The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-02-17
COLLINS FOR THE BoERS,
Former C0nSul-General at London Speaks
for Them.

Former Consul-General at London Speaks
for Them.
At the recent Boer meeting in Bos-
ton, Hon. P. A. Collins delivered an ad-
dress, saying in part:
But we are here tonight to express
our sympathy with and our admiration
for the finest group of men that ever
fought for the liberty OF the race since
the Persian horde was turned back at
| Neapolis. | know that it will be said,
as it has been said before, that men like
ME, of Irish birth, cannot discuss this
question, because England is on one
side and another people on the other;
because we are supposed to have a ira
dictionary hatred of the English govern
ment.
There are good many people, how
ever, OF my race who are as intense
Americans as any man under the Stars
and Stripes, who have clear heads and
judgments and reason, even if they have
not hearts. And I should be here to-
night and you should be here tonight
with the traditions of your race, with
your sense OF justice reopened here.
whether the Beers were fighting Eng
land or were fighting Germany or
France or Russia or any other power
that sought to steal away by force their
liberty.
say. that the war is unjust from 4
legal standpoint. The proBritish press
in this country and the British press
where it belongs, in Great Britain, have
tried to create the impression that the
South African Republic is under the
reign Of Great Britain. Gentlemen,
when the Pretoria convention between
Great Britain and the Transvaal State
was torn UP in 1884, it was torn UP for
some purpose, and it was torn tip to get
rid OF the tyranny of Great Britain.
Every line of the preamble, every line
of the articles Of the convention of 1881
and the convention Of 1884, made the
Transvaal as sovereign a State as there
is in the world with one little limitation
What was reserved to England?
Simply that the 1outh African Repub-
lie should not make treaty with any
of the wild tribes about there or with
any foreign nation except the Orange
Free State without submitting it to
| Great Britain.
My friend says that we govern this
country in theory, but even congress is
discarded and Mckinley is running Our
foreign policy regardless of the wishes
of the people of the United States. II
they are wrong in the Transvaal let
them get out before they become more
wrong and if we are wrong in the Phil
ippines let us get out as soon as we can.
Then we will be nearer right than il we
pursued the present course.
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, there
are 600, 600 black men in the two little
republics in South Africa who hold i'll
their hands the destinies of the lives OF
the mothers and children of the Beers
at the present time. One of the criti-
cisms made against the Beers is that
they have endeavored to press the col
ored population in the mines and into
the mining industries. The truth of the
matter is that in Kimberley, under Mr..
Cecil Rhodes, the blacks get paid rs
per cent less than they do in the Rand.
The law of Cape Colony was passed
by which the compound system as es-
tablished at Kimberley was that the
black man shall not see the light of
day except once every three months in
the year.
The press and those who have pro-
noted this stock gamblers war, this adj
vcnturcrs' war, this liars war, this SLAM
derers' war, have promoted it against as
fine people as there is under the sun
to-day, and they are the people that
Great Britain is trying to take liberty
and land from.
Now, I believe that whether the bat
tie be with the strong-and l don't
know which is the strong to-night-that
it will end not in glory for Great Brit
ain, but it will end in glory for the
Beers. l believe with Vanderbilt, a
member of the Rand, who spoke to men
in London, that before England puts
her flag upon the government building
at Pretoria more than $4,000 Britons