Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-12-14
ENGLISH PIRACY.
south African war the Cu~lmfnatiOn
Of Eighty Years Of Cruelty and


south African War the Contamination
Of Eighty Years Of Cruelty and
Bad Faith.
Washington Post.
England's course toward the Dutch
settlers has been for more than eighty
years one of unbroken cruelty and bad
faith. England's treatment of them
has been at all times dishoporable and
dishonest. "Scrutator," writing in the
London Truth of November %, gives a
brief survey Of the wicked and dis
graceful chapter:
The Cape was originally a Dutch col
ony. When Napoleon laid hands on Hol-
land, we took IL in deposit, pledg1ng our
selves to restore 1t to that country as soon
as she became again independent AFTER
the overthrow of Napoleon, we kept II.
The Dutch at the Cape rebelled. We put
down the rebellion and hanged the ring
leaders. Some of these Dutch coionlsls,
ked. They went first to what is now Ma
tai, and founded the Republic OF Natalla-
We drove them farther afield. They cross
selves in what is now called the Trans
vaal, and which was then as much out
side the area of British influence as IS the
vention was signed. 1t was a convention
| regulating our relations with these trek
kers, delimiting the frontiers of their State,
and based upon their being a neighboring
nation with which we wished to be on
neighborly terms. In 1877 the T~ransvaalers
had increased and multiplied. Their coun-
| try was to us what Naboth's vineyard was
to Ahab; we, therefore, being the stronger.
annexed it. Naturally, they objected, and
they struck for their Independence In 1881
we recognized that independence, but de-
clared ourselves their suZerain. In 1884 a
fresh convention was signed in wnich we
gave up our suzerainty expressly enounc-
ing all claim to interfere In the internal ar
fairs of the republic. The sole restriction
on its being a sovereign international state
was that we retained a right to veto any
treaty into which it might enter with a
foreign power other than the Orange Free
State"
The rest of the story Is still fresh
in our memory. Of the rapacious and
ruthless conspiracy which eliminated
in the Jameson raid, we have heard
more than enough. The Beers spared
the lives of the pirates, whom they had
every reason to put to death, and sent
them back to England to be feted and
f1attered and crowned as heroes. The
British government winked at the
atrocities, and British public sentiment
applauded the wink. No blood-stained
butcher of the seas, flying the black
flag, was yer more utterly outside the
pale of civilization than jameson and
Cecil Rhodes, in whose interest the
raid was organized, yet both of them
were celebrated in London and both
received the countenance of the British
cabinet. 10 Chamberlain brought on
the war to help the Rhodes %conspira-
tors, and now 10 Chamberlain's organs
in holy London, reproach the Beers for
treachery and hasten to condone there
by an exhibition of savage cruelty that
would have disgraced a nation of can
nibals.
We see it glibly stated in various
quarters that "of course the American
people sympathize with their English
cousins in this affair" Perhaps so. 1t
is easy to believe in the existence of a
personal affection and good will for
such gallant and splendid fellows as
the English have shown themselves to
be. But do we sympathize with this
Observation-Disclosures war of robbery
and spoliatien? Do we wish to be re-
garded as accessories to piracy and
massacre? That is quite another mat
ter.