Read Ebook: The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It Vol. 1 No. 20 March 25 1897 A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls by Various

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 348 lines and 18657 words, and 7 pages

Does not their request seem outrageous?

The Uitlanders kept up their demands for a share in the government, and the Boers steadily refused them.

Then the population of Johannesburg began to arm itself, and the Boers quietly watched them.

At last, word was sent to Dr. Jameson from the leading Uitlanders in Johannesburg that the Boers were up in arms, and that the people of Johannesburg were in danger of their lives.

They begged Dr. Jameson to come to their aid, in the name of humanity.

Dr. Jameson did not send this appeal on to his superiors, and wait for orders, as he should have done, but thinking that he was doing a glorious deed, he gathered a little force of eight hundred men together, and cutting down the telegraph wires behind him, so that no orders could reach him and stop him, he dashed into the Transvaal to the relief of Johannesburg.

Almost within sight of Johannesburg he was met by the Boers, under their leader, General Joubert.

Here a dastardly thing happened.

The Uitlanders, who had sent for this brave but foolish man, did not raise a finger to help him, but stayed like cowards within the walls of their city, while the little body of men, worn out with their long march, were cut to pieces by their enemy.

At last, when all hope was at an end, and but a hundred and fifty were left of his party, Dr. Jameson surrendered, and he and the remnant of his men were taken prisoner and conveyed to Pretoria.

Great excitement was felt in both Cape Colony and England. Nobody wanted to take the blame for the raid, but every one felt that if Dr. Jameson had succeeded instead of having failed, England would have added the Transvaal to her possessions, and said as little about it as possible.

Dr. Jameson having failed, matters were very different.

President Kr?ger demanded to know why England had allowed an armed force to enter the territory of a country with which she was at peace, and wished to know by whose authority the raid was made.

England at once declared that she had had no hand in the matter, and asked that Dr. Jameson and the rest of the prisoners might be sent to her, to be dealt with according to her laws.

After some delay President Kr?ger agreed to do this, and the remnant of the famous raiders was shipped to England.

On their arrival they were tried for breaking the laws, and the officers and Dr. Jameson were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, varying from five to fifteen months.

This ended the matter as far as Dr. Jameson was concerned--but not for the Government.

The Boers presented a claim to the British Government for damages sustained by them from the raid. Their claim is for ,000,000.

They ask three millions for material damage, which means the cost of the men and arms they used to defeat the raiders, and five millions for "moral and intellectual damage," which means wounded feelings and general annoyance.

There was much amusement in the British Parliament when the claim was made, and the members laughed heartily at the idea of moral and intellectual damage.

In the same way that we manage these matters in our Senate, the affair was referred to a committee.

This committee has to inquire into the matter, see if the claim is a just one, and whether England ought really to pay money to the South African Republic.

It is this committee which is sitting in Westminster Hall.

All London was interested when Mr. Cecil Rhodes was called before it and put on the stand as a witness. Mr. Rhodes was the Prime Minister of Cape Colony, and resigned his position when the trouble came about the Raid.

He is perhaps the most important man in all South Africa. It is his desire to bring the whole of this territory under English rule, and it is thought that this ambition was at the root of the Jameson Raid, and that Cecil Rhodes is really the person who is responsible for it.

It is also whispered that the English Government looks favorably upon his plans, and that the Raid was only a part of a deep-laid scheme to overthrow the Boer Government, and seize the Transvaal for England.

The Boers evidently believe this side of the story, for at the opening of their Parliament the other day, Oom Paul, the valiant old President, stated that it was the object of the enemy to destroy the Republic, but that the Boers must rely upon the help of God. He closed his speech with the solemn words:

"The Lord will not forsake His people!"

Mr. Cecil Rhodes has been asked by the Committee of Inquiry to explain the trouble in South Africa, and he has done so at great length.

His explanation is, however, a trifle funny to fair-minded persons who believe that the old maxim, "What is mine is mine, and what is thine is thine," should be strictly obeyed.

Mr. Rhodes has made a long complaint against the Boers for not allowing strangers and foreigners to help them govern their own country. He has pictured the woes of the Uitlanders because they are not allowed to govern, and because their children are not taught English in the schools, and moreover, because they are made to pay heavy taxes for the gold they mine and carry away. They have still another grievance. Any favor that the Boers show at all is shown to Germans, and not to Englishmen. The Boers will not allow any of the products of Cape Colony within their borders, but prefer to do their trading with Germany. A dreadful offence truly, that they choose their own markets!

The Commission has heard Mr. Rhodes with great seriousness and a good deal of sympathy.

So far, strange to say, it does not seem to have occurred to any member of the august assembly which is making the inquiry, that the Uitlanders are mere squatters in the Transvaal, and that if they don't like the ways of the country they are visiting, there is nothing to prevent them from packing up their traps, and going back whence they came.

Mr. Cecil Rhodes has not attempted to hide the fact that he did his best to stir up the uneasy feeling in Johannesburg that led to the Jameson Raid.

He admits that he sent Dr. Jameson to the borders of the Transvaal with orders to hold himself in readiness for an emergency.

He does not allow that he is responsible for the actual raid itself, because Dr. Jameson acted without orders when making it.

He does not deny, however, that he hoped to overthrow the Boer Government, and President Kr?ger.

One of the members of the committee asked him if he meant to make himself President in the place of Oom Paul, but he denied that he had any such idea.

He gave, as a final reason why the cause of the Uitlanders was a just cause, that "no body of Englishmen will ever remain in any place for any period, without insisting on their civil rights."

There is quite a sprinkling of Americans among the Uitlanders, but it is to be hoped that they understand the duties of citizenship too well to be among the discontents who demand its privileges without being willing to undertake its penalties.

The Boer Parliament has, since the sitting of the committee in London, refused the Uitlanders' last appeal for a voice in the government, and it is thought that England will refuse to pay the money damages claimed by the Republic.

It is thought that the result of the matter will be a war with the Boers, in which England will struggle to overthrow the other South African governments, and secure the control of the whole of that vast territory for herself.

Matters in Greece are growing more serious. Much has happened within the last few days.

On further consideration of the offers of the Powers, Greece refused home rule for Crete, and declared her intention of carrying out her plan of reunion with the island.

She boldly defied the Powers, and declared that she would yield only to superior force.

In replying to the note from the Powers ordering her to withdraw her troops from Crete, her Prime Minister, Delyannis, said that while Greece would not leave Crete, there should be no fighting with the Turks unless an attempt was made by them to carry the war into Greece itself. Unless the Turks invade Greece, the Greek army would only remain in Crete to protect the Christians there. If, however, the Powers made matters too difficult for Greece in Crete, she would of course have to protect herself.

This reply put Europe in a very difficult quandary. Greece says she is ready to fight the whole of Europe rather than leave her brothers in Crete in the power of the Turks.

The Powers, having threatened to make her obey if she refused to comply with their wishes, are now aghast at the prospect of having to fight with the heathen Turks against the Christian Greeks, or else steam back to their respective countries, snubbed and ridiculous.

They have long been conferring together to prevent any further misrule in Turkey, and to efface this monarchy, which is a disgrace to Europe, and they find that, by their too hasty interference, they have put themselves in the position of having to uphold the Turkish misrule against their own convictions.

The Turks are so convinced that Europe is going to stand by them, that large bodies of them are parading the streets of Canea, crying for the blood of the Christian "dogs," as they call them, and apparently expecting that the Powers are going to help them in a general massacre of the Greeks.

This state of affairs is particularly dreadful, because, at the time of the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks, not one of the European Powers fired a shot to prevent it. All that was done was accomplished by talks and conferences with the Ambassadors.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet