There was a notable improvement during the year in the relations between Japan and China. The Chihli and Yang-tse Viceroys are said to rely greatly on the advice of Japanese officials in matters of reform. Japanese military instructors are employed. Japanese capitalists have turned their attention to railway and mining projects in China. New Japanese consulates are to be opened there. Six or seven hundred Chinese students are now in Tokio. Some of them gave trouble and had to be sent back to their own country. They complained that they had not sufficient opportunities for study.

Japan strengthened her hold on Corea during the year. She now largely controls the railways, mines, posts and telegraphs; the import and export trades are in Japanese hands; nearly all the shipping is Japanese. Under a Japanese Government guarantee a railway line is now under construction from Fusan in the south-east to Söul which will pass through much the richest part of the country. There are now 25,000 Japanese residents in Corea.

The increasing attention paid to Siam by Japan has somewhat excited the susceptibilities of Siam's French neighbours.

The Crown Princess gave birth to a second son on June 25. In July Marquis Saigo died. He was one of Japan's most distinguished generals and had held high offices in the Government. Brave, upright and courteous, he was highly respected both by his own countrymen and by Europeans.

Tokugawa Keiki, the ex-Shôgun or Taikun, was made a prince.

In July news reached Japan that Captain Rosehill, an American citizen, had formed a company and was on his way to Marcus Island, one of the Bonin group, to work the guano deposits there. The Japanese Government at once notified the Government of the United States that this island was Japanese territory, and despatched a war-vessel there. The United States Government have not supported Captain Rosehill's claims.

The question whether houses in the foreign settlements are subject to house tax was much discussed during the year. Many foreigners having refused to pay, the local authorities proceeded to seize the goods of the defaulters. As courtesy was observed on the one hand and good humour on the other, not much ill feeling was created. Ultimately, in August, it was agreed to refer the matter to arbitration by two members of the Hague permanent Court, one to be nominated by Japan and one by France, Germany and Great Britain. No further distraints are to be made in the meantime. The decision will not be given for some time, as the parties are allowed eight months to prepare their cases and six further months to prepare counter

cases.

Sir William Bisset visited Japan to inquire, on behalf of certain British capitalists, into the conditions under which foreign capital could be safely invested in Japanese railways.

It is believed that his visit will result in such amendments of the law as will make this possible. But the dissolution of the Diet will inevitably cause considerable delay. Five months must elapse before the new Diet meets.

W. G. ASTON.

CHAPTER VII.

AFRICA (WITH MALTA).

I. SOUTH AFRICA.

THOUGH the year opened amid the gloom cast by a renewed and successful outburst of Boer activity it closed in peace, with Mr. Chamberlain on South African soil as an eloquent and, apparently, effective exponent of reconciliation and racial unity. The details of the war until the signature of the terms of surrender at Pretoria on May 31 do not call for formal record. They become of small significance in comparison with the political issues which emerged during the final phase of the struggle. We shall, however, indicate the course of military events in this narrative, as an essential part of the larger question of political reorganisation and social reconstruction. For the first five months of the year Lord Milner proceeded with his task as civil administrator, while Lord Kitchener continued to beat out the fires of Boer resistance, restricting week by week, by extending and strengthening the lines of blockhouses, the area in which the Boer commandoes could move. From all parts of the country still occupied by the Boers, who, it was variously computed, had from 9,000 to 12,000 men in the field, reports came in of minor engagements resulting in the death, capture and surrender of parties of the enemy. The rate of depletion varied according to the dash and skill with which this or that commando was led, and the fitness or otherwise of our mounted columns to keep up the chase. The admitted British inferiority in horse management prolonged the process, but the moral of the weekly returns was that the enemy was being surely if slowly crushed.

The determination with which, in spite of daily losses, they carried on the war-commandoes scattering when hard pressed and then reappearing and making spirited attacks when opportunity offered-caused not a little doubt and despondency. In England, as in South Africa, there were not wanting men who feared the struggle would never cease if force alone were applied to the implacable remnant inspired by Steyn, Delarey, Botha. and De Wet. Any movement for resort to diplomacy was not, however, countenanced by the Government. The firmness of their resolve that the Boers should of their own volition give up

1902.] S. Africa.-"National Scouts."-Lord Methuen's Disaster. [395

the struggle was well expressed by Lord Milner in a speech at Johannesburg in January. He advised his hearers not to fidget about negotiations. "It is no use to threaten, no use to wheedle. The only thing is imperturbably to squeeze." In the spirit of these words the distasteful task of killing and capturing the Boer stalwarts went on; but the advantage by no means lay wholly on one side. The Boers by their courage and resource were not only able to lessen the pressure of the squeeze," but also to turn occasionally and maul the columns which endeavoured to enclose them. So remote did any conclusive result seem to be that Lord Kitchener was glad of even more men than the 250,000 odd he already commanded, and enlisted the services of surrendered burghers, whom he formed

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a corps 5,000 strong under General Vilonel, and by the more general employment of loyal burghers as scouts. Whatever military advantage was gained-and the Boers in the field attributed their final collapse largely to the fact that the skill and topographical knowledge of their own countrymen were pitted against them-was offset by the division of Boer manhood into two classes, the hands-uppers, who fought with and served the British, and the irreconcilables, who preferred death. An intense hatred of these National Scouts, as they were called, was engendered among the commandoes and among all whose sympathies were with the latter; and their employment has had social and political consequences not yet to be measured. The help they rendered in the field seemed to put the Boer leaders more keenly on their mettle. De Wet, for example, notwithstanding an elaborate essay in strategy by Lord Kitchener, and the concentration of large numbers of troops, was able to escape through the gaps left in our columns in a combined movement in the Orange River Colony. Another "great drive," in which every effort had been made, at least by the Commander-in-Chief, to effect the personal capture of this elusive and redoubtable leader, had failed.

After this "drive" there was a lull, and during the latter part of February the war dragged miserably; but on March 7 Delarey sprang upon a column moving from Vryburg to Lichtenburg under General Lord Methuen, defeated it and took Lord Methuen, who was wounded and had a broken thigh, prisoner. The disaster created a feeling of profound disappointment in England. A brief account of this engagement, in which the British lost three officers and thirty-eight men killed, and five officers and seventy-two men wounded, may be given. Lord Methuen was in charge of a column consisting of 900 mounted troops, 300 infantry, four guns, and one pompom and a convoy. At dawn on March 7 the rear screen of mounted men was rushed by the enemy and overwhelmed. Lord Methuen reinforced them with all the mounted men available and a battery. They maintained themselves against the Boer attack for an hour, during which the convoy was closed up without disorder. The Boers,

however, outflanked the rear guard, and a body of 200 infantry was sent against them. Their attack, however, was so spirited that the mounted troops, consisting for the most part of raw and untried men, fell back upon the infantry and got completely out of hand. They fled in panic, and their retreat speedily became a rout. The guns were thus left unsupported. They were fired until the last man serving them was shot down. Lieutenant Nesham, who commanded them, was hit but refused to surrender, and was killed. Lord Methuen, deserted by his panic-stricken mounted infantry, then found himself isolated with 200 Northumberland Fusiliers and two guns, while farther away, near the waggons, was an isolated force of 100 of the North Lancashire Regiment and 40 Cape Mounted Police. Lord Methuen held out for three hours, though wounded, and his force suffered heavy casualties. The Boers pressed their attack home, and there was no alternative but to surrender. Guns and a pompom were brought against the smaller isolated party, and here also surrender was a necessity.

Delarey's triumph was complete. Chivalrous consideration, however, marked his conduct in regard to Lord Methuen. Being unable to give his captive the proper medical treatment and rest he required-for the Boer force was itself in danger of being caught and overwhelmed-he sent him with all courtesy and attention into Klerksdorp, which was held by the British. The responsibility for this disaster seems to have rested with those in London and Pretoria who gave Lord Methuen a force of mounted men unequal to their work. The instrument entrusted to him broke in his hand. Whether that could have been avoided by greater vigilance in scouting or a better disposition of the troops and the convoy are questions for the military expert. Delarey's act in handing Lord Methuen over unconditionally was politic as well as humane, for at this time the air was full of rumours of peace negotiations. By Lord Kitchener the defeat was regarded as an isolated incident, and the work of clearing the country and keeping the commandoes ever on the run was proceeded with as before, Lord Kitchener's weekly reports showing a steadily rising record of captures and surrenders, and other evidence pointing to the fact that the commandoes were being gradually but surely broken up into ever smaller parties, whose capture or destruction was only a matter of time and patience. The general military position, in fact, was not affected by Delarey's success, and the Boers gained no real advantage from it. Nor did it materially arrest the peace movement in the Boer ranks, where the hopelessness of the struggle from their point of view was better appreciated than by people at home, whose despondency at the continuance of the war had been accentuated by the Methuen disaster.

On March 23 Lord Kitchener's pour-parlers with the Boer leaders resulted in the arrival at Pretoria from Middelburg, under a flag of truce, of the members of the Transvaal "Govern

ment". They then proceeded to Kronstadt in the Orange River Colony for the purpose of opening up communications with Mr. Steyn and General De Wet, who were found at the end of the month with Generals Delarey and Kemp, who had in the meantime sustained a severe repulse at the hands of Colonel Kekewich. On April 9 Mr. Steyn (who was ill from causes soon to lead to physical collapse), De Wet and Delarey sent a flag of truce to Klerksdorp with a message that they desired to come in. They were given quarters in the town and facilities for a conference with the members of the Transvaal "Government".

There were present at this gathering Mr. Schalk Burger, "Acting President of the Transvaal"; Commandant-General Louis Botha, Mr. F. W. Reitz, "State Secretary "; General Delarey and Messrs. L. G. Meyer, G. C. Krogh and L. Jacobsy of the Transvaal; and Mr. Steyn, "President," General De Wet and Messrs. Brebner, J. B. M. Hertzog and C. H. Olivier of the Orange Free State. Their deliberations resulted in the passing of a resolution as follows:

"The Governments of the South African Republic and Orange Free State having met in consequence of Lord Kitchener's having sent the correspondence exchanged between the Government of his Majesty the King of England and her Majesty the Queen of Holland, concerning the desirability of giving the Governments of these Republics the opportunity of communicating with their authorised envoys in Europe, in whom both the Governments have all along had the greatest confidence; having marked the conciliatory spirit which appears therein on the part of his Britannic Majesty, as well as the desire expressed therein by Lord Lansdowne in the name of his Government to put an end to this struggle; are of opinion that it is now a suitable moment to show their willingness to do all in their power to put an end to the war. And therefore decide to lay certain propositions before Lord Kitchener as the representative of his Britannic Majesty's Government, which may serve as a basis for further negotiations to bring about the wished-for peace."

The resolution further requested a meeting with Lord Kitchener. This was sent to Lord Kitchener, and the Boer leaders then formed themselves into a commission to draft a proposal for submission at the expected conference at Pretoria. They drew up a report embodying the following points: (1) The making of an enduring treaty of friendship and peace by which was understood: (a) arrangement of Customs Union; (b) postal, telegraphic and railway union; (c) fixing of the franchise; (2) dismantling of all forts; (3) arbitration in future disagreement between the contracting parties, the arbitrators to be chosen by both parties, in equal numbers from their subjects, with a final arbitrator to be chosen by the appointed arbitrators; (4) equal rights in regard to education in both the English and Dutch languages; (5) mutual amnesty.