People at home do not stoop to consider what such details mean. They
have probably more in their minds the general effect of a racial war in
South Africa, and see red ruin in place of the peace and content that
ought to prevail here. But what have we to do with racial war and its
horrors? Our business is to look at the immediate present, and not
anticipate events which need not take place. We have to abide by the
Convention; why should not the other party also abide by it? It was a
fair understanding. Kruger himself drew up the terms, and they were
mutually agreed to, and it is scarcely common sense to suggest that the
party which seeks to maintain the Convention instigates a racial war,
while the party that has broken the Convention repeatedly should be held
innocent and blameless.