....
280
write you the views of a Britisher who has lived amongst the Boers and knows something about both sides of the question. To answer your cor- respondent would take several volumes dealing with the aggressive policy of England in Africa for several generations. The seeds of discord and hatred were sown between the English and the Dutch before the Orange Free State or the Transvaal Republics came into existence, and owing to the difference in temperament, customs, aspirations, etc., the friction has been gradually increasing up to the present moment. he Dutch in Africa are a pastoral race, while the British, as Napoleon said, are a nation of shop keepers, and, I might add, exploiters. The latter in pushing their trade first invaded Africa and later for strategic purposes remained there, and finally the discovery of diamonds in 1871 and gold later attracted the prospector, Com- pany monger, and the British capitalist, as well as the speculating publie of England who gam- ble in shares and scrip. These latter ac- eumulated wealth, and the possession of these gives power.
So the Boers felt themselves compelled to enact laws to prevent the Uitlander from controlling the legislative machine the same as they control the stook exchange.
While the boom lasted and the Uitlander was making money no notice was taken of these laws except by one man, Mr. Manson, a fiue type of a British newspaper man, and, incorrap tible, he refused the Boer subsidy and dealt sledge hammer blows at the Boer oligarchy, with the result that he was arrested for treason, tried, and acquitted. This act hardly excited comment. This was in 1887, and I merely mention the foregoing to show that be- fore the English were acquainted with the vast mineral wealth of the Transvaal they took no interest in the Uitlauder grievances, though they were more keenly felt by residents then than now, as the Boer war was still fresh in the minds of the Dutch. The gradual developement of the mineral resources of the Republic brought a popalation from all parts of the world. At Arst there were miners from Australia, then from England, and later from America. Then same the camp followers, storekeepers, tra- ders, saloon keepers, gamblers, and the riff- raff of other and older countries, and in business the pastoral Boer was no match for the new population. This, then, was the canse of more stringent anti-Uitlander laws. Still there was no murmur from them against the Boers except a little jeering at the Boer for legislating with the bible in his hand.
But & change came over the Uitlander popala tion when in 1892 the application of the cyanide process as a gold solvent proved a success. Then the English capitalists and mining engineers realised the amount of wealth lying in the low grade ores of the Rand, and such a race for money has never been seen. Not even the Forty-nine or Klondyke booms combined were to be compared to it. Farms were bought up, sub-divided, and floated into mining companies. The capitalist, the widow, the orphan, the olergyman, old maids, gamblers, and every one who could scrape together a few cash, was in- vesting in the Transvaal mines being floated almost hourly. Plans were exhibited, machinery bought, dividends were promised, miners and mechanics sent out from England who joined in the scramble for scrip. Not only between the claims but all along the main reef and the Rand the air was auriferous. Batteries were erected where there was no quartz or ore, let alone gold, and mines opened. Paid-up capital was swallowed in the maw of the mining shark. The gold fever was so bad that shareholders would recon- struct on wild cats and finally liquidate. Con- cousions of all kinds were being sold, and in fact everything except the taxes of the country seemed to be farmed out.
The Boers, advised by the Hollander alement, were ever on the alert, and they saw that with the increasing Uitlander population the very existence of the Repab- lie their fathers founded, fought and died for, was threatened. They could not trek north as their ancestors had done from Cape Colony
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND | Swazieland and Amatongaland on the south- east. Rhodes handed over Swaziland with cer- tain conditions which have never been fulfilled, One the conditions was that the Transvaal would fix their northern boundary where it is to-day. At the same time Rhodes annexed Amatongaland and that prevented the Boers from realising their dream of a railway through all Transvaal territory to the coast and likewise increased the hatred for their old enemy. The Boer then settled down (1894) to legislate against everything that was Uitlander, and es- pecially English. The boom bubble was pricked about this time and shareholdersin England were clamouring for the long promised dividends, or at least for some developement work on their mining properties. The Company mongers and Jew financiers who pocketed the money of the public, being hard pressed, threw the whole of the blame on the non-progressive legislation of the Dutch Raad, and the publio being an asa took up this specious cry. Papers in the pay of inanciers did likewise, agitators and adven tures sprang up and advertised a state of things that had existed for years. The Jameson raid with its accompanying stink drew the attention of the world to the obstructive Boer. Though the Netherlands Railway Co., the dynamite concession, and a hundred others had existed for years, there was little or no notice taken of them till hard times came on the Transvaal, and such being the case, the Uitlander, being after money, wants a voice in the Government of the country and the con- trolling of the taxes, which is right, while the Boer wishes he would go away and leave him with his oxen, his farm, his coffee, and his frau.
|
Considering all the ory being made about the franchise for the Uitlander I would like to point out that the Swaziland convention gives all British subjects who had resided in Swazi- land for one year before the latter was ceded to the Boers the right to vote for an election for the Raad. This meant that a British subject as above mentioned could become a eitizen of the Transvaal without taking the oath of allegi- ance to the State and without renouncing his allegiance to the Queen and have full burgher rights in a foreign State. And still, less than a dozen men availed themselves of the right. This goes
to show that they thought very little of the much vauuted franchise. This was in 1894 and is, I believe, the only instance on record of an Englishman becoming a citizen of a foreign Power without swearing the oath of allegi- ance.
«
Eeptember 20, 1899.
on which the New South Wales people are still paying interest to the English hond- holders who practically made that war. Let me say in conclusion that if England had an adult male population of about 25,000, the same as the Transvaal has to-day, and 80,000 Ger- mans invaded the country, sconmalated wealth, and clamoured for equal political rights without taking the oath of allegiance, England would do the same as the Transvaal. It is the same old first law of nature. Enclosed is my card. ANOTHER BRITISHER. Hongkong, 28th September, 1899.
THE WATERSPOUT.
EC
"
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS.
yesterday's issue of your paper as to the DEAR SIB,-Reverting to the paragraph in waterspout which your correspondent saw in the direction of Lamma Island, it may be inter- eating to him to know that I happened to watch the same phenomenon. The impression I had was exactly the same as described by your cor- respondent. The water column seemed to move north-east and fishing junks which passed in in front and behind it did not appear to take any notice of or seem to try to avoid it on their way-I am, dear sir, yours faithfully,
L. GLISSMANN. Hongkong, 28th September, 1899.
PRINCE HENRY'S MOVEMEN S
WILL VISIT HONGKONG AGAIN IN DECEMBER.
We translate the following paragraph from the Ostasiatische Lloyd:-
H.R.H. Prince Henry intends to remain at Tsintau for a few weeks. Between the 4th and 6th November he will arrive at Woosung and will pay another visit to Shanghai, but his time will scarcely permit of the trip to Harkow that has been spoken of. December His Royal Highness intends to spend in Hongkong, where the Deutschland will go into dock. Early in January he will resume his homeward voyage, visiting Siam on the way. In May the Deutsch. land is due back at Kiel, which port she left in December, 1897.
THE COMPETITION IN THE FOR- MOSA SHIPPING TRADE.
Mr. Consul Layard, in his report on the trade of North Formosa for 1898, says:-
It should more properly appear in a report for 1899, but it will be as well here to mention that the Osaka Shosen Kaisha have begun to run two steamers, making the round trip be- tween Tamsui, Amoy, Swatow, and Hongkong cnce a fortnight, starting on alternate Sundays in direct opposition to the steamers of the Douglas Steamship Company.
If England goes to war with the Transvaal it will be because she is being hustled into it by the money-lenders and mining financiers, and not because she wants to see her subjects in the Raad, thought this would please her very much. I do not think there will be war, but if there is Britisher" need have no fear of the Generals at the Cape bungling. Neither must he think The opposing methods employed included the Boers' strong point is their shooting. I disparaging, not to say slanderous, remarka lived in the Transvaal five years, have hunted upon their rivals in the local vernacular press, with the Boers and competed for prizes at shoot-together with a large reduction of freights, and ing matches with them, and can safely say an merely nominal rates for Chinese passenger: equal number of the natives of any colony like who are now coddled on the journey to an extent Australia or Canada who are reared in the never experienced except at such times of com- country could give the Boers points every time petition. at shooting and beat them. The Boers' strong point in a war will be bis not needing a com- missariat and conséquently that he can move quicker. There can be but one end to a war be- tween England and the Transvaal, but doubt if the Uitlandes will be any better off under English rule for the doubtful privilege of har ing a voice in the Government of the country. The mechanic and the working class will cer tainly be worse off, as his fellow workmen in Natal and Cape Colony and the Chartered Co.'s Territory already are.
The Douglas Steamship Company, hitherto in practically undisturbed possession of the en- tire steamer traffic of the port met the opposi- tion by a corresponding reduction in freights and fares, and by increasing the number of their steamers, of which they have now four. besides a German vessel under charter, running without intermission on the line via ports bu tween Hongkong and Tamsui.
It was assumed that the Japanese company would have the monopoly of carrying all opium on Formosa Government account. but a ship- ment of the drug has recently been made by one of the Douglas steamers
The offer of the Hongkong Volunteers for service in Africa may be very landable, but they should remember an Australian contingent of It is said that it can afford to lower rates to 500 that went to the Soudan War. They were an exaggerated degree, owing to a subsidy it well paid and fed and returned with the spoils receives from the Japanese Government, of war in the shape of a donkey and a goat. subsidy variously stated to amount from £5,000 They (the «nimals) were put in the Zoological] to £15,000, but there is very good authority deeds. After a few years the goat succumbed, severely put to it to keep their rates owing to the excessive admiration of the sisters, their present figures. They do not seem to mothers, and sweethearts of the warrior contin- have calculated that the Douglas Steamshiɔ gent, while the donkey died the other day, and Company could almost if not quite afford to the colony has a monument to them in the ran their steamers on freight supplied by their shape of £999,000, the cost of the expedition, shareholders alone.
and the Orange Free State in former years Park, no dʊṇbt to inspire the youth to warlike the statement that they now find
when pushed close by the English. The Char- tered Company closed them in on the north, so they determined to stay and preserve the Re- public by passing laws that were certainly not progressive. They also tried to solve the problem of their insular position by acquiring
At
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.