The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-08
INTERESTING INTERVIEW
Alabama Woman Makes the ] Modest Englishman Talk.
He is Secretary to South African Prime Minister and Was Cap tain in Brigade of Fighting
 Scotch Highlanders-
By Clara R. Jemison.

tary to Sir Gordon Sprigg, Prime Minis ter at Cape Colony. South Africa, has been spending few weeks in America, and 1t was my pleasure last Sunday to be a fellow guest with him at the home of Mir. and Mrs. J. M de Cottes in Mont gomery.
 Mir. Macfadyen, be it known, is the hus- band Gas he himself expressed iD of Irene Ashby who has become 50 well known in the South as the advocate of a child-labor law. They were married in England about two months ago and be- cause of his brides enthusiasm for Amer ica MT. Macfadyen has devoted part of his six months leave of absence from his post of duty to this land of the free, where the Boer war continues to be a question of paramount interest and im- portance. !
 Finding myself in such close quarters with the man who, by his connection with the government was one of tlle most fa- miliar with the affairs of State and Her Majesty's private dispatches prior to, and during the war. I immediately preened myself for an interview: The fact that MT. Macfadyen who, although. he does not use his title since soldering is not his chosen profession. holds a captains com mission in the English army is still suf- fering from wounds received in one of the great battles of the Boer war made him all the more interesting a personal ity.
 And as a reporters subject he was ideal.
 Ask me any questions you desire and shall endeavor to answer them he re- piled to my request for an interview
 Tn the first place, then," asked, where were you born?'
 '.oh: that Is not necessary to state" said MT. Macfadyen, mo one will be in- terested in me personally"
 With real English obstinacy he refused to reply to my first question until sug- gested:
 Perhaps you were not born at all?'
 And then he laughed and said: T was born in Manchester. England, though of purely Scotch parentage."
 How long have you been in Cape Col
 About four years and a half"
 Were you there during the Jameson raid?'
 Secretary to Sir Gordon Sprigg, who was the Prime Minister of Cape Colony. and have acted in the same capacity to w.. P. Schreiner and Sir Gordon Sprigg again. who is the present Prime Minister. When the war broke out was called to active service. I held a commission in the Cape Town Highlanders. who served with the Highland Brigade and later in Kitche- Scouts
 Now. Mir. Macfadyen," said I, please tell me the cause of the Boer war"
 Mi rna Macfadysn dseT dssG deep Pe PrHath know it is absurd to try to find the cause of the war in single dispatch of Mir. Chamberlain's. or act of MT. Rhodes's. It is like prescribing a pill to cure an
 Mir. Macfadyen however. continued.
 ''The development of South Africa. '' said he, made 1t certain that some struggle would occur. which might have on arfn inoa ha6 h ! Boers been we'll advised. The first white settlement in South Africa was but gar rison of a few hundred men at Cape Town kept there by the Dutch East In bound to. the East Indies. In the first war between England and Napoleon we undertook to protect the Cape from the French out of friendship with Hollan nd. second war Holland was in league with Napoleon. We consequently occupied the Cape. and at the end of the war we pur- chased it from Holland for s1h 0oo: 900. Sub sequent development of South Africa has been done by English and Dutch Afri- flanders hand in hand the Dutch. who have been perfectly content and loyal living usually In the country, the Eng fish living in the towns except in the Eastern Province of Cape Colony where the farmers are English whoDwent out in the Albany Settlement scheme about 1884 Had Sir George Greys policy of ex tending our government pari pasu with settlement been followed, no difficulty would have arisen, but so far from Eng laUd's policy being grasping the mistake made in the middle of the century was | the attempt to limit our frontier. South Africa is just as naturally one country | as the Eastern and Southern States of | America. yet there have grown up sev- eral separate governments; the English l colonies with complete self-government | on the Canadian model i. e., Cape Col.
 ony and Natal: the English Crown Colo
 1fa nf md nI,,,o, nIo,, 5. 1 the two Republics which were estab i lished by us with the idea that they would develop in friendship with the col | onies, and yet decentralize government. l The Orange Free State petitioned more | than once to be annexed as a protection from the Basutos and Zulus, and We ac tually gave them a free grant of $500 900 to start their government with. We also saved the TranSvaal from be- ing overrun by the Zulus in the war of '7S. For all that We always had what l may call South African Monroe Doc. trine-that all South African questions should be settled by South Africa and that no European power should be al. lowed to interfere.
 The root of the present difficulty was the introduction of a number of officials from Holland who brought with them a very different ideal-a dream of restoring Hollands old colonial empire by creating antagonism between the two races, and then securing the intervention of Ger many or France to wrest South Africa from us. We could not shut our eyes to this. for our own colonists required pro- lection and the Cape route is necessary to us for the safety of India and Aus tralia and our Eastern possessions. The old war of 'S1 was an expression of this new feeling It was really very small affair In which about two hundred men lost their lives, but owing to MT. Glad stones concession of all the Boer de- mands out of a mistaken policy of so
 winning their good will, we to d large Axt ant 1nGf Nf FTV-o, anI The result was the reverse of MT Glad stones hopes-in defiance of express en- agreements men of English birth were denied all share in the government; Ger many cams in with protectorate in Great Namaquallld, and there were in- trigues to extend her authority across
 the continent which were frustrated only by Cecil Rhodess splendid work in colo nizing Rhodesia.
 You will now understand how England rose as one man at the German Emper- ors famous telegram, and England was ready to fight there and then.
 But the same work went on under ground. Armaments from the Krupp
 works. officers from the German reserve big force of artillery. everything paid $10 were drawn from the pockets of the English residents who were refused Il vote even when naturalized. It was as if in the early days the Knickcrbockers of New York had kept all political power in their hands, after there was an Eng fish ma jority In New York State. and taxed the English citizens for the pur- pose of attacking aeighbOring states Nobody can tell me that the English