long for the time to come when they can sweep them backwards with the strong arm.  They never speak of the land close to their border as the Free State.  They call it with deadly significance the “conquered territory,” and the idea of reconquest is strong in their minds.  Of old time the Boer farmers stood ever ready to defend what they had conquered with the rifle, and the nigger had learned to dread the Butch rifle as he dreads few things in this world.  To-day he knows that the Boer is helpless, and is unsparing in his insolence to his old-time foe.  Later on friction between the white man and the black is certain to ensue, and if he has the upper hand the black man will not stop at mere insolence.

I don’t know how the Imperial Parliament may feel about it, but I do know that if there is wrong done the Boers by the blacks, the South African farmers of British blood will rise like one man to defend the men and women of their own colour.  They will never permit the black man to dominate the white, and that will cause friction between the Colonists and the Imperial Government.  There is more in this than may meet the eye at the first glance, for if the Colonists rise to battle with the blacks the Imperial troops will have to assist them whether the Government of the day likes or dislikes it, or else we shall see the Colonists of our own blood clamouring for the withdrawal of British rule in South Africa, and we shall hear again the cry for a South African Republic.  Not a “Dutch” South African Republic next time, but a blended nationality, and Colonial Britons and Colonial Dutchmen will be found fighting side by side under one flag, for one common cause.

Surely, if it is not wise to allow the whites to carry arms, it is not wise or right to allow sixty thousand fierce fighting men to remain fully equipped and mounted.  To me it seems that now, whilst we have two hundred and fifty thousand fighting men in Africa to overawe and intimidate the warriors, we should take from them, by force if necessary, everything in the shape of warlike weapons.  White men are not permitted in any of our Colonies to ride or strut about the country armed to the teeth.  Therefore, I ask, why should these negroes be privileged to do what Australians or Canadians are forbidden to do?  They have no valid excuse for being in possession of weapons of war.  They have now no enemies capable of attacking them upon their borders.  There is no animal life of a savage or dangerous character near them, and their armament is a menace to the public safety.  If their young men will not settle down to the peaceful calling of husbandmen, tillers of the soil, and breeders of stock, let them be drafted into our Army for service abroad.  If there is not enough for the more elderly men to do in the farming line, let them turn their energies towards the development of the diamond mines and gold mines that lie within their borders—­mines which at present they will not work themselves nor allow any white man to work.