Show b GREAT BRUAANAND THE WAR i The Cause Involved is the Cause of Liberty and Release from Plunder Falsehood and OppressionUitlanders Case Likened to that of the Cubans Editor TrlbuneI have only today S read your report of the speech recently made by Mr Mason In the Senate oC the United States aspeecJi urging upon L Ihc Senate an expression of sympathy Vfor tHD Boers M f Mason declares i that theMJnitcd States has the same 1 Brightto extend Its sympathy urn its hopes for theirtsuccess to the Boers 1 in their struggle for liberty as it had to interfere withSpanruTCuba And yet Mr Mason Is fully aware that every argument which Justified a disarmed and disfranchised majority in Cuba in claiming yourS IntervenUon has justi S fietl the appeal made to our Nation t > y 1 the majority in the Transvaal In the 1 case of Cuba you were longsuffcrlng1 c almost to the point ot poltroonery and I venture to say that the imbecile cowardice of our Governments hero r since 3SSO in dealing with the Transvaal Trans-vaal is a sure sign of British decadence and that even our successful conduct of the present war will by no means put us right with either ourselves our f colonies or with the national conscience What is liberty Docs It relate to the square miles men call the Transvaal Trans-vaal or to the people who occupy those square miles If governments do derive de-rive their just powers from the got erncd and If without that consent gov L crnment Is but a tyranny what Is the position in the Transvaal where two thirds of the white population paying ry ninetenths of tho taxes have had no k more voice In the affairs of their community com-munity than has a cam shaft in one of their stampmills t > O O air Mason Is tlio ISmbassador of a f Sovereign StutOf one of your great libertyloving commonwealths 1 r should indeed be sorry to suppose that any considerable section of his community com-munity approves its ambassador or his language lie declares that the South African war Is a struggle between democracy de-mocracy and royalty between the dl vjne right of man and the divine right i of hinge Really sir such sjuft entitles en-titles Mr iMason to jour sympathies rather than our arguments Unfortunately Unfortu-nately however air Mason is not alone and I should not venture to trouble you with tills letter only that I have today heard from an American who has perhaps per-haps the best right of all to speak fdr the American Democracy aiy correspondent corre-spondent deprecates the war on the ground that If the Uitlanders are in a majority of numbers and in wealth it is only a question of time when they will obtain their rights without the Intervention In-tervention of England Now precisely 4 precise-ly the same statement might have been made in the case of Cuba No doubt the Cubans were In a majority both In numbers and In wealth but their efforts have merely kept Cuba in lames for the past forty years and In the case of the majority Jn the Transvaal the greater their majority and their wealth the weaker they became because the greater was the volume of taxation wrung from them which taxes were spent Jn building forts around Johannesburg every gun pointing Into the town every gun planted not to protect the town but to destroy it Head the following passage from one of tho petitions of the Transvaal National union We now have openly the policy of force revealed to us 250000 Is to be spent upon the completion of a fort in Pretoria 100000 IB to Ifc spent upon a fort to terrorize the inhabitants of Johannesburg Large orders are sent to 3rupp Cor big guns Maxim guns have been ordered and we are even told that Herman ofllcers are coming out to drill the burghers Are those things necessary or are they calculated to Irritate the feeling to breaking point What necessity Is thj re for forts in peaceful inland towns Why should p the Government endeavor to keep UH in faiibjectlon to unjust laws by the power of the sword Instead of making themselves r them-selves live In the hearts of the people by a broad policy of justice What can be said of the policy which deliberately divides the two great sections of the I people from each other Instead of uniting unit-ing them under equal laws or the policy poli-cy which keeps us In eternal turmoil with the neighboring States What shall be said of the statecraft every act of which sows torments discontent or race hatred and reveals a conception t of republicanism under which the only privilege of the majority Is to provide revenue and bear Insult while only y those are considered republicans who speak a certain language and In greater S or less degree share the prejudices of r the ruling classes e But It is only a question of lime r writes my Democratic friend before the Ultlandjers will get the franchise But hojMnuch time and what were the hopes hold out Jn the great debate In the Rand on August 1C 3S05 the franchise fran-chise proposals were made clear air Lucius Meyer a progressive introduced intro-duced a seven years prospective franchise fran-chise and tabled a petition In its support sup-port signed by 35183 inhabitants of the Transvaal air rosen on the part of the Government opposed it lie said It would be contrary to republican principles b R Those persons wlio signed the petition for the franchise say that they are peaceful lawabiding citizens but they give lIsP u sign that they are not lawabiding because they are against the law the election law Is 1 p there and they should abide by it Then air H 1C Loveday In his speech to the Rand has this to tniy of the existing ex-isting franchise act The President uses the argument that they the Uitlandeis should naturalize nat-uralize and thus give evidence of their desire to become citizens I have used the same argument but what becomes of such arguments when met with the objection that the law requires such persons to undergo a probationary period pe-riod extending from fourteen to twenty four years before they are admitted to Ui j full lights of citizenship and even iifjfcr one has undergone that proba tWuUy period he can only be admitted topfull rights by resolution of the First Jinad In any ease the naturalized citizen citi-zen cannot obtain full rights until he reaches the age of forty years he not being eligible for the Second Raad until m un-til hi Js thirty years The child born of i Uitlantler parents must therefore wait until he Is forty years of age although at sixteen years of age he may bo r called upon to do military service and may fall In defense of the land of hla birth When such arguments are Pressed upon me by our kinsmen from all parts of South Africa I am not surprised sur-prised that these persons indignantly refuse to accept citizenship upon such unreasonable terms The chairman said there was no doubt about It What air Lovcday said regarding re-garding the qualifications and how long a man would have to wult until he was 1 qualified to Income a full burgher Wan absolutely correct It could not be contradicted con-tradicted The law was clear on that point air Jan de Beer Ves I HOC now air Juvcday Is right and I nm wrong The law does say what air Lovoday uald o Sir 1C you wjll turn to Whlttakera Almanac you will find on two consecutive consecu-tive pages Sweden and the TransvaaL In Sweden the taxation Is 1 per head in the Transvaal 22 per head In the t Transvaal the annual salaries paid thomsulvetf by a handful of ofllclals inoHtiy Dutchmen r born iu Holland works out si i ii 1 provides over 200 per annum for every male Boer In the Transvaal Including the babes at the breast The gold mining mi-ning Industry directly or Indirectly contribute WftOOOO a yenr to the revenue rev-enue and yet the total dividends paid by all the I gold mines during their I twelve months of maximum product I was leas than 7000000 0 When in 3893 the President of this precious Robbers Roost went onra pleasure trip to the Cape Colony as the guest of the Cape Government his en1 tire expenses for special trains and banquests were defrayed by the Cape Government On his return to Pretoria i air Kruger again charged the whole of i these costs against the Transvaal rev iiiuc Whereupon air Eugene aiarals the editor of the Land en Volk de nounced this fraud week after week in the columns of his paper So persistent per-sistent were these attacks copied as they were into x ur English papers that aii JCruger was forced to proceed against the young editor for libel The case was fought out in the High court and the President was defeated with costs AJid here Is another agreeable item which air FItzpatrick has exhumed Volksraad July 1SSO l Presidents affairs His Honor accepts a loan of 7000 from the state funds at 2H percent per-cent Interest The bank late in Pre toria being at that time G l per cent what would the Ultlanders these assassins as-sassins of the public credit who sup plied the 7000 think of this pretty Incident In-cident Says Senator Mason When the colors col-ors of a republic are struck at are we to sit silent Yes sir sit silent and sit ashamed that a republic should have been discovered far more venal than was the city government of New York In the palmiest days of Tweed S O D There is one bright light that shines from tho war and that Is the courage of the Boer soldier He Is as brave and as loyal with a misplaced loyalty as Is the Turkish soldier and the less either Turk or Boer knows of the corrupt oligarchy for which he fights the bet ter each will fight in a bad cause and in a lost cause Englands quarrel Is neither with Turk nor Boer Jn a year or two at most these brave farmer sol diem will be a part and parcel of an honest homeruling British colony a colony free Just as Natal and New Zea land are free very much more free at least If autonomy Is freedom than Is Senator Masons State of Illinois For America Is fatislled with State rights but as an English colony there is in reserve for a redeemed Transvaal Stale sovereignty with all the at tributes of sovereignty It will Interest your Democrats to know that Eng lands colonies may coin their own money and Unit they have the constitutional consti-tutional right to select any legal ten der they choose And It Is we may bo sure because our colonies are so free that these enfranchised democracies all around the world are today through their Parliaments voting supplies and furnishing troops that they may make free men of our folk In South Africa Every colony of them all Is practically unanimous that England lias Intervened for freedoms sake not merely in free doms name Australia Canud1 cold and heal New Zealands Islis tins voice repeal That everywhere beneath ihu sun All Saxon henrls In this aro one Born oCtha Luuiejess Northern sea They must bo llko Its waters free S ci As for Senator William Mason and his strictures we must bear with them ns we may Siiialor aiason belongs to that party which In 3SOt made the amiable discovery to all the listening I world that 47J per cent of your own voters were rogues nml Anarchists a 9 b There Is a lone and temper in your public mind which is becoming all too common it Is a tone of political hys teria from which pray the gods that you may be delivered before all your moral influence in the worlds affairs I has waned With the echoes of your political camualgn of isou still ringing In our cars people here are beginning to inquire whether citizens or a repuu IIc must needs be scolds or demagogues or both and at least the gentleman from Illinois sheds no light upon the answer they should return Yours faithfully aiORETON FREWEN Innlshannon County Cork Jan 1st I |