THE TRANSVAAL. A MENACING PROSPECT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 27, 6 July 1899, Page 20

THE TRANSVAAL. A MENACING PROSPECT.

Thi situation in the Transvaal is one of exceeding gravity. Outlanders insist on equality of language rights, and they have some misgivings, from Mr. Chamberlain's remark, that their representation under Sir Alfred Milner's proposals would not exceed one-nfr,h of the Volksraad. Their claims are being upheld at meetings which are being held in Grahams town, Port Elizabeth, and East London. The Germans and Americans in the Transvaal have appealed to :their respective consuls for a force of marines to protect property in the event of hostilities. Meantime the Boers are arming and making ready for eventualities, and the British Government is massing troops within easy striking distanoe of the Transvaal frontier. Viljoen, in a letter to the burghers, said that, in the event of war, God and the Mauser rifles would safeguard their independence. President Kruger, addressing the Raad, said the Executive found the burghers firm as a rock on tte independence question. The goldfieids had hitherto been inadequately represented. Johannesburg was entitled to one additional representative. A general redistribution scheme would be resisted by the people. The Volksraad, by 14 to 13, favoured the doubling of the representation in single-member constituencies, thus swamping the Rand representation. The Boers are evidently unyielding, and the further course of •rents in the .Transvaal will be watched with much anxiety.