Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/213

 1899.] Sir H. C.-Bannennan and Mr. Balfour. [205

the telling phrase that " the sword having been thrust into our hands, we could not lay it down until we had established once for all the principle that no British subject in South Africa should be subjected to the badge of inferiority. ,, Colonel Eoyds (Roch- dale) having seconded the motion, Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman desired at once to say there would be no disposition in that part of the House to place any obstacle in the way of granting such supplies or such powers to the Queen as might be requisite in order to secure a rapid and effective prosecution of a war rendered absolutely necessary by the terms of the Boer ulti- matum and the subsequent invasion of British colonies. Going on to ask how it was that the efforts of the Government to secure a pacific termination to our controversy with the Boers had failed, when the two parties had more than once seemed on the verge of an agreement, he said that one cause seemed to be that they had played a game of bluff, and that was a veiy bad game to play with a people at once shrewd and brave. A very important contributing cause, in his view, was the un- necessary and inept raising of the question of suzerainty. He also wanted particularly to know why, when the door was shut on the franchise proposals, so long a delay occurred before the other door — he referred to the fresh proposals promised in the despatch of September 22 — was opened.

Mr. Balfour was amazed to hear it hinted that the delay in submitting fresh proposals after the despatch of September 22 made against the interests of peace, when the very organs of the peace party praised the Government for a hesitation which left the door ajar. As to the suzerainty controversy, he re- minded the HQUse that the republic had claimed to be a wholly independent State, inconsistently with the agreements of 1881 and 1884, and that in answer the Colonial Secretary had reiterated the undoubted right of this country to control the foreign relations of the republic, using, as he was entitled to do, the word " suzerainty," its use having been rendered necessary by the position taken up by the Boers. Dealing with the charge that the Government had been bluffing, Mr. Balfour remarked that a person " bluffed " when, having no useful cards in his hand, he acted as if he had. That, he said, was not the position of the Government, who held the cards and meant to use them. The despatch of troops to the Cape during the last few months had been necessary in order to protect our posses- sions in case of emergency. No menace or brag was involved in that policy. The Government, he claimed, had steered a just course between two extremes, and the criticism that they had provoked war by sending out troops was intrinsically absurd. In concluding Mr. Balfour said that, if war was to be entered upon, the issue was clearly an issue of righteousness and of liberty. If we were engaging in a piratical attack upon the liberties of any people would the colonies join our cause, offer us their resources, and aid us with their troops? We had