The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-01
SOUTH AFRICAN SITUATION.

President Krenger, Of the South Afri-
can Republic is unquestiorably man
of determined character, and quick in
tolilgence The quality Of his firm
ness and courage was demonstrated in
the masterful manner in which he re-
sisted the invasion of the i'll starred
Jameson raid, and his intelligence is
proven in his diplomatic fencing match
with Mr.. Joseph Chamberlain, the Brit
fgh secretary for the colonies.
His course throughout the South
African troubles challenged the ad-
miration not only of the German
emperor, but of the civilized world
save, perhaps, England, and maybe
some of her colonies.
But it is to be hoped that all this
will not turn President Kreuger's head.
Connected with the Jameson raid was
a determination of the Uitlanders, that
is. unnaturalized or foreign popula-
tion, to make a demonstration amount
ing at least to a strike for the enjoy
ment of enlarged civil and political
rights and liberties.
The effort was crushed by the Boer
government most effectually, and the
leaders taken prisoners. Some of them
were remanded to the English govern
ment for trial, but four of them,
Messrs Hammond, Rhodes, Phillips
and Farrar, were tried at Pretoria.
They, under advice from counsel,
pleaded guilty to the charge of high
treason, and were condemned to death
by the trial judge. Happily the death
sentence was promptly committed and
our latest dispatches bring the infor-
nation that the executive court has
decided to impose sentence of five years
penal servitude, and at THE expiration
of that time, Punishment for life from
the republic.
That sentence is still too severe. It
the fact that these men pleaded guilty
to high treason: lit may be further
proven, as most likely it will be, that
the Uitlanders under these four lead
ers entered into compact with forces
of the British South African company
to gain some reforms of government,
though the Boer government must
needs be overthrown for it.
All this may be true, and the fact
of a nations right to protect it's life
against such conspiracies may be
pointed to, and the plea of guilt in such
a conspiracy may be quoted in justi-
fcaItion of the severity of the sentence,
but for all that There remains the fact
that the Transvaal Republic was I'M
just to the Uitlanders or foreigners
within its borders; that while it laid
the heavy burdens of government upon
them, it accorded to them no just share
in the management of its affairs; and
delayed the carrying out of long pro-
missed reforms.
The time has gone by when a gov
eminent with any degree Of safety can
have within its boundaries large num-
bers of men bearing THE burdens Of
government yet powerless to affect it's
policy The idea that government de-
rives it's just powers from the consent
of THE governed has taken too firm a
hold upon the minds of men ever
again to be lost to our race, and that
is the question which at the last will
be found to underlie this Transvaal
difficulty, and the quicker the Boer
government makes such changes in its
constitution, and prepares to absorb
the new population and make them
part of its own citizens the more
effectually will they establish the per-
petuity of their republic, live in peace
with their neighbors, and be freed from
the nightmare of British usurpation.