WHY KRUGER MADE WAR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2436, 21 November 1900, Page 63

WHY KRUGER MADE WAR.

i There is noc much that is new in Mr J. A. Buttery's "Why Kruger Made War'" : (London : Ileir.emann). It telis the famiI liar story in the same familiar terms. The | heavy indictment brought by Mr Fitzpatrick against the iiocrs is sustained in" an easier manner. There are many, in fact, who will understand Mr Buttery's attack 'more readily than Mr Pitzpatrick's, and to them we recommend this new version of an ancient- history. m bttttery's orixiox. Mr Buttery expresses his opinion without the .smallest doubt, and every page of his book is stamped with the stamp of truth. Kruger_ made war because he believed that with his own armoury and the sympathy of the Powers he might drive the" English into the sea. . Of his own strength he was well assured, and Dr Leyds gave him a full assurance of Europe's aid. . Whether Dr Leyds wilfully deceived Pretoria, or he him-. j self wa^ deluded by Continental diplomatists, it is, says Mr Buttery, impossible to say. But it is quite clear that Dr Leyds stood to win in either case, and whatever happens to the master, the man in all probability will come very comfortably out oj the wai\ THE' MAIMED THTTMD. No anecdote better illustrates Kruger's mixed cunning and arrogance than the anecdote of the maimed thumb, of which an authentic version is here given. Kruger would earnestly look at his injured hand, i ticking ofi the sound fingers. " First there | was Bartle Frere" — (Bottel Ferreira, he [ called him) — " he went down " — (the finger 1 went down too as ha spoke ; "then there was Hercules Robinson — he went, too " (the second finger followed suit) ; " then thei

■was Sir Henry Loch" (the third finger would disappear in the hollow of his ■hand) ; " then Hercules Robinson tried again — he's gone " ; and then, peering at the maimed" stump, and playfully trying to depress it, he would say, " And now there's this Miller " — (that's as near as he ever got to the pronunciation of the present High Commissioner's name) — " I can't make him out." And he never did make out "this Miller," whose firm statesmanship has defeated the cunning and arrogant schemes of Kruger and his band. kruger's band. Kruger's vanity is based upon ignorance, and is easily intelligible. The old man who knows that the earth is flat might lightly be persuaded that he could defeat the armies of Great Britain. But it is less simple to explain the attitude of Kruger's band. Mr Smuts, for instance, whom Mr Buttery takes as the type of "the educated ■Anglophobe," has been educated in England, and should know enough of the world to oppose the, suicidal enterprise of his chief. And Smuts it was, according to Mr Buttery, who shaped the policy and drafted the despatches of 'Reitz and Krnger. However, the gam-? is played and lost, and Smuts' s position is as desperate as that of' the Hollanders, who never again will find an opportunity in the Transvaal for their intrigue and rapacity. THE 131EASON OK THE DTJTCH. Worst of all, Mr. Buttery makes it quite clear that all the while there has been treason at, the Cape, and best of all it«is evident that the sting of treason is drawn. Treason can only be supported by wealth, and- the Transvaal is. not likely in the near future to direct elections or to win adherents. In fact, each addition to the lit- ; erature of South Africa is a fresh solace. We have passed through a grave crisis, we might have stood in a serious clanger ; but the crisis and danger are over ; and Mr Buttery has told us the truth with so accurate a knowledge that we wish he had forgotten his journalism for the moment and composed his book after the" manner of a deliberately considered history.