THE FREE STATE BOERS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4764, 23 June 1900, Page 4

THE FREE STATE BOERS.

Some of tbe considerations which influenced the Free State Boers in joining in the war against Great Britain, as well as other matters, are dealt with by " Eros," a resident of Durban, who has contributed the subjoined article to the London "Timeß":— " As one who has spent tbe past 20 years amongst the Boers of the Free State and Transvaal — not in the towns, but living amongst them, having them for neighbours and com* ing iv contact with them daily — I

would like to make use of your columns to expose some of the misapprehensions under which public opinion in England seems to be laboring. The first of these is that the Free State Boers were dragged into this war by their President. lam no supporter of President Steyn — far from it — but there can be no question that he is in a greater dpgree responsible for this war than any other man, 0 with the possible exception of, perhaps, Mr RW. Reitz. There is nothing to be gained by shutting our eyes to the fact that this war wns popular with the Free State Boers. The reasons for this are not far to seek. There is no doubt that at heart the Boer, no matter whether Free State, Cape Colony, or Transvaal, dislikes us, and, what is more to the point, as a nation he looks down upon and despises us, for the simple reason that he firmly believes that if be likes he can give us a beating. Another reason why the Free State Boers were so anxious for war was thft idea that— aimed as tbeji were w'thh what t\ef hoYievect to be the finest weapon ever made, the Mauser — they imagined that the war would be one in which they would individually run very little risk, because they would be shooting down our soldiers like (as I often heard it said) blespoks, whilst they themselves would be quite out of range of the soldiers, who, in the first place, would be armed with immeasurably worse weapons, and who, in the second place, could not shoot even if as well armed. When the Free State burghers left for the front one would have thought that they were going out for a picnic, so eager were they to go, and several of my acquaintances volunteered to bring me bananas and pineapples back from Durban within a month. Another reason which a large proportion of the Free State Boers had in mind was the obtaining more ground for nothing. Land is getting scarce. Twenty years ago a farmer with 10,000 acres of ground was looked upori as 0: man who bad enough, but none to spare. Now, owing to the/ first generation ot Free State Boers having in a great measure died and the original farms having been subdivided, the size of tbe farms has been so reduced that for the style of farming the farms are too small, and, as might be expected, have gone up in price. Dnder these circumstances, it is difficult to imagine a people more liable to be led on to throw their lot jin with the Transvaal when the active agents were the ministers of the Dutch Church, the ngents of the Bond, and a few ambitious politicians who, almost' without exception, are ex British subjects.