The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-01
Whnt Will England Dos


What VIII England Dot
Assuming that the occupation of johann
nesburg and Pretoria by Lord Roberts will
mark the end Of Beer resistance TO the
British arms in South Africa-which may
OF may not be true-the next question of
Importance is: What will the Empire do
with the people it has conquered?
On the surface, it would not appear
difficult to substitute fairly liberal Crown
Colonial government for the Boer regime,
which was not particularly free il the
Transvaal, although it was considerably
and equitably so in the Free State. But
there are considerations which make it
probable that peace, good order, and good
government will not be restored without
great friction. or without the necessity
for keeping a considerable army in South
Africa perhaps for several years to come.
We may call the Beers ignorant and
fanatical as much as We like, or say that
their ideas of liberty are too nebulous to
talk about. 1t remains that they have
their own ideas on the subject and have
demonstrated their willingness to tight
and die for them.
1t matters not what England may do or
try TO do. in the way of giving the South
African population a good and just gov
eminent, it will have up hill work from
the start. 1t is not only in the two ex-
tinguished Republics that opposition VIII
be encountered. though there the task may
be locally more difficult than elsewhere.
But Cape Colony and Natal both nave
large majority of Afrikander inhabitants
who sympathize with their defeated kins-
men, and hate British rule. They VIII
make it harder for the Empire to do even
the justice that Lord Salisbury might be
willing to extend to the whole dominion,
if he could do it, with safety to the Gov
ernment. Under popular institutions, the
British element would be outvoted in
almost every direction, urban districts like
those of Cape Town, johannesburg, Pieter-
maritzburg, and Durham. perhaps excepted.
Considering population at large, only IN
the Transvaal would the English-speaking
element be in majority, supposing the
former European and American deniGens
of the Witwatersrand, all to return TO their
old haunts.
The war necessarily has left deep
wounds, grievances, and animosities. These
will be made worse by the exactions and
confiscations which will be enforced
against the annexed territory and its peo-
pie. The Beers aud their Afrikander SYM
pathizers will for a long time to come
form an element vindictively opposed to
military government, which, nevertheless,
is inevitable unless the policy of the Brit
ish Ministry should undergo an early and
radical change.
Even the English residents of South
Africa oppose it. Leading men of the
mining region already have strongly rep
resented that they would rather submit to
the old condition of things than to be kept
indefinitely under the control of bayonets
and the impracticability- of military OFF,
GERS, who, they say, are incapable of get
ting along peaceably with either the Dutch
or the native tribes. But their protes
will be unavailing. 1t is announced that
the people of johannesburg and of the
small area directly connected with it in
dustrially are to be allowed semi-free
scheme of municipal government; but it
will be subject to the military governor
of the annexed State just the same.
We do not propose at this time to criti-
else the British governmental view of the
situation. 1t may be an entirely correct
one in the political and revolutionary cir
cumstances. But the policy it involves
will hardly be carried out without I'M
pleasant consequences. 1t is to be re-
garded as probable that should Kruger
and other leaders retire to Europe they
will not lose ali interest in the affairs Of
their late country. They are known to
have amassed a large amount of treasure
in Holland and elsewhere abroad. 1t is
not improbable that some of this wealth
may be employed in fomentng disturb
ances in South Africa. In short, while
the war may be practically at an end, I
Great Britain appears to have as hard a |
problem as the conquest of the Republics
to solve, in pacifying them, and in bring
ing their hardy inhabitants to accept the 4
dominion Of Queen Victoria, kindly and /
beneficent as that may prove in the end.