The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-09-22
WILMINGTON. \. {
FRIDAY, SEPT. %, 1899.
Asro THE BRITISH SIDE OF THE
CASE

ss 4be Hritish had not followed up Dom
Paul and his people in their migratlons,
there would be no war threatening now
All the present disturbances now date
back to the conduct Of the British in
voluntarily choosing to pursue the
Beers and dwell among them. 1t is too
long and complicated here. We nave
undertaken before to give some insight
into the impending troubles and causes.
So plain was the wrong doing as late
as 1895-four years agO-Of the British,
known as Outlanders, that in Great
Britain there were a great many who
did not sympathize with them or justify
in the least their demands upon Kruger
and his people.
An English writer has recently un-
dertaken to present the British side in
the contest. We have not seen it, blu
the Philadelphia Record, that gives a
condensation of the British argument
in defence, also says this:
''The programme Of the Johannesgurg
National Union of 1895 did not COM
mend itself to any large nor influential
class of fundamentally, because of
the identification of the earlier reform
movement and the JamiSOn raid, with
its nauseating flavor of st~ock-joDbery,
and, secondly, because the solution of
the T%ransvaal question proposed by the
.JohannesburgerS was not so obviously
equitable as to become the subject for
energetic action on the part of Great
Britain. The proposition that 2OO,oOO
Outlanders should be accorded full rep
resentation in the councils of the state
in proportion to numbers was felt by
IT, I % Fl no II val ont
to a demand that the %burghers should
hand over the government to men not
born within their country, who had
taken no part in the framing Of its con-
stitution and whose ideas and senti-
ments were largely alien to those of
the founders. The objections OF, the
Beers to being thus effaced were con-
coded to be we'll taken"
AS time passed the British began to
widen and press their demands. Sir
Alfred Miner proposed that residents
of five years should become citizens,
and should intend to reside permanent
ly in the Transvaal, to serve in he
army if needed, and be men of charac-
-tter and property. To this President
Kruger, objected, as he was afraid that
= h newcomers would swamp his w
PCopIC. ~ VIC ~ IAN AAS"
corners would not relinquish their allie
gfance TO the British crown. Later on
Kruger agreed to all the points, but
conditionally on the remuneration OF
Great Britain's claim of suzerainty.
Furthermore, he has declined to con-
sent to the institution of a commission
OF inquiry to determine what woul be
the status of the Outlanders under the
new regulations, and whether the new
laws would repeal certain prohibitory
requirements of enfranchisement-for
instance, the sanction Of two-thirds Of
the burghers of the ward in which the
applicant for citizenship might reside"
The British objected because it would
require three and a half years to come
to relieve 1.-The present intolerable state
of affairs" Suppose a half million or
. a million British men should enter the
United States and make such demands
as they make of the Beers, what would
resuIt-peace or war?Would they be-
come Citizens and yet continue sub
jects' of Queen Victoria? The awful
condition of the Outlanders is set forth
as uDDedrdDle. here IS the statement
as given in the Record:
The programme of the Johannesburg
heavily taxed than any people in the
world, have no political and scarcely
any municipal rights; they are on
trolled by a brutal and ignorant police.
Justice is difficult to obtain. The edu-
cation of their children is INSTRUCTED.
Their press is muzzled. The right of
public meeting is practically denied
them, and they are liable to arbitrary
expulsion. Finally, their town is DOM
mated by forts and Krupp guns, as
though it were a settlement of desper-
ADDE'S under martial law. Sir Alfred
Miner describes the Outlanders as a
community of 'helots' n protests that
their helplessness is calculated to 'un-
odermine the influence md reputation of
Great Britain and the respect of the
British government within the Queens
dominions.'
That is indeed bad But might does
not make right. The men who suffer
are mainly the men that forced them
selves in seeking gold and diamonds.
The claim of Great Britain of sovereign
ty in the Transvaal is like poor little
McKinley's plea for the sovereignty of
the United States in he Philippines.
It means war, and, if necessary to es-
tablish the British power, it means de-
struction, even determination. But
never yet, however specious the plea,
did might make right. England has
brought herself into a tight place. and
now the plea she must fight or the
safety and integrity of the British en-
pire" is imperilled. That is precisely
the plea of the expanSiOniStS every
where. But the fact remains that if
the Queens subjects had let Dom Paul
and his people alone, there would never
have been any trouble. any war, any
"imperrilling' in the wilds of Africa.
of 9TH safety and integrity of the
British empire"