DUTCH COLONISTS IN NATAL.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXIX, Issue 9497, 28 November 1899, Page 2

DUTCH COLONISTS IN NATAL.

REPUDIATION OF DISLOYALTY.

A late cable informed us that volunteers drawn from Natal Dutch, at Umvoti, had mutinied. The following telegram,- from Maritzburg ' to Johannesburg papers recently bears on the question: A report which appeared in the Times of. Natal, with reference to the disloyalty of the people of Umvoti, has aroused a great amount of ill feeling, and the following memorial is being extensively signed by the Dutch colonists and forwarded to-the'members, of "the Legislative Assembly for Umvoti: "Genthe undersigned, Dutch voters in this constituency, and- residents in Umvoti County, beg to draw your most urgent attention to a leading article fax the Times of Natal, which appeared in their issue of a recent date, seriously reflecting upon us Dutch colonists of Umvoti County, who are not only being represented as disloyal subjects of Her Majesty, but openly as actual, traitors I and conspirators, fully organised and ! ready to take up "arms against our own fellow-colonists in the emergency of war between England and the South African Republic, to which foul •ends, it is alleged, we Have been, tampering with the natives, both of Natal [ and Zululand. That such gross falsehpods and venomous lies, denouncing a large and loyal community of this colony, should be suffered to be served out by a newspaper editor as facts, derived from the most reliable source,

with, perfect immunity, is unheard of in tho history of civilised countries, and we protest most emphatically and solemnly against those vile charges and accusations which are hurled into our faces without the slightest cause or reason, and request you a 8 our choßen and lawful representatives to forthwith proceed to Maritzburg and wait upon the Government, and demand immediate and thorough investigation into this matter with the view of having these charges either substantiated and publicly proved, or publicly withdrawn and revoked. This course, we are convinced, is the only one to be adopted which will correspond to thet gravity of the situation, and by which we will secure the sympathy of all right-thinking citizens in this colony of the English, who have always been justly proud of their keen and innate'sense of fair piay," ;- : •;;; ■■[,?.