The Jersey City news., 1899-11-06


II is an open question whether the
Roers are entitled. In the war which tney
are now waging with the British in soutn
Africa. to the sympathy which is being
iavished upon them in certain parts OF TINS
country Much has been said for and
against them. and their advocates would
have us believe that. like this country In
r776. they are "a small band of noble
hearted, brave men who are ready 10
sacrifice their lives and property on the
altar of civil and religious liberty; that
as we did In the Revolution so are they
now struggling to throw off the yoke of a
tyrannical despotism. If the reasons for
the present South African war as set
forth by the supporters of the British are
correct, this notion Is entirely erroneous,
According to those who have lived among
them, the Beers are bigoted- illiberal
and unprcgressive people, who, instead of
sighting for the holy cause OF liberty are
battling for the maintenance Of the worst
kind of despotism.
The claims Of the Uitlanders briefly
enmmed up are something like this: The
Transvaaf Republic is admitted by its adj
vocates TO be an oligarchy of few Beers.
One OF its two Houses of Parliament has
no power, while the other is absolutely
controlled by the oligarcf1y. It's courts OF
justice are entirely at the mercy of the
President, who recently removed the high
est judges because they would not ad-
judicate according to his wish. In 1881,
when the independence of the Republic
was conceded. 1t was expressly covenanted
thar all foreigners entering the Transvaal
should be put upon an equal footing with
the Boers themselves In every respect ex-
doing this. .the Beers have purposely ar
ranged taxation so that nine-tenths of 1t
shall be paid by the foreigners. Foreigners
are taxed heavily to support schools In
which the Dutch language is taught ex-
c1usiveiy. and all private schools main
tained by foreigners at their own expense
are required to teach Dutch on an equal
footing with English.
The Beers have maintained a govern
ment go corrupt, that, according to an
American newspaper friendly to them,
President kruger has amassed fortune
Of SIS, $4,000 within the last ten years, al
though doing no business. They have
maintained monopoly in dynamite. an
Indispensable agency in mining; they
have kept towns. built exclusively by for
eigners, exclusively under goer control;
they have refused to permit decent sani-
tation, thereby doubling the death rate,
ana they have prohibited Americans and
EnglishmeH from holding public meetings,
even denying them the right of petition.
The judges Of their own Supreme Court
have been removed from office because
their decisions rendered some small jus-
tice to foreigners, and the burghers pro-
hibited Americans and Englishmen from
carrying arms of any kind, while every
Boer boy. sixteen years old. is given a
rife and revolver and taught how to use
them to the best advantage.
Again and again the Boer government
has been appealed to TO remedy these
acts Of oppression but to no avail. At
one time, the Beers forcibly obliged Eng
lishmen to serve in their armies against
the native Africans, but the British goy-
ernment compelled them to abandon this
practice.
When the independence Of the Trans
vaal was conceded it was provided in