On Monday Mr. Balfour addressed his constituents at Manchester, and
dealt with the main problems of the war. He admitted that the misgovernment suffered by the Out- landers on the one hand, and the great military preparations of the Boers on the other, constituted a dangerous situation. It was not, however, regarded by the Government "as in- evitable, or even in any high degree probable, that before the autumn had drawn to its close the Transvaal and the Orange Free State would be involved in hostilities with this country." In other words, the Government felt that though the Transvaal would probably in the end refuse the demands of the Out- landers, and so bring about war, that war would not come at once. Of course this was a huge mistake. The Government, being perfectly sincere in their desire not to force on war, imagined that the Boers must take the same view, and, like themselves, would not fight until the very last moment, and until all possibility of compromise had been exhausted. As to the lack of preparations, Mr. Balfour tells us, to begin with, that the Government could not protest against the Boer arma- ments because our hands were tied and our mouths closed by the Raid. No doubt that is true, but only because the Government chose to deal leniently with Mr. Rhodes and the Chartered Company. If the Government immediately after the Raid bad decided—as we have before urged—on the one hand to annul the Charter and to dispense altogether with Mr. Rhodes's servieee in the Empire, and on the other to take up the cause of the Outlanders and to insist upon their wrongs being righted, the Raid would have been no obstacle If they bad, thet is. told President Kruger that two wrongs do not make a right, and that while they destroyed the Chartered Oomp,rny and Mr. Rhodes as political factors they also meant to insist on racial equality in the Transvaal, they would, we believe, heve solved far more easily than they can now the South Aft ican problem.
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