Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1899-11-05

III ten years the Beers found Them
selves in bad way. The republic was
already bankrupt. Their hostility to the
native was making the black a danger
to every settler In South Africa. The
Beers found themselves in war they
were neither strong enough to end
nor diplomatic enough to evade. For
her own sake England stepped In.
Knowing we'll that IL the blacks once
| oVerran the Transvaal It was only a
matter of time when they would men,
ace the Cape itself. So in April, 1877,
England annexed the Transvaal. That
| annexation saved the Boer from coll
lapse. 1t was English vIgor and Eng
lish money that reconstructed the
lemasculated Boer republic and put the
sloven burgher once more on his feet
1t was England who drove back his
enemies and it was England who open
cd up his country. Then when his
house was put in order the Boer calm
ly decided to eject the housekeeper.
This he did. for the resistance was only
half hearted. The door was slammed
In John Bulls face at Majuba Hill and.
though he might easily have pounded
down that portal in time. he had no
wish to deprive an alien people Of their
liberty.
In 1851 England gave the Transvaal
internal autonomy under an imperial
| suzerainty that would guard against
encroachment upon neighboring bound
aries. This left the Boer neither re-
pentant nor grateful. He hated the
English, and he always would hate the
English; that was all he knew and all
he cared to know. Three years after
being granted her independence the
Transvaal promised at the London con-
vention to give practical equality of
rights and privileges to all white men.
such as was enjoyed in neighboring
British colonies. The promise was glib
ly made and lightly broken. The dis
covery OF gold in the heart Of the
Transvaal brought thousands of stran-
gers knocking at her doors. These
strangers were just what tho bucolic
Boer did not want. He desired to be
left alone. The stolid burghers of the
veldt wanted to raise their sheep and
drink their coffee and smoke their pipes
In peace. For the newfangled cries of
| progress and industry and advance
they had the most profound contempt
They had their black slaves. their little
homes, their bit Of corn ground, and
that was all they cared for. Their cry
was the cry of the red Indians Of Amer
lea OF one century ago.
But the tide Of immigration they
could not keep back. This they realiz-
cd Africa became the cynosure of all
eyes. There was one thing they could
do however-they could make it SO
hot and uncomfortable for the incomer
| that he would be glad to get out. And
| this is Just what the Boer all his life
long has been trying to do. The time
| for an alien to become enfranchised was
enlarged from two years to five. Every
political and municipal right was de-
MED him. When the gold rush of 1856
showed the need of even more discour-
agement, the franchise was still more
narrowly delimited, until IA years was
the term imposed on the immigrant.
The gold industry was taxed, monop-
olies were created, every uitlander was
bled. The liquor law was SO admins
tered that it worked only in the interest
Of the Dutch manufactures. An out
rageous monopoly in dynamite was also
created, and eXorbitant prices for this
necessity of the miner became the or
der. English children had to go to Boer
schools and be taught the sloven
tongue of the low Dutch. Sixty thou
Sand INDECENT and corpulent Beers,
banded together in one impregnable
family compact. dominated and oppress-
cd and disgraced the manhood Of 200.-
600 uitlanders.
1t was no wonder such thing ended
in Jameson raid. That raid was
mistake. This every one, Boer and
British alike, will now confess. But it
was a mistake only because it was n
failure. Then 1t was the Boer gloated,
with his Bible In his hand and race ha-
tired in his heart. He famed that ha-
IN no h,,r nnfnt OntrOraa
TO property and ndignities to people
became a thing Of positively terrifying
proportions. The country was misgov-
erned, corruption was rampant and, to
make sure of his position, the Boer
armed and equipped his home forts by
means of war taxes wrung from the
hard working uitlander, who paid four
| teen fifteenths of the republics revenue
Such things have to have an end
IF you saw pile of gold worth $780,
| 600, 600 with 10000 Beers armed to the
teeth sitting on It," cried Sir Alfred
Miner. what would you dog" The
Boer piously protests that we English
are band of selfish and rapacious in
vaders who want nothing but to suck
the golden honey from the mines CT
his country and then pass on and leave
him to feed on the empty husks of the
barren veldt. But in his heart he knows
that any permanent good, that any
substantial Improvement that has ever
been made in the Transvaal has been
the result of uitlander effort. fIe knows
that he himself has moved neither hand
nor foot to irrigate or enrich those fer
| tile but well parched prairies over
which now roam his few handfuls OF
sheep and cattle. And he must know
In his heart that selfishness so mar
row and an attitude so autocratic can
have but one end. That end, thank
God, now seems to be nearer than ever