the conquest of the German possessions of Southwest Africa for the Crown.  They are doing so at this moment.  I believe that today there is no British soldier left at the Cape, and I know that now a great force is moving on Southwest Africa furnished by Boer and Briton alike.  Can the history of the world tell us of any parallel case to this—­that a country conquered within a dozen years should not only need no garrison, but by its own free will undertake war against the enemies of its late victor?  Surely this is something of which Britain may feel proud.

Deep Distrust of Germany.

Now, some of your readers may ask:  “Why is it?  How did this miracle, for it is little less, happen?” My answer is that it has been caused first by a supreme and glorious trust in the justice and generosity of England, which knows how to rule colonies as no other nation has done in the history of the earth, and secondly by a deep distrust of Germany.  To my own knowledge, Germany has been intriguing in South Africa for the last quarter of a century.  I remember, I suppose it must be almost twenty years ago, sending to the late Mr. Chamberlain, who was then Colonial Secretary, information to this effect which reached me from undoubted sources in South Africa.  Again, not long ago, I was shown a document which was found among the papers of the Zulu Prince Dinizulu, son of King Cetewayo, who died the other day.  It was concluded between himself and Germans, and under it the poor man had practically sold his country nominally to a German firm, but doubtless to more powerful persons behind.  In short, there is no question that for many years Germany has had its eye upon South Africa as a desirable field of settlement for its subjects under the German and not the British flag.  Now, the Boers are perfectly well acquainted with this fact and have no wish to exchange the beneficent rule of Britain for that of Potsdam, the King Log of George V. for the King Stork of Kaiser Wilhelm.

You ask me if I think that the Boers are likely to succeed in their attack on Southwest Africa, where it must be remembered that the Germans have a very formidable force; indeed, I have been told, I do not know with what accuracy, that they have accumulated there the vast arsenal of war material that was obviously intended to be used on some future occasion in the invasion of the Cape.  I answer:  “Certainly, they will succeed, though not easily.”  Remember what stock these Boers come from.  They are descendants of the men who withstood and beat Alva in the sixteenth century.

Botha of Huguenot Descent.