Last Saturday President Kruger visited Johannesburg and addressed a crowd
of some seven thousand people gathered on the Union ground. The principal part of his speech dealt with the franchise question. He would not, he said, be worthy to be the head of the State if he did not guard all burghers, but also he would not be worthy if he did not look after the interest of the newcomers. He made no distinction of nationalities,—only between loyal and dis- loyal people. "The reason why the franchise was not earlier extended was that when the goldfields were opened the original burghers only numbered about ten thousand, and he feared the old burghers would be swamped by the newcomers. Now the burghers and their descendants had increased to from thirty thousand to forty thousand, and he would propose to the Volksraad to reduce the time by five years." If this pro- posal passed he would, after a short period, again propose to the Read to make the time still shorter. These proposals would have been made sooner, but rioters and unscrupulous persons were always fomenting race-hatred, and his old burghers would not agree to his proposals. " There could be no bigamy. The newcomers must first forswear their old country before they became burghers in the Transvaal." He denied that he could not keep his promises. If Johannesburg would co-operate with him he could do much more. Was it encouraging to him to send memorials to another Government? We cannot say that we feel much con- fidence in any real reform of the franchise resulting from Mr. Kruger's assurances. He is probably, however, quite sincere when he says that his old burghers will not let him make concessions. They feel as the Lords did in 1832 when they were asked to pass the Reform Bill. Of course there can only be one end, and the longer the franchise is withheld the more complete will be the ultimate transfer of power from the burghers to the Outlanders.
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