Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-07
England May Soon Take a Hand
in Transvaal Affairs.
CHANCES OF 4 FRENCH REVOLUTION
The Holiday Season Costs Great
Britain a Pretty Penny.
M ALTERS OF INTEREST
pecial Correspondence of The Evening Star,
LONDON. December Is Is

LONDON, December rs, 1898.
The crisis in the Transvaal shows a ten
dency to develop, and as the year closes it
finds England again turning her attention
to South Africa. Not this time, as three
years ago, to apologize for an unauthorized
aggression on the part of her subjects on a
friendly state but to demand redress for
offenses against her subjects on the part
of the self-same state.
The tyranny of the Boer in his little pent-
up country toward outsiders is daily grow
ing more intolerable, and many small acts of
irritation go to make up volume of COM
plant against the hospitality of the Boer
which bids fair to ultimately overwheim
him. AT present the colonial office here is
busy sending dispatches to the Cape and
receiving them from there re.a..,e ~
IransVaal troubles Recently reinforce
ments of British soldiers have been sent
to South Africa, and despite the we'll
known preparations of defense which ever
since the Jameson raid the republic has
been making, the British getung ready
for any emergency that may arse The
Beers boast that they now have the latest
and most complete guns and ammunition
ana are prepared for any possible enemy,
but we may be sure that England will not
again attempt to wipe out this obstinate
republic, which has for over half century
been like thorn in her side, unless she is
may be the meaning of the Shipment of the
relnforcements and immense quantities of
army stores to the Cape. There Is no other
enemy possible in that quarter of the
world.
Will Not BE White Again.
Shortly after the Jameson raid a story,
repeated by Anglophobes only, which went
the rounds, purported to give a conversa-
ton between some Beers respecting the
color of the British flag. Various state
fnentS mad been made, when old Boer
spoke up and said: Il know the color of
the British flag, for | have seen it three
tunes: once at MaJuta Hill, again at Doorn-
kCrp, and the time when Jam son waved it
at krugersdorp, and it was always winter
II the English propose to show their flag
again in the Transvaal they will take care
that TINS time its color be not that of sur
render. In spite of their exclusive laws
and tyranpical ways it is not impossible
to feel some sympathy for these Beers
Driven from the possession of the Cape by
England, they migrated, in 1910, up-coun-
try, disguised with British rule, and found
ed the South African republic where they
hoped, from the apparent inferiority of the
country and it's inacce5sibility, to excite no
ones cupidity, to settle in peace and to be
let alone to farm the land sufficiently for
their simple wants The discovery of gold
in 1886 changed all this and the burgher
farmers into rich men. Hence all the pres
ent troubles, for the ''uitanders' outnum-
less will, sooner or later, overpower them
or their country will be annexed. Exclusive
laws have been made in order to keep
power among the Beers, and certainly it
seems possible to sympathize with people
struggling to preserve their independence
in the face of an opposition that seems
likely to overcome them. There is always
cause for interference in Transvaal mat
tiers, according to the British lingo view
but just at present the particular trouble
is the treatment accorded by the Beers
to British coolies. The English forget that
1t Is owing to the weakness and indiffer-
ence OF their own officials that this state of
things has come about, and also con-
veniently blind their eyes to the fact that
British subjects themselves have been the
bitterest enemies of this class in the Trans
Vaal 1t is interesting to see the Solicitude
with which the rights of coolies are con-
sidered by the English outside their own
colonies. However, it does not matter very
much what the cause Is it seems to be only
matter of time and occasion when this
country will GUST the Beers Many think
| that British policy is to turn on President
krugers death. When that event happens
| 1t is believed, rightly or wrongly, that the
Dutch republic will pass into a great Brit
ish confederacy.
The Outlook in Franco.
For the past month warning after warn
ing has been published as to the intentions
of the French army to bring the republic
under monarchical rule. The present con-
dition of parties and the public unrest all
undoubtedly tend In the direction indicated,
and ii is believed that many of the actions
of NJ. Dubuy have been limited in their
scope by the fear of a military coup. The
indefinite rumors have a. last taken shape
and concurrence Of events tend to bear
out the latest announcements of national
CONFUSION. Prince Victor Napoleon has
been for some time the hope of French
men who are not welded to republican ad-
ministration. He has received the strong
though private, support of the eX-Empress
Eugene, and stands well with the army
and with a considerable section of the peo-
pie. He is to be in Paris this week, and if
this proves true, 1t will be the time, if ever
for any movement against the republic to
show itself i'll the open. Everybody seems
to be on the qui vive for this to happen
and one well-informed correspondent Of a
London paper goes SO far as to fix today as
d'etat in the French capital. However
these things rarely come off at the time ar
ranged for by the newspaper people, and
turn up at relatively unexpected moments.
Seriously, l do not believe that any one Is
prepared to say when outbreak may be
exactly expected in Paris. That things are
ripe for 1t we all know, but. as Mr., now
LORD, CurZon once said in the house of
commons, it was the newspaper mans bus
mess to make intelligent anticipations of
coming events, and it is probably due to
| giving US fixed dates for such an Important
| event as revolution.
Christmas Expenditures.
Some enterprising individual with a head
| for figures has been totting I'D what
Christmas costs the British Isles as far
| as food and drink are concerned. The esti-
| mate puts down 1920, GOO for the general
table. 100000 for plum buildings and
| pastry for the 100000 families who in
1 dulge In these Injuries 1850 600 for liquor
| and about f9OO,OOO for tobacco, cigars and
| cigarettes The total bill amounts to over
| f20o0Ooo0 spent in connection with Christ
mas festivities In the whole country. 1t
is remarkable fact, however. that the
vast expenditure on this festival is far
more beneficial to foreigners than to Eng
| lands own farmers and food producers
| The irony of the conventional roast beef.
turkey and plum pudding lies in the fact
| that barely one-third of the beef and
| hardly q sixth of the fowls are of British
origin, and that nearly all the ingredients
| of the plum buildings come from abroad
| In round numbers, $4,000, 600 out of the
| amount spent during the Christmas season
| for the table Is handed over to foreign or
| colonial merchants. while those at homo