The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-04-01
The Latest Judgment on the Jameson
Raid.


If the opinion of loyal and intelligent
Africanders Is worth anything, then have
no hesitation in saying that the direct in
tcrference of the Colonial Office after the
Jameson raid was "A mistake almost equal
To that of the raid. The raid was SO
domestic To South Africa that every
Africandcr regarded it as peculiarly one
for his people alone to settle. There ap-
peared from his standpoint no reason why
people in London should meddle in this
affair, and certainly there was no general
demand for help from the mother-country.
The four principal white parliamentary
states were amply able TO cope with
dozen jameson raids, and each felt IL as
more or less of an insult that u matter of
this kind should have to be dealt with by
an official six Thousand miles away, who
knew next To nothing of the country and
its people.
Sir Hercules Robinson was then Cover
nor at the Cape. as l have said, and in his
capacity of High Commissioner had ample
power to manage this delicate job. The
Beers all over South Africa, and particu
larly Mr. Kruger, would have felt that
they were in safe hands had this jameson
raid matter been left To the verdict of
their fellow Africanders, even in the Cape
Colony. The l. ndon government need
not have abdicated any of its rights of re-
vision i'm case the final decision displeased
il, and the High Commissioners ut the Cape
might have been secretly coached as 20
what was expected of him by his E4def ut
the Colonial Office. Before the Jameson
raid, Beers and English logged along
well enough side 10y side; intermarriage
was frequent and their jealousies were
never so great but that they chcerfully
united in opposition TO a common enemy,
whether that enemy was haflir or IA threat
Of foreign inv asion. The railways were
doing for the country vast missionary
tn a 4
not to like, the civilization OF their neigh
bor4 Had South Africa developed nor
mally, ii is not ktoo much for us TO yen-
ture the statement that within ten years
there would not have been Boer in the
Transvaal who did not speak English.
Today the imported Hollander manages
all the difficult questions in the Trans
vaal: and he does SO not because he Is
liked, but because the Legislature OF the
Transvaal feels the need of n solicitor
versed i'm the technicality of the law. We
must now wait until the Boer has been
made to feel that his interests are safe in
the hands of his fellow -Africanders, be
thew English or Dutch. Yet the Jameson
ra I'll has done South Africa this great SER
vice, that, for the first time in its history,
the whole of that country, representing
dozen different territories or governments,
has at last awakened to sense OF interde-
pendency. The quarrel of the Transvaal
has been taken up and seriously discussed
i'm Natal and the Orange Free State as
well rs in the Cape Colony, or at Delagoa
Bay. There are Beers everywhere south
of the Zambesi, and where there are not
Dutchmen there are Africanders, of Eng
lish if not Boer origin, who resent
English interference as an attempt To cur
tail their rights and local self-govern-
ment. The Jameson raid drew so sharply
the line between Dutch and English that
the large class of Africanders was for the
-. saI
that i'm the event of Germany or any other
nation attempting TO meddle with South
African affairs all white Africanders-
Boer English, American, French, and
even German--would unite in the defence
of what is destined to be the United
States of South Africa From "At the
Cape of Good Hope, by PoultneyBige ow,
in Harper's Magazine for April.