258 SOUTH AFRICA. 



gallant Scot, the Boer as represented by Paul 

 Kruger will never be capable of understanding his 

 own interests as they are affected by political 

 action. Much less will he care to expend a thought 

 on those of others, in the absence of the fear of 

 surgical appliances to the traditional endemic 

 disease of his mental constitution. 



The present condition of things in the Trans- 

 vaal under the existing regime is bad enough, and 

 will sooner or later become intolerable unless 

 radically reformed from the outside. It would 

 seem advisable, in the interests of South Africa 

 and of Imperial Britain, that no more time should 

 be wasted in hairsplitting and futile controversy 

 on questions as to the meaning of the word 

 "suzerainty," or as to that of this or that clause 

 in the miserable Conventions of which we know, 

 and ought to be ashamed. 



It has always been apparent that one of the 

 chief impediments to adequate action in South 

 African affairs on the part of the Imperial Govern- 

 ment has been an exaggerated fear of the con- 

 sequences of meddling with an assumed racial 

 antipathy between the English and Africander 

 population of the Cape Colony and of South Africa 



