THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, 16th DECEMBER, 1899

Southland Times, Issue 14516, 16 December 1899, Page 2

THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, 16th DECEMBER, 1899

The Earl of Rosebery was on October 27th, made an honorary freeman of Bath, on the occasion of visiting that city to unveil mural tablets to the Earl of Chatham and William Pitt. , In the afternoon the Mayor entertained the late Premier and a large number of other guests at a luncheon in the Town Hall, and in reply to the toast of his health, as “ The youngest burgess,” Lord Rosebery delivered a most interesting and patriotic speech in which, after referring to the brilliant career of t he Pitts—father *and son so closely associated with the history of the Empire, he dealt with the war now proceeding in South Africa. It would be affectation to deny, he premised, that they were all thinking of something else than the past, that their minds were in the present, not, perhaps, even in England at all; but in that southern continent where so much of the best blood of England was being shed. We were, he said, at this moment engaged, as when the elder Pitt was member for Bath, in a war, and had first to consider what were the liabilities which that war might open out, and secondly it had to be remembered that, so far as could be judged, the sympathy of Europe was against England in the matter. If he might humbly give advice on such a question, they would do well to trust the man at the helm when they were passing through a storm. They would do well to present a united front to the and it would be time enough when the war was over to examine the questions of diplomatic correspondence and military preparations that might then present themselves. To his mind, however, all those questions were wiped out by the ultimatum received from the Boers. It was an ultimatum, such as, he thought, the proudest empire in the world would have hesitated about sending. Since the commencement of the war, the Boers had engaged in the strange policy of issuing decrees of annexation of British territories, which were apparently desirable additions to the Republic of the Transvaal. That was a strange incident, and hardly consistent with their principles of seclusion j but was an illustration of their sublime audacity. There had been, Lord Rosebery went on to say a great misunderstanding about the Majuba Hill affair. It' was a mere skirmish, and Her Majesty’s then Government took the opportunity of the circumstances to attempt to settle peaceably the issue in the Transvaal. Mr Gladstone, with his overpowering conviction of the might and power of England, thought that she could do things that other nations could not "do, and therefore endeavoured to treat with the Boers after the reverse which took place. It was known now how his magnanimity was rewarded. The Boers had regarded the magnanimity as a proof of weakness, and had made deliberate and constant encroachment on the terms of the settlement. Then there came the discovery of gold, and great corcuption in the Transvaal followed. The Jameson raid was not merely a deplorable incident from a diplomatic point of view, but it was also a symptom of a deplorable state of things, and would never have come about had it not been for the strong cry of distress that proceeded from within the Transvaal. The raid was unfortunate from many points of view. In the first place, it gave the Transvaal Government very much the best of the argument. They had then a great grievance to complain of, and Great Britain eould not urge those grievances of which her subjects had to complain. In the meantime almost all the taxation of the country was drawn from the British Outlanders, who combined in vain for redress in this, and for the most elementary form of education for their children. They were losing caste, so to speak, in the eyes of the. natives and of the world at large. The most important element of all was beginning to attract attention—which was, that with the money derived from the gold, won by the industry of the Outlanders, the Transvaal Government was gradually constituting itself a great military power, armed to the teeth ; that was a standing menace to the British dominion in South Africa. If this state of things had been allowed to continue, Lord Rosebery proceeded to say, “We should

“ have had to consider whether “ we who rule so many nations were “ to become a subject nation in our “ turn in South Africa—and had we

“ become a subject nation, or remained “ even in the position in which we “ were, it was scarcely possible to “ doubt that we should have lost “ South Africa itself.” He would not, he said, answer that day the question whether the issue in the Transvaal could have been settled without recourse to war, but what he was quite sure of was, what Chatham would have done under similar circumstances. "He could imagine how Chatham would have treated the Boer ultimatum 1” Let no mistake be made, he went on to say, this was no little war in South Africa. People, including the vast native population, were watching which was to be the predominant race, and the colonies, realising the importance of the issue, were showing their sympathy with the Mother Country in the hour of trial. There was another reason, Lord Rosebery said, which removed this war from the category of little wars—the attitude of Europe with regard to Great Britain. He did not say that the European Powers were unfriendly, but the press was almost uniformly hostile. There were nations in Europe who were watching with eagerness for every trip, every stumble—much more for every disaster that might overtake the British arms. War waged under such circumstances was not a little war. “He could not “ understand why it was that we “ attracted so much ill-feeling. We “ should be only too glad at this “ moment to strike a bargain with the “ rest of the world that every frontier “ in the world should remain as it was “ at present, and he wanted to know “ of what other Empire that could be ‘•said. And yet we, who were not trying to gain, but to maintain an “ Empire, were the object of the ill- “ concealed dislike of Governments, “ who, he thought, were less single- “ minded than ourselves.” He came

back, he said, to the conclusion that “we had so much upon “ our shoulders, such heavy work to “ do, so much sail to carry, that we “ could not at this critical juncture

“ afford to waste time in political dis- “ cussions.” He knew, he continued, that this was a very unpopular doctrine from a party point of view, but he did not care one jot or one tittle whether it was unpopular or not. Finally he had, he declared, no hesitation in recurring to the opinion of Chatham, and saying once more “ Be one people, “ forget everything for the public.” He did not fear, he did not weigh with any dismay or distrust, the responsibilities or the engagements of which he had spoken, so long as the people remained united. “ Nought,” as Shakespeare said, “ shall make us rue, “if England to herself do rest but “ true !”