The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-03
ENGLAND AND THE TRANsvAAL

Now that the war correspondents in
Africa say war is inevi able between
the Beers and the British it may be
of interest to review the causes lead
ing up to it. Like most questions in
which the world is interested this is
& two-sjded controversy. And, while
the demands of Great Britain are
based upon law and equity, the fact
. mat the Transvaal is a weaker nation
brings extenuation for it's misconduct
and sympathy for its cause Great
Britain is strong. She is a notorious
land grabber She has gobbled the
richest part of Asia ard the greatest
part of Africa already. For this her
motives. however correct. are sure to
be questioned; and the insolence and
injustice Of the Dopper government is
overlooked or forgotten.
Then there is something in the ex-
perience Of the Beers which insures
them more Consideration than they are
entitled TO upon a close examination of
the facts of today. The Beers descend
from those peasant laborers of Flanders
who We're shipped to South Africa.
nearly two centuries ago by the Dutch
government Generation after genera
ton grew up in isolation. The first
settlers cleared the way and built
homes Wives were shipped to them
after the manner of colonizers. The
women were orphans, widows without
homes, dependent creatures who found
closed their hearts against the rest of
the world after reaching the Cape
country. Their children were reared to
know no other land. to turn nowhere
for sympathy OF inspiration except to
each other Thus they retained and
strengthened the traits Of their an
eestors, the heaviness of mind and
body. the suspicion Of strangers, the
disposition to resent interference from
the outside, the prejudice against new
faces. new tongues, new ideas and
new methods Of pursuing their chosen
occupations. The sorrows and priva-
lions the founders Of the race suffered
left its trace upon the people 1t
made them serious, selfish. self-reliant
sullenly obstinate and religiously de-
fiant. Step by step the traders and
adventures crowded them off the
Cape and back from the sea. They re-
sisted innovation in every form until
the newer civilization overwhelmed
them.
Between 1885 and 1870 they abandoned
their farms and journeyed northward
with their creaking OK carts, their
women and children, to the land be-
yond the Vaal. It was too hazardous
a trip for a less hardy people to take.
and country too dangerous to be in
viting to their pursuers. There. secure
from the persecution of progress and
the contamination of civilization. they
founded an agricultural republic. crude
in form. absurd in many of its fea-
lures. but satisfact ny to the strange
people who composed it.
Alas. the region they occupied was
100 rich for their peace. Fate pursued
them. Diamonds were discovered
there in 1876 and gold in abundance ten
years later. Each discovery opened the
fioodgates of immigration. The dreaded
Jftlanders" swarmed in upon the
pioneers who began to battle tena-
ciousiy for their national life Every
measure to keep out foreigners has
been adopted. The Beers regarded the
fortune hunters in pretty much the
same light that We regard the Chinese
as adventurers scraping up wealth to
take It away and use it for the i'm
provement of other lands. So they did
ali they could to make the Transvaal
an unpopular resort. an uncomfortable
abiding place Tor outsiders. Foreigners
were loaded with taxes, concessions in
the mineral districts were made OK
cuses for extortion of the most I'M