Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 107, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1899 — ASKS QUEEN TO INTERVENE. [ARTICLE]

ASKS QUEEN TO INTERVENE.

President Kruger Appeals to Victoria to Prevent Bloodshed. London advices say that President Kruger’s cablegram to the Queen, asking for peace will likely prolong the delay and possibly result in a conference. The president of the Transvaal assumes high moral grounds and argues with great earnestness. It is difficult to see how the Queen can ignore the appeal. There are considerations that will modify the effect of the petition—its tardiness and the fact that the Transvaal Government had appealed to the continental powers previously. Meanwhile the preparations for war continue with every evidence of bellicose industry on both sides. Double forces are working at the royal arsenal and dockyards to equip and transport troops to the cape. All factories making the paraphernalia of war are working overtime on large orders. The reply of President Steyn of the Orange Free State to the note of Sir Alfred Milner is far more diplomatic than pacific. It is thought that the Free State raad will plunge into war at its first opportunity. The Boer activity in preparing for hostilities is not les® than the British. The distribution of rifles goes on with increased rapidity and the massing on the frontier is nearing com-, pletion. The Uitlander council, as the result of meetings held at Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg, decided tp address a communication to the British high commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner, urging the imperial Government to break off tions with the Transvaal. The reasons for this action are that “the severe distress prevailing may compel the remaining Uitlanders to accept any compromise offered, that loyal British subjects are becoming discontented and that great unrest exists among the native* K