The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-12-22
CHAPTER Of BLUNDERS
Rider Haggard Calls EngIand's
Dealings With the Beers.
CAUSE OF BOERCONFIDENCE
Room for Only One Paramount
Power in South Africa.
OF BOERCONFIDENCE

New York, Dec. 21.-H Rider Haggard
| novelist, writer in the Journal as follows
In speaking of the various problems o
J South Africa, I find that 1 said, in m!
History of the Transvaal, written 1882
| that unless they are treated with more
| honest intelligence. and on a more set
| tied plan than it has hitler been thought
| necessary to apply to them, the Bhitisl
! taxpayer will find that he has by nc
! menas heard the last of that country
and its wars"
Nearly two decades have gone by since
thtse words were written. Put very BRET
ly, what has happened in that time? In
1884, at the request of the Transvaal Gov
eminent, the Ministry, of which the late
Lord Derby was member, consented to
modify the Convention of 1881, and to
substitute in its place what is known as
the London Convention. This new agree
ment amended the terms of the former
document in certain particulars. Nota-
bly, all mention of the suzerainty of the
Queen was omitted, from which circum-
stance the Beers and their imprisoned
advocates have argued that 1t was abro-
this contention is correct. Mere silence
does not destroy so important a stipula-
ton, and it appears to be doubtful wheth-
er even a Lord Derby would have been
prepared to nullify the imperial rights
of his sovereign and his country IN this
negative and novel fashion. But even if
1t could be proved that this view of the
case is wrong. the general issue would
scarcely be affected.
That issue, as 1 understand it, is as
follows: The Convention of 1881 guaran-
teed to all inhabitants of the Transvaal
equal rights-"Complete self-government
subject to the suzeranity of Her Majesty,
her heirs and successors, will be accorded
TO the inhabitants of the Transvaal ter
ritory."
Some years later an event occurred fat
ed profoundly to influence the destinies
of South Africa, namely the discovery of
the Witwatersrand gold deposits, perhaps
the richest and most permanent in the
whole world. Instantly adventures,
most of them of Anglo-Sazon origin,
flocked in thousands to the place where
countless wealth lay buried in the earth,
and on the plains over which have seen
the wild game wandering sprang up the
city Of Johannesburg, with its motley and
cosmopolitan population, its spectators,
company promoters, traders, miners and
laboring men.
To the Transvaal, at any rate in the be-
ginning, the arrival Of these wealth-en-
gendering hordes were what the copious
rain is to the sun-dried veldt. BY this
time the country was once more almost
bankrupt, but now, as though by the
waving of a magician's wand, money be-
gan to flow into its Golfers. For quite
long period they lived at ease in their
drops and on their farms, while the dwell
lers at Johannesburg, delving like gnomes
in the reefs of the Rand, provided them
with magnificent and never-failing sup
plies Of cash. Then questions began to
arise as they will do in this imperfect
sphere. The Uitlanders, as the strangers
were called, remembering the terms of
the Conventions, drawn under very diff
ferent condition Of affairs, but still bind
ing. limited at wish for burgher rights.
OF course, had the British Government
put down its foot firmly and at once at
the first symptom Of a desire on the part
of the Beers to whittle away such advan-
tages as the Conventions secured to our
fellow subjects, the present sad situa-
ton need never have arisen. But the
British Governments are seldom fond of
doing things at the right time, more es-
pecially if the issue IS not suficitnely dis
tinct to be appreciated by the masses of |
the electorate. Therefore matters were
allowed to drift, and they drifted into
that outrageous fiasco, the Jameson Raid |
of 1895
This raid had wider issues of an i'm |
perial nature. So far as these South At |
rican troubles We're concerned, it put our
country hopelessly IN the wrong in the |
eyes Of the civilized world, whom it |
proved difficult to persuade, although in |
fact this was the case, that such strange /
and tortuous developments Of political |
and martial activity were purely local in |
their origin. Again it armed the Boer
with sword of wondrous power. Now
indeed he was able to point to his land |
violated by the foot of the invader. and
TO talk of raids as though such a wicked
word had never defled the innicence of
his ears; as though in truth he had never
heard of the plains of Stellaland, and Of
a certain expedition sent by the British
Government under the command of Sir
Charles Warren to preserve those terri
tories to the peaceful enjoyment of their
owners: nor of that stretch or country
which once belonged TO the Zulus. but
IS now called the New Republic: nor Of
the trek into Rhodesia that WA
''damped;" nor OF the extension OF auth
GRITTY over Swaziland in defiance OF the
provisions Of the Convention. and OF 9th
ar kindred matters
Asain and again we have bludered in
our treatment Of the Dutch. For in
stance with kinder and fairer manage
nent they would not have trekked from
the Cape sixty years ago. Also, rad the
promises which were made to them IT
The annexation in 1877 been kept. and had
not Sir Thcorphilus Shepetone. who grew