Many views have found expression in the columns of papers during the
last weeks. The working man only a few weeks or months from England has
expressed his opposition to those stratagems with war for their aim
which would leave him without the defence he has at present from the
pressure of employers. Journalists only a few years, months, or weeks
from Europe, have written, not perhaps expressing a desire for war,
but implying it might be well if the wave swept across South Africa,
and especially across that portion which is richest in mineral wealth,
and, therefore, more to be desired. South Africans and men from Europe
alike have written deprecating war, because of the vast suffering
and loss it would occasion to individuals. Dutch and English South
Africans have written (as one in an able and powerful letter dated from
Vrededorp, which appeared a few days ago) proving the injustice that
would be inflicted on the people of Africa, the violation of treaties
and trust. But, amid all this chorus of opinion there is one voice
which, though heard, has not yet been heard with that distinctness
and fulness which its authority demands--it is the voice of the
African-born Englishman who loves England, the man who, born in South
Africa, and loving it as all men, who are men, love their birth-land,
is yet an Englishman, bound to England not only by ties of blood, but
that much more intense passion which springs from personal contact
alone. Our position is unique, and it would seem that we are marked
out, at the present juncture of South African affairs, for an especial
function, which imposes on us, at whatever cost to ourselves, the duty
of making our voices heard and taking our share in the life of our two
nations, at their