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Show 6e6gifegan JSnswers Edmunds. ' Weil-Known and Brilliant Salt Laker Hotly Bombards the English Position An Interest mg Controversy Over the Misunderstandings In the Transvaal. HE LIVED WITH THE BOERS : POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS AND WARPED JUDGMENTS. " r ,' , Refutation of Claims That South Africans Are Brutal, Exclusive and Designing Mr. Geoghegan Arraigns the - English Predicts Revulsion of Feeling. . .. : r -. There is another broad-minded-patriotic citizen, a resident of Sail" Lake, who takes strong exception to the utterances ut-terances of newspapers and people in this state who affect to believe that Great Britain is not waging a war of conquest against the Boers. This person per-son is Joseph Geoghegan, the widely known merchandise broker, and there is probably not another man in Utah better qualified to pass an, intelligent opinion upon this question than is he, since he formerly, resided in the South African republic and was a close observer ob-server of all conditions, and incidents in the land where now the clash of arms is attracting the attention of the world. . Chafing under the challenge of . a morning paper that no Salt-Laker who v-.i n v iu ouuiu AiriLii vouia ai-firm ai-firm that the Boers are not what the prejudiced British picture' them, Mr. Geoghegan yesterday unfolded to The Heraiu a startling array of historical facts and undisputed figures in support of the proposition that England is engaged en-gaged in a war of conquest. Mr. Geoghegan Geog-hegan quotes freely English historians and British reports to show that there is a current misconception if not a woeful woe-ful warping of judgment on what are the real causes of the war in the Transvaal. Trans-vaal. Such "high authority as the New York Sun. corroborates every utterance of Mr. Geoghegan. Slavery Not An Issue., j As' to the claim that the Boers, who, by the way, are descendants of the Dutch and the, French Huguenots, the best blood of old Europe, are sorely vexed because , the British abolished slavery In the South African states, Mr. Geoghegan shows that the English imported im-ported all the slaves, that the Bush- j men,- Kaffirs. Hottentots and other natives, na-tives, never were slaves and . that the drjginal Dutch laws forbade slavery. There never was any demand from Cape Colony for the abolition of slavery, slave-ry, because a condition of servitude was forbidden even before the English came' into the country. When the great trek oV migration took place , northward, there to flee from the oppression op-pression of the British, confiscation of , Boer property was the order, but no slaves were taken with the movers. I. Speaking of the charge of brutality, 1 Mr. Geoghegan saidhe never saw any of it practised by the Boers during his residence in South Africa. "It was common com-mon there," remarked Mr. Geoghegan, Geoghe-gan, "for an Englishman to say to a nigger on the sidewalk, 'footsack,' which is equivalent to saying 'get out of here, you dog." Where there are a , thousand niggers to one white man there would be no show to get along if the. blackman were not made to feel his inferioritv. Patriotism and Education. . "If pride of country," Mr. Geoghegan asserts,' "amounts to anything, a Boer is an Afrikander, and glad to be known as such, which term to him is esteemed the same as American is to us. Yet if the name of Afrikander is applied to an Englishman there he feels insulted, for the reason that he has no patriotic pride m that country. With the Eng-' Eng-' lishman it is only a case of temporary residence, where he hopes to achieve fortune to take back to England to spend. "I lived among the Boers nearly four years and found them a gentle, hospitable hospit-able people, but bitter against the British Brit-ish because of the wrongs suffered at their hands. To the people of every other nation they hold out the hand of welcome. "The Boers are not . opposed to the advance of civilization. Those who have means send their children to universities uni-versities in England, Germany and Holland Hol-land to be educated. Their republic has a permanent fund for the maintenance 01 common scnoois, seminaries ana colleges, col-leges, and there are about eighty of these government institutions. Citizenship Dangers. "The great influx of Englishmen." continued Mr. Geoghegan, "came to the Transvaal on account of the fabulous gold fields. They did not go there for the purpose of becoming citizens of the republic. These immigrants, or Out-landers Out-landers as they are called, refused to renounce their citizenship to Great Britain, and consequently if given the right to vote their first effort wouid be to depose the government at Pretoria and annex the state to Cape Colony and the British crown.. Why, therefore, should not the Boers, who. have suffered suf-fered so much at the hands of Great Britain while establishing a government govern-ment and a country, hedge themselves them-selves with safeguards of this kind? "But as a matter of fact during the 'recent negotiations President Kruger did consent to grant the elective franchise fran-chise to British subjects after seven years' residence on condition that England Eng-land would agree to declare absolutely that it would withdraw all claim of suzerainty over the Boer country. The necessity for such a condition is obvious, obvi-ous, because if a dual citizenship existed ex-isted the British subjects could simply say they violated no oath of allegiance to the Transvaal in voting to annex the country to Great Britain, inasmuch as they had not renounced their citizenship citizen-ship as Englishmen. "The duplicity of Mr. Chamberlain in 1 refusing to accept this proposition an I telling President Kruger he was p'v-paring p'v-paring a proposition to submit and enforce, en-force, is- most astounding. I would !ik-to !ik-to know what else would be expect-i of the Boers than to tight for their ex. istence, as they are doing. Taxation Propositions. "Suppose you have a hundred pn,,r ! farmers eking out a miserable c-xir- ' ence from their holdings and near to them a man who owns a minp. out nf which he realizes a million dollars a month. Would it be fair to ask each unit of the hundred poor farmers to pay an much taxes as the min--owner? That is the taxation 'proposition 'propo-sition of the British, as I see it. I will further state that in the Transvaal th. treatment of foreigners by the Boer government is far more liberal than our fellow citizens are receiving from th.- ' British taxing power in the Klondike region. "This war is the result of a personal matter between Mr. Chamberlain an.l . Cecil Rhodes. Chamberlain thought hi , ; bluff of sending 80,000 soldiers 'would ' cower the Boers and bring a gi-f;ic I measure of glory to him, making him the recognized leader of political thought in the kingdom. The war was opposed by the brightest minds in Kng- , land, but Lord Salisbury's1 ministry ' I gave Chamberlain a free hand until retreat was impossible. Revulsion of Feeling Predicted. "Unless some signal successes come tn thf RriM.h nrm nrn .hnrn .m k , such a revulsion of feeling in England aa to wipe the present ministry out of power and make Chamberlain the most execrated man in Great Britain. Two , hundred million people are arrayed against less than a quarter of a million. f ' The importation of ammunition can no . longer be done by the Boers, and with- I in the next fifteen months or two years the end of the war must come. ' "If the Boers see that they are s-ire to be wiped out they will destroy th.? mines and improvements around Johannesburg Johan-nesburg until it will take a million of I pounds sterling to get the mines on a f paying basis again, and this fact may k have- an influence in bringing about some settlement and the retirement of l-Chamberlain l-Chamberlain who Is the war party in, " I the British cabinet. I England Paying Dearly. j England is fighting not for greater privileges for the Outlanders. but for suzerainty, and she is paying a big price for it. Soon the hot season will i be on and the English soldiers .will die 1 off quicker than if hit by Boer-bullets. I If the 300.000 Cape Colonists flock to the I Boers the railroads would be torn up and the English forces could not be '. moved to the front. "I notice that the aristocracy is fitting fit-ting up a fine hospital ship for. the British forces. Many American women have helped the scheme for purpose of social distinction that they otherwise could not achieve. Why have they not 1 done something like that for our own soldier boys in the Philippines?" ' |