Mr. Bryce made a very interesting and a very patriotic
speech at Aberdeen on Tuesday on English foreign policy, supporting the Government with great frankness and cor- diality. In relation to the Transvaal he entirely approved of all that Mr. Chamberlain had done and apparently of what he is endeavouring to do, for he remarked that the constitu- tion of the Transvaal contains a sentence declaring that its territory stands open to immigration, and that with such an invitation on the very face of the constitution " the Boer Government cannot expect that an immigrant population vastly outnumbering their own will remain for ever content
to be excluded from electoral privileges." With regard to the German Emperor's telegram, he said it was abundantly clear that Germany "had no more right to interfere in the Trans- vaal than she has in Afghanistan." And he wondered at the unfriendly act the more because, so far as he remembered Germany is almost the only Power with which England has never had a war, and indeed the same might be said of the great Prussian State. Of Armenian wrongs, Mr. Bryce spoke with the utmost sympathy, and indicated that in his opinion the European Powers should be asked if they would treat interference in the affairs of Turkey as a casus belli, and it they replied in the negative, guarantees should be taken either at Smyrna or in the Red Sea for the needful Armenian reforms. The only other alternative was to make Russia the delegate of Europe for the better government of Armenia.
Previous page
