The evening times., 1900-01-26
THE B0ERS IN THE WRONG.
John Hays Hammond Declares Kru-
ger GonspireG Against England.

ger tonspired Against England.
| NEW YORK, Jan 26.-Rossiter w Ray
mond presided at a meeting in the lecture
room in Plymouth Church last night at
which John Hays Hammond, the American
! mining engineer, who was one of the lead
| ers of the reform committee in the Trans
vaal in 1895, the year of the Jameson raid,
| made an address upon the Transvaa stu
! alton. At the conclusion of Mr.. Ham
/ lnond's talk Mr. Raymond seconded all
| that he had said. and in doing so criticised
! he manner in which the United States pro
teCtod her citizens and incidentally reflect
cd on the present expansion policy CT the
| Government. When he had finished s. V
| White denounced his utterances, One man
| and crowded around Mr. White and con.
graduated him.
john Hays Hammond was one of the
men whom the Transvaal Government de
cided to hang for treason after the Jane
son raid The American Government hav-
ing no representative at the Transyaal at
he time. the British Government offered
IL piptttiich 10 MIN. ffdilH!bHt NtciiuSt
the offer of protection and said if his own
Government could not protect him he
would fight the matter out alone. His owl,
Government did make representations and
he came out of the scrape in even better
shape than did the Engishmen who were
with him in the trouble
Mr.. Hammond confined his remarks last
night 10 the revolution in 1895 in which hs
took part. He said the grievances of the
mining companies under the Boer Gov
ernmCnt included extortions both innumer-
able and intolerabie. comprising eXorbitanI
taxation. government grants TO private
monopolies, corrupt administration and
legislation, the denial OF personal rights
such as the right of self-defence; the de-
MAI of the right of peaceable assembly for
the statement of grievances and the de-
NAL OF representation upon reasonable con
ditions of franchise for interests represent
ing more than two thirds of the population
more than one-half the land. more than
nihe-tenths Of the property. and more than
nine-tenths the taxes paid in the Trans
yaal. Moreover the legal remedy in the
supreme court OF the r5puhlc had been de
feated by law deprivins that tribunal OF
its independence and making ii the Great
ure of the will of the President
Mr.. Hammond took up the Jameson raid
declaring that the people Of Johannesburg
we're in no way responsible for it. He
added:
There 5 evidence that the intention of
the government was TO execute the four
principal prisoners and commute the sem
tsnces of the rest to fine ard Imprisonment
as an exhibition OF clemency but this Tlan
was defeated by the Unexpectedly general (
protest frCm Beers themselves. as well as
from the governments Of Great Britain aud /
the United States
Let me say here that my Government !
did protect me to the best of its ability. |
and that its energetic efforts on behalf of !
the American prisoners caused them TO BE- :
envied by all the British subjects in the
reform committee
Then followed a period of disgraceful ,
and disgusting backdoor negotiations for
the payment of money as ransom for our
lives and liberty. We were told that this
money would be accepted only as a Spon-
tane0us subscription on our part TO some
public charity. At last the pioIs scruples (
Of the authorities gave out and they took /
the money straight and set us free
Mr.. Kruger's lack of good faith was
abundantly shown throughout the uego-
tiatiOus He endeayored to throw dust in
the eyes OF Europeans and gain sympa
thy which he did not deserve for ar that
time he was actively pursuing the scheme
of a conspiracy which should drive Eu-
gland from South Africa altogether. The
Peers had been secretly organized and for
eign officers had been employed TO drill
them Provided with unlimited resources /
eXtorted from the Outlanders they had St
cured arms enough to equip twice every |
Boer in all South Africa. They were wait
ing their opportunity which should have /
come whenever England should become in
vowed in war with other powers. But no
such favorable opportunity presented it
self. and in my judgment the recent in
sulting ultimatum Of the BOer Govern
ment, followed by its instant invasion Of
the British colonies of Natal and the Cape
was forced upon President Kruger by his
10 control any longer the wide
spread conspiracy he had carefully built
-