392 



The Review of Reviews. 



April 53, 1901). 



TRANSVAAL VIEW OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT. 



Mr. W. Wyberg writes in the Conti.in/'orary Re- 

 view on the Transvaal and the new Government. 

 He says, in effect, that tlie threat " to cut the pain- 

 ter " is simply capitalistic bluff. It could only take 

 effect by the Dutch joining with the capitalist, and 

 under no conceivable circumstances would the Dutch 

 do any such thing. What hostility to British rule 

 there may be still existing is, says the writer, due 

 to the identification in Dutch minds of British rule 

 with capitalist rule. He tells a good story of a 

 highly-placed civil servant who was discussing the 

 outlook generally with an old Boer: — 



Said the Dutchman: "I hear you are having a lot ol 

 trouble with those Johannesburg people, just the same as 

 w© did before. Loolc here, wliy don't you let me raise a 

 few hundred farmers, and we'll soon keep them in order 

 for you!" Tliis has alwa.vs been the Boer sentiment, and 

 it is interesting to note the Boer's instinctive association 

 of himself with the Government. 



The cosmopolitan financier, who has long posed 

 as the sole exponent of loyalty. Imperialism, and 

 public spirit, has now been found out. The Colony 

 expects from the Liberal Government an applica- 

 tion of Liberal principles in the best sense of the 

 word — genuine Imperialism which admits of every 

 variety of local difference, and which shall regard 

 the Transvaal as the cradle of a South African na- 

 tion, neither British nor Dutch, but both. 



THOSE £30,000,000. 



The promise of leading citizens, who had no con- 

 stitutional right to speak for the Colony, to pay 

 thirty millions sterling towards the war debt will, 

 the writer hopes, be regarded as belonging to the 

 old dark days of commercial Imperialism, and con- 

 fidently expects that the Liberals, as part of a sane, 

 sympathetic and honest Colonial policy, will at once 

 and on their own motion repudiate the agreement 

 wrung out of them by Mr. Chamberlain, leaving 

 them to make vs'hat voluntary contribution may seem 

 to them equitable. Beyond this, and the suspension 

 of Chinese importation, he says their main hope is 

 that the Liberals will do nothing whatever pending 

 the granting of responsible government. 



THE LOYALTY OP THE BrTCH. 



The writer bears this important witness to the 

 conduct of the Dutch. He says: — 



-it tlie present time the Dutch are at the parting of the 

 ways: they have behaved with a decency and self-restraint 

 which has unfortunately not been universally imitated; 

 their leaders, whilst not professing: enthusiastic loyalty, 

 have accepted the position with perfect good faitli,' and 

 have not the least idea of trying to upset the settlement 

 or to intrigue against the Flag. They have shown, by 

 their co-operation with those Englishmen who call tliem- 

 selves the Responsible Government party, and by their 

 friendly attitude towards other independent Englishmen, 

 that they do not desire a. division on racial lines. They 

 oppose, not Entrlishmen. and not the British Flag, but the 

 financial exploiters of the country. 



FOE THE NEW CONSTITUTION. 



On the question of Chinese labour the writer says 

 the Dutch are as much interested in the success of 



the mining industry as anyone else. He says he has 

 been personally assured by influential Dutch leaders 

 that their object is to get rid of the Chinese in order 

 that the mines may be worked by white men, and 

 that they will do all in their power to introduce 

 more men into the country who may by their votes 

 help them to beat the financiers. He makes the sug- 

 gestion that, under the new Constitution, the elec- 

 tion expenses of candidates who receive an adequate 

 number of signatures to their nomination should be 

 borne entirely by the State. He would advise that 

 as the proportion of women and children in any dis- 

 trict must, in a new and unsettled country, be con- 

 sidered as one of the best criteria of the country, 

 population would l:ie the best basis, and not voters, 

 but the best solution of all would be women's suf- 

 frage. He adds the pleasing report that since the 

 General Election hundreds of people who were pre- 

 pared to leave the Transvaal in despair have resolved 

 to stay on in hope of improvement. 



LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL AND HOME RULE_ 



In the Xi/ie/ee/ith Century Mr. Wilfrid Sea wen 

 Blunt, gives a personal recollection of Randolph 

 Churchill, much of which is very interesting and 

 suggestive of the charm which Churchill exercised 

 over his friends. The most important matter is the 

 light thrown on Churchill's attitude to Home Rule. 

 When meditating standing for a seat in the House of 

 Commons, Mr. Blunt submitted a memorandum of 

 his views to Lord Randolph, in which occurs the fol- 

 lowing paragraph: — 



So. too. in Ireland I am in favour of Home Rule I 

 consider it urgent to accept the principle of Nationalism, 

 both for Ireland's sake and for England's. My motto would 

 be ■■ Ireland for the Irish and England for the English." 

 "The plan has succeeded in Hungary and Galicia in recon- 

 ciling the Himgarians and Poles to the -Austrian crown. 

 Why not. therefore, in Ireland? 



■OF COURSE IT MUST COME TO THIS " 



The memorandum was " read by Randolph 

 Churchill on May 7th, 1885. and in general terms 

 approved by him." Mr. Blunt's journal records: — 



Randolph, when I saw him, talked over the matter of my 

 going into Parliament. I told him of my conversation 

 vesterda.v with Parnell. and sliowed him the paper I drew 

 up a little while ago. headed " Am 1 a Tory Democrat " of 

 which he approved as a possible basis of my joining his 

 party, though he said, of course he did not pledge himself 

 to go with me on all points. He objected a little to my 

 using the words " Home Rule." " I know, of course." he 

 said, " it must come to thiS; but we haven't educated the 

 party up to it yet, and it would be better to use some 

 vagtier expression." 



Mr. Blunt now remarks, " Though he w as not then 

 prepared to declare in public for Home Rule, there 

 was none of that strong prepossession in his mind 

 against it his biographer attributes to him." It is 

 interesting, moreover, to note that Mr. Blunt, who 

 wished to enter Parliament as Churchill's henchman, 

 was standing as a Tory Home Ruler with Pamell's 

 approval. 



