In the House of Commons on Wednesday Mr. Chamber- lain,
in answer to a question by Sir Wilfrid Lawson, announced that an addition (three regiments in all) had been made to the military force in Natal. The troops were sent out in response to representations as to the defenceless state of the Colony made by the Natal Government, and "for all contingencies." That the Boers, in the event of war, would make a serious invasion of the Colony we do not believe, but there would probably be raids, and it is quite right to prepare for all possibilities. Later, Mr. Chamber- lain made a short speech in answer to Mr. T. P. O'Connor, who spoke on the third reading of the Appropriation Bill. The Government had already stated that they recognised the grievances under which our subjects in South Africa were labouring, that they found those grievances not merely in themselves a serious cause for interposition but a source of danger to the whole of South Africa, and that our predomi- nance, which both sides of the House have constantly asserted, was "menaced by the action of the Transvaal in refusing to redress grievances and in refusing any consideration to the requests made in moderate language by the suzerain Power." That was a state of things which could not long be tolerated. "We have stated that we have put our hands to the plough and we will not draw back, and on that statement I propose to rest." There is, of course, nothing new in this, but it shows, like the passage in the Queen's Speech, that there will be no withdrawal from the position assumed.
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