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Page 4
In the mean while, the Crown Prince has arrived at Larissa, and taken the
command of the troops in Thessaly. The Crown Princess is with him, to
organize a Red Cross Society, to give aid to the wounded in case war
breaks out. This good, kind woman has put aside all her own feelings, and
is working for the benefit of her husband's people.
The Greeks show no disposition to obey the demands of the Powers, and it
is said that Russia refused to join in blockading the Greek ports, because
she believed that it is no longer possible to keep peace between Greece
and Turkey.
The Greek army along the frontier is so large and powerful as to be beyond
the control of diplomacy. It is stated, on good authority, that if the
King of Greece were to listen to the Powers, and order the troops back
from Thessaly, the army would revolt, dethrone him, and carry on a war on
its own account.
So incensed are the people against the Turks, that nothing will satisfy
them but war, and the winning back of such of their provinces as are still
under Turkish control.
It is said that the Greeks are not attempting to make a strongly fortified
position for themselves on the frontier. They consider themselves an
invading army, and the moment war is declared, they intend to swarm over
the border, and, if possible, conquer the provinces that once were theirs.
* * * * *
The inquiry into the Transvaal Raid is still going on.
Dr. Jameson has been called before the Committee, and appears to have told
all he knows of the matter.
His story makes things look very black indeed for Mr. Cecil Rhodes, the
Prime Minister of Cape Colony, and perhaps for the English Government
also, if the whisper is true that Mr. Rhodes and the Government perfectly
understood each other as regarded South African matters.
Dr. Jameson said that before the raid occurred, he had various talks with
Cecil Rhodes and John Hays Hammond, an American mining engineer, who lived
in the town of Johannesburg, and was one of the principal movers in the
plot.
They spoke about the troubles of the foreigners in the Transvaal. Mr.
Hammond declared that the Boers made life so difficult for foreigners that
unless some change was made, the people of Johannesburg would revolt.
Dr. Jameson went to Pretoria at Mr. Hammond's invitation, and saw for
himself the condition of things.
Plans were then made to overthrow the government, and to make a pretence
of finding out who the people would prefer to have for a President, by
taking a man-to-man vote of the whole population. The person chosen by
this vote was to be declared President.
Dr. Jameson was to bring his soldiers to Johannesburg, to keep order while
the vote of the people was being taken.
This plan, while it was fair enough in sound, was in fact an infamous
scheme to trick the Boers out of their rights.
The Uitlanders, as we told you before, far outnumber the Boers.
By taking a vote of the whole population, every Uitlander would have had a
vote; these foreigners would of course have voted for the person who would
let them have things their own way, and as they outnumbered the natives,
the poor Boers would have had their rights taken away from them by
foreigners, who, according to their laws, had no right to vote at all.
The scheme was as clever as it was infamous. To the world it would have
seemed fair enough, and only those familiar with South African politics
would have understood what a shameful trick it was.
There is small doubt that Mr. Hammond was as deep in this fraud as Cecil
Rhodes and Dr. Jameson. He may have hoped to win the presidency when Oom
Paul Krueger was put out of office, and very probably did not realize that
Mr. Rhodes and Jameson intended to annex the Transvaal to the English
Territory, after they had stolen it from the Boers.
It is, however, sure, from Dr. Jameson's own words, that the Raid was a
deliberate attempt on the part of these three men to rob the Boers of
their rights, and divide the spoil when the deed was done.
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