LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
A GOLDEN BRIDGE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—May I be allowed to point out a few matters which may mean much to those who are trying to find a basis for an
understanding with the Boers In the first place, it is generally recognised that most of the Boer farms in the Cape Colony, as well as in the two new Colonies, are mortgaged either to banks, in which the controlling element is English, or to Jew storekeepers ? Consequently, as it is obvious that iu very many cases the mortgagor is now in arrear with his payment's to the mortgagee, projects of " freezing out " the Dutch element by foreclosing on these mortgages are the common topic of discussion amongst many loyalist and financial circles. The Boer's homestead may have been burnt as a legitimate act of war, which late telegrams show us he is already avenging by the destruction of mines and mining machinery, but he still retains his property in his freehold. Is it an attraction for the Boer still on commando to be told that if he lays down his arms, the first visitor who will seek his ruined homestead after the restoration of peace will be the process server, who will bring him a decree of ejectment from the High Court, issued at the instance of his English or Jewish creditors? Is it beyond the resources of a statesman to arrange thatthenext proclamation conveying terms of peace issued by Lord Kitchener shall contain provisions :—(1) That a moratorium of at least two years shall be conceded in respect to all encumbered estates owned by proprietors who shall have laid down their arms before March 15th next ? (2) That Government will establish a land bank under
Imperial, or eventually Colonial, guarantee, which will take over all mortgages on farms in the two new Colonies at present existing, thus making the central Government the sole creditor of the farming population ? I may remark that Major-General Pretyman's late report fully establishes the fact that the quit-rents due to Government have been fully paid up in all the settled portions of the Orange River Colony. (3) That if the Boer commandos at present invading Cape Colony evacuate that territory before a specified date, the Secretary of State for the Colonies will be prepaxed to advise the Government of the Colony to grant similar terms to the farmers within its limits, with the offer, if necessary, to guarantee on Imperial credit a loan for this purpose P Such a proposal would prevent many mortgagors from joining the Boer forces, who know well that., as matters stand, speedy ejectment from their homesteads at the hands of their English mortgagees awaits them as soon as peace is restored. Again, it is well known that the Boers now in arms have the liveliest dread of coming under the control of the capitalists, a fear
which Mr. Markham, has proved to be fully justified by recent appointments in the Colonial Administration. Is it absolutely impossible to divide the two new Colonies into pastoral and mining areas, and, whilst for the time retaining the former under a modified system of Crown Colony government, to accord to the latter an extension of Mr. Chamberlain's municipalities which will practically convert the Outlander communities into self-governing colonies from the first ? It may be academical to quote the examples of the Hanse towns, of Venice, or of the Imperial free cities of Germany and Italy as instances of communities which pros- pered exceedingly as self-governing States, though confined within a limited territorial area, but though the original territories of Venice and Florence may have counted but tens of square miles in their superficial area where the Australian Colonies have their hundreds of thousands, we have yet to learn that the Parliaments of Sydney and Melbourne boast a Machiavelli or a Dandolo. The dwarf is often more intel- ligent than the giant, and in political life size is not every- thing, or in Russia there would not be five Finns in the Foreign Office to only ten Russians. A separation between the mining and pastoral areas in the two new Colonies would do much to assuage the animosity between the Boer and the Outlander. Lastly, may I beg your readers to remember that it will be absolutely fatal to raise the native question in any form or manner soever in connection with the resettle- ment of South Africa ? To do so, as some doubtless well- meaning enthusiasts would propose, who wish to retain Crown government for our new possessions in ssecula smelt-10mm in order to protect the natives against the opera- tion of a dormant Transvaal Pass Law and Gold Mines Law, will band all the whites in South Africa of every nation and language against the Imperial Government. We owe the present war to the well-meaning folly of the enthusiasts of Exeter Hall who drove Lord Glenelg to write his famous despatch, and who made the Imperial Government whittle done to the last farthing the just claims for compensation of the slave- owners at the Cape. If we are to listen to Exeter Hall again in the present instance, we may reckon all our sacrifices as absolutely lost. No one wishes to reduce the natives to slavery, and, indeed, any attempt to do so would merely hasten the advent of that native war for which every observant native south of the Zambesi is now training his intelligence by a keen observation of our tactics in our present con- flicts, but to urge native claims as a ground for refusing the Dutch some control over their own affairs from the very out- set of our government would be simply the means of pro- longing their resistance to the last. The Boer leaders are already telling their followers that we intend to crush the Dutch at the ballot boxes by the native vote.—I am; Sir, &c.,
H.
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