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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1900)
I THE C0UX."2 c k ) The Catholic Bishop of Kimberly. The Right Reverend Anthony Gauijh rao, Roman Oithilic BiBhop at Kim berly, Sjutn Africa, furnishes some in teresting ijfcrmation and opinions with regard to the difliculiiee, now tnerg'd into war, between the British and the Boers. In a letter to a member of the Boston Herald statT, dated previous to the out break of hostilities (September 19), ho champions the cause of the Outlander population of the Transvaal Republic, and views the question from the stand point of one who desires equal rights for all in that country. A residence of thir teen years in South Africa has enabled the bishop to acquire a thorough ac quaintance with the conditions existing in tint country. It will bo observed that Bishop Gaughran was thoroughly convinced at the time the letter was written that war batween the British and the Boers was inevitable. The part of the letter which is of pub lic interest is as follows: 'Now for aiy psraonal opinion about tho matter. 1 can, with a safe con science, say that I think England very seldom bad a moro just cause fur war. The state of things in the Transvaal was a 6candal to the nations. That a hand ful of men, some of whom were very illit erate, and all of whom were very pre judiced and selfish, should expect to be allowed to make laws forever for those who epsnd their money in buying up property in that country and develop ing its wealth, is preposterous. ''Chamberlain's indictment of the Transvaal government was perfectly fair I have no hesitation in saying so, and I have had thirteen years to study this question. "I am not an Englishman, as you know, nor are my sympathies in general with England ; but in this case I believe England will do credit to our common humanity by forcing a email state call ing itself a republic to give equal rights to all. "Whatever one may call England's title to interfere in this matter, it is cer tain that in former years most of tho Boers, their president at the bead, a6ked England to come to their aid and take over the state. She did so, and then when the debts of the little republic were paid by England, and Paul Kruger received bis salary, which was in arrears for o long time, he started a rebellion against the new authority. Gladstone gave tueru back their country under certain conditions. The fourth clause of tho convention conveyed the idea that all who go into the country shall have equal rights. The Boers and their volksraad did not keep that pro ciee ; they did not give equal rights to all. " When the ru6h to the Transvaal be gan there was a very simple law for the franchise. I am writing from memory, butt think it must have been a resi dence of two years and paying taxes. A few years afterwards it was increased to six years, then to fourteen years; and no one could say how many more years might be added on. "Thoso who had invested their money in the country had no hope of ever hav ing a voice in the government of the country, and yet the Uitlanders were twice ae numeroup, at least, as the orig inal usurpers. For, in my mind, I do not give to tho Boers of the Transvaal the title of nationality. They simpl) killed the Kaflirs fifty years ago, and then took their places. Thrre is noth ing in this that implies proscription for a nation. "Now comes the question of Paul Kruger and his advisers. He had a clever man for f omo years who kept him from committing himself too far; but he has left him, and now the whole govern ment seems to be like a boat without a rudder. Oom Paul is shrewd, but when one considers that the president of the small republic, which has only 00,000 in habitants or thereabouts, receives a sal ary as large as the president of the United States, one can imagine that patriotism is not the first characteristic of his life. "I cannot euter into the details of concessions which, I believe, were most iniquitous as regards the interest? of the country, the dynamite question, etc, etc. These I do not care to consider. . "I have alwaye held that a man in any country has tbe same right as an other if he conducts himself as he ought, and that there should be no distinction beyond .that which is necessary to test his sincerity. Let the United States be the model iu this matter. "There murt not be at the end of the 19th ceutury a government calling lUelf a republic, whi.e it is in reality a close oligarchy. "Now, I have given you mj views in general on the situation. Were I to go into the history o. this country in more detail, I could make amuih stronger case againBt the Boers.. I only want to set you on what I consider tbe right line for judging the struggle, which seemp to me is inevitable now. " The Boer is brave, Of that I have no doubt, but ho is ignorant and preju diced to an alarming extent. On tiat account I do not condemn him, for his fathers had to 6trike out into the desert and livo as those who are cut off from civilization. His prejudice shows itself principally as regards tbe Catholic church ; and, secondly, as regards the civilized habits of European nations. The Catholic church is his bugbear. Catholics are heathens to him. Ihey worship snakes and wooden images. " 1 rind I might go on forever in this strain, but I have not time to give you my ideas fully, and I must wind up by saying that to my mind a war is the best way to end the unrest and insecu rity that torment and paralyze tbe country here at present. We snail all suffer from it, probably we may sutler a great deal, but in the end the country will gain, and gain immensely. ' As far as you are concerned, do not allow the idea to prevail that tbe Trans vaal is a republic, except iu name. Be lieve me, yours faithfully, A. Gaughran, O.M:i. (Bishop Gaugran)." The Transvaal. Tappan Halsey, an American of Dutch antecedents, who has spent mu:b time in tde Transvaal, was recently asked to give his views on the situation there and assign retsons for the war now in pro gress. Iu response he pn?p-red and read a paper before the Round Table Club, saying, among other things: Six years before Christopher Colum bus came to this land the Portuguese discovered Cape Colony, and their pos sessions by this right were undisputed for more than a hundred years. In 1591 the British discovered it and landed, and four years later tbe Dutch. The Dutch let their knowledge pass for fifty-seven years, when in 1G52 they landed three ship loads of eighty-six immigrants. In 1GSG some French Huguenot?, fleeing from rtligious persecution, joined the Dutch in Cape Colony. In 1739 the first effort is recorded of any attempt to teach the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth to the ratives, who, in fact and truth, held their land in fee simple and bad been driven from it by the Boers. The mis sionary was at once exelled from the country by the Boers. Tbe British in 1795 conquered the Dutch fljet and took possession of Cape Colony, but n J 802 in was restored to the Dutch by peace treaty. Four years later the British took it by conquest again, aud eight years later, 1814, pur chased the whole of Cape Colony by pay ing the Dutch 330.GOO.000, who re nounced forever all claim For twenty years thereafter the Boers lived in Cape Colony under British rule. In 1831 the English government, having sought for tbe most equitable way to abolish the iniquitous Boer system of slavery, passed a law emancipating all slaven, but paying the owners 20,000,000 therefor in notes on the Bank ot Eng land. Many of the Boers, used to lives of iudolence, resented this freeing of slaves, and moved on across the Orange river. This move was called the ' great trek," and consisted of about 10,000 Boers. The land they went into was owned and possessed by the Zulus. They tried to inhabit it, but strange to say, the owners in fee simple wanted it too, so tbey fought the Zulus for thir teen years, until in 1843 they had to so licit England to come and save them. The English government intervened, established peace and order and a new government under the name of ''Orange River Sovereignty." Some of the Boers revolted because ot their old dislike of the English ; they being conquered "trekked" again further north beyond the Vaal, and ailed themselves the Transvaal Republic. Observe that neither in 1833, when the great trek be gan, nor in 1848, when the second trek took place, were they compelled to move by conquerors who wanted their land or homes or took their liberty. On the contrary, wbon England had settled conditions for tbe Orange River Boers, that they might be peaceful and prosperous, sbo voluntarily withdrew and allowed tbem to form a new state, called the Orange Free State, that was and to this day is independent and un hampered by England, and has flour ished marvelously. It was not so with the Boers across tbe Vaal, for they were from the first at war with the varioue tribes cf natives whose land they had taken, and because of their inhuman treatment ot even the friendly tribes there was no safety at any time. From the River Vaal, a tributary of the great Orange river on the south, to the Lim popo river on the north, the Boers bad taken a country Ave hundred miles long by four hundred .miles wide. It wbb bounded by the natural protection of the Drakensberg mountains on the east and Bachuanaland on the west. It was all inland, and the nearest seaport was forty five miles, at Delagoa Bay, which was owned by the Portuguese. The Boers from their first possession of the Vaal country fought the natives with out and enslaved those within their borders Dr. Livings'one says : "The Boers forced eren those tribes most friendly to them to perform all kinds ot field work for nothing and supply their own food and implements of work. They steal domestic servants from tbe more hostile tribes in the most cowardly and bloodthirsty manner." In their treat ment ot the various friendly natives says a resident of the Transvaal, " I have seen a Boer on his farm summon thrty native women to perform labor. They came with their children strapped on their shoulders, and their own food was carried in their hands, and they worked tho number of weeks desired without pay at tbe will of tbe Christian master." Livingtone says: "The Boers chief grievance against tbe English was that they had the same laws for white and black." Constant warfare from 1848 to 1875 between the Boers of the Transvaal and native tribes finally wearied, discouraged and bankrupted the Transvasl, aud the Boers, petitioned England once more to come to their assistance. England's control of the territory wa3 the price agreed on, and the Transvaal was an nexed to Cape Colony ia 1877 by procla mation. Paul Kruger and Piet Joubert took office under the British govern ment. The dangers over, the financial affairs settled by the new government, the Boers repented of their bargain, and in 1880, after three years of annexation, revolted and defeated the English in three famous but disgraceful engage ments, ending in the Majuba Hill affair. In 1881 the vacillating government of that weak grand old man, W. E. Glad stone, restored again the Transvaal to the Boers as "The South African Re public," but it was clearly stated as be ing so under tbe suzerainty cf Great Britain. Restive under an agreement they had made but did not wan', they finally in 1884, succeeded in getting an other agreement, which does not men tion tbe much talked of word "suzerain ty," but certainly implies it, as it ex pressly says that the Boers shall not make any treaty with any power with out the same has been approved by Her Majesty Queen Victoria. If there was no sovereignty, why this necessity ? The Boers had in the treasury of tho Transvaal Republic of 1,000,000 in 1877 the amount of twelve shillings and six pence, and their preeident. Burgers, ' said, addressing the mad (or parlia ment: " I had rather be a policeman under a strong government than be where I am. You Boors, having Iot the country, Bold your independence, ill treated- the native?, shot them down. Bold them into slavery, must pay the penalty." With a knowledge of Buch a condition all except tho most ignorant and stub born Boers were glad to bo annexed in 1877. In 1881 and 188G tho revenue ot the country was not to exceed 1400.000. When in 1856 gold was discovered in Johannesburg miners flocked there from Germany, England, America and elsewhere, and this made a city of 100, 000 people whore there was nono previ ously. The Outlandera wero waimly welcomed by tho Boers, because they needed tho increased revenue. Tbey got it, too, as it has increased from three hundred and seventy-tivo thousand to twenty-five millions, and this the Out landers have to pay every dollar of, and have no representation for their tax ation. In 1889 the law had beon so changed that an Outlander could not obtain tho franchise under fourteen years resi dence, and then only if tho Boer govern ment, by a two-thirds vote, was pleased to grant it. The arrangements of 1831 and 1881 bad been whittled away until the foreigners had no rights whatever but to pay exorbitant taxes. Later, when five years' residence was required, many Americans and Eoglish bought land in the Transvaal, built houses, brought their families, invested in mines and machinery and gradually severed the ties that bound them to the rest of the world. After 1889 he was asked to give up everything of citi zenship in America on tho chance that after fourteen yeare the Boers (two thirds of them) would be pleased to let him vote where he was paying ninety per cent of the taxes, and where : 1. There were no courts in which a foreigner can have any wrongs redressed or protection for home and family. -, His children have no education in state schools. 3. Monopolies are farmed out by tho Boers on coal, candies, matches, soap, liquor, dynamite, etc. 4. Railroads are mismanaged inten tionally, and machinery and perishable goods delayed until bribes are paid, etc. 5. The liquor monopoly sold to a Jew, who makes a poisonous whiskey of a cheap grade and sells it without restric tion to tho natives who work in the mines, and half the time paid for is lost. 6. Lands Bold to the Uitlanders for mining is not held by the Bjers as pri vate property. 6o the Polish Jews, who handle most of the bad liquor, place sa loons at the very mouth of the shafts ot the mines. Result: The Kaffir employes are constantly drinking, hence falling in tbe shafts, fighting and suffering from accidents and injuring property. Every J. R HARRIS, No. I, Board of Trade, CHICAGO. STOCKS AND- BONDS. Grain, Provisions- Cotton. Private Wira to New York Gty and Many Gties East and West. MEMBER New York Stock Exchange. Chicago Stock Exchange. Chicago Hoard of Trade