The Irish standard., 1901-12-28
English will Find the Beers as Stubborn
as the Celts in the Cause
Of Independence.
A Mistake Made by the Colonial Dutch in
/ Not Helping the Burghers
at An Early Day.

If appearances are not far more de-
ceptive than usual, the Dutch in
South Africa will hold and rule their
share Of the dark continent after the
final khaki-clad Briton has breathed
his last on the veldt or taken pas
sage on ship homeward bound from
Cape Town, says the Irish People.
Misfortunes will happen; and some
terrible stroke of ill-luck may snatch
victory for time from the hands of
the Beers. But if they were beaten
to-morrow-if Botha and De Wet,
Steyn and Delarey, and every repub-
lican and Dutch colonist under arms
were accounted for in brutal Kitchen
er's "bag'' the final issue would only
be delayed This war has now be-
come fierce struggle between races.
The issue no longer lies between the
vast regular armies Of an empire that
deemed itself the mightiest in the
world and the undisciplined farmers
of two Of. the smallest Independent
states in Christendom. In South Afri-
ca British arms and British states
manship have now to deal with race
of men as stubborn and unconquer
able as any who have made their
mark on the history of our globe. Sew
en- thousand miles away these men Of
Dutch blood hold country almost as
large as half Europe. Their power ex-
tends from the Limpopo to Table
Mountain. They are worthy of their
forbears who gave the soil of Holland
to the sea rather than yield it to the
invaders. William the Silent never
recommended troops more loyal or de-
i&gvoted than the heroic band who have
Thought and beaten England's power
for two years and two months, and
who are now the masters of a far
greater area of South African terri
tory than they held before the march
on Ladysmith., And with them are the
Dutch of the Cape Colony-thousands
of them fighting as valiantly as their
brethren Of the republics. 1t is no
i wonder that Chamberlain is silent. 1t
y is not surprising that mental anxiety
made Balfour an easy victim to a
physical complaint. For the warmak-
ers know in their hearts that the end
cannot be long delayed. The blind
fools who talk and write about fight
ing for years, "if necessary" know not
what they say; but Salisbury, Cham
berlain, Balfour and Roberts at home,
and Kitchener sheltering behind the
concentration camps" at Pretoria,
realize that the end cannot be far off.
Like Mr.. Micawber, they are waiting,
! anxiously and despairingly, for ''some-
thing to turn up" How long can they
afford to wait?
, To a very great extent, the phrase
'another Ireland" is misleading, al
though it is calculated to send cold
shiver down the back of every Eng
lishman whose brains are not too
much added to think. Seven hundred
and thirty years have passed since the
Chamberlains and Kitcheners of the
day set about the task of subjugating
this little island-which you might
steal out Of the vast area of war in
South Africa.
Everything favored them. The Eng
lish armies had only to cross narrow
strip of sea. They had a secure foot
hold in the country from the very out
set. They never wanted for the sup
port of selfish and traitorous native
Irishmen. They were always united.
5as Our fathers were ever divided. But ii
5 was not until John Baths eighty-ton
ship bore O'Neill and O'Donnell and
Cuconnacht MacGuire away from
Lough Swilly on Sept. ii, 1907, that
any English monarch could proclaim
himself unchallenged ruler of Ireland
And since that time scarcely gen.
GRAFTON has passed away that has not
protested with its blood against the
English yoke. Even now the spirit of
resistance is as ardent and as fresh as
when st. Lawrence O'Toole was striv.
ing to unite the Irish chiefs. Our race
has neither been subdued nor extermi