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Show Mm iii! Commander Kleser in ' -. Ml Lake. Had to Swear Allegiance to' Gain Liberty and Property. After Seeing American. Cb.inn.men. Ho Disapproves of Their Admission Admis-sion to Africa. Julius A. Kleser of Johanneshurg, South Africa, who stopped over in Salt Lake yesterday, has the distinction of being the first Boer to make a tour of. this country since the recent war in his native land. And he is tho real arttclc o Boer. He Is proud of his country where he was raised and where his father and grandfather were raised before him, and he has a -wholesome dislike for the English. Mr. Kleser 13 patriotic if nothing else, hut he Is also something more. He fought in the Boer war. serving six months as a commander,' com-mander,' which is equivalent to a colonel col-onel in the American army. He wis captured by the British In one of the minor battles and taken to Bermuda, where, for thirteen months he made his residence as a prisoner of war. War Most Disastrous. The war, he says, was most disastrous disas-trous to his country, leaving it with a debt of 05,000.000. and an annual deficit de-ficit in the revenue of 1,000,000. In addition to this, he says, a large portion of the best men in the land were slain In battle, to say nothing of 23.000 women and children who were killed by the British. The country was set hack at least ten years, says Mr. Kieser, who is one of the leading men of the Transvaal district. In order to secure his freedom aftor serving thirteen months as a prisoner of war, Mr. Kieser says, he was obliged to swear to abide by the treaty entered Into between his country and tho British Brit-ish empire at the conclusion of the war. It was necessary for him to do this or his mining interests in the Rand, his large estate, six miles from there, as well as other valuable Interests, would have been confiscated. Consequently he considers that he was forced to take tho oath to save his holdings, as well as regain his liberty. He is not at all pleased with the British way of doing things. Definition of Diplomacy. Mr. Kieser says the English arc diplomatic dip-lomatic and Mr. Kieser's definition of diplomacy Is, "Make others believe what you don't believe yourself." Treaties, he says, apply only to the country that is forced Into tho compact; com-pact; the dog on top docs just as he pleases. In speaking of mining In the Transvaal Trans-vaal Mr. Kieser says the country la the. richest mining region in the world. From six to ten million dollars Is being taken out each month and more would be produced if they had the men to work the mines. He further says that only a limited area of the country is mined and that vast areas equally as rich nre there awaiting development. After seeing the Chinese In this country, coun-try, and more especially after taking a trip through Chinatown in San Francisco, Fran-cisco, Mr. Kieser Is opposed" to tho introduction in-troduction of Chinese labor in South Africa. Mr. Kieser, who is accompanied by his wife, left the Transvaal for this country on April 20. They have traveled trav-eled over a great portion of the United Stales, stopping at all of the larger cities between New York and San Francisco. Fran-cisco. Mr. Kleser and wife left Inst night for St. Louis. After taking in the World's Fair they will go on to "Wash-, ington and thence to Europe. |
