REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 34, 9 February 1900, Page 2

REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR.

SOME OF THB ELEMENTS OP THE FINAL SETTLEMENT. ' [A speech by Mr. Drage, M.P.] < (Continued from yesterday,) Long before the present troubles—ten years ago—l visited every town in South Africa of any importance, and was brought into close contact with every class of the population, and wherever one went one heard this Boer ambition voiced, either advocated or deprecated, but never denied. The Boer conspiracy, or ambition as I prefer to call it, dates back forty or fifty years. The first reference one finds to it is in a despatch of Sir George Grey in 1858, but it is to be found definitely in the speeches of President Burgers in the liaad before the annexation in 1877, and in his Apologia published after the annexation. The movement began to be strong in the days of Sir Bartle Frere, who wrote of it as follows in his despatches in 1875: "The bitter anti-English opposition are sedulously courting the loyal Dutch party and swaying the loyal Dutch (a great majority of the Cape Dutch) to swell the already considerable minority who are disloyal to the English Crown here and in the Transvaal. In 1881 Mr. Paul Kruger said in words which are published in an English Blue Book: " In the cession of the Caps of Good Hope by the King of Holland to England lies the root cfut of which subsequent events and our present struggle has grown." In 1885 Mr. JohnX. Memman, the Oalonial Treasurer and mainstay of the present Cape Government, used the following words in a speech at Grahamstown: —" My quarrel with the (Afrikander) Bond is that it stirs up race differences. The main object is to make tho South African Republic the paramount Power in South Africa. We see chat some moderate men are in the power of an institution whose avowed object is to combat the British Government, the Afrikander Bond. It is how the cue of the Bond to pretend to be loyal, and if it were not | painful it would be ridiculous to hear the editor of the Zuid Afrikaan cheering the Queen while resolutions are passed round the branches in opposition to the honour of England, The question is whether you wish to remain an integral part of the British Empire % Do you want another flag here i A German flag or the flag of a United South Africa?" Mr. Theodore Schreiner, the brother of the Cape Premier, in a letter to the Cape Times last month, describes a conversation he had' some seventeen years ago with Mr. Reitz, then a Judge, afterwards President of tho Orange Free State, and now State Secretary of the Transvaal, in which Mr. Reitz admitted that it was his object to overthrow the British power and expel the British flag from South Africa. Mr. Schreiner adds: " During the seventeen years that have elapsed I have watched the propaganda for the overthrow of British power in South Africa being ceaselessly spread by every possible means, the press, the pulpit, the platform, the schools, the colleges, the' legislature, and it has culminated in the present war, of which Mr. Reitz and his co-workers are the origin and the cause." In 1899 Sir Alfred Milner, in a despatch to the Colonial Secretary, used the following words : ■ " A certain section of the Press, not in the Transvaal only, preaches openly and constantly the doctrine of a Republic embracing all South Africa, and supports it by menacing reference to the armamonts of the Transvaal, its alliance with the Orange Free State, and the active sympathy which, in case of war, it would receive from a certain section of Her Majesty's subjects." Such an ambition, however treasonable, however much it must be condemned by the ministers of the Queen at homo and in Cap© Colony, and by all loyal citizens, is nothing new in history. You are told there is a parallel between the history of the United States and South Africa. You are told this is a war of independence, like the war of independence in the United States; but, gentlemen, your countrymen who tell you this don't always read carefully the history of the United States. Exactly the same Ihing happened in New York that is now happening in South Africa; New York was once called New Amsterdam, and precisely the same difficulties which you are now meeting with the Dutch in South Africa were faced and dealt with a century or two before by Englishmen in New York. But, however that may be, Great Britain is at last awake to the result of vaccillation in the past. The armaments which have been accumulated for many years past, even before the Raid, and the efficient drill and equipment of the Boers, alone showed what their ambitions have been. We are awake, but it is high time, for we are now fighting for a i'ar bigger stake than is represented by South Africa alone. The insults to your Government and flag, the fact that British subjects were being persecuted all qyep the Transvaal, was producing in the cclqured mind, both in South Africa and Central Africa, a msst painful impression. The black man, the moment he finds you being trodden upon, will seise the opportunity to do the same to you himself, And ; this is the danger, not only in South : and Central Africa, but in British j India, that great dependency which i does an enormous trade with Africa. ] Indian merchants visit Africa in large : numbers, and the fqct that qur fellow- 1 subjects in the Transvaa} have been i icoatii)ua.lly calling in vain on Her i vlajesty's Government for the redress I of undoubted grievances has been s steadily undermining their reverence t for the name and power of Great j initaiif. A'fd not only is this tho case 1 ! with 'lndian Merchants, but whenever i j iSuglislinjeiji go fi'onj our' colonies tq < .-weii tiu> pi'Qtejgtjgn pf our flag in South f I Africa. You are fighting not only fqr 1 justice and liberty for all in South 1 Africa, as well as British supremacy > t'.ei'e as against a corrupt oligarchy at - Pretoria, Wi you are fighting also for c Dhekoy of your great dgnjiiyqii, fi for the one naval station which can i possibly save India itf the Suez Canal i were closed, the pivot* on which \ the relations of Englaud with Austral- £ asiatwi. You are fighting for your *.

existence as an Imperial people. This : is no small war. It is the greatest j danger the Empire has seen since the ■ Indian Mutiny. There has been and can be no hesitation about the war, and till that war has been successfully concluded there* can be no party feeling within the Four Seas. Sir Henry asked me to tell you what he was pleased to call secrets of diplomacy, but since I first stood on a Derby platform there have never been any secrets between me and the electors I have the honour to represent, and I am now going to tell you what seem to me to be the elements in the settlement for which we should fight. First and foremost there must be British supremacy, the supremacy of the British flag at Pretoria and Bloemfontein, the maintenance of British government in South Africa, and the prevention of the recurrence of any such massing of ammunition, and of such conspiracy, if we are to use that term, as we havo seen up to now. There must also be the greatest possible measure of Colonial self-government, with absolute equality for all white men in matters both civil and religious, and the proper protection of the coloured 1 people ensured. The one thing ou which the empire vests is the fact that Britain, first of all in the wide world, has seen level justice done between all classes of the subject populations. Next you have to give proper compensation j to the Natal people, including, of course, ' territorial expansion if thoy desire it for the Colony, as well as pecuniary ! compensation for their looted farms, | and to all loyal colonists for their ' sacrifices, and that has not been done in former wars; and then you have to see that the Imperial taxpayer, whether in Great Britain or in the Colonies, that 1 have so nobly come forward to help ' are compensated out of the Transvaal ' revenues for all the money that has ' been spent upon this wanton war. It ' would be a great wrong if you had to ' go to the taxpayer to pay for the sins ' of the Boer Government. You will also 1 have to have a proper census of all 1 white men, and to give facilities for ' the emigration of working men from England, and see to the settling, if ' possible, of the reservists in the army out there on the land. All these are ' matters which it soems to me to bo 1 somewhat premature to discuss. It is like discussing what you are going to do with the bearskin before you have ' killed the bear. Bub, aa it is usu.il for public speakers to touch on thesa matters, I havo accepted Sir Henry's invitation to do so, and I should add chat a considerable period of transition 1 may be necessary between the end of the war and the final settlement. In this same connection there aro one or two great ideals I would submit to you. You may, I think,, live to see them realised. When we have got over this war successfully—and, God willing, we shall do so—you will have to b.iar in mind what every great statesman out there has set forth as a solution of the troubles in South Africa, and that is the federation of all the States under 1 the English Crown, just as it has been ■ lone in Australia and in Canada. Your fathers organised a great Indian Empire, You have got to organise a great African Empire ia compartments : you have got to oi-ginia..' South Africa, Eist Africa and \Wti Africa, Central Afriea.and Egypt. You i have got to bind the compartments together by post! and telegraphs, by railways and other means of communication. You. have got Co bring to that empiro tlio benefits of frco trade, and i o its populations the idea's of liberty and justice upon which tiie whole commonwealth of our country is founded. There is one more great ideal which I submit to you, and I believe it is one which we shall sue realised. You have heard in times past a great Jo ! about Imperial federation in our Colonies, but 1 have never before seen how it was to be realised. If, however, you electors in this country will take an interest in it you havo the means of assuring Imperial federation. All your great (■olf-governiug Colonies, for tlio first time in history, have together sent soldiers to your help. In the final settlement those Colonies have got to be together consulted—can't you seo the opening for Imperial federation ? Cannot you take a few hard-headed men from Canada, from Australasia and South Africa to sit down with statesmen here to solve the problems oy which they will be confronted when the war is over? It is an idea, you mayithink it is a dr3am, but it is the first practical proposal which ha? ever been made in connection with Imperial federation. And to go one step further, it is the first time in the history of the country, not only that we have got our Colonies hand in hand with ourselves, but that, by the action of the American people with regard to the Maine, the English-speakiug people are one. It is your business to cultivate that feeling, and to promote friendly relations with America. I want to point out to you that yon are entering upon a new, a strange, an important chapter of your history. The blood of your best meD has bean spilled like water in Africa. Gordon and Spoke, Grant and Livingstone—one by one these men hive gone out in times past and won the admiration of the civilised world. It i 3 going to bo left to you to say whether their blood his been spont in vain; you must bear in mind the great ideals for which these men lived, and fought, and died, you must remember some of the high ideals I have pnt before you, for a great empire must have high ideals and something more than bread and butter < politics. We live as an Imperial people, not by commerce and conquest, but by ; the fact that we do our duty to white ; and black men alike ; and by our action in South Africa in this war which has , been thrust upon us we shall, I trust., i see that in the end something has been done for the advancement of civilisation and Christianity, and, in the words of ; the ancient and touching prayer which > is recited every day in the House of .. Commons, for the glory qf God, I ! qp the i good of His Church, for the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and her dominions. You hwo hoard to- ; night what Sir Henry Bamrose has said . —that in a year or two we shall be v called upon to give an account of our I, stewardship. Hero, to-night, I have made my of political and religious opinion to yon. J am convinced of one ' thing—that tint pr>- ; fession of faith is oao which would j ii commeM itself t,a mti fewest English-1J

men, and I believe from tlio bottom of my he-rt that it is not unworthy of this ancient, this loyal, this famous Borough of Derby.