The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] TUESDAY,APRIL,11.1899. THE OUTLOOK IN THE TRANSVAAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9714, 11 April 1899, Page 2

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] TUESDAY,APRIL,II.IB99. THE OUTLOOK IN THE TRANSVAAL.

Tllfiti« MCms lo Joe a, very ge.neral impression abroad that the time is *nofc far' distant when , v tho admiii'jstrn'Hou »v affairs in the TraiiHViVal will fie placed on a different fonflilj^, iind that the grievances of Wo IJlUanders will ere long be settled. Thoy have been crying for redress for long years past; their demands ure npt unreasonable, and thoy fir? liniUpnl to bear tho yoke i>f . PrHHdeill Kruger so lonil n.B , rtehte to." liberty and protection ,Vrt Jnp mid property are preserved to Incm. They have been treated with a courso of systematic insult and oppression unknown in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race. It in hard tn tiellcve that in any grout population of European origin political rights can bo withheld from a whole class on tlio ground of birth alouoj And yet this lyrtoniottl AM of affairs exists in Hie Transvaal; The indignation Of the Uitlanders , n't the treatment they receive is said to bo more universal and more dcep-rooteilhan was tho case at the time preceding tllo Jainieson raid; This, atalemont ,is borne out by (h* very-largcly aigned petitions, that havo been quite recently sent from the Transvaal to tlio Queen, asking for redress. There pan bo, no guarantee Tor peace and quietiiPfia mo lotlYj as the present opproßgiye A.i)d repressive regime in thfi Transvaal continues. Oom Paul will not recognise tho just claims of the Uitlanders, consequently reforms will not be brought about by him, notwith'jJtUiding the fact that th?. wilj ojd .Transvaal President ba^ given his assurnni'O. fch&l certain concessions are to be printed to the Uitlanders. Great Britain is to bo the moving spirit in the approaching climnx. The disastrous affair at Majuba Hill has not been forgotten; but, on the .contrary, a great lesson has been learned. When Great Britain does move, there will be no mistake; tho Boors will bo taught to respect tho British plag as other nations do, and not to treat it with contempt, aa appears to bo the eiisl) in tho TriVnsviial at the present. timOi ' Tile t l rtu})ido otnt would probjjbly llaVp been made by Britain Roirtd time ago, but she did not doSli'6 a conflict with Germany, which Power was tho mainstay of Oom Paul, The position has changed. The Transvaal can no longer reckon on Germany as an ally, as tho latter country is now working hand in hand with Britain in Africa; and, what is jnoro, serious still for Oom Paul, the monetary assistance formerly roccived from that quarter will not in future bo forthcomingi i'ho Boers appear to make themselves Uti obnoxious as ever to tlio tlitlandets. and this sort of thing cannot possibly be tolerated much longer. Indeed, the Hon. J, Chamberlain lias quite recently intimated as muclh The,, condition of affairs at tho beginning uf February in tho Transvaal aro thus described by an Englishman now residdnl in that conntry: — "Wo are in an awful slate. -The fooling between Britain and Boer is fearful. I cannot describe it to you. I arrived homo about 2 o'clock this morning. The streets oTf Johannesburg have been ono indescribable scone of riot and oiitrago all night. The Dutch polico charged tho English aud tried to arrest them. They would come up, about eight of them, and with about twenty others in plain clothes, pounce upon any Uitlandcr that was engaged in a dispute with a Boer, and arrest him, but would not arrest the Boer. But lam thankful to say that thoy did not make 0110 successful arrest the wholo night. As soon as they got hold of a man and tried to rush him off to the lock-up, wo surrounded them and took him away from them. This was going on all nigiit, all over the town, at different places. It got so very bad. and ali tho people gathered togother about twelve o'clock iat night, that the BoYornihonfc ' police could not do anything. So they brought down n squadron of mounted men, and charged us. I was very frightened nt this period. If some l indiscreet Uitlander had Bhot, there would havo been a terrible massacre. But fortunately the crowd kept cool. They opened out, and lot these mounted Boers into tho centre ; then closed up all round them, and we unitedly sung "God Savo tho Queen.' I left the place at 2 o'clock this morning. How it will end I cannot think. This is the second 'go' in threo weeks. Tho previous occurrence was 011 Christmas Eve. You will sec how it was brought about last night by the newspaper ■ cutting enclosed (Johannesburg Star), 'fhis paper waa published about halt an hour after the meeting. Wo wero having hn ordinary quiet meeting to protest against the arrest of the president and secretary of our branch of tho South African Lrngue. We have 5000 members. This last week these Doers broke into our office and took all the doeumonts thoy could find. Thoy did not find what they wanted or expected to find. • Thoy wantod all the names of members. But these are not kept at tho offico, nor anything else of any account. So they went and arrested our president and secretary. Wo natnrally wanted to bring this to the notice of the British Government. Well, we casually passed into tho meeting, not in overwhelming numbers, but a fine representative English meeting, and had jus ( t opened when wo wero attacked by 30C 1 or 400 armed Boers, egged on by the Dutch polico officials. The description of the meeting in the paper does. not give you any idea of what scene was like ; There woro 200 or 300 chairs in the circus, and, we defonded ourselves with them until there was not a wholo one left. All theso wild, ignorant Boors were armed with knob knives, police batons amFall the weapons incidental to a. Kaffir war. Whatever the English Government is thinking about, wo cannot understand out hero. Here wo aro perfectly defenceless, whilo all theso Boers, from 16 and upwards, are armed by the Dutch Government. Add tho English Government does not attempt to make a move to defend us. When tho final effort comes, as come it will and must, and very shortly, every Englishman out hero will bo the victim of 'Jhoso old Exeter Hall hypocrite, aud -the Government will say they did not think it was so bad. Labouchere preaches in Truth, I see, that it is the capitalist who is making the disturbance. Rot ! They are most conspicuous by their absence. It is every Englishman that sees himself jeered at, sneered at, and d-graded by tho beastly Boors Labby says that it is the capitalists that find "tho funds for the agitation. Rotfi Wliat « liber upon us ! What money is wauled wo furnish ourselves. We havo 0000 members, and we pay 5s per year, and more if required; so you hpo the officials h'avo ,£I2OO per year for Johannesburg alone. Then the organisation extends, all ovor Natal and Cape Colony, and.aiey aro quite ready and anxious to come to our assisanco. I. believe the real state . of affairs is suppressed in England. At least, no ene in England soems to care what becomes of us out here." l *