New-York tribune., 1900-05-13
WAR TALK IN LONDON.
BELIEF THAT THE BbERs ARE PLAY
ING THEIR LAST CARD IN
AMERICA

/
many keen observers in England. it is being
! played not IN South Africa. but in the United
| States, through the medium of the Boer delegates
| who sailed for New-York from Rotterdam last
| week. AS the bulk of British opinion does not
| contemplate for a moment that Mr.. Fischer and
| his companions will achieve success. 1t is only
| natural that serious thought is chiefly de-
voted to prognostcating the date when the war
| in the Transvaal will be ended Most estimates
| agree that hostities will have ceased by June,
when President Krjiger learns that the last
| try appealed to. namely. the United States will
| afford no help and that he has alternative.
| in the face of the overwhelming force victo-
riously sweeping into his territory. but 10 for
! peace What Great Britain's answer to that re-
| quest will be was Enthusiastically defined by Mr..
Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for the Colo
MES. at Birmingham, yesterday when he declared
! that the Boer republics must become Crown col
ony, whose initial stage of organization will be
controlled by military administration. By agree
| ing to those terms President Kruger must OF
course. give up all for which he has been fighting.
But. on the other hand, now that terms have been
so empha tically enunciated they must either be
granted or England will stand defeated. The latter
alternative however does not enter Engand's cate
CORY of possibilities. Her people firmly con-
vinced that Lord Roberts will steadily advance
perhaps with delays and losses of daredevil units
and maybe without nflicting crushing defeat,
until he occupies the Transvaal His forward
progress, they believe. will only be stopped when
President Krtiger. learning of the failure of
Fischers mission, asks for peace. That this will
come sooner than previously expected is the trend
of popular opinion to-day. long siege OF Pretoria
! has become remote contingency. Sharp fights
| Kroonstad and the Vaal River, series of rear
| guard actors with constantly retreating forces
| organized development of a hostile country
| and then by June or perhaps earlier, peace and
occupation. Such is the average forecast of the
struggle in South Africa Maybe it is altogether
| too optimistic but the present successes of the
British and the evidence of their well defined
plans and excellent organization form much
for optimism
Lord Salisbury addressed the members of the
Primrose League on Wednesday, but the drift of
his meaning has not yet filtered into British minds
The remarkable utterances of the Premier that
occasion continue 10 form almost the sole topic of
conversation, though editorial writers quickly gave
up the attempt to analyze for the benefit of the
public the features of the speech and
wellnigh staggered into silence by it's baf-
fling unexpectedness and the multiplicity of the
issues it contained. 1t delivered when the
nation expected exactly the opposite kind of re-
marks. To mplore his countrymen to awake to the
periis constantly menacing their great empire and
its existence at the very moment when long
period of patient waiting had been replaced by
jubilation Lord Robertss successful advance
expedient utterly bereft of the first prin-
ciples of politics, especially considering the ap-
proach of the elections, that of Lord Sails
bury's own supporters believe he almost off
his head when he spoke.
NOT content with this, ne pulled down every
pretty fabric that had been built around the
Queens visit to Ireland, calmly comparing the
present efforts to attain home rule to Boer
spiracies and hostility. And this after the Queen
and every leading member of Lord Salisburys own
Cabinet and party had been at particular pains to
bury the Irish hatchet. Moreover, the whole tone
of the speech lacked all those foTmalites reticen-
ces and yelled allusions to which the English peo-
pie have been accustomed since the days of Pitt
and Palmerston. Lord Salisbury hitherto had
Hpo nurad cl,chp ante h1rtn UaIp
day he spoke TO the public he might an in
innate friend after dinner. So amazing and so in
terestng has been Lord Salisbury himself.
vealed this week. that the broad-and from the
standpoint of other nations the far most important
sensational feature of the speech has passed
almost unnoticed. Were the Premier of any other
European State TO get up in these times of
and rumors of and urge the people of
eminenty commercial to accustom themselves
to the of firearms and to establish rife clubs in
every city, village and hamlet. there would
through Europe such shfver of fright and such
vivid anticipation of hostile intention and devastat-
ing conflict that markets would be pancstricken
and mobilization plans would be at the finger tip
of every War Minister.
That this has not occurred appears to be due to
the generally recognized fact that Lord Salisbury
is more philosopher than statesman, and that
when he pessmistically painted the hostilties tow
ard England the world he speaking
purely in the abstract. without harboring in his
mind concrete instance whereby that hostility
might become immediate menace
The Saturday Review interpreting Lord Sails
bury's generaiism regarding hatred toward Eng
land and the necessity of armng the country
specially applicable to the United States. declares:
During the Cuban there large number
of people in this country who sympathized with
Spain, hut they kept their feelings strictly to them
selves. Not discordant note heard in our
press, and the British Government prevented
combination of European Powers that would have
How do the United States repay us? We
treated to all kinds of intrigues over the Alaskan
least half the American press and Nation loudly
proclaim their sympathy with the Beers, and
organizing receptions for their delegates We shall
have defend Empire, and must do it,
Lord Salisbury says, with our right arm.
This is interesting comment but 1t neither repre-
sents the best informed the popular opinion.
Lord Salisbury had no idea of referring to Amer
lean pro-Boer manifestations when speaking at the
meeting of the Primrose League. Moreover those
manifestations popularity regarded in England,
thanks to the cable dispatches of English corre-
spondents, nothing but temporary efferves-
cence of political agitation in country the
verge OK an election, and such of serious i'm
port.
curious incident connected with the parade of
the Ladysmith Naval Brigade of the British cruiser
Powerful was that the decorating authorities al
most smothered the Office of Lord Strathcona and
Mount Royal the Canadian High Commissioners
with the Stars and Stripes. while on the outside of
the United States Embassy, In the same street
there sign Of American flag Lord
Strathcona pointed out the inappropria teness of
this and the number of these emblems was re-
duced.
AMERICAN PREL4TES AT ROME