The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-11-11
The WICKED WAR IN THE TRANSyAAL
Wants to Control the Rich Gold
Mines Of the Country.
IS A BULLY, RUFFIAN AND COWARD
Tried to Destroy the Union in
the Days Of Lincoln.

The following article on England in
the Transvaal' appeared in a recent
issue of the New York Journal from the
pen of Ex-senator John J. ingalls,, OF
Kansas:
The situation in South Africa is an
ironical commentary on the peace con-
ference at The Hague and the proposal
Of the Gar for the disarmament OF ma
tions. Before the wax on the seal OF
the credentials of her delegates was cold,
England was deliberately and wantonly
forcing quarrel upon President Kru-
ger on trumped-up and baseless pre-
tense for the purpose of destroying the
independence OF the Transvaal republic.
Having succeeded in forming an ulti-
matum, she is now assembling an army
greater than the entire native Boer pop
ulation, larger than the aggregate OF the
forces under Wellington at Waterloo
and Raglan in Crimea, for the purpose
of obliterating little commonwealth
whose area is less than that Of Montana
and whose citizenship is exceeded by
scores OF cities in the state of New
York.
Having been snubbed and kicked and
cuffed by all the great powers OF Eu-
rope, subjected to indignities to which
she has submitted without protest, Eng
land now makes an enormous military
demonstration against an insignificant
community, as a discredited slugger
avengcs himself for. the insults of his
equals by indiscriminate assault upon
cripples and women and children; and
this war of conquest-the most brutal
and indefensible of all her crimes against
human rights-is waged in the name OF
civilization! 1t should not be forgotten
that the Roer republic has been an es-
tablished, Independent, sovereign repub-
lie. 1t had the same right to exist as
Germany, or France, or the United
States. By the convention at Pretoria
i'll 1881 England conceded its autonomy,
and again by the London convention OF
1884 it was formally and definitely
agreed that the Transvaal republic
should be supreme in its internal admin
istration; that it should make no treaty
with powers other than the Orange
Free State without the consent and ap-
proval OF Great Britain.
There is no prctense that these stip-
ulations have been violated in the pres
ent contention. The foreign relations
OF the Beers are not in question. Moth
ing is involved except the conditions
upon which naturalization, the franchise
and representation are granted to immi-
grants and foreigners. These are mat
tiers of internal policy and administra-
ton, to be determined by the Trans
vaal government as it sees fit. The reg
ulations may be satisfactory to England
Or otherwise, but by international law
she has no more right to meddle than
she has to interfere with suffrage in the
United States or with the methods of
taxation in Russia. The claim that the
Beers are an obstacle to the onward
march Of civilization is a pretext equal
ly imp"dent and blasphemous. They
are what they have been for a century.
They are neither better nor worse than
they were when Lord Derby treated
with them fifteen years ago at London.
They are a race Of fairly educated, in
dustrious, sober farmers. They are
peaceable, much given to hospitality,
and deeply religious; they love liberty,
and are devoted to the principles of
self-government.
Originally settled in Cape Colony,
they fled from the tyranny Of the British
to Natal sixty years ago. Pursued by
their hereditary enemies in their new
abode they again cmigrated, and set up
their homes and altars, like the Puritans
of New England and the pioneers of
the West, in the wilderness, surrounded
by savage foes, and there they remained
with such degree of civilization as con-
tented them and disturbed no one else
till the discovery of the diamond fields
in Kimberley and the gold reefs of the
Witwatersrand. Quite likely they were
not as polished in their manners or as
refined in their ways Of life as the Eng
lish gentlemen who figured in the Cleve
land street scandal; possibly they were
not more honest than the guinea pigs
OF British nobility who sold their names
to the promoters of swindling corpora