The record-union., 1896-05-23
IMPORTANCE OF THE BOER PO
SITION.

IL one SCdTleu OQl " PlOtC tAlC 1dSI
that the sun is a source or means of
light and heat to the earth, he could not
possibly do it any more effectively and
than President Kruger has
demonstrated that Cecil Rhodes and the
South Africa Company are responsible
for the attempted larceny Of the Trans
vaal, and are responsible for every life
lost in that unholy assault.
There cannot remain in any sound
mind that has absorbed the evidences
of the facts a single doubt upon that
proposition. 1t has not been proved
however, that this respon-
sibility extends to the English Govern
ment Most people are morally con-
vinced that the responsibility attaches,
but there is not that clean-cut evidence
necessary to make the moral conviction
a legal certainty. If the English Gov
ernment is wholly free from blame in
this matter, why is it SO solicitous, as
Thursdays dispatches indicated it to be,
that Rhodes brother, Jameson and the
other conspirators, should have only
nominal punishment? Why is it that
Governor Robinson and the Lords Of
the Cabinet, and the leaders of the Com
tention of the Beers to carry out the
sentence of Imprisonment? And why
should this expression of unbelief be
accompanied by the hope that conceals
a threat, that the Boer Executive will
set the convicted men at liberty?
The most loyal Englishman cannot ex-
tract from the history of the relations of
the two countries a scintilla Of evidence
that the Boer Government has done a
single act of wrong to the English Gov
ernment. True, they have joined issues
in the matter of treaty negotiations, and
the claim of the English to go into Boer
territory to mine and engage in COM
merce. True, the two have locked horns
upon the question of the moral and the
legal right of Great Britain to include
the South African Republic in the ex-
tension of British Influence" But in
these contentious it is impossible to find
that the Beers have committed any
wrongful act against the English as
people. The simple truth is as an East
ern contemporary well puts it:
Englishmen are pushing their way
into the TranSVaal, into Venezuela and
into Alaska in search of gold. The fact
that another people hold the land, or
that the right of England to the terri
tory encroached upon is disputed in any
way, makes no difference to the colon
lists who want the gold. They are the
masters Of the world, the natural civil
izers of barbarous countries, and so
they go wherever the opportunity to
make money beckons them, knowing
that their mighty empire is behind them
and will sustain them: And here is the
secret of the dislike which is often felt
for Great Britain by the people"of coun-
tries who are unfortunate enough to be
neighbors of her colonies. They know
by experience that any wrong that may
be perpetrated by the colony against a
friendly State will be defended by the
Imperial dON cl IlIIlGlll- IL ILLS IL uOl W
be the future policy of Great Britain Mr..
has an abundant oppor-
tunity to prove it by the manner in
which he deals with the Chartered Com
pany of South Africa, and with Mr.
Rhodes, it's managing director.
We shall look with much interest for
the action Of the Boer Government In
y. of Two ba ri np %lo
sentences imposed upon Hammond,
Rhodes and their fellow conspirators
We expect that President Kruger and
his council of State will be magnani-
nous and viii remove something of the
severity of the punishment ordered as
a mere matter Of mercy. But If this is
done it should not for one moment be
construed as an evidence of weakness
on the part of the Beers, or be taken as
any concession that they doubt the JUS
tice of the action already taken.
They are right and it is very impor-
tant to civilization, to free government
everywhere, important to US here in
America, that the position Of the Beers
should be sustained, that it may serve as
a precedent and have recognition anew
in the international code.
"Gunton's Magazine" has some doubts
about the wisdom Of that proposed per-
nlanent court of arbitration. 1t says:
Lord Salisbury's statement favoring
propositions looking towards a perma-
nert court of arbitration for all disputes
between England and the United States,
makes the discussion of that plan at
once important. However great the ad-
Vantages of such a tribunal, there are
manifestly some classes of fundamental
international privileges which could
never be submitted to 1t, and should be
excepted from any general arbitration
agreement. In other cases also, the
whole significance of a dispute might
depend upon an immediate decision, or
at least an enforced suspension of oper-
ations until the arbitrators could act.
The slaughter of seals almost to the
point of determination, during the long
Behring Sea disputes, is an example in
point. Furthermore. a general agree
ment Of this kind should include all the
American Republics or none.
Which amounts to saying that when
there are cases proper to be arbitrated
let them be submitted by agreement of
the parties to the issue. But to submit
in advance any and all cases would be
an absurdity and would tend to involve
both parties to an issue in serious losses
and iuconveniences. Moreover, an agree
ment such as the proponents of the new
scheme urge, would destroy the little