On Thursday, at a luncheon held at the Westminster Palace
Hotel by the Midland Union of Conservative Associa- tions, Mr. Balfour spoke with great good sense on the situa- tion in the Transvaal. What complicated the problem, he pointed out, was the fact that the Transvaal was not an isolated community, but "an area in the middle of our South African possessions." Mr. Gladstone's Government, he declared—and here we believe he was speaking with full warrant — would never have endowed the Boers with autonomy unless they had believed that the Outlanders would be given the rights given to all white men in the Orange Free State as well as in our own possessions. "If you look back to the protocols of those negotiations you will see that it was distinctly stated by those responsible for the interests of the Transvaal on that occasion that equal rights were extended and were to be extended in the Transvaal to men of all nationalities." Unhappily for the interests of the Transvaal, of the Outlanders, of South Africa at large, " the pledges then explicitly given have not been fulfilled." Mr. Balfour next mentioned how Mr. Gladstone spent nearly a million of money in sending out a military expedition to deal with one phase of the controversy which has always been going on with the Transvaal. " I hope—I earnestly hope "—he added, " that we shall not be forced to follow the policy which Mr. Gladstone was obliged to follow now some fourteen years ago."
