Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-02-23
The Course Of the War in the Trans

TaaI.
At last the story of the cause of the
war in the Transvaal is told by the
Beers. The Transvaal Triumvirate, ap-
pointed last December. to carry on q
provisional government. have issued .
proclamation. They begin by reciting
the Sand River Convention of 1852,
whose first provision is this:
"The Assistant Commissioners guar
antee in the fullest manner. on the part
of the British Government, to the emf
grant farmers beyond the Vaal river, the
right to manage their own affairs, and to
govern themselves according to their
own laws, without any interference on
the part of the British Government; and
that no encroachment shall be made by
the said government on the territory be-
yond.
No provision of that convention was
violated by the Beers. though article 5
has been violated by British shopkeepers
in providing the natives with guns and
ammunition. Nevertheless, en- the 18th
day of April, 1877. Sir Theophilus shep
stone, abusing q special power granted
him under entirely different circum-
stances, proclaimed that the Transvaal
Republic was annexed to the possessions
of the British crown. The people might
then, says the proclamation. have law
fully resisted by force; but they feared
that, between British and colonial troops
on the one hand and hostile African
tribes on the other. they would be ruin
ed, and so waited, "being convinced
that Her Majesty's Government, better
informed, would disapprove of
the action of her official" Then
follow two remarkable and decisive
documents. One of them is an extract
from the minutes of the Executive
Council dated April IL, 1877; the other a
proclamation by President Burgers, April
10, 1877. Both solemnly protest against
Sir 7. Shepstone's act, and declare thata
deputation shall be sent to England Ito
try and obtain peaceful solution Of the
case" This deputation, and another in
1873, went to England In vain. The
Zulu war followed; the Beers, in good
faith, RETAINED from taking part with
the Zulus. During that war, Sir Bartle
Frere visited the Transvaal and tried in
vain to reconcile the people to an.
nexation. A camp of more
than four thousand burghers
asked him to plead their cause with
Queen Victoria, and he wrote public
letter which satisfied them that they had
Eat last found a good defender" But
In private letter he wrote that he ire
GREETED not having cannon enough to
dispense these rebels" After the Zulu
war was over, Sir Garnet Wolseley went
to the Transvaal, and, taking different
tone from Sir Bartle Frere, shocked
its people by declaring that cas- long
as the sun shines the Transvaal will
remain British territory" The Volks
raad was at once summoned Ito pro-
claim what has now been proclaimed, +"
the continuing independence of the
Transvaal republic. Sir Garnet Wolseley
was notified; he responded by declaring
the President aud Secretary to be guilty
of high treason. Meanwhile. the colo
NAL authorities misrepresented the pay
ment of taxes under protest, by this
peace loving people, as a surrender of
their cause. Then they stopped paying
taxes even under protest, and then the
explosion came. This proclamation
shows by incontestible evidence that at
no time did the Beers voluntarily sur
render their independence, and this is
its language:
1--WE declare before God, who knows
the hearts, and before the world; Any
one speaking of US as rebels is slanderer
The people of the South African repub-
lie have never been subjects OF Her
Majesty, and never will be. "
Such is the reason why the Beers fight.
Rarely" says the New York Sun, 'has
a community risen against tyranny with
more justification. Rarely has British
power been set to work more culpably
than in this attempt of gigantic empire
to crush the freedom of little far-off
settlement of peace loving farmers"