The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1899-11-18
RIDER HAGGHRD ON TIE WAR
.xcy ELlsT Qualified BY EXPERT
ENCE TO SAY sAMETHING..

ENCE TO SAY sAMETHING.
The Author Of sShc,' .sThc witch.s
Head md skiing solomon's
Mines'' Expresses the Opinion
That the Conhict Nns Inevitable
= He Believes That the Boer Is
OverrateI MS a SOldier@slA Dread
ful War That VIII Leave a Legacy
of Hatred.
Rider Haggard thinks the Boer war was
Inevitable. OF the fighting abilities Of the
Boer he has about the same opinion that
Americans hold as to the Spaniards, our
late enemies, that is that their best fight
lis put up behind intrenchments it's. These
aninions, however, he expressed before an
irish and English regiment and battery
surrendered tc the despised Beers.
M;. Haggard has had ample opportuni-
ties for forming his judgment. He IS one
Of the few survivors, now only three or
four in number: OF. the party that &C
companied Sir Theoophilus Shepstone on
his mission to the Transvaal, which re-
shifted in the annexation Of that country
on April II, 1877.
Mr. Haggard says, as quoted by the
New York Press: .'Thes fundamental
cause of the war is the old racial jea!-
ousy between the English and the Dutch
We treated the Dutch badly In the Cape
by t-aducing their characters and being
phi,anthropic at their expense in the mat
0f I, 11o yyoC w
great part of the compensation money
never reached their pockets. That, how
rer. is about all we have to blame our
selves for, except in allowing them to
set vi, independent republics beyond the
Vaal.
1.-THE immediate causes of the war come
from the contempt Of the up-country Boer.
for the British power, which Is made use
Of by the amnitious wire-pullers OF the
Dutch party to forward their secret
scheme of driving the English flag out
Of South Africa and establishing a great
Dutch republic from the Zambesf to the
Cape. The now declared offensive and DEF
fensive alliance OF the Free State with the
Transvaal, and their determination to-
make common cause against us unmask
the whole conspiracy. But all this has be-
come purely academical, since we have to
causes, which war has been forced upon
us by the Beers. y
Lei think that the war which we have
to ,fght-a hateful war, in my opinion.
comes upon us as a kind Of judgment
because in 1881 we cruelty deserted the
loyalists-Boer, English and Kafhr-in the
Transvaal. The Beers, whatever their
faults. would have been incapable Of such
,ccnduct, and hey could not understand.
it in US. They put It down to fear, and
from that moment have waited for an
opportunity to drive us out of South
Africa. @ t.7.,. .s... e. SO.
eve reserved equal rights to all the in
habitants of the Transvaal territory. It
was, the last rag with which we covered
the nakedness Of our surrender. But
where are those rights to-day? Piece by
piece. under the name Of law and with
out it, they have been filched away and
regulated, until now the man who is
called an Outlander, and who ought to
have exactly the same full privileges as
any burgher in the country, because the
convention guaranteed them. has no more
rights than a Zanzibar slave. = -
f. THE unpopulariyt Of the Outlanders in
England Is accounted for in two days.
The British public has never heard any,
thing heroic about, them, nothing that
appeals to the national pride; their tale
Lis a tale Of complaints and flights. This
Is not their fault, or at any rate the
fault Of the mass Of Them: it is their
misfortune. which, however, undoubtedly
has produced an effect upon the public
mind. The second reason is that the man
IN the street thinks OF an Outlander as a
milf onaire, with q palace in Park lane
AND half g county OF deer forest; as a
person, too, on whose account we are go
ing to, spend millions Of money. and mo-
body knows how many lives of brave men
he ho, !, %,folrt
Of halfpenny beyond his income tax
may seeshis akfngly revenues doubled and
:rebled. OF course, the Judgment in UNI
Just, as, to begin with not one Outlander
IN 5000 Is TTart1nfihonairet Or ever Will be
come zone. Is ,!Sss=s "a; Il >,t.zglT,e ,;se ssJ5
Tho real thing is whether England IL
Or Is not; going to remain dominant in
3outh africa. AS even the Beers admit,
the rear fight Is for the flag of England
think that the government deserves
great credit. knowing what they must.
expect, for the determined way II, which
they are facing the situation. How can
the war pc popular among a people of
whom 2 great proportion entirely misun-
derstand the real issues, and believe, with
the Liberals forwards, that 1t is 'waged to
Increase the wealth OF a few n1iilionafrh
Outlanders? :. - -
I'm my opinion, it is q dreadful war.
and no SUCCESS can make 1t otherwise
because of the3legaey. Of hatred which II
must leave behind it. How many genera
lions must go by before the Boer child
ceases. TO be taught by its mother to
hate the Englishman! S.. - :
1.-THE war was unavoidable: we are ma W.
ing for 1881 ss5 O . - - .,'''
u believe that II generals could onlvs
De got to understand it the Beers could
be conquered without any advance at All
Dy sitting still round. their Boundaries
fighting the fight of the sit down., as the
lulus call AZ. fIf Sir George Colley 5would
nave 1la' SAT still IN 1881 it was the general
opinion that the Beers would have melted
away without blow being struck The
Boer VIII not keep long in the field at one
time His cry Is always :. .Huis- toe D.
ehome). He will not wait in the, weld for
an indefinite period. / think him over
rated ras a soldier. Since the game has
gone he does not shoot as his father did
There Is no man on earth SO cautious az
his own life as the Boer. He has always
been reported to be so fond Of fighting
but few people understand his idea Of
ngnt1ng It Is to sit in, "a lager or behind
rocks himself and shoot men in the open
This is what he did atBronker,s Spruit,
Lang's Mex and at Ingogo: indeed.
Bronker's Spruit was nothing but a mas
sacre, where unprepared British soldiers
We're shot down by Beers who already
had pegged their distances carefully
That Is what they did also in all the
= af1r wars; the Beers in lager received
the assault OF numbers Of brave but un-
armed KaMrs, whom they beat Off with
their elephant guns with little loss OF life
to themselves With the single exception
OF the Weenen massacre by the Zulus.
which was not a fight, they never lost
any great number, and then the victims
Tor the most part, were women and chill