THE TRANSVAAL APPOINTMENTS.
(TO THE EDITOR OP THZ "SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—Your correspondent "W." does me injustice in supposing I would like to see "the spectre of exclusiveness" imported to the Transvaal. On the contrary, I fully agree with him in hoping that Sir Alfred Milner will choose his subordinates
entirely on their merits. I will not say "continue" to do so, as so far no one has shown how the gentlemen selected are specially fitted for their posts. But we must recognise that there is an unfitness apart from personal ability. Irishmen have filled high positions with credit in various parts of the Empire, yet they are not appointed to the Irish Chief Secretaryship, for, I conclude, the good reason that it would be hard to find a leading Irishman whose interests would not be bound up in one special class, and who would not therefore be (however unjustly) open to the charge of partiality. If my reference to the feeling subsisting between the capitalists of the Rand and the Boers was vague (I need not notice " W.'s " suggestion that it was intentionally so), it was partly owing to the belief that the fact that the Boers attributed both the present war and the Jameson Raid to a conspiracy of capitalists to gain control of the Transvaal was too well known to need proof, and partly to a fear that if I entered much into detail it might make my letter too long for inser- tion. The same fear is accountable for the very much con- densed allusions to the antecedents of the holders of the appointments; more particulars will, however, be found in Mr. Markham's speech in the House of Commons on December 16th. My remarks certainly did not apply to " Outlanders " in general, as the latter have held meetings in Cape Town to protest against the appointments.—I am, Sir,
M. F. G.
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