SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 38, 16 February 1900, Page 2

SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY.

TO the editor. ( Sik, —A leading article which appears in your issue of the Bth inst, a begins with the following sentence r "The circumstances of the present 6 Anglo-Boer war are so much the out- J 1 come of all that has gone to moke the i' history of the English occupation of n South Africa that an intelligent grasp c of the situation can only be gained by taking all this past history into ac- 8 count." It is to be hoped that this * remark may lead to some study of C South African history being made, ho that a more intelligent grasp of the situation may be gained by the people of this country than that which is usually shown by them. The acquisition of this more intelligent a i grasp will be hastened by the knowledge of the following leading events in Soijth African historyu 1826-1835. —English misgovernment in Oape Oolony, leading to the Dutch 0 " trek" over the Orange River and be- 'i yovid Drakensberg. ei 1842.—England seized the Dutch I Republic of Natalia. gti 1869 —England breaks the Convention of 1854 by lending her support to P f the Btsutos against the Orange Free Staiw, hj; 1871.—England breaks the Treaty m of Aliwal North and seized the diamond fields from the Orange Free he State. 1887 —England breaks tho Convention of 18-52 and annexed the Transvaal. 18&5.—r'i'he Prime Minister of aq Eugliwli colony, who has recently been repeatedly eulogised by the present st] Eugli-h Colonial Secretary, organises jk ,ii arriiod band with the purpose of rec :)vcrr.hroi»fng the government of the Dll 3nut,h African Republic. 1899.—England breaks the Oonven- taV ;ioq of 1884 and interferes with the k>c

internal affairs of the South African Republic, with throats of force. The patriotism which is now so much in evidence in this country is buoyed <; up, not only by ignorance of history, ; but by ignorance of the character of a j the Boers. They have been represented | Iby the Jingo press as ignorant and t | brutal. Sir Bartle Frere, whom you 6 quote with approval, thus describes , them in a despatch to the Colonial | Secretary (Sir Michael Hicks-Beach), ( dated April, 1879. "If I may judge t from the gentlemen composing the . deputation (a deputation of Transvaal ] Boers) and other of their class whom I | have had the honour of meeting since j coining to the Transvaal, the leaders , are, with few exceptions, men who , deserve respect and regard for many : valuable and amiable qualities as citi- ; zens and -subjects. In simple faith, in fidelity to all obligations of family, race and kindred, in reverential observances of all scriptural obligations and precepts as understood by them from the word of God, which in their sole text-book and written authority, they strongly remind one of the Puritans and Covenanters of early days. In education and in the refinements which go with it they are obviously behind the better class of Dutch farmers in the old colony who belong to the same original stock. The Transvaal farmer is generally the son or grandson of a voortrekker, whose descendants have lived perforce in the wilderness far from schools and all means of education ; comparatively few have had the advantage of a whole year's schooling of any kind. But this to my mind only makes more meritorious the amount of education almost selfacquired to be found among them'h.nd more touching their earnest desire to give to their children advantages in the way of education which have been denied tothemselves. The few exceptions are mostly foreign adventurers of various sorts and nations—English, Irish, Scotch, Jews, Americans, Hollanders, Germans and Portuguese, who, though well-educated and naturally able, are rarely men of high character or disinterested aims." The above quotation from Sir Bartle Frere's despatch is taken from Truth of October 19th, 1899, and Sir Bartle is there described as "a most exceptional witness, as he was himself what would be now called a Jingo." Another leading Englishman, Sir William Butler, writing in the Contemporary Review of February, 1881, thus describes the Boers: "A homely, sober, virtuous, quiet, dull race of beiDgs, as full of faith in God and of fair dealing between man and man as this world holds human sample of." The misrepresentation of the , character of the Boers has not been confined to the Jingo prpss, but the Colonial Secretary himself in one of , his recent effusions in the House of , Commons repeated that old slander j attributing to them cruelty in their | attitude towards the natives. Mr. | Frederic Harrison, in a lecture on " The , History of the South African Settle- , ments," is reported in the Daily Ghronide of November 13th, 1899, to^, have thus referred to this incident:— < "He could not doubt but that it was a ■, gross injustice to attribute the trick , solely to a desire to return to a state of | slaveholding. That theory had been . repudiated by all capable historians. ] 1 It is, indeed, an infamous slander,' , continued Mr. Harrison, 'to say that , thia great migration was due to the ] Boars' desire to retain their sL-.vw, and it is shameful to hear it repeated, in , terms almost of insult, by « Minister of i T.he Crown from his placa ii parliament, on the very eve of entering upon a bitter war. I regret to say that in sime of the low class j mrnals that low oluss tone, which can only be described by a gross term, that is blackguardism, is adopted against a brave people whom we are about to rob of their indepan- t dance, The»a is an old Latin motto, f which may be translated, "Hit him t you have injured," and the fashion i seems to be now, not only ts hit those < whom you crush, but to sender them as well I"—I am, ato., C.B. Stratford, February 13bh. [Our correspondent, in his accusations against England's action and in his defence of the Boers, goes to the very extreme on his side that he finds fault with thojingoistsfor doing.-.-Ed. News,]