This grand old Boer is the very personification of noble patriotism and devoted concern for the welfare of his nation.  While admiring and loving the man, what sorrow on the one side and indignant execration on the other do not overwhelm one, seeing that such a pattern and leader of men should have become the victim of that heartless Hollander coterie!  One cannot but marvel at the same time at the alert skill and wily patience which must have been employed during the many years past to hold President Krueger with State Secretary Keitz and President Steyn in the Afrikaner Bond leash ready to let loose with unshaken convictions upon the supreme contest designed for them and their people by the machinations intended for upraising Holland at the risk of immolating the victimized Boer nation.

PEACE ADJUSTMENTS

Upon this topic a few remarks may be placed under the assumption that the arch enemy’s triumph in the present war will be circumscribed by the havoc and the bereavements created by it, and by the forfeiture inflicted upon the poor deluded Boers of their special heirlooms.  One of the considerations would be the war cost and its recoupment, and another important one is the measures needful to prevent a repetition of a Bond revolt.

As to the war indemnity:  it is well understood on all hands that the supremacy of Great Britain, when once established as the result of the war, will greatly enhance the value of all existing capital investments—­10 to 50 per cent., and many even 100 per cent.  It is not to be denied that capitalism has evinced decided eagerness that English supremacy should be asserted, and it is in a manner amenable together with the Afrikaner Bond, for secretly striving to bring about the contest each independently in its own way, but without the least concert with each other.  It appears therefore equitable that capital should become contributable to the cost of the war which will eventually result in so largely enhancing its invested values.

A tax of 2-1/2 per cent. upon the aggregate investment values and a royalty upon the mining industries of 25 per cent. of the net profits would appear reasonable.

The 2-1/2 per cent. tax might bring a sum of ....... 15 millions

The royalty could be reckoned at capitalized
value ............................................ 50     "

The confiscations might reach ...................... 10     "

And the underground rights around the Johannesburg
mines might realize .............................. 50     "

Thus together 125 millions, possibly not sufficient to cover the entire war cost if pensions are to be included.  It is a sad reflection to note that the entire wealth which constituted the national heirloom of the Transvaal will have been wasted, and comes far short to cover the actual war expenditure.  In regard to preventive measures against another Bond war, nothing appears clearer than the necessity of applying the lex talionis upon the Hollander element in South Africa (though not in that inhuman fashion as was practised upon the English refugees before and at the commencement of the war).