La Junta tribune. (La Junta, Bent County, Colo.) 1881-1939, 1898-07-09
GLADSTONE AND THE BoERs


After my first visit to South Africa.
when the opportunity was afforded me
OF seeing much of those who had suf-
fered for their loyalty to England. this
feeling of shame and indignation was
redoubled. says Harper's Weekly.
Firmly believing that Mr.. Gladstone
had acted wrongly in the retrocession
OF the Transvaal. returned to England
with the conviction that his South Afri-
can policy was governed by motives OF
political expediency. 1t was in that
frame OF mind that l met Mr.. Glad
stone, in country house. on Easter
Monday, 1856. shall never forget the
first serious conversation | had with
him. He introduced the subject by re-
ferring to my recent visit to Africa.
Believing that an opportunity had risen
not to be missed, 1 said to him. speak
ing in the interests of my countrymen
and countrywomen who had lost their
all by reposing faith in England's
promise that the British flag should
never be hauled down so long as the
sun was in the heavens: "Sir, think,
II you had been. as have been, In the
hofaes Of those Englishmen and loyal
Dutch Beers. who have been ruined for
no greater fault than foolish conf
dence in Great Britaln-I think your
cabinet would not have surrendered the
Transvaal." Taking me by the arm and
with his marvellous onyx eyes blazing
with Indignation, he gazed out of the
window at the sky and the budding
trees. and spoke for nearly twenty min
utes. in low. rich voice. He raised
his arm with the gesture with which
lion raises his paw, and realized for
the first time, the greatness of the man.
What he said, in effect, was this: I'VE
have given back the Transvaal to its
owners because 1t was acquired from
them by fraud. A small country, a
mean country. a country less sure of it
self. could not have done this thing.
Perhaps England alone. with her 500
years of history behind her. could have
dared to do this act To have done 1t
shows the greatness, not the smallness
of England. The common people
wished it. They hate injustice; they re-
fuse to profit by fraud. The common
people are always right. They were
right in Macedonia; they were right in
Judea." And then he added. with n
sweep of his arm so vehement that !
thought he was about to crush me:
They are right now" He said a great
deal more on the subject, to which l
will not refer, but he burned In upon
my soul the conviction that 1t required
less courage to destroy the Beers than
to face the hatred and the contumely
OF those Englishmen who believed that
the honor of their country had been
outraged. Mr.. Gladstone, nevertheless.
did not convince me of the rectitude of
the policy he had adopted, and on cool
reflection afterward l detected much
misty IL noble generality in his argu-
ments. However. that Is not in ques-
tion at the present time. What l want
to bring out is the fact that to one who
has always been and still is opposed to
tine policy of the Transvaal retroces-
sion Mr.. Gladstone succeeded COM
pletely and generously, in convincing
him that his much-debated act was an
act OF courage. not an act of cowardice;
the act OF great man who believed in
the possibility of national Christianity;
not the act of a mere politician who
sought to derive party gain from the
pusillanimous betrayal of proud peo-
pie.
A Refutatiop,