The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1896-01-11
TRANsvAL AND VENEZUELA.
st. Pau Pioneer rress.

If the Beers have shot DR.. Jameson, at
drum head court martial, as reported.
they have served him no more harshly
than was justified by the laws of war.
For his armed inyasion of tho territory
of the Transvaal republic was an undis-
guisable act of tilibustering outlawry.
He was a private subject CT Queen Vic
torla, representing a private British cor
merclal company operating gold mines
In the territory ruled by the Beers The
mining companies complained of the
heavy taxation levied upon them by the
authorities of the republic and, instead of
attempting to secure n redress of their
grievances in the regular way, DR.. Jane
BON, as the head of the company chiefly
concerned, undertook to compel their re.
dress by force and apparently by cor
queet, and he persisted in his armed in
vasion of the Froe Republic, even after
he had received the explicit orders of his
government to desist. If he was cap
tured and shot for his contumacious law
lessnees he Jared no worse than Maxlmil-
ian, who was punished in the same way
for invading the soil of the Mexican re-
public. But he had even a less colorado
pretext for his var on the Beers than
Macmillan.
The British government has promptly
disayowed and repudiatedI this act of DR..
Jameson, which it had endeavored to pre-
vent. But, after all, it bears a very close
resemblance to a scheme which has been
attributed to the inspiration of Mr.. Cham
b%erlain, but which we NAV hope he is in
a position TO disavow. This was for the
people of British Gniaua to establish
themselves upon the territory claimed by
Venezuela beyond the Schomberk line,
already occupied by the people of that
colony, and to hold it by right of posses
sion, solidly enforced by arms if ne
cessary. 1t is not likely that Mr.. Cham
berlain has given his sanction to any such
scheme. And yet that is Just what the
c%olonssts of British Guiana have been
doing with the sanction of the British
government for the last forty years.
They have been pushing their boundaries
by a succession of expanding claims and
invasions far beyond the original limits
of Guiana as acquired from the Butch.
If the Venezelans had been as bold, Wig.
orous and determined fighters as the
Dutch Beers Of South Africa, and had
whipped the intruding Englishmen back
to their original boundaries, as the Beers
have lone twice already, there would have
been no disputes about boundaries in the
past or to-day.
As for the rest, these hardy Dutchmen
in South Africa, have lone much to settle
the similar question of British aggres-
sion in South America. The lawless in
vasion of their territory had Invoked the
protests of Germany, addressed to Great
Britain, which had been assumed to have
tacitly sanctioned the enterprise, and q
significant warning that Germany would
interpose, if necessary, for the protection
of the Beers, Germany has bnt the remote
interest in the matter that it is PUSHING
schemes of territorial aggrandi sement in
Africa in competition with Great Britain.
To build up British power in South Afri:
ca was indirectly a disadvantage to Ger
man inter ests in Africa. If the inter-
national law of the Eastern hemisphere
justifies this threatened interference of
Germany for the protection of the Beers
on such slender grounds as these, it is
plain that thefinterference Of the United
States in Venezuela, is justified on much
broader grounds under the same princi-
Piles Of international law.