The Fact Is
That The Case Of The Transvaal Stands Alone, That Such A Condition
Of Things Has Never Been
Known, and that no previous precedent can
apply to it, save the general rule that a minority of white men
Cannot continue indefinitely to tax and govern a majority.
Sentiment inclines to the smaller nation, but reason and justice
are all on the side of England.
A long delay followed upon the proposal of the Secretary of the
Colonies. No reply was forthcoming from Pretoria. But on all sides
there came evidence that those preparations for war which had been
quietly going on even before the Jameson raid were now being
hurriedly perfected. For so small a State enormous sums were being
spent upon military equipment. Cases of rifles and boxes of
cartridges streamed into the arsenal, not only from Delagoa Bay,
but even, to the indignation of the English colonists, through Cape
Town and Port Elizabeth. Huge packing-cases, marked 'Agricultural
Instruments' and 'Mining Machinery,' arrived from Germany and
France, to find their places in the forts of Johannesburg or
Pretoria. Men of many nations but of a similar type showed their
martial faces in the Boer towns. The condottieri of Europe were as
ready as ever to sell their blood for gold, and nobly in the end
did they fulfill their share of the bargain. For three weeks and
more during which Mr. Kruger was silent these eloquent preparations
went on. But beyond them, and of infinitely more importance, there
was one fact which dominated the situation.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 61 of 842
Words from 16192 to 16451
of 225456
