Arizona republican., 1904-07-15
Paul Kruger and Ills People.

When death came to Stephanus Johannes Paul Kruger, yesterday, it was no unwelcome messenger. Had the old lion of South Africa lived until the 10th of October he would have been 79. Ever since his beloved republic had been crushed under the heel of Joseph Chamberlain for the benefit of the London stock exchange, he had been waiting patiently in his exile for the coming of death. The wife of his youth and of his old age, his constant companion and counselor, the mother of his children, was dead. The republic of the Trans yaal the creation of his life of endeavor and the concrete evil dence of his right to be numbered with the greatest statesmen of earth, was dead. His faithful and peace-loving peOple,the people whom he had gov erned as the ratriarchs of the Old Tes- lament governed their tribes, had been conquered in war and made desolate Against him and his people one of the blackest and most heartless cranes
 
 been consummated. Against them he had seen waged a pitiless three-years war by the worlds most powerful em- pire. He had seen, broken hearted, his scant regiments of farmers contending against half a million British troops He had seen his fellow workers lay down their lives. He had seen five thousand Boer women done to death in British concentration camps. In these same camps he had seen twenty thous- and helpless children of the Boers done to death-"inthe interests of ciyiliza- tion." He had seen "a prosperous land made picture of desolation-its dwell ings burned in order that the Boer wo- men and children might have no shel- ter over their heads; every fruit tree destroyed, every hoof of livestock driv- en away and with ruthless system ev- cry field made a desert and the whole land laid waste from end to end-ip order that its wome might not find means to sustain themselves and their children while their husbands and their children's fathers and brothers were in the army-a policy that did, indeed, accomplish its purpose. The Boers were conquered only when their wives and children were driven into British concentration camps.
 Thus Kruger had seen his nation of honest, industrious and God-fearing people obliterated and its surviving citizens reduced from comfort to the poverty of pauperism. His hopes were dead, and he longed for the end.
 But what of the South Africa of to- day-the Transvaal of Kruger's crea- tion? What of the future of that land so sOrely ravaged? What are the net results of the three years war?
 Great Britain on her side can show an expense account of a billion dollars, and 122,OC0 British soldiers dead and more than that number wounded. Os- tensiblF the var was begun by MT. ChambeVlaln Ga order to protect the "righta~ of visiting Englishmen in the Transvaal-theiT rights" to vote in republic to whose flag they had no thought of swearing allegiance. Paul Kruger insisted that these visitors should reside in his country seven years before having the right of franchise he did not ask that they become citi- zens. Had he yielded on this point he would have yielded everything, for the adventurers overrunning the land if permitted to vote would soon have wrested the government from the own CTS of the soil.
 Englishmen in the Transvaal are still without their rights" It is two years and a half since the war closed. and still neither Englishman nor Boer can vote. FheT are governed from the British war office.
 But tAe rrsa object of the war has been attained The gold fields are in the British hands The Boers no long,