Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-06
THE BOER GOVERNMENT
Thos. G.. Shearman's Statement of the
Causes of the War.
The English Side of the Controversy
Treatment of Settlers in the
TransvaaI.

don. he was so poor that he could not
pay his hotel bill. and it was paid for him
by generous Englishman. He then ex-
pressIy and publicly invited Englishmen
and Americans to settle in the Transvaai
and to conduct mining there.
Second-Mr. Kruger afterward sold one
| OF his own farms to Englishmen for $780,.
O00 paid in gold. His friends and neighbors
sold other farms at even greater prices re-
ceiving altogether from foreign settlers
principally English, although including a
considerable number of Germans, French
men and Americans) many millions of dol
lars.
Third-These foreign settlers produce
every dollars worth of wealth which can
be exported from the Transvaal, and every
dollar in excess of what will suffice for a
very bare and dirty existence to the old
residents. Every dollar of the wealth now
possessed by Mr.. Kruger, his sons-in-law,
his officials, and indeed any part of the
Transvaal population, has been produced
by these settlers.
Fourth-The taxes levied annually in the
iraffSvaat have exceeded S2t,O00,UGU. Nine
| tenths of this amount have been collected
from the foreign settlers whom Mr.. Kruger
invited into the country.
Fffth-No appreciate part of these taxes
| Is expended for the benefit of the foreign
settlers. If this sum were equally divided
among all the Beers 1t would furnish an
annual income of about $1,000 for each
all their living expenses.
Sixth-No such equal division is made.
but haff these taxes has been spent in max
| ing preparation for war. and the other half
devoted to the payment of enormous SAL
aries to and jobs for Mr., Kruger, his sons
| in-iaw, friends and political supporters.
Mr. Kruger himself has avowedly received
$'1,S03 year salary. while on repeated oc-
| casions sums of $4,000 and $4,000 have
been paid out of taxes for his direct and
exclusive benefit, as appears by public rec
ords. How much more has been spent
without public record can only be guessed.
I His son-in-iaw and private secretary pos
| sesses $50 says Mr.. Hillegas) a single house
| costing 100000 and rolls in wealth besides,
| as ne must to support such a house.
TransvaaI Bribery.
seventh-The official records in a Trans
vaal lawsuit, arising upon a quarrel be-
| tween two sets of Boer plunderers, show
! that every Boer official worth bribing, in
| Guiding kruger's son-in-law, received brides
| from Boer railroad company. The amount
| of each bride was set forth in a bill Of par
ticulars filed in open court. Not one of
] these men ever denied the receipt of these
brides.
| Eighth-The foreign settlers, exclusively,
| built Johannesburg, a fine town, with for-
! merly) $4,000 inhabitants. They were not
merely denied any right to govern that
! city: they We're denied any municipal gov
eminent whatever. This is proved not only
] by the explicit statements of Mr.. Hillegas,
| the American representative of the Beers,
! but also by proclamation of Paul Kruger
himself, dated in January, 1896, copy of
which have. Mr.. Hillegas states that not
50 could be expended in repairing a road or
| a bridge without first receiving express
| authority from Pretoria.
| Ninth-AS a consequence Of this total
lack of good government. the death rate in
! Johannesburg has been constantly three or
| four times as great as even in our own
! badly governed city Of New York. There is
in COmDariOp il with ordinary min
| ing camps, because Johannesburg is fine
city, built by Intelligent and educated men.
Tenth-The foreign settlers in the Trans
| Vaal were denied the right to bear any
| arms, while every male Beer. from sixteen
| years old upward. is heavily armed and
! drilled, at the expense of the foreigners.
| EloNenth-By press law, passed for the
| aVowed object of crushing the foreign set
| tiers. all newspapers were placed at the
! mercy of President Kruger, who can sup
| press them at his pleasure.
! Twelfth-By another law, passed for the
| same purpose, all meetings of more than
| seven persons in the open air are absolutely
prohibited, while all other meetings can be
! dissolved In an instant, at the discretion Of
! any policeman.
! Thirteenth-Another law was passed, alb
| solutely prohibiting the presentation by any
| foreigner of even so much as petition for
redress.
! Fourteenth-When Mr.. Kruger invited
| foreigners to settle in the Transvaal, full
! naturalization could be obtained within
l Two years Alter IOTtlSIeTS UdU dtceplSu
! his invitation, he repealed all naturalization
| laws absolutely. Then, under pressure, he
| restored the laws, but made the term four
| teen years; but any foreigner desiring nat
uraliZal0n must renounce all protection,
eN en- from his own government or the Boer
government, for fourteen years, during
which time he would be citizen of no
country whatever, and have no rights
| which any Boer would be bound to respect.
During these fourteen years he must be
| ready to serve in the Boer army on twelve
hours notice. and he would be frequently
called upon to serve, without pay, clothing,
or even food. which he must provide for
himself. At the end of these fourteen years
of degrading humiliation he would not be
for, unless his humble petition was APP
proved by two-thirds of his Boer neighbors,
by the military chief of his district, and
finally by Mr.. Kruger himself. Neither
would he be allowed to vote even then,
unless he were forty years of age
Fifteenth-Whle nearly two-thirds of all
persons residing in the Transvaal spoke
only the English language, and less than
one-third either spoke or could understand
| the bariarous B0er Dutch, the Beers in
sisted that all English-speaking children
| must take their education exclusively in
Dutch.
Sixteenth-President Kruger resisted the
Introduction of railroads for years in order
to compel the miners to hire his private
OK teams at enormous prices. When iinal-
| ly he did permit railways to be built. he
granted the privilege exclusively to persons
who would agree to give to his relatives a
big share of the profits. He granted mon
opoiies of several Indispensable articles of
supply to the mines, with the result of
doubling the price at which they could
otherwise have been obtained.
A Rotten Government.
Seventeenth-The whole Transvaal gov
eminent was corrupt and rotten from top
to bottom. No business could be done with
them without bribing the presidents sons
in-law and hangers-on.
Eighteenth-Having demonstrated against
these things for many years in vain, and
having received frequent promises of re-
form which were never kept and were never
meant to be, number of foreign residents,
including more Americans, in proportion to
their total number than of any other ma
tionality, conspired together to compel these
reforms to be granted by force of arms,
They collected rifles, gunpowder. etc, out
never made any use of them. and never
committed any overt act. Their offenses
were such as could not have been punished
in the United States by more than a short
term of Imprisonment or fines not exceed
ing $1,000. They neither planned nor de-
sired to become a British colony.