Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/195

 1899.] Lord Loch on the Crisis. [187

vaal would have to be turned into a Crown colony, which would be Ireland over again ; a little Ulster on the Rand and the rest only held down by an army of occupation. The first policy of the Government was to get the Outlanders the fran- chise, so that they could redress their grievances themselves. In principle this had been already conceded, although the Boers had been slow. Mr. Morley expressed his hope that " the South African Republic would go into the conference, . . . and that they would strip the franchise which they were now willing to concede of every ambiguous term and every dubious restriction/' As to suzerainty, he said that they should remember that some of the bloodiest struggles in the history of mankind had been about words. In 1896 Mr. Chamberlain only claimed the right of friendly counsel. Now there was a talk of para- mountry. The true policy was fusion.

It was not difficult, however, to perceive a clear divergence between the tone of Mr. Morley's speech and that of Mr. Asquith ; and among the rank and file of Liberal politicians at this stage the same, or an even greater divergence, was observ- able.

A speech of special interest, as coming from a predecessor of Sir A. Milner's in the office of High Commissioner in South Africa, was delivered (Sept. 7) by Lord Loch. The Convention of 1884, Lord Loch said, promised fair and equal treatment for all residents in the Transvaal ; but from the moment of its signature to the present date President Kruger had failed to •carry out his obligations. The evils involved in a Transvaal war could only be realised by those who knew South Africa ; but even so, he held that it would be impossible for the British Oovernment to fail in insisting upon Sir A. Milner's moderate ■demands. Lord Loch added that he had special opportunities of judging, and knew that when he was there he could rely on the loyalty of the Dutch to the empire. Grave subsequent events had somewhat unhinged men's minds, but he was satis- fied that there was still a large section of the Dutch on whom perfect reliance could be placed with regard to their loyalty to the Queen and the empire.

Of the ever-increasing tension of the situation in South Africa itself at this period, every day's newspapers supplied fresh evidence.

A strong light on the temper prevailing among the Boers was thrown by accounts of a debate in the Transvaal Volks- raad (Sept. 7), when several excited speeches were made in denunciation of British policy, and especially of the alleged 44 massing " of British troops near the frontiers of the re- public. President Kruger, while urging moderation of lan- guage, affirmed that the British Outlanders had excluded themselves from political rights by refusing to accept the fran- chise when offered them years before, and declared that what they wanted was "not the franchise but the country." He