8 Conservative.
A FHKNCII VIKW OF THE WAK.
England Not Engaged ill Work Excln-
Blvely Her Own ,
Sigisinmid Lacroix writes in the Rod-
icnl :
"Ah ! if Gladstone wore still living !
Ho found himself 20 years ngo ill an an
alogous situation ; he had allowed the
war to begin , a war , it is true , less seri
ous than the present one ; but , when
the English troops had had three re
verses , he began to think the matter
over , and , on reflection , resolved to
stop. "
Well , if Gladstone were alive today he
would talk differently ; that must be
recognized. The responsibility for ac
tual events must be placed upon Glad
stone's incoherent policy in the Trans
vaal.
In 1870 , the Transvaal was threatened
by Kaffirs and Zulus at the same time ;
it was bankrupt and in a state of utter
anarchy. England feared that it might
become a nest of agitation , where the
native element might become predom
inant. Theophilus Shepstone , the Eng
lish high commissioner , annexed the
Transvaal , without protest from the
Boers , and without firing a shot. The
English freed the Boers from all fear of
Kaffirs and Zulus. Believed from ap
prehension on this side , a Boer party
rose against the English iu December ,
1880 , and Gladstone bigued the conven
tion of 1881 , after the defeat of Majuba
on February 28. From a military point
of view the defeat was insignificant , for
there had been only 92 killed , 184 wound
ed and 59 prisoners ; from a moral point
of view , the effect was disastrous in
asmuch as England had owned herself
defeated.
Those who have not studied the facts
form an a priori conception of the
Boers which is very curious. They look
upon the Boer as an inoffensive agricul
turist , the peace of whose home has
been deliberately troubled by the Eng
lish. But the Boer is not an agricul
turist ; he is a herdsman , which is some
thing entirely different. The Boer is not
a man who is resigned and devoted to
peace ; he is a marauder and a grim de
stroyer. His most ardent advocates
have been obliged to admit that he has
been hard and cruel to the natives.
Even the Boers themselves , in their
manifesto of 1881 , acknowledged that
the "great trek" was a consequence of
the abolition of slavery iu English col
onies. The 115,000 square miles of the
Transvaal , representing about the area
of Italy , and about three-fifths that of
France , do not give enough room for
the ambition of the 80,000 or 40,000
Boer burghers. In 1881 , they adopted
as their platform : Africa for the Af
rikanders , from the Zambesi to Simon's
bay !
Mr. Kruger went to Europe in 1884
and succeeded in substituting the con
vention of 1884 for the convention of
1881. Put aside , if you like , the ques
tion of suzerainty. But the convention
of 1884 , created two binding engage
ments between the Boers and the Eng
lish. By art. 4 , the Boers can conclude
no foreign treaties without the ratifica
tion of England ; by art. 14 , foreigners
are to be secured in the possession of
their property and allowed to work
without hindrance.
England has assumed the responsibil
ity toward all foreign nations of seeing
that the Boers respect this last clause.
The Boers themselves have constantly
violated it , and the curious thing is that
the present conflict has been brought
about because the Uitlanders themselves
lave loudly demanded that it shall be
respected. As a matter of fact England
is acting for every nation that has citi
zens and interests in the Transvaal. She
is not engaged on a work exclusively
English ; it is international work. She
intervenes because , by art. 14 , she is re
sponsible for the security and freedom
to work of the Uitlanders.
I received , lost October , a letter from
an English Liberal , who had been a
supporter of Gladstone's policy in 1881
and 1884. "We believed , " he wrote me ,
"in the loyalty of the Boers. We sup
posed that they would loyally carry out
this convention. We were mistaken. "
If the ambition of the Boers was
great , it was limited by their reforms.
These gold fields had , it is true , been
worked to some extent , but from 1878 to
1884 the value of output had not been
more than $200,000 ; in 1886 it came to
nearly $700,000 ; in 1888 it was over $4-
800,000 ; in 1889 more than $7,400,000 ,
and in 1890 it reached $9,848,000.
Just as fast as the wealth of the coun
try increased through the work of the
Uitlanders their rights were curtailed
by the Boers , who have shown great in
genuity in keeping for themselves a
good part of this new wealth by taxa
tion , while they have refused to allow
the Uitlanders any voice in appropriat
ing the revenue so raised. In violation
of art. 14 of the convention of 1884 , they
have established monopolies.
Now , in 1890 , the working of the deep
levels had given greater stability to gold
mining enterprises. The Uitlander set
tlers in the Transvaal , growing in num
bers all the time and increasing their
permanent investments , became more
keenly conscious of the importance of
the rights which were denied to them.
In 1894 a petition with 88,000 of their
signatures was addressed to the Volks-
raad , but it was received with mockery
and sneers. "They ask for rights , " an
swered Kruger ; "they will get them
only over my corpse. "
In presence of this refusal , toward the
close of 1895 , the "reform committee'
appointed by the Uitlanders lent itself
to a conspiracy which was rather shor
sighted , since the Uitlanders were with
out arms. Then came the Jameson raid.
3ecil Rhodes had been subsidizing Jame-
jon , but it has been proved that none of
; he directors of the Rhodesiau Chartered
Company were in the secret. The raid
was not an English expedition ; it was a
itupid gamble. But if it profoundly af-
'ected public opinion , it showed the
; ruth of a remark made by M. Vigon-
roux , in his article on colonization com
panies , published in the Journal des
Sconomistes.
"In spite of its reluctance , the British
jovernment has found it necessary , dur
ing the 19th century , to annex in sue-
3ession most of its African and Oceanic
lependencies. The energy of their fel-
ow countrymen has almost always
'orced their hand. "
On the other hand , this is how history
is written by the Bulletin des Halles :
"When the English saw that great
mineral wealth lay buried under this
soil they first tried to take possession of
it through Jameson. This attempt hav
ing failed , they wished to arrogate to
ihemselves rights which the Boers would
uot recognize. They sought war , and
; hey have war. They are also seeking
for victory , but that they have not
gained , and the Boers are today wash
ing British cupidity and greed in British
blood unfortunately , also in their
own. "
The Duke of Devonshire was not
wrong when he said on the 14th of De
cember : "It seems to me that 99 per
cent of our foreign critics believe that if
we win we shall proceed to divide up
the Transvaal gold fields between the
English Treasury and the ravenous cap
italists by whom they fancy the policy
of this government has been dictated.
This only proves how ignorant they are
of our institutions and of our colonial
policy. Otherwise they would know
that a misdirected care for the interests
of capitalists has but a slight influence
on our constituencies of working men ,
or on the government which they sup
port. If they were familiar with our
colonial methods they would know that ,
if the Transvaal becomes an English
possession or colony , not a penny from
these gold mines will go into the treas
ury of Great Britain , but that , after
meeting the expenses of the colony
itself , the output of these gold mines
will belong to the enterprising and in
dustrious of the whole civilized world
to Germans , to Frenchmen , to Ameri
cans , just as to Englishmen. "
The policy of the English is that of
the open door ; they do not try to ex
clude foreigners from their colonies , and
this is whore they are superior to other
nations. Iu this Transvaal business
they are defending international inter
ests. It is evident that this is known
and understood in France and Germany
by clear-sighted men ; but few dare to
say it. YVES GUYOT.