BOER AND BRITON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2368, 20 July 1899, Page 45

BOER AND BRITON.

By D. M. KENNEDY (A lato resident of the Transvaal.)

The South African imbroglio has at last reached that acute stage that a solution of the difficult questions involved must be determined, and the cry of the Uitlander for justice must receive that attention from H.B.M. Government which has so long been delayed. In common with all my fellow-countrymen who have experienced the oppressive rule of the Transvaal, I rejoice and thank God that tho hour of deliverance is at hand.

It is often asked of me here in New Zealand, what are the causes that have led the Boer Government to oppress the Uitlanders, and why do the Uitlanders expect Great Britain to take up their quarrel ? Would it not be less expensive and easier for the Uitlanders to leave the Transvaal, and let the Boers rule that country in their own way? Is it not a pity, asked one reverend gentleman, that the Boers are not allowed to govern according to their own ideas? To all such questions, as a Uitlander, I answer : I was welcomed by the Boer Government and people alike, to come in and work and develop the mineral wealth of the country, to invest my capital, and the capital of my friends and my countrymen, and, prior to 1890 the laws of the Transvaal were so liberal, and the rights of foreigners 30 well guarded by the terms of the Pretoria Convention of 1881, and the London Convention of 1884, that I had every reason to believe I could better my condition by entering the country, and British and other foreign capitalists freely invested their money in the mining fields of the Transvaal, firmly believing that they were guaranteed against loss through seizure, or the enactment of hostile legislation for all time, and that as far as safety was concerned, life, property, and the pursuit of happiness were as secure as in any part of H.B.M. nossessions. But as the numbers of the Uitlander population increased very rapidly, on account of the increased output of gold from the mines in the Barberton district and the discovery of the Rand reefs, the Boer' officials became alarmed, as they feared that the influx of such numbers of foreigners would soon place the Boer population in a hopeless minority, and as the greater portion of the new arrivals were British subjects, they very naturally assumed that the newcomer would demand and insist upon the appointment of an executive, and the election of members of the Volksraads of their own nationality, and England would gain possession of the country by sheer weight of numbers, and thereby secure the position she occupied prior to the war of independence, and that the victory of Majuba would be of no account, and the independence of their country be lost for ever:

With these thoughts foremost, the two houses of the Volksraad met at Pretoria in 1890, and, having discussed the position, they repealed the then existing franchise law, and instead of the liberal terms of the old law they passed the prohibitive measure now in fores, and thereby secured BOER POLITICAL ASCENDENCY TOR

EVER, p.s no Uitlander could thereafter gain full burgher rights. The law only admitted the right of the Uitlander to become naturalised after a residence of 12 years, and provided that two-thirds of the burghers resident in the Field Cornelcy in which the applicant resided were willing that he should be admitted to become a burgher, and that the applicant should take the following oath: —

I, , until now , born , being desirous of becoming a burgher of the South African Republic, and having conformed to all the regulations concerning naturalisation, revoke and renounce obedience, allegiance, and subjection to - all foreign Princes, Powers, States, and Sovereignties, and, in particular, the Priuce, the head, the State, or Sovereignty whereof until now I have been a subject aiut a burgher, and swear as a subject the oath of allegiance and obedience to the Government and its laws and to the people of the South African Republic.

Should the Uitlander comply with all the requirements of the law he would then be admitted, and would have the right to vote for members of the Second Volksraad and for the appointment of a Field Cornet for his district, but under no circumstances could he vote for the election of members of the First Volksraad or for the election of President, as the right to vote for these positions was specially reserved for burghers of Boer blood born in the Transvaal and burghers of foreign origin that were in full possession of the rights previous to the war of independence of 1880.

No person can become a burgher unless he is a member of a Protestant church, and any Boer can be disfranchised should he become a convert of any other faith.

It must be fully understood that the Second Volksraad have no power over finance, or over the policy of the State, but can only deal with such subjects as the First Volksraad may from time to time send to the Lower House for consideration, and even then the decision of the Second Raad may be set aside by a bare majority of members of the First Raad or by the Executive Council, or the President and his Secretary of State. Can it be wondered at if the Uitlander, realising the valueless nature of the franchise open to him (even if he could secure the support of the burghers), refuses to forswear the country of his birth and his Sovereign, and, being deprived of all hope of justice from Boer Parliament and people, he calls on Great Britain to uphold his rights under the terms of the 1881 and the 1884 Conventions, for the Uitlander has every right to claim that he would not havo entered tho Transvaal or invested his money in mining or commerce in the country if "these conventions had not been in existence, and if article 4 had not specially given him a claim to protection from the British Government should the Boers at any lime attempt to enact any laws or enforce them against his life, property, or the regular pursuit, of his occupation, or pleasure, unless such laws shall have full force and should also be enforced against the burghers of the State.

This brings us then to the question as to the right of England to interfere on behalf of her subjects — a right claimed by her as paramount Power of South Africa, and as suzerain of the South African Republic. But the Transvaal deny the right of England to claim Suzerain power, and claims to be an autonomous State, free to do as she pleases in all internal affairs, and to make treaties with any South African State or colony at any time without consulting England, and in support of their contention the Boers slate that the word Suzerain, as contained in the Pretoria Convention of 1881, was by special request left out of the London Convention of 1884. Further, the Boer 6 claim that the 1884 Convention is not a part of an agreement, but that it altogether supersedes the 1881 Convention, and that in consequence a Suzerainty does not exist.

Now, let us consider the claims of England wherein she demands to be considered 'as Suzerain Power. First, she claims the right" to review and disallow any treaty made between the Transvaal and any foreign Power. This claim is not disputed by the Transvaal ;

but as this is not a domestic question the Boer President and Volksraads claim that 1 it gives England no Suzerain rights. But the British claim gpes further, for the Convention of 1884, like its predecessor, does enter into and prohibit the Transvaal»Government in certain matters of domestic policy, as it forbids the passage of any act or the enforcement of a condition of slavery within the boundaries of the South African Republic. It specially makes provision that tho Republic cannot extend its borders by treaty or by the annexation of native territories, and it provides that the Transvaal shall have no right to place a duty on any article of British commerce coming into the territory of th"c Republic from oversea that does not equally apply to goods of like nature from other oversea countries. It also guards against the abuse of power by the Transvaal in regard to the entry of merchandise from other South African States and colonies, and secures equal rights for colonial goods under a most favoured nation clause. It is upon the strength of these and other restrictions contained in the conventions that the Uitlander claims that England is the Suzerain Power and that the Transvaal is an

INTEGRAL PART OF THE BRITISH

DOMINIONS, and that it is the duty of England to enforce her will and give to her subjects due protection. To give force to our claims, we know that the Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies has for years past considered the claims for justice were well founded, but, unfortunately, at the time when the Boer measures of oppression were commencing to be enforced and new laws to harass us were placed on the records, when Oom Paul took upon, himself the closing of the Drifts and stopped the colonial commerce from the Cape and Natal, and all things seemed to point to a speedy determination ol our troubles, when Cape Colony offered the Imperial Government its forces and to pay one-half the cost of a war with the Transvaal, diplomacy was considered advisable, as the Imperial Government had so many important questions pending, any one of which might call for the use of force, that a settlement Avitli the Boers without recourse to arms was almost a necessity. The Armenian and Cretan questions, the Niger, and other questions with Prance, the Venezuela difficulty with the United States, the requirement of additional forces for service in Upper Egypt, and for service against the warlike tribesmen on our Indian-Afghan frontier, and the possibility of war .with Russia over China, were enough to make the British Government exhaust every means in their power before resorting to the use of force. But as tho Imperial Government seemed desirous of avoiding another Boer war, the Uitlander population of the Transvaal, under the leadership of Mr Charles Leonard and a Reform Committee of seventy of the principal mining and commercial men of Johannesburg determined 'to' revolt, and arms and munitions of war were purchased in England and shipped to the Cape, and a portion of these were smuggled into the Transvaal in oil drums. As it- was contrary to law for any Uitlander to be in possession of any firearm, this subterfuge was Tieoessary in'-order to evade the watchful spies of the Transvaal Government. It seemed that the scheme of the reformers was sure of success. Arms began to arrive, and there was every prospect that 50,000 Lee-Metford rifles, with a sufficient supply of ammunition, woxtld arrive on the Rand before the date fixed upon for the revolution. Doctor Jameson, administrator of the Charter Company, had been consulted by the Reform Committee, and had agreed to cross the Transvaal border and assist the reform forces; and to Doctor Jameson we looked for the necessary artillery to offset the Transvaal Staats Artillery, should the latter force attempt to shell Johannesburg. It was clearly understood that Jameson and liis force should cross the border at a certain time and place, and that he would march by a route clearly mapped; that fresh horses for remounts, forage, and ample refreshments would be found at a place plainly designated ; s.nd that at the Queen's Battery, near the famous Doornkop, a force of not less than 3000 men would meet him and escort him into Johannesburg ;" but as the arms and munitions suddenly stopped coming into Johannesburg the Reform Committee became alarmed, and despatched mounted messengers from the Rand and telegrams from Capetown to Doctor Jameson requesting a postponement of the date fixed upon, and informing him that the Boer Government were aware of the details of the whole plot. Various rumours were current in Johannesburg as to the sources through which Oom Paul was kept informed, and at least one member of the Reform Committee was considered a traitor to the cause; but as I have very reliable information that tho whole plot was given away by the over-con-fidence of a member of the Reform Committee in the secretiveness of his wife, to whom he communicated all that took place at the committee meetings, and she in turn — as is the custom of the average woman — told it all fo her very dear friend as a great secret. As it happened, her dear friend was an English woman — the wife of Mr J. J. Raaf, a Boer attorney at law, — and, of course, Mrs Raaf informed her husband, and he in turn advised the President; and thus it came about that the Uitlanders were defeated by want of caution on the part of one of its leaders. The revolutionist policy had gone too far, and it was necessary to make the best possible use of the arms and forces at the disposal of the Reform Committee. Doctor Jameson was again advised to cross the frontier, and arms were distributed in Johannesburg; but hero the Reform Committee proved a complete failure, as -no proper organisation of a military character had been attempted or thought of until after the most of the arms were distributed, and then Capecolonial, Australian, Irish, Scotch, and English corps were hastily formed under command of officers that wore unfit for the positions, as the greater number of them were civilians, and the rest were ex-officers of Cape Colony volunteer corps. As a result of the want of organisation, no proper steps were taken to properly protect Johannesburg, and no attempt was made to send a force to meet Doctor Jameson or to divert the Boer forces of burghers or to stop the passage of the ,ammunition trains despatched from Pretoria to their forces beyond Krugersdorp. These trains went through Johannesburg without any attempt being made to capture or destroy them, and thus the burghers had a fidl supply of war material that could have been captured if any effort had been made. Doornkop followed, and Johannesburg surrendered — more diplomacy ; Jameson and his forces given up to England to be

dealt with ; Kruger' s promises to forgive and I forget; the German Emperor sends his I famous despatch to Kruger j England's war«

like reply,— all these liappened quickly, art* need no notice here, as they are only link* in the chain that still binds tho Uitlander to' the Boer ; for every event that delays the i-stf of force by England is an additional link in the chain, and every attempt to settle the dif< ferences that exists through diplomatic chan* nels is regarded by the Boers as an evidenct of fear on the part of England, and is the principal factoi in making the Boer full of self-conceit, and as he remembers Majuba and Doornkop, and tells his children of Potcheslrooin and Langsneck, he considers himself invincible, and, as a result, he treats the Em. glishman as an inferior, and considers him very little better than the Kaffir, only fit to work and produce revenue for the sole use and benefit of his Boer, masters. Is. it "to be wondered at if taught from childhood up to manhood, that the Uillander has no right in the land that the Boer is- in any way bound to respect, that he is a coward, unable to defend himself, and that England cannot and will not try to help him, that he was sent into the •country by the God of their fathers to be k servant to His chosen people, that the young Boers are in duty bound to keep him in subjection, and that God has ordained that South Africa shall become a Republican United .States under the Boer flag, ruled by the elect of God (Paul Kruger), they, the chosen Israel, shall crush the English Ammonite, and make him pay tribute for ever, or else drive him and his flag out of South Africa!

Ignorant, superstitious, crafty, and cunning, deceptive as the Kaffirs amongst them, and from whom they have learned a great deal of low mean tricks, that' have taken a firm hold and become a prominent feature of th« Boer life and character, the young Boer it ever ready to obey the teachings of Oom Paul. And Kruger is desirous of war with "England, and has made all possible arrangement for a prolonged struggle, and is anxiously waiting for the time when England will have to deal with some one of the 'European- Powers over some one of the difficult political questions that .will have to be decided by the sword.

War with the Boers is inevitable, and tha only thing for England to decide is the time for the war to begin. She has the choice ol beginning now, or of waiting until .°he is engaged in a big war elsewhere, and then she will find the Boer 'army on her rear and flank,, and her Cape possessions a thing of the past! This would seem to imply that the Boer forces were large, well organised, equipped, and commanded. As a military officer that has lived in tho Transvaal, with every opportunity of knowing all the details of the Tranavaal War department, I propose to place before the readers of your paper the latest details as to forces, plan of campaign, and objective points to be aimed at by the different Boer commandos on taking the field.