The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 20, March 25, 1897 by Various


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Page 3

The taxes are certainly heavy, but they are levied upon the gold miners,
who have come to the Transvaal for the sole purpose of making fortunes out
of the gold deposits; these fortunes they wish to carry away with them to
their own country.

The Boers, very naturally, think that some portion of these riches should
be paid to the country which gave them, and they cannot see by what right
these foreign gold-hunters expect to have a voice in the government.

One of the great grievances of the Uitlanders is that the Boers will not
have English taught in the schools, and that their children are obliged to
learn the language of the country if they go to the public schools.

These demands of the Uitlanders will seem all the more absurd when it is
understood that they do not ask for a voice in the government as citizens
of the country. None of these English-speaking people have so much as
offered to become citizens of the Transvaal. They are not even willing to
be. They wish to keep their right of citizenship in their own country,
that they may have the protection of England, and be able to return there
as soon as they have made their fortunes.

However, while they are in the Transvaal, digging their gold out of its
soil, they want to be able to govern the country in their own way, and are
loud in their outcries against the Boers for preventing them from doing
so.

Under the laws of the Transvaal it is very easy to become a citizen.

A man has only to live there two years before he can become a citizen, and
have all the share in the government that he is entitled to.

But this the Uitlanders are not willing to do. They want everything for
nothing.

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.

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Books | Photos | Paul Mutton | Fri 29th Mar 2024, 12:51