The Star. MONDAY, JUNE 2, 1902. PEACE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7418, 2 June 1902, Page 2

The Star. MONDAY, JUNE 2, 1902. PEACE.

The end of the South African war has been predicted! so many times that it is difficult to realise that it has come at last. Yet this is what has happened. ] The struggle which opened in October, j 1899, with, an impudent ultimatum from a I little country to a big one, has ended, and has ended in the inevitable way. The smaller power has gone to the wall. It has been compelled to surrender to its more powerful antagonist, and, to paraphrase a saying of the greatest moralist that the world fihas known, even that which it had 'has been taken away. In declaring war the Boer Governments made a grasve mis-, take, and 1 they have paid: the full penalty of their blunder. / Both deserve their punishment. The Transvaal Government had under its control a country endowed with) many of those resources which contribute ' to wealth and happiness, but it not only deliberately ignored these/ blessings, but even objected to anybody else profiting from) them. Strangers ' who came to exploit the wealth of its country were treated! uncivilly, unfairly and even with! brutality. The Government combined the worst features of an oligarchy with an hypocrisy unrivalled even in modern diplomacy. • Maladministration' and hypocrisy are bound to result in ruin sooner or later, and they have brought ruin not only to the Transvaal Government, but also to the Free State Government, which allowed itself to be (hired into the struggle. But if the fate of fhe Boer oligarchy and its ill-advised ally is calculated! to arouse little' sympathy, it is impossible not to feel a little pity for.tlie.iank and file of the burghers.- For two years and ai half the burghers have struggled to avert the consequences of (their leadens' folly. To give them their dta^ they have fought with a courage .. and persistency worthy of a, better cause. But the result was inevitable from the .beginning., ■■•■■. Victory was bound to* rest :witjh- ; the with the larger resources at its back, provided it was prepared' to make good use of those resources. Britain did nob hesitate to bring the full strength of her might to bear on the Republics, with the result that she has obliterated them. The struggle has been a long and; tedipujs^ne^ .and it has cost the victor an immense sum j ; but it has ended in the only ; way in which v ifc was possible to end. Awd who will dare to gay that it 'has not-ended in the right, way? Who will be bold' enough to declare that it has not resulted in a victory for good government, enlightenment and progress; and in the defeat of corruption, superstition and stagnation? Only a small minority. A few misguided people within the Empire and ai larger number of Boer sympathisers in foreign countries may profess to think otherwise, but the majority of unbiassed minds, be they^English or foreign, have no alternative but to confess that in this case Might and Right have gone hand in hand. It is not our intention here to review the varying phases of. the war. They have been discussed from day to day in the newspapers, books without number have been written on them, and in various ways they have been criticised and analysed, until they have become familiar even to the moderately receptical .schoolboy. . Neither do we think it would be possible at this early stage to endeavour to estimate the net gain to Britain by her victory. That is a calculation which cannot be made in a few days, or even years, and indeed is a task which may have to devolve on.; posterity. ! But unquestionably .tte.. war, has borne much good fruit. First and foremost, it j has solidified the Empire in a manner which decades of .peace could scarcely have ! accomplished ; and, secondly, it has taught ! the world that the colonies are a source i of strength, and not of -weakness, to the Mother Country. The Foreign Powers used not to think if they attacked -England, that they must ba prepared to fight not a country but a group of countries, each one capable of producing legions of the. finest fighting men in the world. They did not know this before Mr Kruger delivered his mad l ultimatum. They know it now, however, and their knowledge cannot fail to be a powerful factor in the maintenance of peace throughout the civilised world.