terms are introduced into any road concession which may burden English merchandise with heavier transit duties than those taken from the concessionnaires. The Russian Road Company, with a Government guarantee, is now making a road from the Caspian to Kasvín, where it joins the Teheran road, the whole distance from Teheran to Resht on the Caspian being about 200 miles, and the same contractors propose to continue the line to Hamadán, a great trade centre of the south-west, 150 miles from Kasvín. A German company is proposing to construct a road from Khani Kin, on the Turkish frontier, to Teheran on the one side and Baghdad on the other, and both these roads may be commended and supported if only England does not omit to construct, as speedily as possible, the trunk road from the southern ports to Teheran, the concession for which is still with the Imperial Bank, and the extension of which for a further term of ten years was one of the last official acts of the late Shah. The Bank has already spent a large sum of money on the northern section of this road, but has discontinued active work, although still collecting the tolls, as it did not consider that such an undertaking could be properly or profitably conducted by a banking institution. But British commerce with Persia, which is large and increasing, imperatively demands the road, and seeing that it is from the south that English and Indian goods enter Persia, it was unfortunate that its construction was commenced from the Teheran instead of the Ahwaz terminus, where every mile of road would have been at once remunerative. When the scheme is placed before the public it must propose to commence from the south, working gradually northwards to the rich districts of Hamadán and Isfahán, and the road should at first be of a simple character, without expensive works and bridges, to facilitate and develop the local traffic. As commerce increases, it may be gradually improved into an excellent cart road. Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, when Minister at Teheran, was very anxious to see this work carried out, without which the trade of Persia will inevitably travel by the new German and Russian roads, and the loss to British commerce will be incalculable. The London Chamber of Commerce takes a great interest in the question, and if our Foreign Office gives that hearty assistance which foreign concessionnaires receive from their respective Governments, there should be little difficulty in taking up the work and pressing it to a speedy conclusion. The rapidity with which Russia is developing communications in Central Asia may be estimated by a letter which reached me on the 10th of June from Meshed, whence it was despatched on the 26th of May, probably a record performance. We are fortunate in having at Teheran a Minister, Sir Mortimer Durand, who thoroughly understands Eastern politics, and has both ability and courage; and the interests of England will not suffer in his hands if he receives that consistent support from the Foreign Office without which no Minister can C effectively safeguard his country. Some time ago I advocated in this Review 2 the formation of an Asiatic Department at the Foreign Office, with a specially trained diplomatic staff, to thoroughly supervise British interests in the East, and bring to their important duty that local knowledge without which zeal is of no account. The events which have occurred since that time in China and Siam have demonstrated only too clearly the inability of the Foreign Office, as at present constituted, to understand or defend the claims and rights of England in Asia against keen and jealous rivals like France and Russia. เ LEPEL GRIFFIN. 2 England and France in Asia,' Nineteenth Century, November 1893. 1896 A WARNING TO IMPERIALISTS AFTER all that has been written about South Africa, one would scarcely venture to approach the subject at this moment, were it not that one side of the question has not received all the consideration it deserves. The passions which the late events have aroused, and the falsehoods which have been disseminated, have tended to obscure the issues; and at the same time the question is such a large one, it is so full of complications and conflicting interests, that it requires a peculiarly calm and dispassionate frame of mind to see all its various sides in their true proportions. While everyone feels bound to condemn the Jameson raid, there are those who still look upon it as a manifestation of the Uitlander grievances. These, they say, are the cause of all the mischief, and until these are redressed there will be no peace in South Africa. Others, on the contrary, think that those grievances have been made use of as a pretext to get the control of a country richer in mineral wealth than any other part of South Africa. Mr. Fort puts forward a third hypothesis. Dr. Jameson's primary object was, not to redress the grievances, but to seize Pretoria and ransack the Government offices for documentary evidence of a secret treaty with Germany. The President and the burghers meanwhile were to stand by passively and be treated with the utmost courtesy and consideration.' But this can scarcely be taken seriously. At any rate, the people at Pretoria treat it as a joke, and they seem to have considerably alarmed the gentlemen of the Rand by publishing the imaginary treaty in extenso. If, instead of making an outcry about the want of English education, the Uitlanders would condescend to learn the language of the country whose destinies they wish to control, there would be fewer such misunderstandings, and after a few years one would hear much less of grievances. English people are strangely deficient in the power of putting themselves in the place of others. Whether we are for or against the Chartered Company, we can only look at the South African question from the British point of view. We do not realise, and it cannot be repeated too often, that the Transvaal is a young country. Johannesburg has only existed eight years, and during that time conditions, wants, problems, have developed which tax the highest statesmanship Even to the utmost, and cannot be settled with a stroke of the pen. Mr. Chamberlain's Home Rule scheme, well intended though it was, did not commend itself to the Johannesburgers any more than to the Transvaal Government. The policy of President Kruger, whatever his detractors may say, has been simple and straightforward throughout. The object of his life and of his rule is to maintain the dearly bought independence of his people. This is the simple test by which all legislation in the Transvaal should be measured, and this, it would seem, is a sufficient contradiction to all the stories about secret treaties with Germany; but we have besides the President's word: I have reason to believe [he says in his official letter of the 25th of February] that the British Government has come to the decision to make no alteration in this [Art. IV. of the Convention] on account of false representations made to it and lying reports spread by the Press and otherwise with a certain object, to the effect that the Government of the Republic has called in, or sought, the protection of other Powers. While I thankfully acknowledge, and will ever acknowledge, the sympathy of other Powers or their subjects, and the conduct of the last named has, in the light of the trials recently passed through, on the whole offered a favourable contrast to that of British subjects, there is, nevertheless, nothing further from my thoughts than to strive for the protection of a foreign Power, which I will never seek. Neither I nor the people of the Republic will tolerate an interference with the internal relations from any Power whatever, and I am prepared, if the course proposed by me be adopted, to give the necessary assurances for this, in order that her British Majesty's Government need have no fear that her interests in South Africa should be injured. The dignified answer of the President to the German Emperor's telegram gives the key to the whole position. It is not to 'friendly powers' that the Transvaal looks for support. Mit Gottes Hülfe (with the help of God) hoffen wir weiter alles mögliche zu thun für die Handhabung der theuer bezahlten Unabhängigkeit und die Beständigung unsrer geliebten Republik.' It is always assumed by the advocates of the Uitlanders that they are a homogeneous party who outnumber the Boers and have therefore an irresistible claim to a voice in the legislation; but what are the facts? As in every mining population, a large proportion are composed of the worst elements of all nationalities. Many others do not care for political rights as long as they can pursue their avocations undisturbed. The Hollanders and Germans feel a kinship with the Boers-they understand them and are in sympathy with them. French interests are chiefly represented by shareholders. The Uitlanders who clamour about grievances are mainly British subjects, and these do not include the working men. Their position has been lately stated in a letter published at Pretoria : We have now been in the country four years, have earned on an average 67. per week, have saved a few hundreds, and last year had a six months' holiday trip to the Old Country. Would any other country in the world enable us to do this? No. Then why try to upset the prosperous state of affairs in this country, which will be sure to continue for many years? If there was any reason for fighting, if England received a blow or an insult, we, as British-born, would be among the first to shoulder our guns in defence of the country we love; but that is a very different matter to fighting against a country which provides, and will continue to provide, bread and enough to spare for thousands who can barely exist in England. We hope this letter will have the intended effect of making the working men think for themselves independently, and not be led by a lot of political agitators whose sole object is to 'compound' Johannesburg, and bring down wages fifty per cent. What do working men care about political rights? Not ten in a hundred would lose an hour to vote if they had the right to do so to-morrow. Two real grievances from which the working men have suffered are the poisonous state of the water supply, to which a large percentage of the sickness and deaths at Johannesburg can be traced, and the exorbitant house rent, and both water supply and houses are in the hands of the capitalists themselves. The first will, however, be remedied, as there are works in course of construction which will provide Johannesburg with fresh water in a few months; the second is chiefly due to the enormous influx of strangers. It is repeated ad nauseam that the Uitlanders have developed the country, that they have enriched it, and yet have no voice in the representation. Now, in the first place, they have developed the country entirely in their own interest-the Boers never asked them to come and, in fact, in the Transvaal as well as in the Cape Colony, there is a strong wish to put limits to immigration. One great complaint of the Uitlanders is that they are highly taxed, but the taxation does not compare unfavourably with that of other mining countries, and it is only reasonable that those who derive their wealth from the Transvaal under the protection of its laws, should bear the expense of the public works which are mainly undertaken for their benefit. Moreover, the President is in the position of the great physician who asks high fees, not because he wishes to be extortionate, but in order to limit his practice. He does not wish to make it too easy for gold diggers and speculators to amass huge fortunes-which they are nevertheless doing. When the President was in England in 1884, he deplored that gold had been found in his country. He knew the difficulties it would bring, and his previsions have been more than justified. "There is no mistaking,' say the Reform leaders, 'the significance of the action of the President when he opposed the throwing open of the town lands of Pretoria on the ground that "he might have a second Johannesburg there," nor that of his speech upon the motion for the employment of diamond drills to prospect Government lands, which he opposed hotly on the ground that "there is too much gold here already." It is not difficult to understand the antagonism between those whose actions are governed by the fluctuations on the Stock Exchange and the man who believes in a great cause and devotes his life to it. Many of the British Uitlanders do not wish to make the Transvaal their permanent home; they do not wish their children to be brought |