Papers Past | Newspapers | Ashburton Guardian | 12 June 1900 (2025)

"THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BOER WAR."

The keen interest takes In everything connected with the preseut war was shown by the crowded »udiecce that gathered in the Oddfellows' Hall on Monday night, to near Mr A. W. Baker, of the South African Compounds Mission, give his lecture, advertised as "The truth about the Boer War."

His Worship the Mayor occupied the chair, and on the platform was the Rev. >". Fee, who introduced the lecturer. The Mayor expressed his pleasure in presiding at the meeting, seeing that the lecture was in connection with the war. Anything referring to the present contest was of the very greatest interest to Britishers. Mr Baker prefaoed his addresi by saying he had not been quite correctly introduces. He had been styled Key A. W. Baker, whereas though he was a missionary and 11 reverent," he was nob a ••reverend." He was, be continued, born in South Africa, in the colony of Natal, and had been more or lees in contact with Boers all his life. For the last 12 years he had been a resident in the Transvaal, 8£ yean at Pretoria, and nearly 4 years in Johannesburg. !Ehey would agree then that he muib have seen much worth speaking about. The dominant feature of Boer character was hatred of the British, which originated through the latter insisting on the emancipation of the slaves, j He detailed the treaty the Boers made with Dignaan, the Zulu chief, whereby they were to be given Natal in return for 700 head of cattle taken from a rival chief, the great foe of Dignaan. The Boers went) out of their way to slaughter the natives and st«al their oattle, and thus paid the price of Natali Thete was such a thing, however, as the law of retribution, and both the Boers and Dignaan had to pay the penalty of their crime. The Boers, who had taken the oath of allegiance to Eng and, sought fco throw it off by trekking farther away, but were told that having onoa made their allegiance they could not thrown it off, no matter where they went. This served to increase their hatred of the British. Matters, however, appeared to settle down and the Boers enjoyed every privilege of Britishers. As a m*ttsr of face they received more than Britishers, as was shown in Gape Colony at the present day, where an unheard of itate of things existed, namely, that a member of Parliament in a British community had to learn a foreign language to be a member of the House. Tho me jofity of the members in the C«*pe House • were Dutch, and the Britisher had to learn that language to understand the speeches. The speaker detailed how the Boers, who would not oome under British contr 1, pushed on over the Drakensburg mountains and piilwged and plundered the unfortunate blacks to their hearts content. Some of the natives, however, never paid taxes lo them and never recognised them in auy shape or form. The Boers quarrelled among themselves and split np into three republics, Mr Baker deioiibed how the Boers intermarried, and thui beoame extremely strong factions, which required a strong governmenb to deal with. On accountot the strength of these factions their government had been forced to wink at a great deal of defnuce, and thua the country's fiuanoes dwindled down to a state of hopeless bankiuptcy. In 1870 there was only 12s 6d in the treasury, with all officials' salaries in arrears, with the oountry flooded with paper money, nominally of the value of 20s, but only actually worth •bout Is, and with the country in a generally disorganised state. The Zulus, who mustered some 40,000 warriors, could have swept through the Transvaal, had not the British Government supported the Boers beotuse they were white people. For years the Zulu king Oetewayo had been keeping his t. oops back. He had made a law that no young mt»n was allowed to marry until " he had washed his spear in the blood of the enemy." The speaker said that if, even in New Zealand, there was a law that no young fellow should marry till he had killed tomebody, there would be a good many murder?. His hearers could understand then, that, when there were 40,000 savages kept in camp, away from their homes, and not allowed te marry till they had killed someone, they had a condition of things it required more than a native Government to control, Three times Uetewayo sent to the Governor of Natal, asking permission to attack the Boers and wipe them out; of existence. Each time he sent a more solemn warning, that if his men wete not allowed to attack he could not hold them in ohe< k. With such a fearful horde of savages on their borders, the Boers lived in daily terror f>r their lives, and sent to England asking her lo annex the country, and tetke it under her protection. Finally England consented, and Sir Theophilus Phepstone, with twenty-five native policemen, went up and ;formally annexed the country, hoisting the British eneign in Pretoria amid tho shouting of the crowd, and taking the oonmry under British protection. The speaker here pointed out the duplioity and cunning of the Boers. They time after time said to England, she must annex the country, as they were unable to govern it any longer. The Bser President of thi.fc time went to Sir Theophilus Shepstone, and said that although they wished England to annex the country, still, to appeaie some of the Boers, who might object, he would put in a protest in writing. This be did, and it was afterwards brought up, that England annexed the country against the will of the Boers. The speaker asked what truth there could be in such a statement. If the Boers did nol wan*) the country taken over, why were not Sir Theophilui Shepstone and his twenty-five policemen put over ths border ! The thing was not done !■ a hurry* He and hh men were there for some months, and the annexation was at the urgent request of the Boeri, England saved the Boers and their country, and pat down the Zulu war, at an awful cost of money and lives, and the Boers stood aloof and never lifted a little finger to help England. A small minority of people, traitors and agitators, then commenced to urge the Boers on to disaffection, assuring them if they only kept) on they would get their oountry back. Mr Baker prooeeded i to illustrate the patriaohal form of the Boer government. The president was accessible to any of ths burghers, and on the broad ateop or verandah at the Presidency, they smoked their pipes, drank their coffee, chatted over their domestic affairs, even down to the latest baby, and discussed their wants and grievances. Their life was identical with that of Jacob when he tended his flecks and moved from place to pace for the summer and winter feeding. The Soripture Btnry of Jacob sending his younger son Joseph out to see how his brethren were doing with the sheep was, to the Boers, like a page out of th«ir own history. A very great change came in when the British took charge. The Boer farmer from the far veldfa came in expecting to talk matters over, and met at Government House, ssy a soldier on guard who paraded up and down with fixed bayonet and took not the slightest notice of his request to see the Governor. On, he irefc some under-strapper of an upstart olerk who, " got up regardless," with immaculate oollnrs and cuffs, laughed at the burghers jeered at their dress and style, and these old burghers, filled with indignation and rage, trekked back fee their farms and spread the news of the insulti heaped upon them throughout the whole country In this way hatred and detestation of the British was engendered, and the smouldering embers of disoonteot) fanned into white heal!). The B>ers were 4000 years behind the times, and id was impossible to bring them into line all at once. Mr Baker briefly sketched the events which led up to the last war, which, he claimed, was an unnecessary one, Much as he admired Mr Gladstone for many things he execrated him for his false dealing with the Boers. For the sake of an electioneering cry he had done a great wrong to England, and had proved one of the most expensive friends the Boers ever had. What right, the speaker asked, bad Mr Gladstone to say a wrong had baen done to the Boers in the annexation of their country when the flag had been hoisted over Pretoria at their own request, and Britain had saved the country from being overun by Zulus and blacks ? The whole bueinasa reflected the greatest discredit on Mr Gladstone, who had used a great orisis for an electioneering dodge. Over and over again his three Secretaries of State had said the Transvaal would not be given back, and on the strength of this Europeans had spsnt enormous sums of money there, and the natives had oome to look upon fchtmselvea as British subjeots. In spite of all his protestations the country had bsee given back,

and the natives handed over to tbe tender mercies of the Bows, whom they cordially detested. Referring to the last war, Mr Baker said people wondered why the Boers were so foolish as to attack England. Everybody knew how easy it was fco make a mistake working out a problem in arithmetic if they got one figure wrong at the star*. Because the soldiers had been asked to do impossibilities, and bad then been ordered to retire, the Boers had argued that Tommy Atkins always ran when he caw the Boere, Well, so he did, but, unfortunately for the Bosr, this time Tommy ran the wrong way, and when the Boers saw him run, and saw what) he had got on the end of his rifle, the Boer thought) it was time for him to run too, and run he did. Before the war of 1881 the Boer had hated the British, bnt after Gladstone'e criminal weakness in handing back the country they despis;d them. Mr Baker then spoke of the shocking treatment dealt out to the native* who came under the Boers' control. They looked upon a native as an animal, and thought it no more harm to kill him than to kill a baboon. Although the constitution stated they neither practiced nor allowed slavery in the Transvaal they made slavas of tbe blacks, treating them most . cruelly, logging them terribly with shamboks for the most trifling offences, and in other ways behaving most inhumanly towards them. He raid he wai nob speaking from hearsay. While practicing his profession as a lawvar | in Pretoria ha had prosecuted some of these Boers in the Courts and he offsred to prove by documentary evidence, filed in the Courts at Pretoria, every word of what he asserted. The lecture was listened to with rapt attention. Frequently the speaker was applauded, at other times the perpetrators of the outrages mentioned were hooted. Rev. T. Fee proposed votes of thanks to the speaker ; to the Oddfellows' for allowing the use of the hall free of chargej to the newrpapers for advertising rhe meeting free of charge ; and to the chairman for presiding. A collection was taken up, in aid of the Indian Famine Relief Fund.

It was announced that Mr Baker would speak to-night in the Baring Square Church on Million work in the South African Compounds. A set of lantern slides, illustrative of the subject, would be shown. There would be no collection, at the million was » Faith one, the promoter! depending entirely on voluntary contributionf. The singing of a verse of tbe National Anthem closed the meeting.

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