The Sunday globe., 1901-06-30
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
AS Seen by an EngliShman Con-
verSant with the Facts.
REVOLUTIONARY AND BOER WAR
Identical In Aims and Hopes they will be in
AOhlevements-HOw The English Used Savage
Indians Against Their Own KIth and Kin.
Many Interesting Features Of The War With
Dom Pau'S PeopIe-Mr Methuens Book.

Mr.. Methuen has written a book on
the Boer War. Mr. Methuen is an Eng
lishman and thoroughly familiar with
his subject He draws a contrast be-
tween our Revolutionary War for In
dependence and the struggle Of the
gallant burghers Of South Africa, This
contrast is after the manner Of Plu-
tarCh, and is in the analogous style Of
that great chronicler of the great Mr..
Methuen says:
Tine insolent attitude and eXaCtions
of the British government of that pc.
riod provoked the English race in the
American colonies British statesmen
had no scruple about slaughtering
their own race, with every accompani-
ment of barbarity, even to the employ
ment Of savage Red Indians. As in
this Boer war the object was the same
greed, gold Nammonworship. In
the end England was thoroughly
thrashed by her own colonies and kick
ed out of America.
The circumstances at home were al
most a parallel to the conu.Lon Of af-
fairs to-day. BY conquest and grab
England became wealthy. The moral
and intellectual aims of the day were
low; the ideal was languishing; wealth
and the influence of wealth were grow.
ing; and most Of the population were
plunged in torper and indifference to
any but material concerns, With pros
perity came a jealous insolence in the
puJ--c spirit, a brutality Of ambition
which could brook no rival, and hope
less yulgarity in public thought. All
classes were peryaded by it, from the
king to the cobbler. The decay Of pub
lie morality and public spirit is gener.
ally accompanied by the decay Of par
lament. The authority of the House
of Commons was at a low ebb; and the
ministry, backed by a powerful and
submissive majority, did not conceal
their contempt for the representatives
of the people. The great Chatham,
Burke, and Fox denounced the war in
language much more Lerce than has
fallen from the lips Of any so-cahed
pro-Boer during the present miserable
campaign. The war party employed
the same base devices then as they are
using now. The English in America
were described as 'scoundrels," trait
ors," "rufians," "cowarus," "hypo-
critics. But, all the same, they finally
smashed the king forces, routed and
defeated them, humbled the arrogance
of England. And the conquerors have
established a State which is to-day the
greatest commercial rival of Great
Britain.
unable to subdue the colonists by
force Of arms the English had resort
to the same savage policy of devasta-
tion which they are pursuing in South
Africa. And with similar results. You
spread devastation" wrote Edmund
Burke, but you do not enlarge the
sphere of authority" So, today in
South Africa the English have the
grounMthey encamp on and no more,
They can not even hold their lines of
communication, which are daily being
broken in several places by the Repub.
lican burghers And all this time the
public were being informed, as they are
to-day, that the war was over.
We venture to think that a some
what similar result will follow in
South Africa. The Mysteries of weak
ness in which we have been indulging,
the campaign Of lies and eyasions, all
tell their own tale Of fear, and a half
conscious anticipation Of aefeat Strong
nations, having a just cause, do not
stoOp to the knaveries Of the thimble
rigger.
That this war is a Robbers War is
proved by the simple fact that it was
not until 1885 when the gold beds Of
the Witwatersrand were discovered, !
that the foreigners in the Transvaal
republic Heterogeneous mass of Eng !
lishmen, German Jews, Americans, !
and other nationalities-found out or
invented, the fable of political griey- !
ances. The late Barney Barnate, one !
of the oppressed OutlandeTs, who !
made over a million Of money out OF |
the too great leuiency Of the Beers in |
granting mining concessions, empGat- |
iCally declared that he and the other |
foreigners in the Transyaal did not |
care a pin about the franchise; that |
they went there, not to reside perma- |
nently, but to make money. Mr.. Hays |
one of the leading SOu,A |
African fnanciers, speaking in Lon |
don, on November IS, 1899 said that |
with good gOvernment--meanin Eng |
lish government--there should be an |
abundance of labor, and with an abund- |
dINt OF ldUOl ifitff " ilt bf fib 't nv NNit y
in cutting dOCn wages, because II is
to pay a Kafiir the pres
ent wages He wanted, he said, to OBJ
tain 10000 naulrs to work upon the
mines. Mr. Rudd, another leading
member of the group, said: They
should try some cogent form Of induce
ment. or practically compel the native,
through taxation, or in some other
way. to contribute his quota to the
good of the community, and to GER
tain extent he would then have to
work. If, under the cry Of
civilization, we in Egypt lately moved
down 10000 or 10000 deryishes with
MaXims, surely il can not be considered
hardship 10 compel the natives in
South Africa 20 give three months in
the year TO do a little honest work
The honest work Of course, was the
working for the milliOnaires at re-
duced wages, and TO the exclusion Of
white men
Mr.. Methuen thus graphically pic.
lures the real fOmcnt0rs of the war;
The financial leaders of johannesburg
were men not only of considerable On.
siness capacity they We're absolutely
unscrupul0us, They were determined
TO gain their ends by any means with
in their power, and though it would be
ungenerous 10 accuse them Of indiifer-
ence to the loss of thousands OF human
lives, IL is certainly true TO say that
the risk Of a terrible war did not af-
feet their calculations Most Of them
were cosmopolitan fnauciers, and, be-
ing men Of no country il was natural
that they should not regard with much
compunction the risk Of a war which
might involve the ruin Of the whole
of South Africa and might plunge Eng.
land into a struggle the end Of which
no one could forsee' The admin stra-
tion Of Justice was good and the educa-