Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-09-08
MIGHT VS.. RIGHT.
RIGHT AND WRONG IN THE
TRANSvAAL TROUBLE.

Law Of Nations-The Greed for Gold at
the Bottom Of the Matter.
Seattle v eekly.
As is too often the case, immediate
worldly interests, not questions of fun
damental right and wrong. animate
the opposing disputants and dictate
their course of action in the Transvaal
trouble. That the Beers are acting in
judiciously from the purely CONNER
cial, money-getting point of view that
seems to be dominating all the rela-
tions OF life just at present to an ex-
tent never before known, may be con-
ceded; but that they are in the right
under every recognized principle OF
the law of nations is beyond question.
If England pushes her demands so far
as to provoke War there, her conduct
will be no less unjustiiable that that
which led to the American revO-
luton, and the war will be one OF the
most unjustifable in which she has
ever engaged.
England's assertion of rights in the
matter begins with brazen false as
sumption and reckless Justification of
well-known recent historical facts
In the Queens speech proroguing Par
Parliament two weeks ago, she is made
by her Premier to say, "The position
of my subjects in the South African
Republic is inconsistent with the
promise of equal treatment whereon
on my promise of internal independ-
ence to that republic was founded"
The cold cynicism of Lord Salisbury is
clearly legible in the phlegmatic i'm.
pudence of the false implication OF
those words. When did England ever
have the right to make the internal
independence OF that republic" mat
ter for her to grant or withhold?
Never. The Beers have never acknowl-
edged themselves British subjects, nor
conceded that she had the slightest
right to meddle in their internal af-
fairs. On the contrary, the entire his
tory of the relation OF Boer and Briton
has been a ceaseless effort of England
to assert domination over the Dutch
in South Africa and an equally per-
sistent refusal of the Dutch to ac-
knowledge or submit to such domin.
ion. The implication in the Queens
speech of two weeks ago wac, there
fore, bold and shameful perversion
of facts and the truth. And this same
perversion of facts underlies the whole
claim now being made by England as
the basis Of right to interfere in the in.
ternal affairs of the Transvaal.
When England first asserted domin.
ion over Cape Colony at the beginning
of this century, the Dutch had already
been long in possession. England as.
serted claim under treaties made in
the course of the Napoleonic wars and
at their conclusion. But the Dutch col.
ony at the Cape was not established
by the Dutch government or any other
government, but by the Dutch East
India Company. They claimed to be
independent and disputed the right of
the Dutch government to transfer
them and their country to England.
After a struggle of twenty years over
this claim, they saw themselves over
powered by the greater strength of
England and resolved to quit the
country they had founded and move
to wilderness where they could found
another new-country OF their own and
be independent of English rule. They
accordingly emigrated to Natal and
opened up that country. England
soon pursued them there, fought them
and tried TO reduce them to submis-
sion. The Beers were worsted in the
contest, but they still refused to ac-
knowledge themselves English subjects
or submit to English domination.
Rather than this, they emigrated to
another wilderness and founded the
Orange Free State. Soon England
pursued them here with similar re.
salt, and a third time the Beers emf.
grated to wilderness and founded the
Transvaal. England again pursued
them there, but the Beers this time
fought her to a standstill and secured
the convention alluded to in the
Queens speech, by which, in spirit, in
truth, in effect, England agreed to
abandon her efforts to assert dominion
over the internal affairs of the Beers.
Tie assertion and denial of that right
had been the sole bone of contention
and war for forty years, and the con-
vention was a concession that the
Beers had won. England now simply
reasserts her claim in spite of that
convention. She does it simply be-
cause gold has since been discovered
there, her subjects have gone there in
large numbers seeking that gold, and
she seeks to aid them in making it