Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-05-04
BRITISH POLICY TOWARD THE Beers.

BRITISH POLICY q OWARD The B0ERS.
Gavin s. Clark, member of parliament i
for Caithness- shire and late cons gem
eral for the South African republic,
takes very decided pro- Boer stand in
the May Forum. HerevieWs the history
of the colonists from the first settle-
nlent in the seventeenth century and
traces the steps by which the British
government acquired Cape Colony and
the adjoining country, citing the causes
of the various tricks, and showing how
the British cabinet was constantly led
by the Misrepresentation Of colonial Of
ficials into tyrannous and ill-adNisea
steps. Coming down to the preseisr era.
Ne relates how first the diamond fields
We're rushed by the British, and then the
gold fields, and lays the onus Of the cur
ors whose names. are known 10 the.
world at large. He says in part:
Diamonds We're discovered in the
western district of the Orange Free.
State in 1871 and then occurred what
F'roude has characterized as perhaps
3 the most discreditable incident in Brit
ish colonial history, the annexation of
the diamond fields. There could be no.
doubt that the district IN which the dia-
monds We're being mined was a portion.
OF the Free State. 1t was north If the
Orange river. and#tiie titles for some OF
the farms in that district had been is
sued by the British government before
the retrocession. BUT the colonial Off
Gals got native named Waterboer to
claim the territory, and as he desired to
be a British subject he and the country
he claimed We're taken over and the
Free State magistrates Who had been
governing the district We're expelled.
They did not resist, but yielded under
L protest.
North of the vaal river diamonds
were also found. a claim was then
made for the land north of tbs Naal,
and the president of the Transvaal was
induced to have the matter settled BY
arbitration. A MI. Campbell was ap-
pointed to act for the British and a Mr.
OsReilly for the Transvaal, With Mr.
Kedte, the lieutenant governor of Natal
as umpire. But the two arbiters& coule
not agree, as President Burgers pointed
out in flis dispatch to Sir Henry Barkly
the high commissioner: and one of thu
first things done by Mr.. Campbell wa!
to buy $4,000 acres of the land in DISPUTE
from Waterboer for quit rent az E3
so that he became an interested part,
instead Of Judge Both the Free Stat
and the TransNaal governments sol
EMMY protested against this high-band
ed and illegal act of the British as ;
serious encroachlnent on their terlitor.
and an unjustifiable violation of th
Sand River and Bioemfontein conven
tions. After some CORES pondence. Pres
ident Brand went TO London to NEE
Lord Carnarvon, who agreed to pay tn
Free State about G1000 900 as compensa
ton for. this act--a sum not equal to5op
days production of the diamond mines
Two or three years afterWard, Sir The
ophilus Shepstone, when he$annexed TIL
Transvaal. reincorporated the par
north Of the Vaal. as he said Governo
Keate's award had handed over the Ian
OF the natives to white land Spectator
and to anarchy.
The British have paid terrible pric
for the unjust annexation of the dia
mond fields and for the policy they in
stituted. In order to get native labo
for the mines. guns and ammunitio
WERE in direct breach of the conven
tions, sold to the natives. The grea
chiefs sent their followers to work in tn
mines in order to get arms. and Ger
Cunningham estimated that by th
means over 100000 guns We're given
them. The Basllto and Zulu wars WEI
the result Of the suicidal policy.
n 1873 gold was discovered in tn
Transvaal and many English digger
locked there. Some wished to rush tn
gold fields, as had been done in the cas-
OF the diamond fields, and they sent, pr
titSons to Lord Carnarvon complainin
OF Inadequate protection, and asking
be annexed. Pretexts for interference
were again found. Sekukuni, one of II
chiefs near the gold fields. having PR
c,irsd arms for his followers at the dis
m6ad delds. refused to pay taxes bega
cattle stealing and made matters &c,
crafty uncomfortable IN the gold minir
district. When a commando was sent
s sass iput doRn this rebellion Lord Carnarve
assss sssed aFatnst the Beers interferir