Boer Politics Part 9

5.--_Methods of Exaction._

A reduction of 100,000 was made on the railway tariffs; but in July, 1897, the duties on corn and food-stuffs were increased by 200,000. At the end of 1898, a certain number of these were lessened, but not that on flour. A comparison of the list of duties between 1897 and the end of 1898 shows that they were increased on twenty-eight products, and decreased on four.

Coal travelling a distance of 25-1/2 miles, the charge made by the Netherlands Railway Co. is 4s. 5d., which is 8-1/2d. per ton per mile; while the Free State Railway only charges 5-3/4d. and the Natal line 3d.

The Company collects the customs dues for account of the State, as security for the payment of interest on their shares and debentures.

Dr. Kuyper is quite willing to admit that the "financial administration leaves something to be desired," but he adds that, "while at the Cape the taxes on produce are at the rate of 15 per cent., in the Transvaal they are only 10 per cent." But it is easy to see how, by means of railway tariffs and various combinations, due to the cunning of Mr.

Kruger and his Hollander friends, it has been possible to enhance prices of every description.

CHAPTER XII.

"CAPITALIST INTRIGUES" AND THE WAR.[17]

1.--_A War of Capitalists._

"It is a war of capitalists against a set of poor Boers who have no sort of interest in the dispute!" Such is the general cry.

Let us look at the facts.

The other day, anent the attempt upon the Prince of Wales, I referred to the anarchist and socialistic attacks of certain Pro-Boer and Anglophobe journals on capitalists, financiers, and the wealthy "metal-hearted mine-owners," as Dr. Kuyper calls them. I reminded my readers that Professor Bryce himself treats as absurd the tale that the aim of the Jameson Raid, as stated by those papers, was the conquest of the Transvaal for Rhodesia. I shall now show by doc.u.mentary evidence that the war did not break out through any action on the part of gold-mine proprietors. In the first place, the greater number of these proprietors reside in Europe; and as much in France, Germany and Belgium, as in England. Their representatives in the Transvaal may hold more or less important interests in those mines, but they are imbued with a full sense of their responsibilities.

Now, commercial men never seek to bring about a political crisis unnecessarily; they invariably endeavour to avoid one. If they resign themselves to such a course, it is only as a last resource.

The truth of these general a.s.sertions is verified in the case in point by two doc.u.ments which have not been fabricated after the events.

They are the reports of the Chamber of Mines, published by Mr. Rouliot, in January 1898, and January 1899.[18]

[Footnote 17: _Le Siecle_, April 7th, 1900.]

[Footnote 18: Published in the _Revue Sud-Africaine_ (Paris).]

2.--_A Local Board._

The report made by Mr. Rouliot to the Chamber of Mines on January 20th, 1898, refers to the burdens imposed upon the gold industry by the faulty administration of the Transvaal. It shows how the Volksraad contemptuously rejected, in 1897, a pet.i.tion signed by more than ten thousand inhabitants of all nationalities and all professions. It declares that "the Chamber of Mines has no desire to interfere in the conduct of general affairs in the Transvaal"; it recalls the fact that the Commission of Enquiry nominated after the Crisis of 1896, had recommended the const.i.tution of a "Local Board" which President Kruger had contemptuously rejected; and goes on to say:--

"It is nonsense to affirm that the creation of such a Board would have made a government within a government, and would have threatened the independence of the State. At the time that we made the proposal, we sincerely trusted that what had happened might be buried in oblivion and that we might dwell together in amity. We had hoped that the burghers would have recognised that want of experience, and their education would have made them unfitted for dealing with the most difficult problems that could face a young nation, and that they would have seen the necessity of calling men to their aid who could give them the benefit of their experience, and help them to ensure sound conditions for the State and its industrial development. Unfortunately, we have been deceived in our hopes...."

That is all; save that Mr. Rouliot alludes cursorily to the fact that the government had endeavoured to found a Chamber of Mines in opposition to the old one, but that an amalgamation had taken place; he, consequently, was speaking in the name of the entire industry.

3.--_A Deliberative Council._

In the course of the year 1898, Mr. Kruger's policy became more and more provocative. The Chamber of Mines confined itself to the request for the appointment of a deliberative council, to be composed of members nominated by the government, the powers of which should be limited to the application of the laws concerning gold-theft, the sale of spirituous liquors, and the "pa.s.s-law" concerning native labourers.

At a meeting of the Volksraad, June, 1898, the sub-committee appointed to enquire into this modest request, decided to recommend its rejection.

Mr. A.D. Wolmarans said that "the council would be the means of placing over the heads of the agents of the State, a commission whose members were not in possession of the franchise; and that the Volksraad would practically be adopting the proposition of home rule, and autonomy, put forward by Mr. Chamberlain in 1896."

On September 12th, the question was revived. A member of the Volksraad, named Lombaard, said that: "Johannesburg would never be satisfied until it had a little government of its own"; and that, as for the sale of liquor, as far as he was concerned, he saw no reason why Kaffirs should not drink themselves to death, if such was their taste.

The request was rejected by 14 votes to six. Four-and-twenty hours later the government pa.s.sed a measure for an additional tax upon mining profits; then the Lombaard and Edgar cases occurred. The Chamber of Mines remained calm, notwithstanding.

4.--_Timidity of the Chamber of Mines._

In his report of January 26th, 1899, Mr. Rouliot seems to have but one aim, and that is to dissociate the Chamber of Mines completely from the agitation excited among the English workmen by the murder of their comrade, Edgar, at the hands of policeman Jones. I quote his words:--

"The Chamber of Mines has never taken part in any political agitation, nor has it encouraged or organised demonstrations of a political nature. We take our stand solely upon an economic basis, endeavouring by const.i.tutional means the alleviation of our burdens, and offering our advice upon questions that affect the State, equally with an industry, our thorough knowledge of which is undeniable. We ask neither for concessions, nor for monopoly. All that we ask is fair treatment for our business and our shareholders. I may here express my disappointment at seeing that all our efforts to bring about good feeling and union between ourselves and the executive, meet with nothing but contempt on the part of the latter."

He then goes on to allude to Hollander officials; and possibly, to certain members of the diplomatic body:--

"Those act in bad faith who unceasingly encourage the executive of this country in their retrograde policy, and constantly tell them that all they do is well done."

He concludes by pointing out the manner in which the Press and political agents of the Government of Pretoria are stirring up ill-feeling against the proprietors and managers of mines. Persons without any defined profession, attracted by the vision of gold, have flocked to Johannesburg; unable to find employment, they have become a discontented proletariat. These are the true adventurers, if the word be taken in its worst sense. Mr. Kruger and his agents choose them as colleagues and pit them against the "wealthy metal-hearted mine owners." This is the policy pursued by Dr. Leyds in Europe, where he has been clever enough to excite alike the capitalist and socialist Press against the hated mine owner.

Mr. Rouliot continues, that it is not within the province of the Chamber of Mines to provide work for incompetent workmen. It was, no doubt, from among these men that Mr. Kruger had raised the signatures of the counter-pet.i.tion which so "emphatically" declared the administration of the South African Republic "to be all that could be desired."

5.--_The Pet.i.tion and the Despatch of May 10th._

They were _bona fide_ workmen who took the initiative in the pet.i.tion of March 28th, 1899, called forth by the murder of their fellow-workman, Edgar. We see, from Mr. Rouliot's report, that the Chamber of Mines regarding the pet.i.tion as compromising, disa.s.sociated itself from it.

Nor was that all. The President of the South African League in the Transvaal, Mr. W. John Wybergh, a consulting engineer by profession, was dismissed by one of the princ.i.p.al companies.

These undeniable facts prove that "capitalist intrigues," as Dr. Kuyper calls them, were not the causes of the present war.

The British Government could not disregard a pet.i.tion which 21,684 British subjects addressed to it; even had its responsibility not been pledged by Articles 7 and 14 of the Convention of 1884, relying upon which those British subjects had settled in the Transvaal. Every civilised Government concerns itself with injuries done to its citizens in foreign lands. The pet.i.tion of March 28th, was acknowledged by Mr.

Chamberlain in a despatch to Sir A. Milner of May 10th, 1899, in which he says that "the complaints of the Uitlanders rested on a solid basis."

From the moment that the British Government "put its hand to the plough," and that Lord Salisbury declared it would not draw back, the end was easy to foresee. Mr. Kruger had recourse to his habitual expedients. I said at the time what must certainly be the result; and an eminent French statesman may remember a conversation I then had with him, in the course of which he declared that the English would never, never, make up their minds to go to war. That was the dangerous idea then spread throughout European diplomacy, and which must have been transmitted to Kruger by Dr. Leyds, and some of the representatives of European Governments then in Pretoria. Thus Kruger thought he need not trouble. Hence his att.i.tude at Bloemfontein. It was not because England was desirous of war that it broke out, it was because she bore the reputation of being too pacific, and because she had given too many proofs of forbearance to the Boers.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE FRANCHISE.[19]

1.--_Impossible Comparisons._

Dr. Kuyper favors us with a long dissertation upon the various laws of naturalisation existing throughout the world. But he cannot compare a country such as Belgium with 226 inhabitants per square kilometre, or as France with 72 per square kilometre, with a country that has two inhabitants to the square kilometre. Had he been logical, he would have said that the 9,712,000 square kilometres of the United States should always have been exclusively peopled by the 600,000 or 700,000 Sioux Iroquois and Apaches who used to dispute them.

Dr. Kuyper will reply that they were Redskins and so do not count. Be it so! Though the theory of inferior races has very grave consequences from the standpoint taken up by him.