No civilized body of men ever had more just cause for complaint than the Uitlanders of the Transvaal have, but they carry on their reform movement under very difficult and discouraging conditions.  Those who have petitioned their Sovereign to secure for them some amelioration of their lot are branded by the head of the State as rebels for so doing, and his example is followed by all his party.  Those men who organized or addressed the public meetings which were suggested by Mr. Reitz, the State Secretary, and held for the purpose of discussing a proposal publicly made by the Government, are the men whom Messrs. Dieperink and Viljoen, the members representing Johannesburg in the First and Second Volksraads, denounced as traitors who should be summarily dealt with by the Government.  British subjects associated with the Uitlander cause who venture to call upon the British Agent in Pretoria or the High Commissioner in Cape Town are regarded as conspirators and are watched by spies and all their movements are reported to the Transvaal Government.{52} The recognized leaders among the Uitlanders are black-listed in the Dutch press, their names, addresses, and occupations given so that they may be identified,—­marked down in the newspapers supported by the Government—­as men to be dragged out and shot without trial.  Uitlander newspapers have been suppressed for mere political reasons, without even the allegation that there was incitement to violence or disorder, and it is therefore not unreasonable that the impunity with which the Dutch newspapers continue this campaign month after month should be taken as the measure of the Government’s complicity.

It is in these circumstances that appeal has been made to England, the only other quarter in which there rests the power to see that justice shall be done.  It is an appeal which might well be based upon the broad and acknowledged right of a subject to claim in case of injustice the good offices of his own Government.  But here it is based upon a special right.  It is the spirit{53} of the Pretoria Convention which the Uitlander has invoked for many years, only to be told that the spirit is as it may be interpreted from the letter.  But it is not so!  Will it be suggested that the British Government contemplated such license when they granted the charter of self-government to the Transvaal or that they would have granted it had they foreseen the interpretation?  Can it be said that Mr. Kruger and his colleagues contemplated it or would have dared to avow the intention if it were ever entertained?  No!  And he will be a bolder man than Mr. Kruger who will dispute that answer; for the President’s own defence is, not that he had the intention or has the right to differentiate between races and between classes; but—­that he does not differentiate.  So that the issue is narrowed to this, that it is merely a question of fact!