THE VOICE OF ANOTHER SCHREINER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11789, 6 April 1900, Page 2

THE VOICE OF ANOTHER SCHREINER.

A remarkable letter appears in the Methodist Times from Mrs Lewis, sister of Mr Schreiner. the Cape Premier. It is entitled " A Voice from South Africa : A Message to the Christian People of Great Britain." Mrs Lewis Avrites : — "An awful Avar is upon us in this country — a Avar in Avhich, on either side, our nearest and dearest may fall. There is scared}' a household in the Capo Colony which has not some of its beloved ones in imminent danger of death, not only in the colonial forces, Avhich, in Natal' and elseAvhere, are supporting the Imperial Government, but in still larger numbers among the burghers of the Re-

publics; iioav engaged in the war Avith ' Great Britain. If ever there Avas a Avar for the Lord of Hosts, if ever there was a Avar for truth and right, for the putting doAvn of oppression and Avrong, for tho deliverance of a people powerless to deliver themselves, whose wrongs hare cried up to hcaA'en until the Lord has come doAvn to deliver them, this is that Avar. It is not the grievances of the Uitlanders, though they have been very real, and have called for justice; it is not Avhat British subjects have had to suffer of indignities and Avrongs. though these h/we been numerous under recent Transvaal administration: it is not the insult to England's power and prestige shoAvn by the refusal to concede her moderate demands for justice to be done to her subjects, followed by tho unparalleled act of defiance contained in the Transvaal Avar ultimatum — it is not these things, hoAveA-er they may justly stir the national heart, -which call 'upon us as Christians to bring the united force of God's people, by the poAver of believing prayer, to bear upon this Avar question. British soldiers are dying on African soil to-day to put an end to a condition of atrocious Avrong. For over 200 years tho progenitors of the Transvaal Republic and their descendants have crushed, maltreated, and, as far as they had power to do so, robbed of all rights belonging to them a.i felloAv human beings the coloured peoples of this land. On every .side individual brutalities were being committed on defenceless A'iciims, and that not by Arab slaA-e-drivers or M«slem oppressors, but by a professedly Christian and highly religious people. avlio, -with Bible in their hands, and loud professions of faith und prayers, Avere practising barbarities, in peace as well as war. Avhich put to shame the record*, of Avhut the sa rages of this land bavo inflicted, even iv Avar time, upon white races."