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THE TRANSVAAL
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solved in favour of the Dutch ideal, did not in itself provide a final and satisfactory solution.

What is the position? Throughout South Africa, whether viewed as a whole or State against State, the races to-day are as nearly as possible equal in numbers. In Cape Colony there is a slight majority of Dutch inhabitants, in the Transvaal a slight majority of British. Natal, which, even after absorbing a large slice of the Transvaal, is still essentially British, balances the Orange River Colony, where there is an overwhelming population of Boers. Rhodesia, where the small white population is almost entirely British, is going through bad times and a constitutional crisis, and is hardly yet a factor in the situation. The position, therefore, from the numerical point of view is not materially different from the pre-war days. The two races are still definite realities. There is no question whatever of the extinction or the absorption of either.

The future relations between the two depend principally upon the Transvaal. Here, in the country which was at once the origin and the closing scene of the war, racial feeling is naturally the most conspicuous and the most acute. The settlement of the problem here means peace throughout South Africa; and, unfortunately, the division of races in the Transvaal is very nearly coincident with other divisions, which tend to aggravate it The British population is congregated for the most part on the narrow ridge of the Rand, and is identified with its great gold industry. The Boers are farmers, and are distributed through the rest of the country. Thus, to the old antagonism of race is added the conflict of interests between mining and agriculture and between town and country. Vitally dependent though the mines may be upon the farmers, and the latter to an even greater extent upon the profits of the mines, the fact remains that the two races are at present divided, not only by tradition and religion and language, but also by differences of occupation and mode of living. An Englishman may live in Johannesburg for years without