New-York tribune., 1906-06-09
A BLACK PERIL.

Black, rather than yellow may be the hue
Of the peril which confrOnts, not Europe, but
some of the important colonial possessions of
some of the great European powers. There is
no Disgusting the fact that the situation in
South Africa has become disquieting, if not
actually alarming. Potentially it is alarming.
The bare facts are these that Germany has
been compelled TO send many thousands of SOL
diers and to spend many millions of dollars in
war with the HOttentOts which is now COM
ing to be measured by years in duration, and
which seems 10 be as far as ever from a salts
factory ending. while the British in Natal, and
perhaps also in the adjacent colonies, are being
severely put TO ii TO prevent a sanguinary and
persistent local revolt of the Zulus from becOm-
ing general war of all the great Kaffir tribes.
Beyond that, also there is clearly perceptible a
disposition Of unrest throughout nearly all the
fighting tribes Of Africa, and from the Cape
to the Sahara some mysterious telepathy seems
to have carried militant sympathy with the
troubles in Natal and Damaraland
There has been an inclination in some quar-
ters To scOff al Germany because she. the great
est Of military powers, has long been baf
fed in by the Hottentots, one of the least
warlike and most contemplate of the negro
nations. Some, also, have censoriOusly recalled
the Outrages which German administrators have
now and then inflicted upon African natives as
giving cause and provOcatiOn for this outbreak.
Those who make the former criticism are not
just or wise. and they betray their ignorance of
the vast difficulty of waging a military cam
paign against such foe, in such a country and
at such a distance from home. The Dutch war
in Acheen the British war with the Roers and
some of our own Indian wars are reminders
that il is not all skittles and beer to conquer
crafty and persistent enemy on his own ground,
at great distance from your own base and in
a manner of warfare radically different from
that to which you are accustomed.
But, whatever may be the case of Germany,
comparison of IL with the British troubles in
Natal presents some striking features. Whether
or not Germany should have been able to deal
with the Hottentots more promptly, what diff
ficultes would not be encountered by the Brit
ish, q far smaller military power, In engaging
at a still greater distance from home In a
worse land for opera tons, In a war not with
the puny and despised Hottentots, but with the
uncounted myriads Of the Zulus and their kim
the most formidable fighting in all Africa :?
| There is not yet, of course, anything like a
general Kaffir uprising. There may be none
There certainly the strongest reasons for
hoping there Will be none But if the present
ominous indications should be fulfilled those
who recall the doings of the Zulus under Chaka
Dingaan, Cetywayo and their peers, and who
]
| ity of the blacks over the whites in South
Africa, would be able to appreciate the dread
ful seriousness of the situation
Ii will not escape notice, either, that while
there is, unhappily, only too much truth in the
charges that some German administrators have
been guilty of exasperating offences against the
natives, and while the general attitude of the
Germans has, perhaps, been somewhat arbI-
trary and oppressive, the present revolt against
me British IN Natal is directed against that
very power which has been most conspicrlouslv
just and humane in it's treatment of the bIacir
race mat circumstance, taken In conjunction
with Others, seems to portend something like a
race movement per SO, mysteriously involvin
in its processes whole tribes and nations wifi.
out apparent provoeation. Such epidemics of
passion have not hitherto been unknown In