OOM PAUL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6794, 14 May 1900, Page 3

OOM PAUL.

An Englishman who resided in Johannesburg until just before the outbreak of

the war has supplied one of our London correspondents with some very interesting notes concerning the public men with whom he was brought in contact during his sojourn in the Transvaal. He seems to have been on something like intimate • terms with President Kruger, and, in addition to having many interviews' with that august personage, to have actually accompanied him to the meetings of his Executive. The Executive, by the way, appears to have been all Kruger; The masterful old man twirled his advisers round Ids li-ttla finger, individually and collectivelyjjuid thought nothing of telling anyone who ventured to protest against his attitude -onV,.any question^tp' "shut up.L^ Our correspondent's informant thinks that if Kruger in person could be captured, the Boer campaign would collagse like a pack of cards. And it is not at all improbable that the President will make some further show of taking the field. He evidently had something of the kind in his mind before Botha was appointed to succeed Joubf-rt, and perhaps, in the final act, he will elect to play the role of commandant. He is neither lacking in physical courage nor indifferent to dramatic display. The same authority declares that, while the caricatures of the President aire funny, and some of them sufficiently ugly, they are really flattering compared with his latest photographs. There is one frequent characteristic of his facial expression which none | of the photographs convey, a" merry twinkle in his eye. Before the camera he sits down stolidly, aaid presents to the operator nothing but.the "repose" of a heavy and unpleasant countenance. "The strength of the man's character lies chiefly in his domineering obstinacy, with which he has borne down all the opposition of his own. countrymen. There can be no doubfthat,:Defdrehe entered upon the present contest, he had persuaded the Transvaalers that they only required to. establish a good position at the beginning of the campaign to secure European intervention and the humiliation of their enemies. It is only now that tliis bubble has burst: and the effect is seen in the cablegrams we publish this morning. \\ Then one member pf the Vplksraad accuses the President of corruption, and another protests against his attempts to browbeat the Assembly, we may be sure that his .influence is waning. It will be a happy day. for hia deluded countrymen when it disappears altogether.