Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-11-29
The British Dilemma.
Rutland Herald. ]

Gazette, London, says: "The thoughts
of nation are centered upon wearing
out the Beers by attritiOn, whence come
victory and peace; but the curtain mas
just been lifted upon second act in the
drama, to be played when attrition has
done its work. Mr.. Arnold-Forster,
member of parliament, parliamentary
secretary to the admiralty and chairman
of the South African committee, has just
given the country glimpse OF the prob
lem created by this war of races. Ii any
thing can awaken the people of Britain
to the gravity of the situation, surely
here is the alarm. bell rung loud enough
by one who knows: Unless we do some
thing at the close of the war to place
upon the soil of South Africa under favor
able conditions men and women OF
Anglo-SaXon race and sympathes, we will
( have fought the war In vain.'"
If this means anything, it means war
of determination. When member of
the Salisbury government states that the
J Anglo Saxon must be in the ma jorty in
South Africa, he means that the Dutch
majority must be killed off. lmmigra-
ton will not settle this question. We
note more serious tone in the British
press now than at any time since the
outbreak of the BOer war. Indeed, the
violent expressions of hostility to Joseph
CHAMBERLAIN now being reported daily
from Germany are received by some
Englshmen with grain of consolation.
If Germany could be induced to offer but
friendly services to England and press
judicious Intervention, it would give
England an excuse to make concessions
In the direction of selt-government for
the South African Beers.
hos 10 h1nal--
house stage of its struggle with the
Dutch. This means long, dreary, eX-
pensve contest. 1t was the plan of
campaign that spain was pursuing to-
ward the Cuban insurgents when the
United States put stop TO the disgrace.
BlOckhouse warfare is a confession of
weakness. The British soldiers in
South Africa have become stale by two
years of eXasperating lighting. They
see little prospects of termination of
the war. The resort TO blockhOuses
only deepens their depression.
And back of all these military en-
baIrassments is the memory that the
Beers were unjustly crowded into the
conflict and that all the world knows
it. England is beginning to feel that
power of public opinion" which Daniel
" ebster appealed to decades ago when
pleading the cause of Greece in Faneuil
hall. lie will have to be reckOned with
sooner or later. The correspondent
above quoted gives at his Judgment that
self government Is the door to peace
with the Beers. He says:
at is not, therefore, the military cam
paign, now in its third year, which is
matter of deepest concern TO Britain, but
the second great campaign to overcome
the course of natural developments
campaign which has been silently Oper-
ating ever since the British bought the
cape, with the result that the Dutch and
their descendants are III constantly
increasing majority, which Chairman
Forster truly tells US they are bound TO
retain unless Britain undertakes To
reverse the result of natural conditions,
and by costly artificial measures sue
ceeds, a campaign likely 10 last for u
generation, and seemingly hopeless from
the start.
There seems one hope left of inducing
the Dutch of South Africa to become part
OF the empire, and that is to assure them
that the rights of other self governing
colonies are TO be theirs from the moment
they enter and the necessary laws can be
enacted and peaceful administration
established.
"Irue, these rights include the right to
sever the connection If and when desired,
as all parties know, but it is this right to
20 in peace with the mothers blessing
which keeps Canada and Australia so
de.otedly bound to the empire so would
II South Africa, for IL makes of colonies
free and independent nations, and of such
the empire must be composed or go to
pieces. When the colonial secretary,
In the Australasian debate recently, assur-
ed the colonies that If they ever wished TO
break the connection it'll the motherland
not finger would be raised in opposition,
he touched the only possible talisman OF
permanent empire. 70 imagine that
white, civilized, distant people can be
held in tutelage by Britain except as they
themselves freely elect, is to turn the
clock back to the days of the American
resolve to be free and Independent. 1t
was resisted, and the right TO leave the
empire denied. Had Lord North then
said what Mr.. Chamberlain said there
might still have been today an empire
comprising the entire English. speaking
race. To this complexion must it come
at last with South Africa, and with every
other distant population of white civil
lied men. There can be no British empire
through any other power than the desire
OF the people of each component part"
A Condition and Various Theories.
New York Word
When congress assemble next month