Arizona republican., 1903-08-24
ARIZONA, AUG. 24, 1903.
British Bad Faith and Stupidity
 in Africa.

British Bad Faith and Stupidity
 in Africa.
 General Louis Botha, one of the noted Boer leaders, has written an article for the American press in which he makes some surprising statements, in view of the information which this country has been receiving from English sources. According 10 Mir. Chamberlain. his trip to South Africa was a complete success, and the lingering embers left by the late conflict were entirely ex- tinguished by the rapprochement which he brought about between Briton and Boer. All the newspaper accounts of the colonial secretary's movements and sayings in the Transvaal were of the same tenor-the stolid Dutch had beer won over without reserve by the mag netic Chamberlain and his generous, broadminded policy of ccnciliation. Such success, in fact, was his mission that all England agreed that his eleva- tior to the peerage awaited merely his own convenience. and upon his return to his native shores he was greeted with an uproar scarcely surpassed by that extended to Kitchener the con- queror.
 Now comes General Botha. however, with q distinctly discordant note. There is or can be no doubt any longer" he says. that at any rate as far as the Transvaal is concerned Mir ho har i,,'c iei+ A f-;o been . dismal failure and has left mat ters worse than he found them" Gen. eral Rotha's chief complaint is that the Boers were misled by MT. Chamberlain as to the magnitude of the war debt which was to be settled upon them. and that they have received no benefits from the great expenditure in their be- half by the British government-a - piece of generosity concerning which neither Secretary Chamberlain nor the English newspapers have permitted the American people to remain in ignor- ance. It is really astounding to learn from the Boer general that the huge grant of s75.00O, GOO set aside by the government for the restoration of the Transvaal is a myth so far as the burghers are concerned. We are told that while MT. Chamberlain was among the Boers,
 His great taunt was our ingratitude and non-recognition of the fact that the government was spending 15, ,00O 900 sterling on the restoration of the coun- try to its pre-war conditions. Every 
 wondering where and how and on whom this vast sum of money has been spent, for there is certainly no public evidence of it-except, perhaps. in the Blue Books which are sent to the colon- ial office for home consumption"
 In addition to the f15,OOO,O 900 which were to be lent to the burghers upon easy terms for the rebuilding of their farms and houses, it will be remem- bered that the sum Of 15.0OOO0O or coo was appropriated by the Brit ish government as Q gift to the Boers to meet their immediate needs-to meet the expenses of transporting exiles to their former homes, and to provide them with little ready money. This gift was properly commended in Amer lea as one of the most gen, rous acts ever performed by a conquering gov ernment for the benefit of it's conquered enemy. But according to General Botha this s15,O00,O0O is fully as un- substantial and elusive as the 75,OOO 900 loan.
 ''The work of the repatriation de- n 4y-C ,1o+o dismal failure. However good the in tentioHs of the government with this branch of the administration migh- have been, still it cannot be denied that the repatriation boards have been struck with a strange powerlessness, for which their composition in the teeth ot our advice and recommendation has been largely responsible. Lord Miners dispatches about the huge success of this department are nothing more than that twelve months after the conclu- sion of the war these boards are still travelling over the country and wasting the public funds in order to apportion the free grant of three millions. No wonder that the burghers have given up all hope of ever having anything given them out of this free grant Although this relief fund was, in the Fereeniging conditions of surrender. called free grant I have not yet met Q single burgher in the Transvaal who las received anything free from the government all relief having to be signed for by sureties or secured by rromissory notes"
 It is satisfactory in some degree to have General Botha admit that the in- tentions, at least, of the British gov ernment were all right in the matter of this free grant On this head his in dictment goes to the faulty administra.- tior-a complaint which has applied very pertinently to almost every detail of British nlana cement in South Africa