PROFESSOR MACVANE'S LECTURE

Professor S. M. Macvane lectured in the Fogg Art Museum last night before a large audience on "England and the Transvaal." Professor Macvane took the point of view of an outsider, in order to consider the question with impartiality. He said in part:

England's connection in South Africa began in 1875; up to that time South Africa had been a Dutch colony. In the early part of the nineteenth century, there was a good deal of trouble between England and the Dutch for the possession of the Cape. With the emancipation of the slaves in 1830, new friction arose, and the great migration of the Boers from Cape Colony to the northeast began. The Boers claimed independence from England, but the latter power proclaimed all the Boers' territory English soil up to the Vaal River. This action on the part of England drove many of the Boer farmers to cross the Vaal, where they set up a government for themselves, England consenting at the Sand River Convention, held in 1852. The next advance movement of the English came in 1877, when an armed force was sent into the Transvaal to suppress an uprising of the Zulus, and took possession of the Boer government. Although the townspeople wished to be annexed to England when the Boers were driven out in 1878, the Boer farmers objected, and on being refused independence by Gladstone, revolted, but after defeating the English at Majuba Hill, they received self-government by the Convention of Pretoria in 1881.

The discovery of gold brought about an important change in the situation, caused by the influx of a new population. Beginning with 1887 complaints from the Outlanders began to arise, culminating in 1895 in th eJameson raid.

The race contempt of the Boers for the English is very rife. The unendurable condition of these despised Outlanders caused them to complain to the Queen, as British subjects, on the grounds that they had no share in the municipal government, no chance for naturalization, no rights for their school children, and were oppressed in every way. In the original establishment of the government, the Dutch had promised that the Boers and Outlanders should have equal rights and priviliges. This promise of course has been utterly disregarded.

Mr. Chamberlin, Secretary for the Colonies, finally took up the case of the Outlanders and proposed that they either be allowed to vote, or else be given a municipal government of their own. A conference between President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner resulted in a great deal of discussion, but no tangible result. Offers by the English government were all refused, and the alternative suggestion made by President Kruger was so hampered by conditions as to be impossible of acceptance. Mr. Chamberlin's reply to this suggestion was by no means mild, and from this time on negotiations became more and more strained until President Kruger's ultimatum precipitated war.

Concerning the two legislative Chambers or Raads: The original Raad was, in 1891, supplemented by a second chamber in order to give the Outlanders a voice in the government. This Raad, however, has no power, the older house which is the great legislative body entirely controlling the second Raad.

After the lecture it was announced that Professor Macvane would speak next Wednesday evening on the same subject, by request.