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supplying the whole Empire with manufactured goods, one part of the Empire is beginning to supply another. Colony after colony, with the increase of its population and the development of its resources, is entering into the great industrial competition for the world's trade. Already Canada exports largely to Newfoundland and sends machinery and agricultural implements to the Cape. Australia every year sends more foodstuffs and agricultural produce to India and Ceylon. At no distant date we may look forward to her supplying the Eastern possessions of the Empire with commodities they now buy from the foreigner. There are even cases where colonies have wrested back from foreign countries trade which the Mother country had lost to them. In fact, we begin already to see the natural and industrial resources of the colonies contribute to the defence of the trade of the Empire exactly in the same manner as we all desire that their financial resources should contribute to its naval and military defence.

And so we come back to the point from which we started. In the gradual evolution of a united Empire trade is playing an allimportant part. Even in a superficial survey of Imperial trade, such as was alone possible in the limits of this article, one cannot fail to be struck by the great and increasing commercial solidarity throughout the Empire, by the close dependence-largely but not wholly financial-of the colonies upon the Mother country, by the vast fabric of complicated material interests which has grown up, and which binds not only the colonies to the Mother country, but the whole Empire inseparably together. It may be that at no distant date the Empire will be driven into closer commercial as well as political relations. I have indicated some of the forces which are visibly drawing, and others which are driving, the scattered members into closer union. Other causes are no doubt at work, though they are hidden from us. The coming century will solve this problem, as it will solve other problems, in its own way, and it is likely enough that we are ourselves unconsciously preparing the way for such solutions. We actually see the political concentration of the Empire going on before our eyes in the gradual federation of the great groups of selfgoverning colonies. The North American colonies are already merged in the Dominion of Canada. In a few years the Australian colonies will constitute a united Commonwealth. It cannot be doubted that this political concentration will facilitate, if it does not actually bring about, a corresponding commercial rapprochement throughout the Empire. One of the first fruits of the federation of Canada has been the offer to the Mother country of preferential treatment in Canadian markets, the acceptance of which has paved the way for a far-reaching change in our Imperial policy. The only 'rift within the lute,' the only apparent exception to the law of concentration throughout the Empire, with its consequent inestimable advantages, political and commercial, is to be found in the South

African group, upon which the eyes of the English-speaking peoples are so anxiously fixed at the present time. I cannot, of course, in this article attempt to discuss the Transvaal Question, but it is difficult to abstain altogether from commenting upon a problem which involves principles that in their application are as vital to the future of Imperial trade as to the future of Imperial policy.

I do not suppose anyone believes that the present position of the South African Republic could in any event be indefinitely maintained. It is a small retrograde State in the midst of a group of progressive and enlightened communities. However much it may have desired to keep itself to itself, circumstances, in the form of the discovery of gold and precious stones in its territory, have been too strong for it. Even the most sentimental advocates of the Boer cause must admit that the ultimate fate of the Transvaal State is already decided. It must sooner or later come into line with the other European communities in South Africa. By mere influx of numbers it must become transformed into a mainly Anglo-Saxon community, and cast in its lot with the other colonial States which will eventually make up a united South Africa.

The process of gradual transformation might have gone on peaceably, if the Boer Government had-I do not say observed the stipulations upon the faith of which the grant of autonomy was made to them by the Queen-but if they had merely maintained the ordinary standard of conduct of civilised Governments towards the immigrants who flocked into their territory. The story of the Uitlanders' wrongs is too well known to need recapitulation. It has unfortunately seemed proper to some people in this country to doubt the existence of, and to make merry over, those wrongs, but the despatches of Sir Alfred Milner bave convinced every one who is capable of conviction of their absolute and poignant reality. The gravity of the situation of the Uitlanders and the justice of their claim for redress are frankly and fully recognised by so strong an opponent of armed interference in the Transvaal as Mr. Edmund Robertson, in his article in the August number of this Review. No people, and least of all a great governing and Imperial people, could consent to stand by indefinitely while its own subjects were oppressed and called in vain for redress. The prolongation of such a situation could not fail to undermine the influence and the reputation of Great Britain in the world. Nothing has shown more clearly the growing unity of sentiment and feeling throughout the Empire than the spontaneous protests of all the great colonies against the Boer treatment of British Uitlanders, and their unanimous assurances of support in any action the Imperial Government might decide to take. The question has become a great Imperial question, and can now only be settled in a manner which will satisfy the public opinion of the whole Empire. In their solicitude for the susceptibilities and

prejudices of the Boers a section of the British Press appears to have overlooked this wider aspect of the question. They seem to have forgotten the duty that British statesmen owe, not only to the unfortunate Uitlanders, but to the English-speaking world, which is looking on with absorbed interest to see how a great Imperial problem will be solved.

I think everyone admits that the solution of the problem cannot be much longer delayed. Sir Alfred Milner pointed out at the very beginning of the crisis that the policy of patience, the policy of delays, had only led to the situation going from bad to worse. He called attention to the dangerous impression which the unchecked oppression of whites was creating in the minds of the native races in South Africa, and to the state of profound unrest which was spreading throughout the neighbouring colonies. Subsequent events have only aggravated an already intolerable situation. In an article mainly concerned with trade I may be allowed to add a reference to the effect upon our international as well as our Imperial position of the serious breakdown of trade and industry in the Transvaal. The investments of foreigners in the Transvaal are of course enormous. Whatever may be the bias of foreign Governments, there is no doubt that foreign public opinion is beginning to ask very loudly why we do not fulfil the obligations of the paramount Power we claim to be in South Africa, and restore the conditions of security and good government in which alone industry can successfully flourish.

No one can deny that the remedy formulated by Sir Alfred Milner represents the most merciful policy that could possibly have been adopted towards the Boer State. With so many causes for quarrel it would have been easy for Mr. Chamberlain to force to the front some question which would have appealed to the popular imagination both at home and throughout the Empire, but he deliberately supported Sir Alfred Milner in a merciful policy. No doubt the admission of the Uitlanders means the gradual and painless extinction of the present form of government in the Transvaal, but as that form of government or mis-government must disappear, the choice lies really between death by violence and by a sort of gradual happy despatch.' Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Alfred Milner have chosen the latter from motives of forbearance as well as policy. And the sole condition attached to it is that it should be effective. In the speech which he addressed to the deputation which waited upon him at Cape Town upon his return from Bloemfontein, Sir Alfred Milner said:

My view was this: it was a unique opportunity. To have pressed for the redress of Uitlander grievances one by one, to say nothing of other subjects of difference, would have been to engage in an irritating controversy and to spoil the chance of an amicable compromise on broad lines going to the root of the differences. That controversy, which I was so anxious to avoid, may have to come yet,

but my object at the Conference was to avert it. It seemed best to strike at the root of the evil by giving the people whose interests Her Majesty's Government is bound to defend such a share of political power as would enable them gradually to redress their grievances themselves, and to strengthen, not to weaken, the country of their adoption in the process. But just because I was relying on a single remedy, it was absolutely essential that that remedy should be a radical

one.

To this policy the whole English-speaking Empire has signified its wish to give a fair trial. Few great public servants have deserved and received approval so unanimous, and support so ungrudging, as have fallen to the lot of Sir Alfred Milner. The people of the whole Empire believe that, with every opportunity, he has studied the question frankly and fearlessly, and they are prepared to take on trust the policy he has put forward till it has been proved to be a failure. He has himself laid down the condition that to be effectual his single remedy must be radical-in other words, that the admission of the Uitlanders to the full rights of citizenship, and their representation in the Raad, must be real, free from any possible restriction or reserve. At the present moment Mr. Chamberlain is insisting upon guarantees for the fulfilment of this vital condition.

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The Daily Chronicle accuses Lord Salisbury's Government of want of good faith, and appeals to every honest man, who has ever transacted the meanest bargain,' to say whether the oligarchy at Pretoria is not being pressed too hard; but surely in any bargain, 'mean' or otherwise, between honest men, each side has a right to insist upon getting the genuine article he is bargaining for.

Having staked everything upon a single remedy, the Imperial Government is bound to see that what it gets is effective and complete, not illusory and a sham.

Before this article appears the reply of the Transvaal Government to the demand for a joint inquiry will probably have been received and made public. If it should be unsatisfactory, and the Government finds itself compelled to abandon its present policy and to fall back on a less merciful one, it will certainly receive the cordial and loyal support of the Empire. In the present state of Imperial public opinion the private interests and the prejudices of the Boers will not be allowed to stand in the way of the future of South Africa as an integral part of the British Empire. There is a worse injustice than injustice to a minority—injustice to the majority. The great mass of English-speaking people will expect the Imperial Government to make any sacrifices that are necessary to assert the supremacy of the paramount Power and to clear the path for that ultimate unification of South Africa which will constitute one more step towards the unification of the Empire.

Macclesfield, August 24.

HENRY BIRCHENOUGH.

RIFLE-SHOOTING AS A NATIONAL SPORT

WHEN the Tyrolese peasants in the beginning of this century repulsed overwhelming numbers of Napoleon's picked troops flushed by a long series of victories, it was said that in one or two of the final engagements there were more disabled Frenchmen strewing the rocky defiles of certain mountain passes than there were shots fired by the Tyrolese. Lead had become a scarce article with the latter, and pewter mugs, clock weights, spoons, and other domestic utensils were melted down to make bullets wherewith these deadly shots accomplished this probably unique feat, by waiting for chances to pot two foes with one bullet, or at least by making sure of one Frenchman for each shot. It was performed, we must not forget, with clumsy muzzle-loading flintlocks with hair triggers, for they were the rifles used by the population for their weekly village rifle matches, those invaluable opportunities for rifle training.

Contrary to what it would be reasonable to expect, marksmanship has not kept on a par with the vast improvement that has taken place in firearms in this century, for the effectiveness of modern rifle fire in proportion to the number of shots fired has decreased to an astonishing degree, an enormous waste of ammunition being one of the consequences of the enhanced rapidity of fire and the muchincreased supply of cartridges with which the modern soldier is provided.

The most effective breechloader fire of which we have record is probably the instance cited by Moltke as having occurred in the very first war in which the new arm was brought into practical use. At Lundby in the second Schleswig-Holstein war (the 3rd of July, 1864) 109 Prussians fired three rounds each at the advancing Danes (beginning at 200 yards), wherewith 88 Danes were killed and wounded. Since then the percentage of hits has become infinitely less, and military writers have calculated that in the Franco-German war it took about 150 lbs. of lead-the weight of a man-to disable a single enemy. No more telling figures could be cited to illustrate the old axiom that it is the man behind the rifle and not the rifle that ensures victory. Let the latter be the most perfect arm ever invented, it is a useless incumbrance in untrained hands.

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