Transvaal (South Africa) -- History; Transvaal (South Africa) -- Politics and government
I have been asked "Why have you not answered Dr. Kuyper's article in the
_Revue des Deux Mondes_?" and it appears that Dr. Leyds has been heard
to say in Brussels: "M. Yves Guyot has made no answer to Dr. Kuyper's
article." As though it were unanswerable!
I might well retort with the question: "Why does the Pro-Boer press
never reply to counter arguments save by vague phrases, and evading the
real issue? Why does the French press, in particular, confine itself to
lauding "the brave Boers" and the "venerable President Krueger," and to
extolling the virtues with which it credits them, instead of studying
their actual social condition, and giving its readers the plain facts?
Why do we not find one word in our papers of the articles by M.M.
Villarais and Tallichet, published in the _Bibliotheque
Universelle_.[3]"
It is an exact repetition of the method employed by the Anti-Dreyfusard
papers in the Dreyfus case. But the odd thing is, that many who were
then exasperated by it, now look upon it as quite natural, and are not
surprised to find themselves bosom friends of Drumont, Rochefort, Judet,
and Arthur Mayer. The Transvaal question unites them in a "nationalist"
policy, which, if it were to go beyond mere words, would result in a war
with England and might complete, by a naval Sedan, the disaster of 1870.
The majority of Frenchmen have brought to the scrutiny of the matter a
degree of pigheadedness that clearly proves the influence of our method
of subjective education. We state our faith on words, and
believe--because it is a mystery.
The _Revue des Deux Mondes_, in which Dr. Kuyper's article is published
(February 1st), has become an organ of Leo XIII. Those free-thinkers,
protestants, and Jews in France who take part in the Anglophobe
movement, are thus naively furthering the aims of the Vatican and the
Jesuits, whose endeavour has ever been to stir up Europe against
England--England that shall never be forgiven for the liberalism of her
institutions, for the independence of her thinkers, and for her
politics, to which they attribute, not without reason, the downfall of
the temporal power.
The apologetic portion of Dr. Kuyper's article shows the Boers in their
true light. Far from refuting it, I will quote from it. The critical
part obscures the points at issue. I will clear them up.
[Footnote 2: _Le Siecle_, March 20th, 1900.]
[Footnote 3: See _Le Siecle_, February 3rd and March 14th, 1900.]
2.--_The Boers, the Natives, and Slavery._
Dr. Kuyper's article begins with the words: "Once more the yuletide has
sent forth the angelic message 'Peace on Earth,' even to where the
natives gather at the humble chapels of our missionaries."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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