Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-06-04
HosrllrlIs CEASE IN SOUTH AralcA
Beers Demands, Except for independence,
are Acceded to by the British.

Lopdon, june 1.-The precise nature
OF the terms which TIE Beers insisted on
before they would lay down their arms
is not yet officially declared, but it is said
Boers have been conceded everything
they demanded except their independ-
enco. Representative of the gold mines,
who is usually well informed, declared
that the Boers had received better terms
than they were willing to accept six
months ago. He put the amount OF COM
pensation to be paid the Beers for the
rebuilding of their homes and restoring
their farms at $50,000,OO0 1t may rea-
sonably be taken for granted:
1st. That the demand for unconditional
surrender so passionately insisted upon
by Lord Salisbury, Field Marshal Roberts
and the ministerial newspapers, has been
abandoned.
I'd. That the Beers have secured bette ,
terms for themselves than those which
Secretary Chamberlain refused to con-
cede them twelve months ago.
Sd. That the infamous banishment
proclamation has been cancelled.
4th. That war indemnity will be paid
by Great Britain to the Beers, in the
shape of nominal loan, but u real grant
of several millions sterling in compensa-
ton for private property destroyed in
the war.
If this be so, then the mob is cheering
in the street tonight for a peace which
could have been concluded twelve menths
ago on easier terms.
Could Have Done Better Long Ago.
The meaning of this is that after spend,
ing an extra hundred millions sterling in
the vain endeavor to enforce uncondi-
tional surrender, the ministers have at
last been compelled to purchase peace
~, IL. l.
the Doors would have accepted fifteen
months since. Alike in the making of
peace, as in the making of war, the min
listers have made sorry mess of it. In
April, 1901, Lord Kitchener told Lord
Miner that Gen. Botha was willing to
make peace on terms honorable to both
parties, which would secure every thing
Britain wanted, but in order to begin
this satisfactory settlement, it was essen
tial that there should be amnesty for the
Cape rebels and that the Kaffirs should
not be enfranchised. Miner refused.
Kitchener implored him to reconsider
his determination.
"We can make peace now," he said,
but If we refuse these terms we shall
have to go on for two years before the
Beers are hunted down. 1t will be a
costly, bloody business, and on your
mead will be the responsibility"
Britain Pays Dearly for Peace.
The profit and loss of the war can,
therefore, be summed up. 1t has cost
Britain $4,000 men dead and Is, 900 inva-
lids and wounded, and $1,000, 900, 600.
We have had to send out 100000 British
troops to overcome the resistance of
70, 900 mon and boys from the farm. We
have destroyed two republics and have
created two states despotically governed
from London. Before the war British
authority was maintained with ease by a
small garrison of 5000 soldiers. We
shall now have to garrison South Africa
for years to come with an army of $4,000
men. We have only bought peace by a
promise to rebuild the homes teads we
have destroyed and restock tho farms
which we have devastated, and by the
assurances that tho Boer shall have poll
tical rights and privileges which will
enable them to make South Africa as free
from British control as is Australia
Add to this that we have intensified the
racial difficulties in South Africa and
have excited against Britain tho bitter
luminosity of Europe, and it will be evil
dent to the dullest observer that the war
has been a bitter, bad business for John
Bull. All these humiliations and sacri-
fees would have been avoided if the gov
ernment, in September, 1890, had sent
out Lord Pauncefote to settle the dispute
on the principles of The Hague conven-
tion. Pauncefote was eager to go and
was confident of success, bot Milher was
bont on war at any price, and to-day we
can form sOme esti m FOO nf tho coot