The record-union., 1899-11-07
Fun Text Of the Proclamation Of
President Stsyn
Calling Upon the Burghsrs to Support The
Sister Republic.

&S~AAe-.~~@ :
That the Burghers Assist the
Transvaal If She Should be un-
Justly Attacked.
NEW YORK. Nov. 6.-The Consul
General of the Orange Free State in
this city gave out to-day the full text
of President Steyn's proclamation CALI
ing on the Orange Free State Burghers
to support the Transvaal. The pros
c1amation reads as follows:
"Burghers Of the Orange Free
State: The time, which we had so
much desired to avoid. the moment
when we as a nation are compelled
with arms to oppose injustice and
shameless violence Is at hand. Our
sister republic to the north of the Vaal
River is about to be attacked by an url-
scrupulous enemy, who. for many years,
has prepared himself and sought pre-
texts for the violence of which he is
stroy the existence of the Afrikander
race.
With our sister republic we are not
only bound by the ties of blood. of
sympathy and of common interest. but
also by formal treaty, which has been
necessitated by circumstances. This
treaty demands of US that we assist her
if she should be unjustly attacked,
which we unfortunately for a long time
have had too much reason to expect
We, therefore, cannot passively look
on while injustice is done her. and while
also our own dearly bought freedom is
endangered, but are called as men to
resist, trusting the Almighty, firmly be-
lieving that he will never permit injus-
tice and unrighteousness to triumph.
Now that we thus resist a powerful
enemy with whom it has always been
our highest desire to live in friendship,
Notwithstanding injustice and wrong
done by him to US in the past, we SOL
EMMY declare in the presence of AL
mighty God that we are compelled
thereto by the injustice done to our
kinsmen, and by the consciousness that
the end of their independence will make
our existence as an Independent State
of no significance, and that their fate,
slfsaid athey be obliged to bend under
an overwhelming Power, will also soon
after be our own fate.
Solemn treaties have not protected
our sister republic against annexation,
against conspiracy, against the claim
of an abolished suzerainty, against q
renewed attack which aims only at her
downfall.
"Our own unfortunate experiences in
the past have also made it sufficiently
clear to us that we cannot rely on the
most solemn promises and agreements
of Great Britain, when she has at her
helm Government prepared to tram
pie on treaties, to look for feigned pre-
texts for every violation of good faith
by her committed. This is proved
among other things by the unjust and
unlawful British intervention, after we
had overcome an armed and barbarous
black tribe on our eastern frontier, as
also by the forcible appropriation of the
dominion over part Of our territory.
where the discovery of diamonds had
caused the desire for this appropria-
ton, although contrary to existing
treaties. The desire and intention to
trample on our rights as an independ-
ent and sovereign nation, notwith-
solemn convention existing
between this State and Greats Britain.
have also been more than once and are
now again shown by thespresent Gov
by giving expressions in pub
lie documents to an unfounded claim
Of paramountcy over the whole of
South Africa and therefore over this
State
with regard to the South African
Great Britain has moreover
refused until the present to allow her
to regain her original position in re-
spect to foreign affairs, a position
which she had lost in no sense by her
her own faults. The original inten-
ton Of the conventions to which the
republic had consented under pressure
and circumstances has been perverted
and continually used by the present
British administration as a means for
the practice Of tyranny and of injustice
among other things for the support Of
revolutionary propaganda within the
republic for Great Britain.
And while no redress has been offer
ed, as justice demands, for injustice
done the South African republic on the
part of the British Government: while
no gratitude is exhibited for the mag
nanfmity shown at the request of the
British Government to British subjects
who had forfeited under the laws of
the republics their lives and property,
yet no feeling of shame has prevented
the British Government, now that the
gold mines Of immense value have been
discovered in the country. to make
claims Of the republic. in consequence
Of which, If allowed, will be that those
who or whose forefathers have saved
the country from the barbarism, and
have won it for civilization with
their blood and their tears. will lose
their control over the interests Of the
to which they are justly en-
titled according to divine and human
avs. The consequence of these claims
would be- moreover, that the greater
part of the power will be placed IN the
hands Of those who, foreigners by birth.
enjoy the privilege OF depriving the
or Its chief treasure, while theN
have never shown any loyalty e. q mr.
sigu government. Besides, the inevit-
sbIe consequence Of the acceptance OF