--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 3 number: 1 published: 1899-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "The British and the Boers," *Improvement Era* 3, no. 1 (November 1899): 37.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera31unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera31unse start_page: 37 end_page: 37 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1899-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera31unse publication_year: 1899 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1899, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The British and the Boers BRITISH AND THE BOERS. The war which began lately between England and the South African republic, presided over by President Paul Kruger, can only end in the victory of the British over the Boers. The conflict, however, will probably witness some desperate encounters. Presi- dent Kruger has forty thousand men under his command, now that the neighboring republic, the Orange Free State, has made com- mon cause with the Transvaal. The South African republic is about 119,000 square miles in extent, and has a population of over one million, of whom the majority are blacks. The Boers form the minority of the white population, while the ''Uitlanders," or foreigners, mostly British, pay nearly all the revenue of about five millions of dollars annually, but are debarred from a voice in the government. Johannesburg is the leading city and the center of the mining region, and had a population, before war became immi- nent, of over one hundred thousand. The Orange Free State is about 48,000 square miles in extent, and can levy an army of about twelve thousand men. The war promises to be carried on over an extensive area, favorable to Boer methods of fighting.