The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-11-28
SOUTH AFRICAN TOPICS
Dr.. De Thompson Says the
Beers Still Have Hopes.
THEY DREAM OF A VAST REPUBLIC
Former Office Under De Wet Says
Composed of All States From Cape
Colony t o the Zambezi Bishop
Hartzell ON Africa's Wealth.

De Wet, who has been in St. Louis for
several days, delivered an address the
other night in the Reformed church,
a the st. Louis Globe-D Democrat. In
the course of his remarks DR.. De
Thompson said:
1.-THE Beers have buried their arms
and their flag, but they have not bur-
led their traditions. Their dream,
which will be realized some day. and
that in the not distant future, is to
form a South African republic com
posed of all the states from Cape Col
ony to the Zambezi river. When that
dream has become Il reality, the South
African country will again come under
the rule of the Beers. to whom it right
fully belongs. We We're defeated not
by the British, but by the Americans.
Unaided by American supplies, Eng
land never could have conquered us.
"At the battle of the Modder River,
when 1900 Missouri mules stampeded
from the English lines and ran into
our camp, General De Wet remarked
TO me, Even the mules refuse to aid
the English
1.-THE traditions Of the Boer people
are too strong to be forgotten. My peo-
pie are a part and parcel of the same
people who were driven from Eng
land, Germany, France and Holland
more than 300 years ago by religious
America. and others went to South
Africa. In both countries they built
a nation. Both countries for a time
were the victims of English tyranny.
Those who settled in America threw
off the yoke, but my people are now
wearing it. l cannot say how long it
will be, but a new and a stronger
South African republic will arise from
the ashes of the one that has just
been destroyed"
After the address, which was deliv.
cred to a large audience, DR.. De
Thompson talked Interestingly of the
Boer people and their condition. After
the treaty of peace he went to Europe
and about two months ago came to the
United States and was Immediately
assigned to the general Boer league
for missionary duty. His object here
Is to secure homes in Missouri for a
colony Of his countrymen who. like
himself, have been sentenced to exile
by the British government.
DR.. De Thompson said that under a
rule of the British government all per-
sons rot natives of South Africa who
bore arms against the English during
the late war will not be permitted to
return, and it is in the interest of these
persons that he is now making a tour
Of the United States.
DR.. De Thompson says that more
than three-fOurths of the women and
children of the Boer republics We're
killed or died of starvation during the
war, and 10000 farms were devastat-
ed. All of these things cry out to the
survivors and keep alive their hope of
a new republic and the final overthrow
of the English.
Tradition and fable never ascribed to
Africa greater wealth than did Bishop
J. G. Hartzell the other night at st.
James Methodist church. says the
Chicago Tribune. With the future of
the continent assured to the control of
the white races, the missionary proph-
esied the development of fabulous rich
es in minerals and precious stones.
With this growth the speaker foresaw
rapid progress in industrial lines.
1.-THE Cape to Cairo railroad has been
forgotten in the wars of the south of
the continent" Bishop Hartzell said,
'but the project is not dead. | myself
one end to the other of the great CONT
nent. There will be a break for some
years in the middle of the route. where
passengers will be transshipped from
n rail line to the other by the great
lakes of central Africa, but it will not
be long until the whole rail line is
completed.
"It will be a ride of 5000 miles. and
Of this 1000 miles are finished at the
north end and a like amount at the
south. The road is not the dream we
are apt to consider it. 1t is being
pushed at a rate none but Englishmen
or Americans could realize"
With the road the missionary told of
other changes the future would bring.
Great cities, populous farming commu-
mites, the most extensive mines on the
globe, were elements of the progress Of
white mans Africa.
"From one gold bearing district alone
around Johannesburg" he said, "the
output will rise from $SO,OO0,O 900 a year
that has been attained to the almost in
comprehensive total of $500, 100000 a
year., Then Johannesburg will have
within it's borders nearly 100000 peo-
pie"
There are, the bishop said, unex-
plored areas in the south that undoubt-
eddy contained as much gold as the linn
tied tract now known, and it was not
possible to set any bounds to the pos
sibilities of this bonanza portion of the
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