The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-15
Mr. ElMUHDs ON IRANSVAAL
DISCUSSES BoER INTERVIEW
HAD WITH MIR: GEoGHEaAN.
Takes Issue With Latter On Several
Points and Argues the English
Side of the Question.
To the Editor of The Herald:

To the Editor of The Herald:
Sir: viii you kindly grant me q
small space to comment on an inter.
view with Mr.. Joseph Geoghegan OF
this city which appeared in yesterdays
Herald
IN TINS connection, permit me to re-
mark that it is somewhat difficult tc
distinguish, from your printed article
Just which are Mr.. Geoghegans senti-
ments and which emanate from the fer
! tlIe brain of the reporter. For instance:
starting array of historical facts, y
'prejudiced British ''undisputed fig
ures, war of conquest "woeful
warping of judgment" etc. Are these
Mr.. Geoghegan's utterances or are they
yours, Mr.. Editor? In the latter case,
l have nothing to say. because, if I'M
derstand the matter rightly. you do not
pose as an authority on South African
matters; you have never. if am cor
rectly informed, taken the burly Boer
TO your beating bosom and experienced
that little touch of fellow feeling which
makes us wondrous kind
However. l will endeavor to select
those portions of the interview which
present prima facie evidence of being
the personal views of the gentleman
you interviewed. and will ask your in
diligence while reply to them.
In the first place. then, 1 think Mr..
Geoghegan takes a very unfortunate
position when he asserts that suppress
sion of slavery by the English govern
ment was not the primary cause of the
Boer trek from the Cape Colony. No
Boer in South Africa would think of
attempting to disguise the fact, so that
Mr.. Geoghegan, in his extreme impa-
thence to make case against England
has out-Boered the Boer On this point,
though it is of no special Importance,
am happy in being able to enlighten
Mr.. Geoghegan, who, l take it, will
hardly think of discrediting the state
ments of Boer. We will therefore let
an educated, unusually intelligent Boer
speak for himself on this subject.
quote from letter which has recently
been going the rounds of certain Amer
lean newspapers, and which appeared
in the Deseret Evening News of the 4th
inst. 1t is entitled, THE Beers Side"
and it is written by a gentleman nam
ed Paul Kaalenberg (the name discIos-
es his nationality. who apparently re-
sides at Cape Town. This gentleman
says, amongst other matters:
As to Slavery.
''At the Cape our forefathers subdued
the natives, gave them homes and
and did their best TO -enlighten
them. In return for this the Kaffirs
worked on the land and did that labor
for which they We're by nature fitted
Then the English came flocking to the
Cape and, with Pharisaical horror. said
that we had no business to treat blacks
like dogs, and that il was our duty, as
to liberate every slave in
our colony. This we declined to do,
knowing ii was no worse to enslave ma
tives by the hundreds than it was TO
bayonet them by the. thousands.
Comment is superfiuous. But were it
not that / am at present all anxiety to
disabuse Mr.. Geoghegan's mind of GER
tain errors which have unaccountably
crept into it, l should like to spend
few moments with this Mr.. Paul Kaa-
Ienberg and his letter
Mr.. Geoghegan states that he spent
four years in the Transvaal, during
which time he saw no instance of
Dutch brutality towards the natives. If
this is the case. Mr.. Editor, l can only
account for the fact by presuming that
Mr.. Geoghegan must have been hypno-
Tied by the Beers.
l suspect, though. that this is an
)ther case of printers error and that,
as a matter of fact, Mr.. Geoghegan was
never in the Transvaal at all. The prob
ability is that the gentleman lived in
an essentially English town in the Cape
Colony, a town which probably con-
tanned comparatively few Beers, and
hat these Beers We're civilized by con-
TACT with the English residents. If my
conjecture is correct. then the gentle
man is clearly no authority on the
rransvaal question
Mr.. Geoghegan continues: "The worst
ever saw was for an Englishman to
say to a niger on the sidewalk, foot
sack which is equivalent to saying,
Get out of here, you dogr' Now,
'eally, Mr.. Geoghegan. that was too
Dad of that particular Englishman. too
bad; what he should have
lone. even though the niger was pos
lively insolent. was to step into the
gutter and take his hat off to the dusfSy
lobleman as he passed along. Any
SOer gentleman would, of course. have
acted in this manner under the circum-
;ta noes.
1t is, indeed. a sad disgrace to the
English nation that there are repre-
of it who have the gross
brutality to hurt the delicate feelings
# an African native. and it is an inev-
tably logical conclusion that because
In Englishman is capable of this, the
Boer would be above
Pride of Nationality.