324 VENEZUELA AND AFTER 



African situation shaped itself into the war with 

 the Boers. It is not hard to imagine what would 

 have been the course of American feeling if this 

 episode had developed three years earlier. As 

 it was, however, reciprocity in sympathy and 

 moral support was imperative. Those who 

 were absorbed in the pursuit of Aguinaldo found 

 little opportunity to carp at the harrying of 

 Kruger. Transatlantic strictures therefore were 

 but feeble as the two great English-speaking 

 peoples, in Africa and the Philippines respect 

 ively, ruthlessly imposed upon backward na 

 tions the conditions of civilization and progress. 

 The unprecedentedly cordial relations pro 

 duced by the conditions in 1898 were promptly 

 made use of by the foreign offices in an effort to 

 reduce the rather extensive list of unsettled 

 differences outstanding between the two govern 

 ments. Most of these involved Canada, and 

 internal politics on both sides of the frontier 

 happened to be just at this time propitious for 

 adjustment. The Liberal Party won control 

 of the Dominion government in 1896, and Sir 

 Wilfrid Laurier, the prime minister, was anx 

 ious to try again for a system of reciprocity with 

 the United States. At the same time President 

 McKinley, approving though he did the excess- 



