The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-27
ARE INTERESTED NOW
BRITONS FINALLY REALIZE THAT
WAR IN THE TRANSVAAL is
A PROBABILITY
CHANCES FOR PEACE SLIGHT

Utterances of the Leading Men of
England and the TransvaaI Re-
public Are Such to Lead to a
Conflict With Arms-Caustic Com
ment on the Expansion Aims of
America-That Canal Bill Affair.
Copyright by the Associated Press.
LONDON, Aug. 26.-Though no actual
developments have apparently taken
place since the Transvaal situation was
previously reviewed in these dispatches,
public interest in the crisis has been
wonderfully aroused. This is due to the
growing realization that Great Britain
is making the most wonderful prepare
tons for war. The contradictory reports
from home and abroad have fiourished,
and reports in the papers have see sawed
from peace to war, and vice versa, hope
iessly at sea. Endless superstition has
been INDUCED in regarding President
Kruger's counter propositions, but from
a broad point of view such details are not
important. compared with the fact that
President Kruger has refused (some say
evaded) the irreducible minimum of Sir
Alfred Miner, the governor of Cape Col
ony and British high commissioner of
South Africa
1t is now nearly week since the Brit
ish government has been in possession
of President Kruger's reply. Whether,
in the interest of peace, powers higher
that Mr. Chamberlain, the secretary of
state for the colonies, are still temporiZ-
ing, or whether or not a decisive ultima
tum is already on the way to the presi-
dent of the Transvaal, is pure conjecture.
The most conservative opinion IS that
the Beers will ultimately back down, but
there are no signs, judging from the mil
itary activity at the British war office,
and the same activity in the South At
rican republic that such Is likely to be
the case, but both sides may be using
the movement of troops as a bluff
That Mr.. Chamberlain is not in a pa
cifc mood is evidenced by the publlca-
ton previous to President Krugers re-
ply of the correspondence between Sir
Alfred Miner and the Beers. The
Speaker says this action has immesur-
ably prevented the possibility of keeping
the peace. Commenting on this the
Speaker says:
Neither In Downing street nor at Pre-
toria is there the value Of moderation or
temporizing appreciated. Inc conse-
. cuence is that every day the situation
becomes more dangerous and may yet
see the two races locked in a sanguinary
struggle, simply because the leading men
on both sides have failed to keep sufti-
cient command over their own tempers
and those of their immediate supporters.
Definite representations as to the out
come of the Transvaal affair are not in
obliged in. The papers are leaving loop
holes through which they may crawl. All
that can be said is that in a very short
period, probably less than week, the
world will know whether President Kru-
ger accepts British suzerainty and Its
potentialitieS or whether he really In
tends to resort to arms in order to de-
fend his contentious. 1t is palpable that
the British will refuse to accept any eva
sion of their suZerainty claims, whatever
other concessions President Kruger might
make.
In the Manchester Guardian a well
known writer on economics says he finds
wide differences among the Transvaal
outlanders to accept the franchise re-
forms proposed by Mr.. Chamberlain as a
settlement of their grievances. He says
the outlanders' grievances are real and
are keeuly felt except by the hot-headed
politicians.
AMERICA IN THE PACIFIC.
The Saturday Review. in an article or
America in the Pacific" dwells eX-
haustively, in a caustic vein, on the flu
ture there. 1t refers to the action of the
United States in the Philippines little
short of amazing and declares that Rus
STA, Japan Great Britain and the United
States are antagonists for premiership in
the Pacific. Commenting upon the ac-
QUESTION by Germany of the Caroline ISL
ands. the Saturday Review says:
IF the next great struggle is to be be
tween the United States and Germany
as Admiral Dewey thinks, the Americans
will realize their mistake in allowing Ger
many to acquire these islands,
GERMAN CANAL BILL.
The English weekly newspapers make
no effort to conceal their satisfaction a
the rejection Of the German canal bill, tn,
Speaker saying:
1.-The emperor has been defied and hum
bled in his own kingdom by the repre-
sentatives of the class he has been &C
customed to regard as the pillars of tn,
throne"
Such comment is coupled with the ad
mission of the possible economic right o
che eInperor's views.