Part 9 (1/2)

5.--_Methods of Exaction._

A reduction of 100,000 was made on the railway tariffs; but in July, 1897, the duties on corn and food-stuffs were increased by 200,000. At the end of 1898, a certain number of these were lessened, but not that on flour. A comparison of the list of duties between 1897 and the end of 1898 shows that they were increased on twenty-eight products, and decreased on four.

Coal travelling a distance of 25-1/2 miles, the charge made by the Netherlands Railway Co. is 4s. 5d., which is 8-1/2d. per ton per mile; while the Free State Railway only charges 5-3/4d. and the Natal line 3d.

The Company collects the customs dues for account of the State, as security for the payment of interest on their shares and debentures.

Dr. Kuyper is quite willing to admit that the ”financial administration leaves something to be desired,” but he adds that, ”while at the Cape the taxes on produce are at the rate of 15 per cent., in the Transvaal they are only 10 per cent.” But it is easy to see how, by means of railway tariffs and various combinations, due to the cunning of Mr.

Kruger and his Hollander friends, it has been possible to enhance prices of every description.

CHAPTER XII.

”CAPITALIST INTRIGUES” AND THE WAR.[17]

1.--_A War of Capitalists._

”It is a war of capitalists against a set of poor Boers who have no sort of interest in the dispute!” Such is the general cry.

Let us look at the facts.

The other day, anent the attempt upon the Prince of Wales, I referred to the anarchist and socialistic attacks of certain Pro-Boer and Anglophobe journals on capitalists, financiers, and the wealthy ”metal-hearted mine-owners,” as Dr. Kuyper calls them. I reminded my readers that Professor Bryce himself treats as absurd the tale that the aim of the Jameson Raid, as stated by those papers, was the conquest of the Transvaal for Rhodesia. I shall now show by doc.u.mentary evidence that the war did not break out through any action on the part of gold-mine proprietors. In the first place, the greater number of these proprietors reside in Europe; and as much in France, Germany and Belgium, as in England. Their representatives in the Transvaal may hold more or less important interests in those mines, but they are imbued with a full sense of their responsibilities.

Now, commercial men never seek to bring about a political crisis unnecessarily; they invariably endeavour to avoid one. If they resign themselves to such a course, it is only as a last resource.

The truth of these general a.s.sertions is verified in the case in point by two doc.u.ments which have not been fabricated after the events.

They are the reports of the Chamber of Mines, published by Mr. Rouliot, in January 1898, and January 1899.[18]

[Footnote 17: _Le Siecle_, April 7th, 1900.]

[Footnote 18: Published in the _Revue Sud-Africaine_ (Paris).]

2.--_A Local Board._

The report made by Mr. Rouliot to the Chamber of Mines on January 20th, 1898, refers to the burdens imposed upon the gold industry by the faulty administration of the Transvaal. It shows how the Volksraad contemptuously rejected, in 1897, a pet.i.tion signed by more than ten thousand inhabitants of all nationalities and all professions. It declares that ”the Chamber of Mines has no desire to interfere in the conduct of general affairs in the Transvaal”; it recalls the fact that the Commission of Enquiry nominated after the Crisis of 1896, had recommended the const.i.tution of a ”Local Board” which President Kruger had contemptuously rejected; and goes on to say:--

”It is nonsense to affirm that the creation of such a Board would have made a government within a government, and would have threatened the independence of the State. At the time that we made the proposal, we sincerely trusted that what had happened might be buried in oblivion and that we might dwell together in amity. We had hoped that the burghers would have recognised that want of experience, and their education would have made them unfitted for dealing with the most difficult problems that could face a young nation, and that they would have seen the necessity of calling men to their aid who could give them the benefit of their experience, and help them to ensure sound conditions for the State and its industrial development. Unfortunately, we have been deceived in our hopes....”

That is all; save that Mr. Rouliot alludes cursorily to the fact that the government had endeavoured to found a Chamber of Mines in opposition to the old one, but that an amalgamation had taken place; he, consequently, was speaking in the name of the entire industry.

3.--_A Deliberative Council._

In the course of the year 1898, Mr. Kruger's policy became more and more provocative. The Chamber of Mines confined itself to the request for the appointment of a deliberative council, to be composed of members nominated by the government, the powers of which should be limited to the application of the laws concerning gold-theft, the sale of spirituous liquors, and the ”pa.s.s-law” concerning native labourers.

At a meeting of the Volksraad, June, 1898, the sub-committee appointed to enquire into this modest request, decided to recommend its rejection.