PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2241, 11 February 1897, Page 51

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

South African Affairs. This week's Witness contains a cablegram stating that the Boers, under the guise of seeking redress for the Jameson raid, aim at the creation of a republic from the Cape to Zambesia, while other cablegrams indicate unrest. The more one reads of South African affairs the more one finds there is to road. There are so many thing* to consider. The treatment of the natives is one which prevents many whites from declaring for a British rule, for most whites, after living in South Africa for a time, take the view that the natives can only be recognised as inferiors, to be used purely as so much labour material. I may write a line or two on tlm point next week. At present there is trouble between the Boer and tha British Government about British Indian traders. These are mostly Parsees, and therefore men SE colour, and as such the Boers deny them the right to trade with whites, as Boer law only allows coloured men to trade with like ; but the Indian traders say that as British subjects the Treaty of Pretoria gives them British rights, to which the Boers reply that they never dreamt that the treaty should apply to men whom their laws cannot recognise as British, that word to theca only meaning whites. It seems now to be generally understood that the near future is to see a struggle for supremacy in South Africa, and the British Review — a new journal evidently up to date in its information — says " that if British interests are to predominate south of the Zambesi, inexorable resolve, a virile policy, and irresistible physical force must be combined to secure that end." There is no doubt that Britain's vacillating policy in South Africa has encouraged the Boers to maintain a defiant attitude. Party government has been largely responsible for the uncertainty as to what would be done next, and is the origin of all troubles there from the Zulu war to the defeat of Jameson's iaiders at Krugersdorp. Tbe following list of dates will perhaps be handy to many

readers, and at the same time show how governments have gone back on' the policy of previous governments. 1795 — Great Britain annexed Cape Colony after conquest. 1802 — Cape Colony restored to the Dutch. | 1806 — Cape Colony annexed after recon- ; quest. 1835 — Britain occupied Natal by treaty with the Zulus. 1838 — Dutch Republic Natalia set up. 1842— Dutch Republic Natalia put down. 1843 — Britain annexed Natal. 1848 — Britain conquered and annexed the Omnge Free State. 1854— Britain evacuated the Omnge Free SUte. 1877 — Britain annexed the Transvaal. 1881— Britain evacuated the Transvaal. The establishment of tbe South African Chartered Company and tbe waging of several little wars are of later dates, but all tend to make Britain's power more solid ; and if a definite colonising policy be adopted, the r.wo Boer Spates, land-bound as they are by British territories, must become merged in a British South African Federation. j Just at the present time a forward step has been taken in appointing a Mr Oonyngham Greene as her Majesty's Charge rl 'Affaires at Pretoria, with a salary of £3000 a year ; and as he is " a trained diplomatist, accomplished in the science of negotiation, and equipped with all the intellectual and social resources requisite to enable him to meet ' Datoh rural simplicity ' on equal terms," it is more than probable that a firm stand is to be takan with the Boers. England Coutranuvtydam. is the heading of another article I have just read, and it doesn't picture affiirs too brilliantly for Britain. France's desire to acquire a colonial empire was stifled rather than extinguished by the defeats of Montcalm in Canada, Dupleix in Indi%> and Villeneuve at Trafalgar, and the loss of La Perouse gave to tha British unquestioned s way in Australasia, and these combined gave Britain that hnndred years' start in her colonial, Indian, and African, empires which France is trying to overtake now. At present, though her population is almost stationary, and though in Paris the deaths exceed the births — at least so says a review article written by a Frencnman — at present', I repeat, France dreams of acquiring Egypt and becoming possessed of Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and from the Congo to the Mediterranean.- She has 11 causes of difference with Britain in Africa besides being Beiiously at variance with her in Farther India, Madagascar, and Newfound- ■ land, not to mention New Heorides and j other islands in the Pacifi". And France ia '; in deadly earnest. H^r flset she aim 3at » making equal to Britain's, though her com- : merce ia vastly inferior in extent and value, aud she calculates on securing tbe naval assistance of Rassia, who, having no appre- | ciable coast line, no commerce, and no ! colonies, cm only use her increasing navy i for aggressive purposes. 1 But a writer unkindly reminds France i that she has waged 22 more or less unsuccessful wars with Britain ; that though she spilled blood like water, and spent gold Hk* dross to establish herself on the Nile, Lord Cromer is virtually Khedive of Egypt ; and that though a Frenchman conceived, and with French money constructed, the Suez Canal, it is now dominated by Britain ; and that while France in 1891 sent 185 ships of 710,999 tons through it, Britain sent 2386 ships of 8,235,82G tons in tbe same year. Francs is told plainly that in the past, wherever she ha 3 como into cod tact, with Britain, the advance hay usoa with ' A.nd why? Not, always, the writer says, because ahe has been nerved by abler or bravor msn, Lac because she has always aimed at beiug a soa power ; while Franca has in turns aimed on the one hand at military and political predominance in Europe, and on tha other at becoming a world-wide empire. Her resources have been divided, | and now she fieds herself beaten back in Europe and acquiring colonial possessions which drain her of treasure and soldiers.