Mr. Chamberlain'on Tuesday in the House of Commons dealt with
the peace settlement in South Africa. The constructive
policy of racial reconciliation and prosperity that be laid down was worthy of the keen mind which throughout the dark months of the South African War was the mind of an optimist. The problem to be solved must be given in the Colonial Secretary's own words :—" To evolve order out of what has hitherto been chaos; to bury the animosities of the past, which we regret as much as any on the other side can do; to restore the country to a condition of prosperity, which, we are confident enough to believe, will be greater than any that has been known in its past history; to carry out all that is required to establish a new administration; to build up Courts of Justice ; to secure sympathy between those who have hitherto been bitterly opposed ; to repatriate the greater part of the Boer population ; to restore to their homes those settlers who were refugees from the country; and to rearrange a system of taxation which, on the one hand, shall do nothing to restrict the progress of that industry on which for many years the security and welfare of the country must depend." This statement of the settlement problem impresses us not only with the difficulties involved, but with the sound and kindly spirit that is at work meeting those difficulties. But Mr. Chamberlain is firm enough where firmness is necessary. The Government reserve to themselves power to deport from and to exclude from South Africa persons who show themselves to be undesirable citizens.
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