ARE THE OUTLANDERS REALLY OPPRESSED? [To THE EDITOR OF THE
"SPECTATOR:] SIR,—I have* read your able article in the Spectator of September 23rd on the above question with great interest, and, as I trust, a due appreciation of the arguments advanced in favour of armed intervention to redress the grievances of the Outlanders. But do those grievances really amount to what may be fairly called " oppression,"—a word frequently used in your article? There are, of Course, Oases of oppression which certainly justify war. No one can doubt that the oppression to which the Christian subjects of the Turk are constantly subject, pillage, murder, and every species of outrage, justify them in insurrection, whenever they have a reasonable prospect of success, and in invoking the aid of outside Powers to enable them to shake off a detestable yoke of bondage. But to what kind and degree of oppression are the Outlanders subject ? That they suffer in various ways from the bad government of a stupid, narrow- minded, prejudiced people; that they are unfairly excluded from the franchise, and overtaxed, cannot be questioned. Nevertheless they grow rich ; it cannot be said that their lives or property are in danger, or that their wives and daughters are subjected to insult and out- rage. Less than seventy years ago some of our largest towns in England were unrepresented in Parliament ; the working classes were shut out from the franchise; wages in many departments of labour were very low, the cost of the necessaries of life, especially bread, was high ; the elections were practically in the hands of a wealthy oligarchy. The demands for reform were met by a prolonged and stub- born resistance . on the part of the wealthier classes, which were then dominant in the country. But would these wrongs, which surely were quite as great as those which the Out-
lenders now suffer, have justified civil war ? or, supposing that the sufferers had been French or German settlers, would such grievances have justified France or Germany in going to war with England ? If we do fight the Boers, it is hard to see bow any effectual relief can be secured for the Ontlanderfa unless they are made the dominant power in the Volksraad, and in the whole administration of the country ; other- wise they will constantly be outvoted. Equality o rights would only lead to perpetual friction between the two races, which are so diametrically opposed that the possibility of their fusion seems well-nigh hopeless; especially if their natural antagonism is embittered by war. On the other hand, time, patience, and persistency may gradually bring about some at least of the desired reforms. President Kruger will not live for ever ; a younger generation of Boers may grow up not quite so unreasonable as their elders ; while in fifty or sixty years most of the gold-mines will prob- ably be exhausted, and there will be a great exodus of Out- landers, together with the remains, whatever they may be, of their grievances, for the sake of which we are now urged to sacrifice hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives and millions of money in a war of which the only certain consequence will be an embitterment of race antipathies that may last for generations to come.—I am, Sir, ite.,
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