought and won 'by BritOns. It . was .,- this that caused the defeat of Chamberlain ; and the substitution of white, mainly British', labor for that of the Chinese, is- something upon which the Democracy of Great ■ Britain isu.de.-,

> as.. possible, this must be done, and. if Botha places any obstacles m the, way of its being * done' he will lose the friendship of the British people,; and will find himself and his fellow countrymen at the mercy of the cosmopolitan clique of goid-grafrbers that was responsible for the Wicked War. This would .be a, calamity, that would be regretted, not only by the 1 Boers, but by those who, m every part of ;the world, hope for the speedy realisation iof economic justice, and perceive that , the efforts of '^colonial' '■ conspirator^ of the ' . type : of' those owning the gold mines of .the Rand may, result m the postponement of the day of justice; .

The results of the elections m the Transvaal are, however, ndt . such is need perturb .the patriot. The triumph of - : Het Yolk, is immeasurably, better than the triumph of cqrife-der-: atecl capitalists of the- Rand arid their' press parasites and tainteti tools. The rule of. the Boer-rnot-withstanding /its narrowness, its •Puritanism, and its intolerance— was always better than that of the cosmopolitan capitalists., Let the Boers, now that they are m power again, enact good labor-laws, let them insist upon the repatriation of the Chinese, even if it be gradual; and eventually they may make of South Af-fi rica-a country that is worthy' ;ph ad* miration instead of, as it is now, a land of loathing for ' white workers in' every part of the world. The Boers now have the ball' at their, feet ; let us hope that -they will kick it to that goal of economic equity towards which the eyes of toilers. of the world are turned m longing and m hope.