The record-union., 1899-09-03
Tables Said to Have Been Turned
in South Africa Trouble,
And That Secretary Chamberlain is Now
Asking for Conferences.
Yet the Situation in the Boer
Country Presents Grave As
pect, and War May Be the UIti-
mate Outcome of the Contro-
versy.

correspondence or the Associated PreSS.)
LONDON, Sept. 2.-Judging from the
surface indications, an altogether new
phase seemed to have come over the
Transvaal crisis. The tables have been
turned, and now it is Joseph Chamber
lain, the Secretary of State for the
Colonies, who proposes further confer
ences.
In this and other respects the official
negotiations present a more pacific as
pect than last week. But, with the
bare exception of these negotiations.
every other circumstance points to war
Whether, as has been suggested in
these dispatches, higher powers than
Mr.. Chamberlain have interfered in the
interests of peace, or whether the Sec
retary has taken leaf out of the book
of President Kruger of the Transvaai,
meaning procraStination, can scarcely
be determined at this stage. 1t is also
possible, though hardly probable, that
the unexpected opposition and disaf-
fection of the Dutch and descendants
of the Dutch of British South Africa,
acutely evinced this week, may have
stayed the mailed hand"
IiC SliilpISSl SOlQllOu, however, VI
these latest Developments which puZ-
zle none more than Mr.. Chamberlain s
out-and-out supporters, is that the ex-
treme amiability and long suffering
parader in this last British proposal, is
merely a peace Offering which precedes
a sacrifice. Such steps as these make
war more righteous, and English wars,
though usually resulting in aggrandize-
ment, must first be righteous to be
popular, especially with the non-con-
formist element, and Mr.. Chamberlain
is not a despiser of this factor in home
politics. The foreign sentiment must
be propitiated The Continental press,
with. few exceptions, recognizes the
fairness of the English claims in the
Transvaal, and President Kruger knows
he can expect no outside aid, except.
perhaps, in the most indirect way, from
Russia
All in all, putting the official for1nali
ties and secondary issues aside, the
Transvaal crisis under the surface,
seems not to be greatly changed, and
the settlement still lies in Kruger'5
hands. Whether he completely surren-
ders, openly defies or further evades,
time alone will show.
No one prides himself more upon the
greatness of the merchant marine than
does the British subject, yet strangely
enough, no one is binder to events that
menace it's welfare. This country is
apparently on the eve of a sailors and
fremen's strike that will paralyze COM
merce, yet so far the other has attract
ed practically no public interest. The
trouble arose over manifesto to the
Shipowners by the Seamen's and Fire
mems Union, inviting them to confer
on the question of fixing a rate for
firemen and sailors on steamers of f6
and for sailors on sailing ships of IA
monthly a slight advance in the av-
erage wages now paid at the various
British ports. The Shipowners utterly
ignored the union, with the result that
the latter have planned to strike at
every port in the United Kingdom to
commence next Monday
The Saturday Review to-day COM
bats the assertion of President McKin-
ley that the Philippines belongs to the
United States as much do Louisiana,
Texas and Alaska, saying: This GER
tainly sounds strange in the mouth of
polit clans who are never tired of cit
ing the grandiloquent sentiments of the
Declaration of independence. This is
an assertion of the right to purchase a
country from it's former rulers against
the wish of the inhabitants There is
not an analogy with Alaska
The Spectator" in the course of a
lengthy article on the Philippines, in
dorses President McKinley's speech,
saying: ''These words are worthy of
the best traditions of the United States
and show the administration does not
mean to run away from the difficulties,
but to face them squarely and boldly.
All who know anything of the real
temper of the people of America, know
this viii be the attitude of Washington
towards the situation in the Far East
But it was none the less satisfactory
to see it placed on record in such un-
terms"
The Spectator suggests that Gov
ernor Roosevelt and Admiral Dewey are
the type of men who would make ex-
cellent Governor General of the Philip
pines.