The record-union., 1899-10-12
THE CRISIS IN SOUTH AFRICA.
HAS REACHED A STAGE WHERE
DIPLOMACY CEASES.
Balfour Defends the Action of
Great Britain and Throws All
Blame Upon the Beers.

tory on the TransvaaI situation burst
out tonight. A. j. Balfour, First Lord
OF the Treasury; Henry Herbert As
quith, former Home Sc cretary, and
others spoke in various parts of the
country. Sir Michael Hicks Beach,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was
to have delivered an address on the
subject, is suffering from an attack Of
bronchitis, and was unable to speak.
Mr.. Balfour, addressing the Union
lists of Haddington, said:
THE crisis in South Africa has now
reached the stage where diplomacy is
put aside, argument ceases to make
further place, and appeal is made to
arms. Peace and more good will among
men, which it is our first business to
cultivate in all of Great Britain's vast
possessions, has been wantoniy and
gratuitously imperilled by the rash
policy Of the Boer Government
"A great change has taken place in
the past three months in the opinion
of this country regarding our South
African policy. There was not then
the clear conviction which now exists
respecting the true merits of the case
which is now TO be decided by the ar
bitrament Of force, but the more the
public has known of what the Govern
ment has done and what they aimed at,
the more they have come around to the
view that the Government, if it has
erred at all, has erred on the side of
patience.
Those who supported us can look
back to the long anxious months with
the conscientious conviction that we
earnestly desired peace, though war
was imminent, and that though at the
moment I am speaking war may act
ually have begun, that war is none of
our seeking, none of our desire, but
is forced upon us by those who are not
men fighting for the freedom of their
country, but oligarchy, who fear that
the hour of their domination is at an
end
Now that the prospects of peace are
finally destroyed, now that war with
all it's consequences, all it's loss of life.
all it's destruction of property, all it's
sufferings, is on us, we can say we
never asked anything but Justice, new
er desired anything but freedom; all
we longed for was equality under the
Transvaal republic toward men of our
race and speech, which We freely give
to the men of the Dutch race and
speech in the neighboring colonies, and
if they think it worth while to imperil
their future in order to refuse these
rights, at all events the blame rests
on them and not on US, and we can
feel that, whatever we may have to
endure before the war is brought to a
final and successful conclusion, the
sacrifices we shall be called upon to
make are sacrifices in the interests of
the rights of men and of civilization"
prolonged cheers.)
Mr.. Balfour concluded his speech
with an expression of thanks to the
Governments policy.
Mr.. Asquith, speaking at Dundee,
credited the Government with a sin
cere and honest desire to avoid war
1t seemed incredible, he said, that the
other should strike the first blow in
a conflict which could have but one
issue. The handling of the problem
by the Beers was such as no civilized
country could permit and the issue
raised by the Transvaars ilI-starred
dispatch was one from which Great
Britain could not shrink, but was
bound to take up. The vast majority
of the British people, Mr.. Asquith de-
clared, contemplated the war with re-
luctance and aversion, and saw in it
little or no prospect either of advan-'
tage or military glory. 1t was not
with a light heart that they took up
the challenge, but now that it was
forced upon them, they would see it
through.
Right Hon. William st. John Brod-
erick, Under Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, announced in a speech
at Gui1ford that the Government had
made the only possible reply to the
Transvaal, namely, that "we are not
prepared to discuss such terms"