Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1900-03-16


United States Consul at irctora.
with the view of bringing outside inhu-
oncc to boar upon Lord Suli>hury's re.
Ply to the Bocr ovcrturcS. These seem
to have been fruitlcsS. except in the in
stance of The United States consul. whose
representations to Secretary Hay were
forwarded. March -, To the United
States embassy in London. with the in
structnnS outlined above. These Mr..
White. the charge datllirc>. personally
presented To Lord Salisbury. who rccriv-
cd them cordially, but without commit
ting himself to any definite expression of
opinion.
As the Bocr ovcrturcs had already been
answered To- the effect that mo- PROPOSE
tionS including the retention nf the re-
publicS' Independence could hc consider
I'd, The presentation of the American
offer was already too late. hut the pre-
micr apparently deemed ii matter of
sufficient Importance To- put himself on
record with a formal reply.
n parliamentary pupr containing the
telegram S,nl to the British government
by the idcuts of the South African
Republic and The Orange Free State and
Great Hrtain'S reply thereto ha, just
been i~sUcd. The telegram j. as follows.
N'i''' ..'''+si 'iil''44i. -N4titii -.
The blood and tears of thousand, who
have suffered hy Thu WAR and the pros
poet of the mora and economic ruin
whcrcWith South Africa is now threat
encd make il necessary for both helligcr-
ent> to ask themselves di~pas,ionately
and as in ia" >i.hi nt The triunc cod for
what are they h-htiu. and whether the
ann of each iu>iitc~ all this appalling
misery ami tcva~tation With this OBJ
ject and in view of the as>crliun of yari-
Gus British statesmen to the effect that
this war Was begun and is being carried
on with the set purpose Of undermining
her majesty authority i'm South Africa
and of Scttu. up au administration over
all of South Africa independent of her
maiesty'> government. we consider it our
duty to >9lomuly declare that this war
WAS uul 'rtai,ou solely as Il defensive
measure to maintain the threatened indie
pendencc Of the South African Republic
and is only continued in order to secure
and maintain the incontcStahle indepcnd-
encc Of both republics as sovereign in
ternationll states and to obtain the as
surance that those of her maiesty's sub
jectS who have taken part with lis in this
war shall suffer NO harm whatever in
person or property.
ION these conditions but on these con
ditions a.1nc, are vc now, as in the past,
'rSirous IF seeing peace re-cstabished in
South Africa while. if her maiestys
government is determined to destroy the
independence of the republics. there is
nothing lett 90 MS aud TO our people but
10 perseyerc TO the end in the course al
ready beeun. In spite of the overwhclm-
ing prc-rmiHauce of the British empire.
we are confident that that God who
lighted the uueNtinsushable fire Of love
of freedom In the hearts of ourselves aud
of our fathers win not forsalle MS and
will accomplish his work in us and in
our descendants
1--WE hcsitatCd to make this declaration
earlier t. your cXcelloncy, rs we feared
that as long as the advantage was al
ways on our side and as long as our
forces held defensive positions far within
her majesty's colonies such declaration
might hurt the feelings and honor of the
British people. But, now that the pres
tge of The British empire may be con-
sidered to be assured by the capture of
one of our forces by her majesty's troops
and that we have thereby been forced to
evacuate other positions which our forces
had occupied, that difficulty is over, and
we can no longer hesitate to clearly in
form your government and people, in the
sight of the whole civilized world, why