MR. CONYBEARE'S LECTURES ON THE DUTCH.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.1
SIR,—The news from the seat of war has, as is natural, occu- pied general attention so completely that very little notice seems to have been taken of two interesting lectures delivered at Leighton House on December 6th and 7th by Mr. F. C. Conybeare. The subject of the lectures was " The Emancipa- tion of the Belgians from the Dutch and of the Outlanders from the Boers." The value of such a treatment of the
Transvaal question is, I think, unquestionable. Most of us speak and write of South Africa as if its problems were altogether unparalleled in the world's history. Perhaps this is because the experts on South African affairs are not, as a rule, intimately acquainted with political events in Europe. Mr. Conybeare, even if his comparison was a little fanciful in some respects, enabled his hearers to recognise that the Boer government of the Transvaal has borne a striking resem- blance to that Dutch government of Belgium which was over- thrown in 1830 by the practical help of France and England, amidst the general approbation of Liberals throughout Europe.
At first sight there appears to be little resemblance between the condition of the Belgians and that of the Outlanders. Belgium had been separated from Holland by three centuries of a national history diverse enough to obliterate the un- doubted racial affinity. Belgium was givev. to the King of Holland in 1815 just as Norway was given to the King of Sweden. In neither case were the wishes of the people consulted. In the Netherlands, however, the religious differences between the Roman Catholic Belgians and the Protestant Dutch introduced an element of discord absent from Scandinavia, and, for all practical purposes, from South Africa. In Belgium foreign rulers oppressed the old inhabitants ; in the Transvaal the old inhabitants have mis- governed foreign immigrants. If, however, we look closely at the causes of the Belgian rebellion we find that the grievances of which the patriotic party complained bore a somewhat striking resemblance to the allegations made by the Transvaal Outlanders. In each case the subject popu- lation was heavily taxed to raise revenues in whose distribu- tion it had practically no voice, and in each case those revenues were very largely devoted to increasing the armament of the rulers. In each case the use of the Dutch language was im- posed upon a reluctant people, whose business transactions were much impeded by the fact that all legal documents must be worded in an unfamiliar speech. In each case the Judiciary was suddenly placed under the arbitrary control of the Executive, and the popular Press was fettered by strict laws. The incidence of taxation was directed especially against the Belgians, as it has been against the Outlanders. Official posts throughout Belgium were filled by an unduly large proportion of Dutchmen. In this respect, indeed, the Outlanders have more serious cause of complaint, since, in order to exclude them from the public service, the Boer Government, unable to find competent Boers, imported foreign officials from Europe, and the expensiveness and general corruption of the Transvaal official system had no counterpart in the Netherlands. Mr. Conybeare pointed out that if the English Civil Service were managed on Transvaal lines it would cost the country annually £800,000,0001 The Belgians possessed the franchise, but, although in the entire United Kingdom of the Netherlands they outnumbered the Dutch considerably, they were in a permanent minority in Parlia- ment. Further, the Diplomatic Service of the Netherlands was practically monopolised by the Dutch, and Belgium was practically without a voice in foreign policy. It cannot be doubted on the whole that every substantial grievance felt in Belgium has been felt by the Outlanders in a greater degree. On the other hand, we must always remember that the Belgians were oppressed in their own homes, whereas the Outlanders were voluntary immigrants into the Transvaal. Mr. Conybeare was most interesting, perhaps, when he touched upon international sympathies in the two cases. The Russians alone have been perfectly consistent ; their Govern- ment supported King William of the Netherlands, just as their semi-official Press to-day supports President Kruger. On the other hand, Roman Catholic opinion throughout Europe sympathised with the Belgians, while it is now
apparently anxious to uphold a bigoted Protestant system in Pretoria. The English Tories were for Holland, the Whigs and Radicals were aflame to help the insurgents. To-day the extreme Radicals alone stand for oligarchy ! France under Louis Philippe co-operated heartily with the British Cabinet to free Belgium, to-day France is with the oppressor. It would be easy to press analogies too far, but I believe that Mr. Conybeare has done useful service in pointing out that the Boer policy has unconsciously been modelled upon princi- ples which in 1830 brought Holland to the verge of ruin.—I
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