The Irish standard., 1901-06-29

who retain some feeling for the honor
of our country is that the nature Of tho
task to which we were committed
made violent and unlawful measures
almost inevitable. TO conquer and an
mex two free and proud nations of
European race and most stubborn ma
turc is an outrage which has never been
| attempted since the partition Of Po-
land.
Considering the vast extent Of the
land, the physical difficulties Of the
task, and the superb fighting quail
ties of the patriots, it was an undertake
ing Of extreme peril Since they were
of the same race, language and tradi-
tions rs the Afrlllanders of our own
colony, 1t made civil war and rebellion
almost inevitable. And yet, to fail in
sight Of mankind. after all our qulxotic
braggndocio, would be intolerable hu-
initiation.
Accordingly, they set their teeth,
prepared "to fight it out to flnish," by
whatever means, nlnging to the winds
consideration of public law, humanity
and the good name Of England. Men
curse in their hearts the law of nations
and snecr openly ut the farce Of nhe
Hague. And women Of the governing
class do not blush to say that "what Is
wanted Is more cruelty" The horrible
part of this war. I say, is that it has
brutalized public opinion. made public
men desperate, and has unseXed the
women whom they pervert.
The nation has been hoodwinked by
an elaborate fabric of calumny and
falschOod.
The "Boer conspiracy to drive us out
of Africa" Is mere promoters bounce,
like the tales about payable gold" 1t
was Invented by Rhodesian agents and
sent home by their gullible tool in
Cape Town. The story of "Boer arma-
mcnts" prior to the raid has been prov
ed to be false.
The myth that the war was "inevl-
BILE" Is only true In the sense that the
cruciflxion was Inevitable. Everything
Is "inevitable'' IL fools will persist in
their folly and he that is unjust twill
be unjust still" The war was inevita-
BILE in this sense only-that they were
men resolved, in pursuit of their own
ends, to spread blood and ruin far and
wide.
The pretext that nothing but war
could decide whether Dutchman or
Briton should be master in South Afri-
ca" means only that the British were
bent on crushing the Boer. 1t was q
mere pretext for conquest. BY what
law Of God or man was it "inevltable"
that the Briton should dominate all
South Africa? The Dutch were in the
majority; they were planted first in the
soil; they were the only race which
could thrive In the veldt; they were
Afrikanders, bred and born in the land,
not immigrants, passing prospectors,
contractors, carpetbaggers come out to
make pile. Why Is 1t law Of nature
that these men should he made the
masters of the settled Afrikander .oopu-
lation?
The origin Of the war is the old
struggle for "ascendancy"-just the
claim of the Orange Protestant minor,
ity in Ireland to bring to heel the Cath
ole native race. The Orangemen, who
are British by race and interest, claim
the whole power Of Great Britain to
back them, that they may dominate the
native Irish majority, looking on them
selves as the advance guard of the Eng
llsh conquerors.
l. We all know what this malignant
claim Of "ascendancy" has cost Eng
land and has cost Ireland for centuries.
In South Africa the same strife has
gone on for a century, under more in
llan1ed conditions. There the native
born majority is not only of different
religion, of different race, but is sepa-
rated by their own language, their an
cestral law, different habits Of life,
but, above all, by long traditions of in.
dependent nationality. For these rea-
81