Show THE FEELING IN LONDON Prisoners l Irresponsible Men Not I Connected With Government London May 17The consul of the Trmsvaal here has received the following fol-lowing telegram from his government dated Pretoria May 16 Richard Nicholls describing himself a a colonel George Patterson a captain cap-tain Edward J Tremlett Charles El lis and oh A Mitchell and Fries and Hooper were arrested yesterday morn Ing on the sworn declaration of three Englishmen on the charge of high i treason in connection with the alleged of troops to object of the enrollment create a revoluticn seize Johannesburg I I fort and hold possession of the town until the British troops from Natal j I J could come to their assistance One of the prisoners alleges that he was acting under instructions from the I British war department A representative of the Associated I Press today saw a number of prominent promi-nent South Africans connected with the I leading concerns of Johannesburg concers They declared they had not received a word from their own agents In Cape I I Colony the absence of advices indicating j I I indicat-ing the affair was trumped up by the I Boer police and that in any case the polce I men arrested were irresponsible nobodies I no-bodies with fictitious military titles affixed af-fixed by the Boers with the object of I J discrediting I the British in the eyes 01 I the continental powers I is now believed Tremlett was formerly for-merly a captain of volunteers in Cape Colony and that he is now tl mining agent Patterson Is described as a butcher and a labor agitator Mitchell Is said to be a storekeeper Cooper is classed as 1 carpenter Ellis is alleged to be a private detective and the occupations occu-pations of Fries and Nicholls are unknown un-known A prominent Uitlander said to the representative of the Associated Press My own view is that a few irresponsible Irre-sponsible men met together to discuss means of defense in case the necessity for such action arose Those who are acquainted with Johannesburg know such precautions are necessary There was the greatest unrest and ferment there when I left But the statement that there has been a conspiracy during the past four months and that the South African Leage was connected with I is untrue un-true No Uitlander Is allowed to possess pos-sess a rifle yet at every corner are policemen armed with rifles and revolvers volvers The feeling of alarm on the arrival of the Boer artier can be onle1 Itisa significant fact that the men arrested are practically unknown showing that the feeling which in 1S93 i was limited to the capitalistic class has now gone lower down and has reached the ordinary working class of shopkeepers of Johannesburg In response to Inquiries made on the subject in government circles the correspondent cor-respondent here of the Associated Press was told today that the report that the men arrested at Johannesburg had ae under Instructions from the Brit ish war office was to absurd for refutation I |