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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15106-8.txt b/15106-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9be9d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/15106-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4884 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd +ed.), by C. H. Thomas + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.) + The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked + +Author: C. H. Thomas + +Release Date: February 18, 2005 [EBook #15106] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIGIN OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Garrett Alley, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + +ORIGIN OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR REVEALED + +The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked + +By C.H. THOMAS + +of Belfast Transvaal formerly Orange Free State Burgher + + +SECOND EDITION + +LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON + +27 PATERNOSTER ROW MCM + +_Butler & Tanner The Selwood Printing Works Frome and London_ + + + + +NOTICE + + +The present book had been intended for publication in South Africa +before the end of 1899, with the object of laying bare the wicked and +delusive aims of the Afrikaner Bond combination, to which the Anglo-Boer +war alone is attributable, and to counteract its disastrous influences +so far as then still possible. But until quite lately circumstances had +conspired so as to prevent the writer from leaving the Transvaal, and +when he at last obtained the required passport to Lourenço Marques he +was there denied a permit to visit a colonial port. He therefore sailed +for London in order to publish this book without more loss of time. +Though too late to serve as a deterrent, the contents may be effective +towards showing up the really guilty parties--the instigators and +seducers of the deluded Boer nation, and so pave and widen the avenue of +peace and of conciliation between Boer and Briton who were duped and +victimized alike. + +The exposure of the actual culprits and originators should also operate +favourably, and in mitigation in behalf of the much less guilty Boers, +so as to dispose the victors to the exercise of magnanimous +consideration. In exposing the villainy of the Dutch coterie in Holland, +the writer is far from impugning the honourable character of that +nation, the better part of whom, when once undeceived, will be the first +to reprobate and disown those arch-plotters who sacrificed the peace of +South Africa for personal and national advantage. + +Some other information regarding the Boers and South Africa will be +found interspersed in this study, which will be found of use to the +uninitiated and to intending emigrants to that sub-continent. As the +reader proceeds with the examination of this book it will suggest +comparisons and even analogies which may commend themselves as +singularly apposite and instructive in relation with the study of the +presently budding Eastern question. + +C.H. THOMAS + + +NOTE TO SECOND EDITION + + The issue of a Second Edition has afforded an opportunity to + correct a few linguistic blemishes, but the work has only been + very slightly revised. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +NOTICE V + +INTRODUCTION 1 + +CURSORY HISTORY OF THE BOER NATION 6 + +PROSPERITY OF BOERS AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND UP TO 1881 16 + +TRANSVAAL HISTORY--SUZERAINTY 21 + +TREATMENT OF UITLANDERS, FRANCHISE, VENALITY, BRIBERY 25 + +MONSTER PETITION, JAMESON INCURSION, ARMAMENTS 37 + +BLOEMFONTEIN CONFERENCE, BOER ULTIMATUM 43 + +BOER LANGUAGE 52 + +THE DUTCH COTERIE, ITS SEAT IN HOLLAND 57 + +AFRIKANER BOND--OUTLINES AND PROGRAMME 62 + +PACIFIC POLICY OF GREAT BRITAIN 70 + +PRESS PROPAGANDA--SECRET SERVICE--TRADE RIVALRIES 72 + +DISLOYALTY OF COLONIAL BOERS 82 + +PORTUGUESE TERRITORY--TRANSVAAL LOW VELDT--MALARIA--HORSE SICKNESS 89 + +CLIMATE AND TOPOGRAPHY 95 + +BOER PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR 108 + +ALLIANCE OF ORANGE FREE STATE WITH TRANSVAAL--SUZERAINTY + SQUABBLE--TRANSVAAL ARMAMENTS PRIOR TO JAMESON RAID 115 + +THE TRANSVAAL DYNAMITE AND EXPLOSIVES MONOPOLY 122 + +BOER FIGHTING STRENGTH 124 + +BOER CONSERVATISM, EDUCATION, DUNDEE DOSSIER, ANTI-ENGLISH + PAMPHLET ENTITLED "A HUNDRED YEARS' INJUSTICE" 126 + +AN OLD FREE STATER'S ADMONITION 137 + +MODUS VIVENDI SUGGESTED BY OLD FREE STATER 143 + +MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S POLICY TO AVERT WAR 150 + +AFRIKANER BOND GUILT IN GRADATIONS 155 + +RÉSUMÉ 161 + +BOERS' NATIVE POLICY 167 + +ENGLAND'S NATIVE AND COLONIAL POLICY 172 + +OCCULT OPERATIONS AND AGENCIES 178 + +RELIGION 184 + +PHYSIQUE AND HABITS 193 + +PRESIDENT KRÜGER 207 + +PEACE ADJUSTMENTS 212 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Apart from the progress of the present Anglo-Boer war a world-wide +interest has been excited also upon the question of its actual origin. +Much disparity of opinion prevails yet as to how it was provoked and +upon which side the guilt of it all lay. + +English statesmen of noblest character and best discriminating gifts are +seen professing opposite convictions; one party earnestly asserting the +complete blamelessness of their Government, whilst the other, with +equally sincere assurance, denounces the responsible Ministry for having +provoked a most unjust war against a totally inoffensive people, whose +only fault consisted in asserting its love of freedom, and for thus +plunging the entire British nation into blackest guilt deserving +universal reprobation, a blot and stigma upon Her Majesty's reign. + +In following the course of the arguments which have led to those +opposing verdicts, one is impressed with the paucity and the clashing +character of the information adduced. The marked reticence on the part +of the British Cabinet in regard to its diplomatic proceedings tends +further to mystify the inquirer, and leaves the bulk of the British +nation in a painful state of suspense without conclusive data for +judging whether the war is really justifiable or not. + +Nor do the various pamphlets and Press articles furnish sufficient light +for exploring the maze and producing an approximate unanimity of +conviction. + +It is hoped that the succeeding pages will be found to supplement the +material so essential for diagnosing those grave questions with some +degree of certainty, and to locate the guilt more precisely. + +Since my youth I have passed nearly forty years in uninterrupted and +intimate intercourse with all classes of Boers, resulting in a sincere +attachment to that people, with no small appreciation of its many good +traits and character. Besides making myself familiar with the earlier +portion of that nation's history, I have had leisure and opportunities +to closely follow up its later interesting phases up to the present +moment. These presented a more perplexing aspect during the last decade, +adding a zest to my endeavours for unravelling them, and happening to +be a good deal in the know I felt that I might not remain quiet. + +Being anything but anti-Boer, nor an Englishman, but a foreigner, born +of continental parents and brought up in Europe, these facts should +exempt me from a supposition of bias in exonerating England. It is with +real grief that I must record my convictions against the Boer nation as +solely and entirely guilty, but with this qualification, that its +responsibility is much attenuated by the fact, as I will endeavour to +show, that the bulk of that people has been unconsciously decoyed as +tools of a gigantic intrigue, a conspiracy which was originated some +thirty years ago by an infamous Hollander coterie, and operated since by +its product and engine, the now well-known "Afrikaner Bond Association," +with its significant motto of "Afrika voor Afrikaners"[1]--its object +being no less than the eviction of all that is English from South +Africa, and to substitute a federation of all South African States into +one free and independent Republic, the affiliation to be with Holland +instead, and Dutch the common and official language, other nations, in +return for afforded aid, to participate in the trade and other +advantages wrested from England. + +I only regret that my ability falls so much short for the task of +demonstrating all this in an approved style--for doing justice to the +subject. Its investigation embraces a wider range of details to serve as +evidence than may, upon first thought, be held as relevant; but I +believe that a willing study will show their connection as serviceable +for arriving at an independent and unhesitating verdict. + +A very strong and convincing case is indeed needed for remodelling +opinions where there is preconceived Boer partisanship, and where party +spirit or else foreign jealousy have already warped judgment and +established bias. + +It would be no small relief to every honest-minded person, especially in +England, to be clear upon the subject that England is free of +guilt--equally so to the soldier who is called upon to fight her +battles. But other objects of no less importance are in view, viz., to +open the eyes of the misguided Boer people to the wicked artifices by +which it has been seduced from friendly relations with England into an +unjustifiable war, to deter the still wavering portion from joining the +ranks of sedition, and, lastly, the grounds for palliation being +recognised, to pave the way to an early termination of the war by +adjustments which could restore mutual goodwill and respect between the +contending parties, and so bring about a speedy return of South African +prosperity and progress. + +The writer is fully prepared to give data and names of the incidents +adduced in this paper in support of their authenticity. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Africa for white African citizens.] + + + + +CURSORY HISTORY OF THE BOER NATION + +The two principal elements of the Boer nation were the settlers of the +Dutch trading company at the Cape of Good Hope, sturdy farmers and +tradesmen belonging to the proletarian class of Holland, and a +subsequent contingent of French Huguenot refugees and their families who +joined as colonists soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I +mention below the names still existing which form a large proportion of +the present Boer nation of Huguenot descent:-- + +Billion Blignaut Bisseux Delporte +Du prez Du Toit De la Bey Durand +Davel De Langue Duvenage Fourie +Fouché Grove Hugo Jourdan +Lombard Le Roux Roux Lagrange +Labuscaque Maré Marais Malan +Malraison Maynard Malherbe De Meillon +De Marillac Matthée Naudé Nortier +Rousseau Taillard Theron Terblanche +De Villiers Fortier Lindeque Vervier +Vercueil Basson Pinard Duvenage +Celliers de Clercq Leclercq Devinare + +Men of the best French stock, noted for honour, energy and +perseverance, rather than recant their Protestant faith, abandoned +seigneurial homes, high positions and lucrative callings to carve out +fresh careers, and even to become humble farmers wherever they found +asylums and tolerance, men who became very valuable accessions to the +nations who received them and a correspondingly significant loss to +France. To those two main elements were added sparse accessions from +other nations at later intervals, and also a strain of aboriginal blood, +of which a more or less faint tinge is still discernible in some +families, an admixture which many deplore and others consider as most +serviceable, supplying a subtle piquancy for perfecting the general +stock. + +The early Cape Governors aimed at the prompt assimilation of those +French people with their own colonists--to make Dutchmen of them. Among +other drastic enactments to enforce that object, no other language but +Dutch was permitted to be used in public of pain of corporal punishment. +Not a few noble Frenchmen were subjected to that indignity for +inadvertent breaches of that draconian law, but, as conscientious +observers of biblical commands which enjoin subjection to all +governmental rule, they willingly submitted and obeyed. Intermarriages +with their Dutch fellow-colonists further promoted assimilation into one +cohesive community. At the same time the Huguenot faith was transmitted +to their descendants, and had a marked influence in sustaining common +religious fervour and consistency. They did not look for a reward or +compensation for the sacrifices endured, for the sake of faith, by those +refugees, though a gracious providence, as the sequel showed, held in +store a most ample restitution--magnificent heirlooms for their later +descendants, heirlooms which are now unhappily staked in this present +war. + +In 1814 a payment of six millions sterling received by the Prince of +Orange closed the transfer of the Dutch Cape settlement to Great +Britain. Immigration of English settlers followed and the area of the +colony soon largely extended. As under the Dutch _régime_, the practice +of slavery had continued until its abolition in 1833 by the ransom +payable by the English Government to the owners of slaves. The Boer +colonists deeply resented that act, and especially the next to +impracticable condition which provided that payments could only be +received in England instead of on the spot. Many were cheated of all +their emancipation money by their appointed proxies or agents, or else +had to submit to exorbitant charges and commissions; a great number +voluntarily renounced all in disgust. + +By that time the existence had become known of promising tracts of +country lying north of the Orange River beyond the confines of the +British colonies, and a large number of Boers combined with the +intention of establishing an independent community northwards free from +British restraint. + +The British authorities appeared at that time not to fully realize that +that movement was rife with future dangers and complications to their +own colonial interests, that it meant the creation of a nucleus of a +people openly averse to the English, and who would independently carry +out practices in near proximity, especially in dealing with aborigines, +which would seriously compromise them and become a standing menace +against peaceful expansion and civilization. + +It was, on the other hand, anticipated that the movement could only end +in disaster, the people being too few to make a successful stand against +the numerous hostile Kaffir tribes. The Government, therefore, refrained +from preventive measures, and confined its efforts to discouraging the +emigration and to reconcile the malcontents. Those efforts, however, +proved fruitless; the people held to their project with resolute +fearlessness and self-confidence, and were even content to sacrifice +their farms and homesteads, their sale being in some cases forbidden by +special enactment. + +The terms of "Boer" and "Boer nation" do not convey or mean anything +disparaging, rather the contrary. Boer simply means farmer, as a rule +the proprietor of a farm of about 3,000 to 10,000 acres, who combines +stock-breeding with a variety of other farming enterprises as well, +according to the soil and locality. As a national designation, the term +"Boer" conveys the distinction from the recently arrived Dutchman, who +is called "Hollander." Hollanders, again, delight of late to claim the +Boer nation as their kith and kin, but prefer to ignore the existence of +the French Huguenot factor. + +The great "trek," with families and movables, as the emigration movement +is called, occurred in 1836; some families started even before, and +other contingents followed shortly afterwards. After many vicissitudes +and nearly twenty years of wanderings, and a nomadic life attended with +untold hardships and dangers, intermittent conflicts with native tribes, +and at times also contests with British forces, they were eventually +permitted, under treaty with England, to settle down and to constitute +the independent Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics. That was in +1854 and 1852 respectively. + +But, until then, progress in the British colonies and peaceful relations +with the several Kaffir nations had at times been sadly impeded by the +aggressive native policy pursued by the Boers after the pattern adopted +from the previous Dutch _régime_, which admitted of slavery, whilst +English law had abolished and forbade that practice as contrary to a +soundly moral method of civilizing natives and inimical to prosperous +and peaceable colonial progress. Broils and wars between Boers and +Kaffirs had been almost incessant, and intervals of peace only proved +their mutually latent hostility. Besides being occasionally engaged in +unavoidable wars with neighbouring tribes themselves, it became +frequently incumbent upon the British military authorities to intervene +in conflicts induced by the Boers, alternately protecting them against +natives and natives against the Boers, and all that at the unnecessary +expenditure of much blood and treasure. + +The Boer occupation of Natal was found to be wholly prejudicial to +British interests on aforesaid accounts, and was, besides, contrary to +the express declaration of the Boer emigrants at the time of their +exodus from the Cape Colony, which was that their new settlements should +be located north of the Orange River. Stepping in to the eastward and +claiming part of the littoral constituted a rivalry in conflict with +that understanding, and England therefore considered it within her +rights to expel the Boers from Natal, and to proceed with the +colonization there with British settlers instead. That temporary +occupation of Natal had been fraught to the Boers with most stirring +episodes--some of the most melancholy description, and others +representing records of really unsurpassed heroism, which can but arouse +deepest emotions and admiration in any reader of their history. There +was the treacherous massacre of Retief and Potgeiter and his party by +the Zulu king Dingaan at his military kraal, followed by other wholesale +massacres of men, women, and children at Weenen and other Boer camps in +Natal. Then came the punitive expedition of 450 Boers, armed with +flint-locks only, who utterly defeated Dingaan's most redoubtable impi +of 10,000 warriors, and resulted in the complete overthrow of that Zulu +monarch. + +When that punitive Boer commando was about to start upon its mission it +was solemnly vowed to observe a day of national thanksgiving each year +if Divine aid were vouchsafed to accomplish the object. That brilliant +victory had occurred on the 16th December, 1838, and the day has ever +since been religiously observed as had been vowed. The celebrations in +the Transvaal take place at Paarden-kraal, near Johannesburg, and some +other accessible and central camping grounds, where the burghers with +their families congregate in thousands--a sort of feast of tabernacles, +lasting three days, undeterred by the most boisterous weather. The +declaration of independence fell on that same date at Paarden-kraal in +1879, and it was also in December of the succeeding year that the Boers +proved victorious over the British troops in Natal, after which the +Transvaal had its independence generously restored by the Gladstone +Ministry (subject to treaty 1881). + +On those anniversaries stirring speeches would be made by the elder +leading men, rehearsing the events of the nation's history so as to +grave them upon the minds of the younger, and to revive the thankful +memories of the elder people. It is only in human nature that +unsympathetic feelings against the English would intrude upon the +thanksgivings on those occasions, especially as it continues yet to be +averred that the British authorities had incited the Zulu king Dingaan +to those massacres. Nevertheless, except in instances of implacable +natures, the predominant sentiments at those gatherings were those of +gratitude to the Almighty and good-will towards all men. After the peace +of 1881, it used to be publicly recognised that the English were +entitled thenceforth to a first place in the nation's friendship, and +that the retrocession put a term to all recriminations applying to +previous dates. + +The sequel has shown that soon afterwards another spirit was allowed to +intrude to displace those good and just sentiments, and that without any +reason or provocation and despite a persistently loyal and sincere +attitude of friendship and confidence observed towards the Boers by the, +British Government and the English people in South Africa. As instances +may be cited: (1) England's conceding spirit in assenting to a +modification of the convention of 1881 and agreeing to that of 1884; (2) +genial treatment of the colonial Boers on perfect equality with English +colonists, sharing in the privileges of self-government, the Dutch +language also raised to equal rights with English; (3) most harmonious +relations with the Orange Free State; (4) reduction of transit duties +for goods to the Republics to 5 per cent, and later to 3 per cent.; (5) +unrestricted privilege for the importations of arms and ammunition to +both Republics. In lieu of friendly reciprocity the return began to be +rancorous mistrust and revival of hatred. + +In the course of our study to account for this sad and unwarrantable +change on the part of the Boers we will be following the trail of the +serpent and track it right up to its Hollander lair and to its at first +unsuspected product, the Afrikaner Bond. + + + + +PROSPERITY OF BOERS AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND UP TO 1881 + + +A period of about twenty-five years following the establishment of the +Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics was marked with much progress +and prosperity in the Cape Colonies and Natal, both Republics also +having cause to rejoice over similar advancement. + +The evil influence which aimed at rending good relations between Boer +and English became more apparent after 1881. During the preceding era +the two races actually had been in a fair way towards friendly +assimilation. Mutual appreciation was further stimulated by the +reciprocal benefits arising from trade and economic relations. +Intermarriages became more frequent under such friendly intercourse, a +respectable Englishman being truly prized in those days as a Boer's +son-in-law. The English language also largely advanced in favour and +prestige not only among the Cape Colonial and Natal Boers, but also in +both Republics, and anti-English sentiments were fast being supplanted +by amity and goodwill. + +The principal event in the Orange Free State during that period was a +three years' exhaustive war with the Basuto nation, which ended in the +latter's defeat in 1867. Their chief Moshesh then appealed for British +intervention. The Basutos thus came under England's protection, and a +peace resulted which has ever since continued, through British prestige +and authority as well as good government. The Orange Free State gained a +large tract of the territory conquered by that State, but had to +renounce the rest. + +Then, in about 1870, came the discovery of the diamond-fields, situated +on the then still ill-defined western limits of the State. According to +a boundary line claimed by Great Britain, those diamond-fields fell +outside Free State territory. That State received £90,000 compensation +for improvements and expenses incurred during its short occupation of +that disputed strip of diamondiferous ground. The diamond-fields at +Jagersfontein and Koffyfontein were subsequently discovered and lie deep +within the confines of the State. President Brand had proved his +sagacity and discretion in concluding the negotiations with England +upon the question of the peace with the Basutos and then again in +submitting to the boundary delimitations, it being contended even yet +that the Orange Free State had the weightier arguments in its favour in +both instances. + +The people of that Republic proved however to be the ultimate gainers in +those adjustments; they did not miss the more solid advantages attending +the discovery of the diamond-fields. Believed of the grave +responsibility involved in governing a turbulent population of foreign +diggers, the geographical position of the Kimberley fields secured to +the Free State farmers an almost entire monopoly in the supply of +products; trade also flourished apace, all tending to enrich the +inhabitants and the State revenue as well. + +But the Orange Free State derived a permanent advantage, quite unique +and more than compensating the apparent set-back suffered by the loss of +the diamond-field territory and by British intervention in the Basuto +war matter, in that the method of those procedures saddled England with +the responsibility of guaranteeing the internal safety of the State from +those hitherto unprotected borders "altogether at her own cost." The +Keate award completed the British cordon around the Free State, +excepting only in regard to the Transvaal frontier. No need thenceforth +for costly military provisions for the protection of the State--it was, +as it were, walled and fenced in at British expense, and the State +revenue was thus for ever relieved of a very heavy item of expenditure, +which could be devoted to the increase of the national wealth instead--a +peaceful security accompanied with an intrinsic gain constituting a +veritable and permanent heirloom for the people of that State. + +It is notable that the position of the Orange Free State, without any +other access to the sea-board than from colonial ports, made its status +and welfare entirely dependent upon the friendly and loyal good faith of +England. Up to the present unhappy war that State enjoyed unaltered the +best relations without being ever subjected to even a trace of chicanery +from the part of Great Britain. + +By what illusion, it may well be asked, could that hitherto friendly +people have been deluded to risk all in a disloyal breach with England +by joining the Transvaal in a "Bond" issue against her best friend? +Towards the Transvaal also had England proved her earnest desire to +maintain an intercourse on the basis of sincere amity, desirous only of +reciprocity, which indeed could be expected in willing return, seeing +that England took upon her own shoulders to provide for the protection +and welfare of the entire area of South Africa by sea and land, whilst +both Republics freely participated in all the great benefits so derived. +These considerations should substantially disprove the wicked aspersion +lately made that British policy aimed at the subversion of republican +autonomy in those two States. All that Great Britain needed and +confidently expected in return for her goodwill was friendly adhesion, +and a willing recognition of her paramountcy in matters affecting the +common weal of South Africa as a whole, and also such reciprocity and +mutual concern in the welfare of all as consistently comport with common +interests. How fell and malignant the "influence" which operated a +treacherous ingratitude and hostility instead! + + + + +TRANSVAAL HISTORY--SUZERAINTY + + +The references made to the history of the Transvaal so far reach up to +the rehabilitation of its independence and the convention of 1881. Some +of the conditions of that treaty, especially the subordinate position +imposed by the suzerainty clause, were found to be repugnant to the +burghers. Delegates were therefore commissioned to proceed to England in +order to get the treaty so altered as to place the State into the status +provided by the Sand River convention, which conceded absolute +independence. Mr. Jorrison, a violent anti-English Hollander, was the +chief adviser of the members of that delegation. + +To that the English Ministry could not assent, but sought to meet the +wishes of the people by agreeing to certain modifications of the +convention of 1881. This was effected with the treaty of 1884. The +delegates had specially urged the renunciation of the suzerainty claim, +but that claim appears not to have been abandoned, to judge from the +absence of such mention in the novated treaty. Had its renunciation been +agreed to, as has been since averred, it is quite certain that the +delegates would not have been content without the mention in most +distinct terms of that, to them, so important point. It may therefore be +assumed as a fact that the negotiations did not result in an active +suspension of the relations as set forth in the convention of 1881, and +that the Transvaal continued in a status of subordinacy to England, but +only with a wider range in regard to conditions of autonomy. To most lay +minds it therefore appears perfectly clear that the Transvaal delegates +had well understood and accepted, and so had also their Government, that +the convention of 1884 was _de facto_ a renewal of that of 1881, with +the only difference that it provided an enlarged exercise of autonomy, +but without in the least abrogating the principles of respective +relations, which were left intact, or at least latent. + +It has been averred and a strong point made in the theory of repudiating +suzerainty or over-lordship that Lord Kimberley had given the assurance +that the right of Transvaal autonomy and independence was meant to equal +that of the Orange Free State. This need not be contested, as that +Minister obviously relied upon a similar observance of staunch adhesion +towards England which that State had shown during a period of thirty +years previous; the fact that the Transvaal was quite differently +situated as to adjoining territory imposed the necessity, if only as a +matter of form, to preserve the written conditions of Transvaal +vassalage. + +Lord Kimberley, in 1889, intimated the readiness of his Government to +afford advisory and other co-operation with the Transvaal Government in +order to cope with the new element of foreign immigration, resulting +from the discovery of the rich gold-fields, and to provide appropriate +relations with a new floating population, without materially altering +the status of Transvaal authority, or the methods of government then in +practice. + +The Transvaal Government, however, preferred to ignore that loyal offer, +and to be guided by Bond principles instead. That circumstance affords +another proof that England did not then see the necessity, as has +subsequently been the case, of strengthening her position against Bond +aggression by imposing a demand of general franchise for Uitlanders. + +One aspect of the prolonged controversy _re_ suzerainty forced upon +England would be to denote a lack of honour, which is not of unfrequent +occurrence when one party to a contract seeks by cavil and legal quibble +to evade compliance with some of its conditions, simply because the +written terms appear to afford scope for doing so. But the principal +reason of the Transvaal contention proceeded from the project of gaining +over some strong foreign ally who would see an obstacle, if not +scruples, in joining common cause whilst England's claim of +over-lordship remained unshaken. But for that consideration the +Transvaal Government inwardly viewed the whole of the treaties as waste +paper, since it was not only intended to violate them all, but also to +bring about, at an opportune moment, a hostile severance from England. +In the meantime, the academic squabble was to serve as a decoy to hide +Transvaal identification with any such sinister objects, and to divert +attention and suspicion. + + + + +TRANSVAAL HISTORY--TREATMENT OF UITLANDERS--FRANCHISE + + +To resume the cursory history of the Transvaal. Mr. Burger, during his +Presidency in the early seventies, went to Europe with the mission of +attracting capital to the development and exploitation of gold, etc., +then already authentically discovered; also, to provide for the building +of a railway connecting with Delagoa Bay. The Transvaal Boers were at +that time exceedingly poor, and without a sufficient revenue for +properly maintaining the administration. Beyond creating a lively +interest, his success was confined to an agreement with a company in +Holland for building a section of that railroad, which, however, fell +through, because the Transvaal proved ultimately unable to furnish its +quota of the necessary funds. The present President fared better. A +Dutch company styled "The Nederlandsch Zuid Afrikaansche Spoorweg +Maatschappy," abbreviated "Z.A.S.M.," undertook the work and completed +it in 1887, from the Portuguese border to Pretoria. The line from +Pretoria to the Natal border was soon after built, as also several +extensions around the Wit-waters Rand, and that from Pretoria to +Pietersburg. The section connecting Delagoa Bay as far as the Transvaal +border had previously been completed by McMurdo, and is the subject of +the present Berne arbitration.[2] + +The contract conferred to the Dutch Company a monopoly, and most +advantageous financial terms as well. By that time great strides had +been made in the development of the Transvaal gold-fields, especially at +the Wit-waters Rand (Johannesburg); and immigration on a large scale +from all parts of the world had set in, and was constantly increasing +with vast amounts of investments in mercantile and other enterprises, as +well as in mining industries. At first, equitable laws governed burghers +and Uitlanders alike, administered by an independent judiciary. All +desirable security was afforded for person and property, with confidence +in the safety of investments, and great general prosperity kept pace +with ever-increasing activities and enterprise. + +It was a great satisfaction to Uitlanders that the peace of 1881, and +the reinstatement of Transvaal independence, had restored harmony +between Boer and English, and that a policy was being followed to +preclude friction between the respective Governments. Those facts +largely stimulated investments and enhanced confidence. By 1887 the +alien population had already exceeded 100,000, and the capital +investments £200,000,000 sterling, and the desire so ardently +entertained by the people of the land, for twenty years back, was +gratified at last. The burghers shared in the prosperity to a very large +degree, and in lieu of former poverty, competence and wealth became the +rule, and many of them became exceedingly rich. It was not unusual to +hear Boers expressing undisguised gratitude, not merely for the natural +gold deposits, but specially also that people had come to prospect and +to invest capital, without which the wealth of the land would have +remained unexploited and lain fallow. Harmony and cordiality were the +proper outcome between foreigners and Boers. The influx of capital and +of immigrants continued to increase, but not so the happy conditions. +These were gradually getting marred by a spirit of variance, no one +seemed to know how. The study of this paper will reveal it. The variance +between Boers and Uitlanders began to be specially discernible from 1887 +and had been increasing like a blight ever since. This was noticeably +coincident with the numerous arrivals of educated Hollanders employed +for the railways and the Government administration. + +In the earlier period of the Transvaal Republic, one year's residence +was first held sufficient for acquiring full franchise or burgher rights +and voting qualifications. The condition was successively raised to two, +three, and five years; but in 1890 laws were passed which required +fourteen years' probation, with conditions which virtually brought the +term to twenty-one years, and even then left the acquisition of full +franchise to the caprice of field-cornets and higher officials. +Englishmen and their descendants were at one time totally and for ever +excluded and disqualified just merely because of their nationality +whilst Hollanders were admitted in very large numbers without having to +pass any probation at all or only comparatively short terms. The English +language became a target for hostility and as good as proscribed; +impracticable and ludicrous attempts even were made to exclude its use +in Johannesburg, where hardly any Uitlander understood Dutch, whilst +every Boer official was well versed in English: market and auction sales +were to be conducted only in Dutch; bills of fare at hotels and +restaurants were also to be in full-fledged Dutch only--and all this, it +must be remembered, some years before the Jameson incursion took place. + +The judiciary, which, according to the "Grondwet" (Constitution), was +the highest legal authority, was by one stroke of enactment rendered +subservient and subordinate to the First Volksraad. The then Chief +Justice (Kotzee) was ignominiously deposed for honourably contending +against the grave departure from right and justice in subverting the +sacred prerogative due to the highest tribunal, which Boer and Uitlander +alike relied upon for independent justice. + +A new system of education was next introduced which admitted only High +Dutch as the medium of instruction in public schools. As only Hollander +children could benefit by such tuition, and whereas those of other +immigrants could not understand that language, the effect was that +parents of English and other nationalities had to combine in +establishing private schools or else to employ private teachers at their +own expense--whilst paying, in the way of taxation, for Hollander public +schools as well. That oppressive system was subsequently somewhat +modified in a manner which admitted the English language as a medium for +a portion of the school hours, the proportion so accorded being larger +in Johannesburg and other such wholly English-speaking centres than in +other parts of the State; but the amelioration did not take place until +after much irritation and expense had been occasioned, nor did it meet +the case of hardship more than half-way. I may here place the remark +that the public educational department is conducted without stint of +expenditure in providing from Holland the amplest and best school +equipments and highly salaried Dutch professors and teachers. + +Irritating class legislation began to be systematically resorted to, to +the prejudice of Uitlanders (the majority of whom, it will be borne in +mind, were English), which painfully pointed to a fixed determination on +the part of the Boers to lord it over them as a totally inferior class, +allowing them no representation, and to treat them, in fact, just as a +conquered people placed under tribute and proper only to be dominated +and exploited. + +Boers could walk or ride about armed to the teeth, whilst Uitlanders +were forbidden to possess arms under penalty of confiscation and other +punishments (except sporting-guns under special permit). The like +irritations became rampant by 1890 already. + +The alien population were at first too much occupied with their +prosperous vocations to combine in the way of protesting against such +prevailing usage. The Press was, however, eventually employed, and the +Government was approached with respectful petitions praying for redress +of the most glaring causes of discontent; but those were invariably +either disdainfully rejected or ignored, or, if some matter was +relieved, other more exasperating enactments were defiantly substituted. +They were cynically told that they had come to their (the Boer's) +country unasked, and were at liberty, and in fact invited, to leave it +if the laws did not please them. This was said, well knowing that to +leave would involve too great sacrifices of homes and investments. The +Uitlanders could not, however, be brought to the belief that the +Government of a conscientious people could persist in dealing with them +as if a previous design had existed--first to inveigle them and their +capital into their midst, with the object of goading and despoiling them +afterwards. The course of petitioning and respectful remonstrances was +therefore persevered in, but all to no purpose. Indignation and +resentment were the natural result of those failures. There appeared no +alternative but to submit or else to abandon all and leave the country. + +It is true that numerous Uitlanders acquired competences, and some were +amassing fortunes, but such prizes were comparatively few. The majority +just managed, with varying success, to reap a reasonable return for +their outlays and energies, or only to live more or less comfortably. +The fashion of luxurious and unthrifty living, so prevalent among the +"_nouveaux riches_" and the section who vied with them, impressed the +Boers with the notion that all were getting rich, and that soon there +would be nothing left for them in the race. In their Hollander Press +they were reminded that the gold, in reality belonging to them, was +rapidly being exhausted, and the wealth appropriated by aliens, whose +hewers of wood and drawers of water they would finally become. All this +galled them to the heart, and the Government readily lent itself to +proceedings intended to balance conditions in favour of their burghers, +as the process was described. I will adduce a few instances. As is well +known, it is only burghers and some privileged Hollanders who are +employed in Government service, from President down to policeman. There +are very few exceptions to this rule, which also applies to the +nominations of jurymen, who are well paid too. The salaries of all, +especially in the higher grades, had been largely augmented; the +President receiving £8,000 per year, and so on downwards. + +For Government supplies and public works the tenders of burghers only, +and perhaps of some privileged persons, are accepted. In many instances +the tenderers are without any pretence of ability for the performance of +the contract, but are nevertheless accepted, performing only a _sub rosa +rôle_. One such instance occurred some years ago when a burgher who did +not possess £100--a simple farmer and a kind of "slim" +speculator--received by Volksraad vote the contract for building a +certain railway.[3] The price included a very large margin to be +distributed in places of interest--as douceurs of £1,000 to £5,000 each, +and £10,000 for the _pro forma_ contractor and his Volksraad +confederates; all those sums were paid out by the firm for whom the +contract was actually taken up. + +Similarly in contracts for road making, repairing, and making streets, +etc., etc. On one occasion a rather highly placed official obtained a +contract for repairing certain streets in Pretoria for £60,000. The work +being worth £20,000 at most, the difference went to be shared by the +several official participants. + +One of the first instances of glaring peculation occurred about fifteen +years ago in relation with the Selati railway contract obtained by Baron +Oppenheim.[4] The procedure was publicly stigmatized as bribery. It had +transpired that nearly all the Volksraad's members had received gifts in +cash and values ranging each from £50 to £1,000 prior to voting the +contract, but what was paid after voting did not become public at the +time of exposure. + +The acceptance of those gifts was ultimately admitted, in the face of +evidence adduced in a certain law case; denial became, in fact, +impossible. The plea of exoneration was that those gifts had been freely +accepted without pledging the vote. The President publicly exculpated +the honourable members, expressing his conviction that none of them +could have meant to prejudice the State in their votes for the contract; +and as there had been no pledge on their part, the donor had actually +incurred the risk of missing his object. From that time the practice of +obtaining and selling concessions or of sinecures and other lucrative +advantages grew quite into a trade; and receiving douceurs became a +hankering passion from highest to lowest, but happily with not a few +exceptions where the official's honour was above being priced. + +There was nothing shocking in all this venality to the bulk of the +Johannesburg speculator class and others of that category. The rest +assessed official morality at a depreciated value, but hoped the +blemishes might be purged out with other and graver causes for +discontent, if Uitlanders, were only granted some effective +representation in public matters. That appeared to be the only +constitutional remedy. But this continued to be resentfully refused, +even in matters which partook of purely domestic interest, such as +education, municipal privileges, etc. The latter were opposed upon the +specious argument that such extended rights would constitute an +_imperium in imperio,_ and thus a condition incompatible with the safety +and the conservation of complete control. + +In the usual intercourse with burghers and officials a great deal of +exasperating and even humiliating experiences had often to be endured, +Uitlanders being treated as an inferior class, with scarcely veiled and +often with arrogant assumption of superiority. + +I witnessed a field cornet enjoying free and courteous hospitality at a +Uitlander's house, while being entertained by his host and others in the +vernacular Dutch, peremptorily object to the conversation in English in +which the lady of the house happened to be engaged with another guest at +the further end of the table. His remark was to the effect "that he +could not tolerate English being spoken within his hearing"; this was in +about 1888. + +No wonder that under such conditions and ungenial usage Englishmen and +other Uitlanders were put in a resentful mood, and many of them +bethought themselves of methods other than constitutional to improve +their position. + +Identification was resorted to with the Imperial League, a political +organization called into being in the Cape Colony to stem Boer +assertiveness there and to restrain Bond aspirations. It was also +seriously mooted to obtain the good offices of Great Britain as an +influence for intervention and remonstrance. + +It was not that the Transvaal Government was unaware of its duty and +responsibility to remove causes which produced discontent and resentment +among by far the larger section of the people under its rule. It seemed +rather that the Uitlanders were provoked with systematic intention. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: The Berne award has, as is well known, since been given.] + +[Footnote 3: The Ermelo-Machadodorp branch.] + +[Footnote 4: These very details were since made public in the Belgian +Law courts in the recent _cause célèbre_ of "The Government of the South +African Republic _versus_ Baron Oppenheim."] + + + + +MONSTER PETITION--JAMESON INCURSION--ARMAMENTS + +It was at this stage in May, 1894, that a monster petition with some +25,000 signatures was presented to the Volksraad, setting forth the +entire position, and praying for a commission to be appointed to examine +the merits of the Uitlander complaints, and to frame a programme of +reforms, the interests of the mining community needing such in a most +urgent degree, not only for the sake of its own prosperity, but for the +welfare of the entire State. A commission was indeed appointed, who +reported in favour of the petitioners, and suggested a series of +reforms; but the final Volksraad vote resulted in an angry rejection of +the petition and denunciation of its organizers. + +As on the occasion of previous memorials, some few abuses were +redressed, but those benefits were made worse than nugatory by +enactments in other directions of a still more galling nature. The +petitioners found themselves snubbed and in the position of humiliating +defeat. + + +Treatment of Coloured British Subjects + +A glaring instance of oppression practised by the Transvaal Government +was its cruel treatment of coloured British subjects who had been +admitted into the State. Among these figured some thousands of educated +Asiatic traders, including numerous cultured Indian and Parsee merchants +with large stakes in the State and well-appointed residences, people +whose very religion exacted the most scrupulous cleanliness and who had +all proved themselves obedient and law-abiding. These were classed under +one rubric with the vastly inferior coolie labourer, with Kaffirs and +Hottentots, and actually compelled to abandon their stores and +residences to reside in one common ghetto upon the outskirts of the +towns, a measure which entailed great losses apart from the gratuitous +humiliation--to many it involved ruin and in fact meant their expulsion. + +It will be remembered that some years before already the English +Government had felt it incumbent to advocate the cause of coloured +British subjects and to remonstrate against their ill-usage. The matter +was ultimately submitted to arbitration at Bloemfontein, under the +umpireship of Sir Henry de Villiers, whose award, contrary to +expectation, was adverse to the coloured people. Here was indeed a +unique occasion for the Transvaal Government to exercise geniality upon +a point sorely felt by the British Government; but the very contrary +course was adopted under the ægis of that notorious award, and upon the +untenable plea that sanitation and regard to public health necessitated +that measure of segregation. + +Despite the fact that no royalty was yet exacted upon the gold output, +probably to please French, American, and German investors, there seemed +to exist a veiled hostility against the representatives of mining +capitalists, as if the Government regretted to have allowed the +exploitation of the mines to fall into private hands and would welcome +an opportunity to take them under State control altogether. + +The Uitlander Press vented public sentiment and denounced the Government +attitude in unmistakable terms; there were besides some angry public +demonstrations. It was an alarming time of impending crisis, rife with +signs of open revolt; the Government looking calmly on awaiting +developments. It was then that the President's since famous saying was +pronounced, viz., "that the tortoise must first be allowed to put out +its head before it could be struck off, and that he was ready for any +emergency." + +The situation had a truly anomalous aspect. More discoveries of gold and +even of diamonds followed apace, and the scope for mining, commercial +and industrial enterprises expanded to an incalculable magnitude. All +that was needed was a stable and good Government to encourage the +needful investments. A most tantalizing picture indeed, based upon +undeniably well-grounded facts. + +As it was, the situation was one of alarm for capital already +invested--a stake then of over 300 millions sterling in a country where +more than half of the population were in almost open revolt against a +Government commanding very large repressive forces, and resolved to +maintain its stand. + +British intervention appeared to be the only means of salvation to +restore security, and to give a fillip to the brilliant prospects of the +country, for the good of the burgher estate as well as for the sake of +Uitlanders. + +As the Government continued deaf and obdurate to representations, other +means were sought for. No wonder the Uitlanders longed for a change, +not by any means with the object of altering the style of Republican +status, but to get the Augean stable of misgovernment cleansed, to +escape oppressive and rapacious Boer domination. + +The farcical failure of Dr. Jameson was the outcome of those endeavours. +The unspeakable cowardice of his Johannesburg confederates was the chief +feature of that puny attempt. Laurels, like those gained by Lord +Peterborough, Warren Hastings, or Lord Clive, were not decreed to that +ill-advised emulator. + +Nothing could have been more propitious than that very Jameson incursion +to fan race hatred and to advance the projects of the Afrikaner +Bond--"Afrika voor de Afrikaners," for, whilst no one acquainted with +the facts can for a moment doubt the guilt of the Transvaal Government +for having systematically provoked that attempt at revolution, "Bond" +propaganda and paid journalism had a rare chance to set up the theory +that annexation on behalf of Great Britain had been foully planned--the +Prince of Wales even being an abettor of the attempted _coup d'état_ +purely to gratify the lust of greed for the gold and diamonds of the +poor innocent Boers. No terms were too vituperative to denounce the +enormity. Millions of honest persons all over the world were +deluded--there was a bitter cry of almost universal indignation. The +Boer Government posed as innocent; the designs of the Afrikaner Bond +were not even suspected--its ranks, in sympathy with those delusions +sped on filling up faster than ever, and the father of lies was scoring +another very sensible triumph. + +In lieu of reforms, Bond projects and armaments were secretly pursued +with redoubled vigour towards the climax which should install +Afrikanerdom supreme in South Africa, financially as well as +politically. + + + + +BLOEMFONTEIN FRANCHISE CONFERENCE--BOER ULTIMATUM + +Capitalists had already begun to feel nervous about the final security +of their investments; operations and credit became restricted, fresh +projects were abandoned and a persistent withdrawal of capital set in. +Trade and prosperity were progressively waning, accompanied with still +more ominous portents for the Uitlanders' future. It all meant a very +extensive weeding out of investments under enormous losses, except such +as stood in relation with dividend-paying mines. England, though +apparently apathetic and inactive, was not inattentive to the situation. +Whoever had a stake, whether in South Africa or abroad, looked to Great +Britain as the Power upon whom the duty devolved to provide a peaceable +remedy. The suzerainty controversy was then followed by other questions +of diplomatic difference, among which that of the franchise reform. +Upon this matter English intervention took an insistent form. It clearly +turned all upon that--and once it were satisfactorily arranged, the +amicable solution of other questions might in turn be expected to +follow. As to suzerainty, that claim appeared relegated to remain in +abeyance. A conference was convened at Bloemfontein early in June, 1899, +for the discussion of those topics between the Colonial Governor, Sir +Alfred Milner, and the Presidents of the two Republics. The outcome was +a final demand for the right of representation of the Uitlander +interests in the legislative bodies of the Transvaal, amounting to +one-fifth of the total aggregate of members, the voting qualifications +to consist in the usual reasonable conditions and a residence in the +State of five years, operating retrospectively. + +We may here consider whether such a demand contained any real feature of +unfairness to warrant refusal. + +Three-fifths of the entire white Transvaal population were Uitlanders, +the majority of them English. They own four-fifths of the total wealth +invested in the State. About half of them have been domiciled, with +house and other fixed property, for periods of from five to ten years +and more. + +The preponderance is not only in numbers and wealth, but also in +intelligence and in contributing at least four-fifths of the total State +revenues. + +Is it right or prudent to exclude such interests and such a majority +from legislative representation? + +Could a minority of one-fifth, that is to say, twelve Uitlander members +against forty-eight Boer members, be said to constitute a menace to the +status or to the conservative interests of State? + +Do Uitlanders not deserve equal recognition with the burghers in respect +to intrinsic interest in the land, seeing that the former supplied all +the skill and the capital to explore and exploit the mine wealth, all at +their risk, and without which it would all have remained hidden and the +country continued fallow and poor? + +Though one-fifth would be so small a minority, it would at least have +afforded the constitutional method of declaring the wishes of +Uitlanders, and have done away with the disquieting and less effective +practices of Press agitations, public demonstrations, and petitions. The +measure could also have been expected to open up the way towards +reconciling relations between the English and Boer races, beginning in +the Transvaal, where it was hoped that the burghers would be gained over +as friends, and so to stand aloof from the Afrikaner Bond. These were +the supreme objects for peaceful progress and not for annexation. Solemn +assurances from highest quarters were repeatedly given that no designs +existed against the integrity of the Republic, that nothing unfriendly +lurked behind the franchise demand, but that necessity dictated it for +general good and the preservation of peace. Nor were other diplomatic +means left unemployed to ensure the acceptance of the franchise reform. +In addition to firmness of attitude and a display of actual force, most +of the other Powers, including the United States of America, were +induced to add their weight of persuasion in urging upon the Transvaal +the adoption of the measures demanded by England for correcting the +existing trouble. It may be urged that the display of force in sending +the first batches of troops would have afforded grounds for +exasperation, and be construed by the Transvaal as a menace and actual +hostility, tending to precipitate a conflict which it was so earnestly +intended to avoid. To this may be replied that the 20,000 men sent in +August were readily viewed as placing the hitherto undermanned Colonial +garrisons upon an appropriate peace effective only; but not so with +respect to the army corps of 50,000 men despatched in September--this +was felt as an intended restraint against "Bond" projects, to enforce +the observance of any agreement which the Transvaal might for the nonce +assent to, and above all it was tending, unless at once opposed by the +Bond, to weaken its ranks by producing hesitation and ultimate defection +from that body; the die was thus to be cast, duplicity appeared to be +played out--the ultimatum of 9th October was the outcome; and England, +though unprepared, could not possibly accept it otherwise than as a +wilful challenge to war. + +As the pursuit of our study will show, the success of Mr. Chamberlain's +diplomacy to avert war depended upon the very slender prospects that the +Transvaal Government might have been induced to waver, and finally to +break with the Afrikaner Bond--a forlorn hope indeed, considering the +perfection which that formidable organization had reached. Its cherished +objects were not meant to be abandoned. The advice of "Bond" leaders +prevailed. War was declared and the Rubicon crossed in enthusiastic +expectations of soon realizing the long-deferred Bond motto: "The +expulsion of the hateful English." + +It is true the Transvaal had made a show of acquiescence to British and +foreign pressure. This first took the shape of an offer of a seven +years' franchise, and then one of five years, exceeding even Mr. +Milner's demands as to the number of Uitlander representation. That of +seven years was so fenced in with nugatory trammels and conditions that +it had for those reasons to be rejected; whilst that at five years was +coupled with the equally unacceptable conditions that the claim of +suzerainty should be renounced, and that in all other respects the +Transvaal should be recognised as absolutely independent in terms of the +Sand River Convention of 1852. + +Those offers could hardly have been made in sincerity, but rather as a +temporary device and to meet the susceptibilities of the advising +Powers, for all the time preparations for war were never relaxed for a +moment, but were pushed on with extreme vigour. On the other hand, the +British programme seeking to ensure peace by the franchise expedient had +been strictly followed without deviation. When the Transvaal Government +professed irritation over the disposition of some British troops too +near the Transvaal border, they were promptly removed to more remote and +less strategic positions, rather than incur the risk of rupture. During +the month preceding the outbreak of the war, some large continental +consignments of war munitions were, as usual, permitted to reach the +Republics unhindered through several Colonial ports, portions being +actually smuggled over the Colonial railways as merchandise addressed to +a well-known Pretoria firm, but on arrival were secretly delivered, +under cover of night, at the various forts and arsenals. These +proceedings were carried out with the connivance of the Colonial Bond +authorities, and though known to the British Governor, it was all winked +at rather than hazard the momentous objects of peace by the introduction +of another knotty subject. To sum up the situation, it was a diplomatic +contest on the part of Great Britain aiming at peace and to safeguard +her possessions and prestige, while the Afrikaner Bond, on the other +part, continued active in the work of sedition and preparing for a war +of usurpation. Every one must admit that the demand of the British +Ministry for an immediate and adequate representation proceeded from the +necessity and the desire to overcome the South African crisis in a just +and pacific way. The measure was counted upon to effect conciliation +between the Uitlander and burgher elements, and as a further result was +earnestly hoped to bring about the secession of the Transvaal from the +Afrikaner Bond, and so reduce that dangerous confederacy to a somewhat +negligible impotence. To discover other objects of a sinister sort +lurking behind needs a more than inventive genius. A united Afrikaner +Bond, persistent to carry out its fell project, definitely meant war +sooner or later. Its first step in launching out to it was that +notorious ultimatum, which was tantamount to snatching back the feigned +offers of the seven and five years' franchise. According to original +programme, the very next step to accomplish the _coup d'état_ was the +immediate seizure of all Colonial ports, and to complete a general and +irrevocable Boer rising all over the Colonies. + +All the while the old device had been put into practice of hiding Bond +guilt by accusing England of designs against the integrity of the Boer +Republics. But directly after, in the exultation of victorious +invasions, the mask was shamelessly dropped, and Boerdom stands out +defiantly and nakedly self-confessed, aiming at conquest and supremacy +over all South Africa. Will the ensuing century have in store an +instance to match that record plot of artifice and dissimulation, and +see half the world duped into partisanship with it--by journalistic +craft? + +It may well be imagined that Mr. Chamberlain and his noble colleagues +had anything but beds of roses whilst pursuing the diplomacy adopted to +checkmate the Bond. They had to gain national support without divulging +their own proceeding, and were at the same time reduced to a situation +which imposed a spartan fortitude in concealing and repressing +involuntary perturbation in the presence of an impending national +crisis, and also the stoical endurance of bitter recriminations on the +part of an opposition comprising a large and honourable but poorly +informed section of the English nation. + + + + +BOER LANGUAGE + + +We come now to the topic of language, which will be found relevant, +showing Hollander and Bond influence in using that also as a hostile +weapon. What the Boers still speak is a vernacular or dialect so far +removed from High Dutch as to be unintelligible to the uninitiated +Hollander. It took its form from the dialects brought to the Cape of +Good Hope by unlettered Dutch colonists and a large admixture of locally +produced idioms, with a slight trace of the structure of the French +language in expressing negations. In the two Republics High Dutch rules +for official purposes, but in common intercourse the vernacular Dutch is +still about the same as it had been a hundred years ago. For an +English-Dutch interpreter the thorough knowledge of the vernacular is +essential. Preachers and teachers have to adapt their speech by +combining High Dutch with the dialect, the one or the other +predominating according to the capacity of the hearers. Hollanders +follow the same method when learning the vernacular Dutch. + +In towns and villages, not only in the Colonies, but also in both +Republics, English is almost exclusively used. The Boers, and especially +the younger generation, have a much greater aptitude and penchant for +learning English than for High Dutch; and generally it has been held +more important by the parents that their children should become +proficient in English, that language being more easily acquired and of +vastly greater use than Dutch. The latter, it was truly averred, would +be learnt as they grew up quite sufficiently for all purposes. + +The feeling thus existed some twenty years ago that English would become +general, and ultimately oust both Dutch and the vernacular. Numerous +Boer patriots then devised the remedy of preserving the vernacular by +raising it to the standard of a written and printed language for +official as well as common use. The Rev. du Toit, later appointed +Minister (or Superintendent) of Education in the Transvaal, worked +tenaciously towards making that movement a national success. He had the +co-operation of many other educated patriots likewise. The _Paarl +Patriot_, a journal published in the vernacular, is one of the +surviving efforts. Vocabularies, school books, etc., etc., were printed +in that dialect, and the translation of the Bible had also been brought +to an advanced stage, when the project had to be abandoned, principally +through Hollander influence, aided by some of the Republican leaders and +Bond men. Dr. Mansfeld, the present Superintendent of Education in the +Transvaal, was subsequently appointed--a very able Hollander, but also a +very strong advocate in the general Hollander Bond movement for +proscribing the use of the English language, and making High Dutch the +compulsory medium of instruction. Since then, and during the past ten +years, considerable progress has been made by the average Boer children, +and even the grown-up people, in approaching a better knowledge of High +Dutch. Before 1880 hardly any Boer cared to read a newspaper except, +perhaps, the _Paarl Patriot_, the vernacular journal referred to. High +Dutch and English papers were equally beyond his ready knowledge, but +since then the interest in politics gave an impulse to a reading +tendency, and at this moment the majority of the Boers manage to read +and understand fairly well what is presented in simply written High +Dutch by the local Press. They also are fond of simply written books of +travels, and especially of narratives of a religious trend. With the +Bible they are most familiar from childhood, but literature in High +Dutch is beyond them as yet. Greater pains have of late years been taken +to qualify Boer sons for the administrative service of the Republics, +where imperfect knowledge of High Dutch is an obvious bar to +advancement, and Hollanders would otherwise continue to monopolize the +better positions. + +Taking the fairly educated Free State and Transvaal youth, the average +proficiency in English compared to that in High Dutch is as two to one, +whilst many possess even a literary mastery in English whilst quite poor +in the other language. + +In the Cape Colony the above comparison among the Boer section is still +more in favour of English. + +It may be judged what an important _rôle_ the educated Hollander group +can take in those Republics, and are yet aiming at in the Colonies. + +It is also worthy of reflection why and how the Dutch language has been +raised to equality with English in the Cape Colony, seeing English was +more generally understood by the Boers there than High Dutch, and none +of the Boer legislators or members of Parliament even now know more +than the Dutch vernacular, the High Dutch language having actually yet +to be learnt by the Boer population--an important step thus gained by +Afrikanerdom under the indulgent ægis of self-government, the thin end +of another wedge to nurse sedition and treason introduced by that odious +Bond under pretence and veil of Boer patriotism and loyalty. + +As one of the world's languages, Dutch figures under a very sorry _rôle_ +indeed. It had been ignored everywhere outside of Holland and her +distant Colonies. The consequence to Hollanders is that they are of +necessity subjected to the ordeal of learning several other continental +languages for commercial intercourse, and in order to keep at all +abreast with the progress of science, literature, and culture. Dutch is +in the moribund stage; its salvation from imminent extinction consists +in the expansion of its sphere. Boer successes in South Africa would +just accomplish that. + + + + +THE DUTCH COTERIE: ITS SEAT IN HOLLAND + + +As has been shown, the conditions of the two Boer Republics, with High +Dutch as the official language, lent themselves to favour the +immigration into those States of educated Dutchmen (Hollanders, as they +are styled, to distinguish them from the old-established Boer Dutchmen). +These were indeed indispensable, as none of the Boers possessed the +competence in High Dutch requisite for the conduct of the more important +portion of the clerical work in the administration. The professional +branches were recruited from Holland likewise, in natural sequence. They +were men of high attainments and possessed of energy and astuteness and +of various qualifications--doctors, lawyers, editors, clergymen, +teachers. Those who did not receive Government appointments quickly +found lucrative positions in their vocations. The scope increased as +time went by and as those States developed with the growth of the +populations and the establishment of numerous towns and villages, +especially after the discovery of the diamond-fields in 1870. Every year +brought fresh contingents from Holland, including also the commercial +class, artisans, and even servants of both sexes, and agriculturists. +Preserving a constant intercourse with their native country, those +Hollanders also maintained cohesion and clanship among themselves in +their newly-adopted homes. Nor did Holland fail to realize the great +advantages accruing to that country and its people from the new South +African outlets--regular preserves with almost unlimited scope for +further extension and for increasing permanent, profitable connections. +A formidable barrier presented itself in the gradually ascendant +tendencies of the English language and English trade, with corresponding +neglect of the Dutch factors. Regretful forebodings aroused energetic +efforts to check rival interests. The prize was too valuable, and +increasing each year in importance. A dyke needed to be erected to stem +the English encroachments and to preserve and consolidate the Hollander +position of vantage. The ablest men in Holland and South Africa +exercised themselves with that task with an ardour impelled by jealous +hatred against the English and intensified by successive revelations of +more startling discoveries of gold and other mineral wealth in the +Transvaal. It was then, about thirty years ago, that a well-informed, +influential and unscrupulous coterie in Holland devised the fell +projects which developed into that potential association since known as +the Afrikaner Bond. + +The building of the Transvaal railway lines brought other large +accessions of educated Hollanders, and as they were completed some +thousands more were added to serve as permanent staff. Dutch influence +was thus attaining strength to assert and consolidate its interests with +an expanding impulse. The monopolized railway company promoted +immigration from Holland by largely increasing the salaries to such of +the staff who were married. The Transvaal Government, under the advice +of their educational chief, Dr. Mansfeld, provided similar premiums to +secure married teachers from Holland and by raising the salaries of +married Hollander officials already placed. The Hollander population +attracted to the Transvaal since 1850, and which did not number above +500 in 1870, had increased by 1898 to fully 12,000, representing, as +ranged with the Boers, by far the largest factor of educated +intelligence, attached to and dependent upon the Government and its +staunch allies. The men received full burghership as a rule soon after +arrival, exempt from the formalities and probation prescribed by law. + +Holland being the locality of the inception, I may say the ingestion, of +the Afrikaner Bond, one's thoughts are apt to retrace, by way of +contrast, that little nation's creditable past. The view presents those +dykes, monuments of labour's heroism; then that glorious resistance +against the mighty persecutor of religion, those unsurpassed +performances in the arena of culture, arts, and sciences, and that long +epoch of success in exploits of colonization, finance, and commerce. + + "But view them closer, craft and fraud appear; + Even liberty itself is bartered here."--_Goldsmith_.[5] + +One notes the placid landscapes intersected by those still but +deep-flowing rivers and canals, scenes so conducive to mental +exercise--the Dutch patriot mourning over the transition of former +national prestige to present condition of decadence presaging complete +national submersion, but at the same time courageously employing his +fertile brain in devising far-reaching projects of remedy over distant +perspectives so as to stem that tide of decadence and declension and to +erect a firm barrier against that menace--to gain (by inspiration from +the titular genius of commerce and craft so conspicuous in that famed +art representation[6] exhibited in his Bourse) a dazzling prize for his +nation by one fell swoop and, so to say, with folded arms, just by +pitting against the English his almost forgotten and long-neglected +clan, the Boer nation, inciting them to usurp Great Britain in South +Africa, Holland sharing the spoils. See here the master mind exulting in +the conception, gestation, and birth of the Afrikaner Bond conspiracy; +note the Hollander patriot's glitter of satisfaction at the vista of +realizing the restoration of Holland to a position excelling its former +glory, of a moribund language revived to significance, and of witnessing +besides a sweet vendetta operated upon England, the old enemy and +despoiler of his nation, to compass the humiliation and disintegration +of the British Empire. Patience, dear reader; preserve judicial +composure. Evidence is following on the heels of the charge. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 5: This is of course not directed against the nation as a +whole. See also notice, page vi.] + +[Footnote 6: Oil painting in the Amsterdam Exchange building +representing Mercurius.] + + + + +AFRIKANER BOND--OUTLINES AND PROGRAMME + + +The late Mr. Jan Brand, that noble President who was succeeded by Reitz +and now by Steyn in the presidency of the Orange Free State, appeared to +have had early intimations, or at least presages, as to the true nature +of the Afrikaner Bond, for during the early eighties that association +had yet posed as a harmless body, intended to preserve old Boer +traditions upon perfectly constitutional lines. President Brand and some +others then already suspected more, as the following incident will show. +In 1883 President Brand officially opened the new wagon-road bridge over +the Caledon River at Commissie drift, near Smithfield, Orange Free +State. Towards the conclusion of the ceremony, one of the other +speakers, Mr. Advocate Peeters, member of the Volksraad for Smithfield +district, in the course of his speech formally suggested that President +Brand should accept the leadership of the Orange Free State section of +the Afrikaner Bond. The President, addressing the burghers and all +present, replied in about the following terms: The proposal just then +made by Advocate Peeters had pained and offended him; the festive event +would be marred by that incident were it not that it afforded him the +opportunity, which he otherwise would have missed, of telling them all +what he thought of the Afrikaner Bond--that it was an evil thing; he +could not find terms strong enough to warn the people against its subtle +seductions. The Afrikaner Bond professed its objects to be peace and +harmony, but it really contained the pernicious seeds of division and +strife, to set up enmity between English Afrikaners and Boer Afrikaners. +He pointed out the sincerity of friendly relations on the part of +England towards both the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republics. +The peace which restored to the Transvaal its independence a few years +before was one big proof; his Government had many proofs of England's +good will, too. It suited both parties to maintain harmony--it behoved +every Afrikaner to be one-minded in friendly reciprocation. Through a +gracious Providence both Republics were prosperous and enjoyed +independence. All over the world the prosperity of States depended upon +good relations with their neighbours--this was especially so as regards +the Orange Free State. They knew what kind of bond the Bible enjoined. +It was the bond of peace and concord; and he concluded by declaring his +well-grounded fears that the Afrikaner Bond was a device of the devil +directed against the well-being of the entire Afrikaner nation. Instead +of being encouraged, it should, like the "Boete Bosch"[7] (_Xanthium +spinosum_, burr weed), be extirpated from the soil of South Africa. + + +MEMORANDA OF BOND PROGRAMME, EMANATING FROM HOLLAND (TRANSLATION FROM +GLEANINGS). + +The Afrikaner Bond has as final object what is summed up in its motto of +"Afrika voor de Afrikaners."[8] The whole of South Africa belongs by +just right to the Afrikaner nation. It is the privilege and duty of +every Afrikaner to contribute all in his power towards the expulsion of +the English usurper. The States of South Africa to be federated in one +independent Republic. + +The Afrikaner Bond prepares for this consummation. + +Argument in justification:-- + +(_a_) The transfer of the Cape Colony to the British Government took +place by circumstances of _force majeure_ and without the consent of the +Dutch nation, who renounce all claim in favour of the Afrikaner or Boer +nation. + +(_b_) Natal is territory which accrued to a contingent of the Boer +nation by purchase from the Zulu King, who received the consideration +agreed for. + +(_c_) The British authorities expelled the rightful owners from Natal by +force of arms without just cause. + +The task of the Afrikaner Bond consists in:-- + +(_a_) Procuring the staunch adhesion and co-operation of every Afrikaner +and other real friend of the cause. + +(_b_) To obtain the sympathy, the moral and effective aid of one or more +of the world's Powers. + +The means to accomplish those tasks are:-- + +Personal persuasion, Press propaganda, legislation and diplomacy. + +The direction of the application of those means is entrusted to a select +body of members eligible for their loyalty to the cause and their +abilities and position. That body will conduct such measures as need the +observance of special secrecy. Upon the rest of the members will +devolve activities of a general character under the direction of the +selected chiefs. + +One of the indispensable requisites is the proper organization of an +effective fund, which is to be regularly sustained. Bond members will +aid each other in all relations of public life in preference to +non-members. + +In the efforts of gaining adherents to the cause it is of importance to +distinguish three categories of persons-- + +(1) The class of Afrikaners who are to some extent deteriorated by +assimilative influences with the English race, whose restoration to +patriotism will need great efforts, discretion, and patience. + +(2)The apparently unthinking and apathetic class, who prefer to relegate +all initiative to leaders whom they will loyally follow. This class is +the most numerous by far. + +(3) The warmly patriotic class, including men gifted with intelligence, +energy, and speech, qualified as leaders and apt to exercise influence +over the rest. + +Among those three classes many exist whose views and religious scruples +need to be corrected. Scripture abounds in proofs and salient analogies +applying to the situation and justifying our cause. In this, as well as +in other directions, the members who work in circulating written +propaganda will supply the correct and conclusive arguments accessible +to all. + +Upon the basis of our just rights, the British Government, if not the +entire nation, is the usurping enemy of the Boer nation. + +In dealing with an enemy it is justifiable to employ, besides force, +also means of a less open character, such as diplomacy and stratagem. + +The greatest danger to Afrikanerdom is the English policy of Anglicizing +the Boer nation--to submerge it by the process of assimilation. + +A distinct attitude of holding aloof from English influences is the only +remedy against that peril and for thwarting that insidious policy. + +It is only such an attitude that will preserve the nation in its simple +faith and habits of morality, and provide safety against the dangers of +contamination and pernicious examples, with all their fateful +consequences to body and soul. + +Let the Dutch language have the place of honour in schools and homes. + +Let alliances of marriage with the English be stamped as unpatriotic.[9] + +Let every Afrikaner see that he is at all times well armed with the +best possible weapons, and maintains the expert use of the rifle among +young and old, so as to be ready when duty calls and the time is ripe +for asserting the nation's rights and be rid of English thraldom. + +Employ teachers only who are animated with truly patriotic sentiments. + +Let it be well understood that English domination will also bring +religious intolerance and servitude, for it is only a very frail link +which separates the English State Church from actual Romanism, and its +proselytism _en bloc_ is only a matter of short time. + +Equally repugnant and dangerous is England's policy towards the coloured +races, whom she aims, for the sake of industrial profit, at elevating to +equal rank with whites, in direct conflict with scriptural authority--a +policy which incites coloured people to rivalry with their superiors, +and can only end in common disaster. + +Whilst remaining absolutely independent, the ties of blood relationship +and language point to Holland for a domestic base. + +As to commerce, Germany, America, and other industrial nations could +more than fill the gap left by England, and such connections should be +cultivated as a potent means towards obtaining foreign support to our +cause and identification with it. + +If the mineral wealth of the Transvaal and Orange Free State becomes +established--as appears certain from discoveries already made--England +will not rest until those are also hers. + +The leopard will retain its spots. The independence of both Republics is +at stake on that account alone, with the risk that the rightful owners +of the land will become the hewers of wood and drawers of water for the +usurpers. + +There is no alternative hope for the peace and progress of South Africa +except by the total excision of the British ulcer. + +Reliable signs are not wanting to show that our nation is designed by +Providence as the instrument for the recovery of its rights, and for the +chastisement of proud, perfidious Albion. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 7: Literally "bush of fines" (fines imposed on landowners +where the burr weed was not eradicated).] + +[Footnote 8: Africa for the African citizen or African-born whites.] + +[Footnote 9: It is notorious that from about 1890 such marriages were +denounced from the Boer pulpits and on the occasions of the Independence +day anniversaries (16th December).] + + + + +PACIFIC POLICY OF GREAT BRITAIN + + +During the period of, say, twenty-five years after the inception of the +Afrikaner Bond, and while its organization and development were secretly +kept at full pace with occurring events, the British Government +consistently and openly pursued the policy of bringing about the +unification of South Africa. Mr. Froude, a speaker of rare gifts, was +sent to lecture upon the topic: this was in about 1873. The Colonial +Governor, Sir Bartle Frere, strenuously advocated that union. The lines +suggested were a general federation under one protective flag, +self-government in the Colonies, and the continuance of uncurtailed +autonomic independence in the two Republics. The benefits which such a +coalition promised to all concerned in South Africa are obvious. It +would guarantee harmony between the two white races without involving +the least sacrifice of liberty with any party--it simply meant +coincident peace, prosperity and security, and would relieve England of +a considerable burden of anxiety. The scheme promised to find all-round +acceptance, but, unaccountably, except to Bond men, its greatest +opponents were the Cape Colonial Boers. It was, however, confidently +hoped that, with patience, opposition and indifference would be +overcome, and in view of this no opportunity was lost to prove England's +loyal sincerity by genial treatment, by conciliating the various +interests, and gratifying the wishes of the Boer communities, and so to +ensure the desideratum of complete _rapprochement_ between the white +races. + +Conferences were convened with the objects of coming to agreements for +the establishment of a general South African Customs Union, and for +adjusting railway tariffs upon fair bases and a more reliable permanency +of rates suggesting reciprocal terms advantageous to the Republics. +These efforts also proved fruitless through similar opposition. + +The Afrikaner Bond party, as the reader will understand, had ranged +itself against all such attempts, whilst successfully masking its own +object all the time. + +Other differences, which, with a friendly and united spirit, were +capable of easy adjustment, were welcomed by that party as grist to its +mill in order to widen the gulf and to increase the tension. + +Besides the chagrin over the failure of its peace policy, the British +Cabinet had finally to admit itself confronted with a very real and +ominous national peril, face to face with the South African Medusa, +Afrikanerdom, defying Great Britain in preconcerted aggression and +revolt. That apparition was all the more startlingly disquieting because +of the suddenness with which the magnitude of the menace and its wide +perspectives had begun to expand into clearer view. It was interesting +to note how the English ministry responded to the call upon its +fortitude; the terrifying apparition did not seem to petrify that body +of men, despite the galling handicapping consequences through the +opposition of part of the nation, which was indeed tantamount to +encouraging South African rebels and usurpers. + + + + +BOND PRESS PROPAGANDA--SECRET SERVICE--TRADE RIVALRIES + + +The Bond leaders in Holland and South Africa had at an early stage acted +upon Stuart Mill's recognised saying, "that conviction in a cause is of +more potent avail than mere interest in it." Among those leaders there +was no lack of men of erudition and of psychological science, than whom +no one knew better the prime importance of ensuring uniformity of +convictions among the Boers and their partisans, and that the public +mind needs to be framed and trained so as to view the Boer cause as just +and that of the English as odiously wicked. They knew how indispensable +the Press is for attaining those objects, how journalism is capable of +plausibly representing black as white and to convince people so--that, +in fact, it is on occasion an agency of persuasion more potent than +armies are. Its needs are unscrupulous pens and ample payments. For +money is the sinews of journalism as well as of war, whether the +projectiles be charged with lyddite or with lies, whether it is bullets +or throwing dust into people's eyes. + +We have seen how a few articles (for which a leading French paper +received £100,000) were instrumental in enabling the Panama Canal Co. to +swindle the French public of forty million pounds sterling, and more +recently, where through Press agency it became feasible to a combination +of Jesuitism and militarism to seduce by far the greater portion of the +noble French nation into frenzied agitation and anti-Semitic excesses, +and load the entire people with almost ineffaceable guilt in the matter +of that unfortunate Dreyfus. In its Press campaign the Afrikaner Bond +employed several leading Colonial organs--the Bloemfontein _Express_, +the Pretoria _Volksstem_, the _Standard and Diggers' News_ of +Johannesburg, and numerous papers of note abroad as well. These were +coached, in the usual masterly manner, sophisticating and perverting +truth. Whenever a lull occurred in treating one or other of the more +salient questions, those South African papers would invariably +contain--especially in their Dutch columns--aspersive articles, coupled +with invective comments to prejudice the Boer mind and to reawaken +anti-English sentiments. It is notable as a proof that the Bond party +lacked all occasions for recriminations, so that those papers had to +resort for material for their vituperation to distorted incidents of +Transvaal history prior to the peace of 1881. There would, for example, +be dished up falsely rendered and dramatically coloured and perverted +selections, such as the treacherous massacre of Retief's party in 1838, +averring that the Zulu king, Dingaan, had been incited thereto by the +British authorities; tragic descriptions of events, coupled with the +massacres by Zulu impis soon after at Weenen and Blaauwkrantz, averred +also to have taken place at the instance of the English Government, and +ever and anon references and full tragic descriptions of the +Slachtersnek execution in 1816, omitting to state that the Boer culprits +were hanged after fair and open trial and conviction by a "Boer" jury +for high treason in conspiring with Kaffirs against the Government, +which crime had led to bloodshed, and that their relatives had been +ordered to witness the execution because they had been abettors and +privy to the crime. + +Books teaching the history of South Africa were adapted for school use +wherein denunciations against the English appear in almost every +chapter. Poetry in the vernacular Dutch and pamphlets teeming with like +burdens and calumnies also did their share in inspiring race hatred. + +Pro-Boer journalism in England and elsewhere abroad had assumed such +dimensions, especially during the past decade, as to bring the Secret +Service expenditure on that head during recent years to over £100,000 +per annum. Dr. Leyds, the Transvaal ambassador, now (December, 1899) in +Europe, is known to some to have with him some £250,000 to defray Press +expenditure, etc., apart from the millions to which he is authorized to +engage his Government in diplomatic projects, such as procuring allies, +or to create embroilments and diversions to the prejudice of England. + +To sum up the success achieved by anti-English propaganda, we find the +Boer nation, from the Zambesi to the Cape, unanimous in convictions as +to their fancied claims, their own absolute innocence, and the +immeasurable guilt of the British Government, abetted by +capitalism--guilt which cries to heaven for retribution; and those +convictions take with each man the form of a resolute patriotism wherein +mingled fanaticism and religious fervour in their cause form a +powerfully sustaining part. + +Partisanship outside of Africa counts by millions of individuals and +entire peoples; with these it is not so much conviction, but rather +persuasion induced by political hatred and the souring effects of +jealousy and unsuccessful rivalry. This feature is, of course, most +accentuated in Holland, where, with the eyes set upon the loaves and +fishes in South Africa, that nation has for some time been "publicly +praying" for Boer victory over England. These are instances of mere +interest in lieu of genuine convictions. In England the spectacle is +more varied. There we see interest where there are paid agencies, and +persuasion more or less pronounced induced by political party spirit and +also by real convictions. It is in regard to the latter category where +perverted journalism triumphs most and stabs deepest, where men of +honour and patriotism have adopted views which clash against public +interest, and convictions which torture their own minds with grief and +shame under the supposed idea of England's unjust attitude towards the +Boer people, assuming that a Government majority allows itself to be +actuated by base motives. + +Is it not attributable in a large proportion to misguided as well as to +venal journalism that the Boer cause has so heavily scored? + +Was all this not manifest in the divisions of England's counsels, in the +hampered progress of her diplomacy, her fateful hesitancy and delay in +providing appropriate preventive and protective measures in South +Africa? + +And as regards the tenacity of those convictions, it is with them as it +is in plant life. The longer a tree is in maturing, the harder is it to +uproot it. + +The activities of Bond propaganda have been in continuance for many +years, and the prejudices fostered so long are correspondingly +deep-rooted. + +Bond patriotism was not long subjected to the strain of individual +contributions and unpaid performances. When the Transvaal revenues +advanced with such giant strides the Afrikaner Bond leaders in that +State contrived arrangements by which the financial requirements were +supplied from State receipts. Nor was the least compunction felt in +doing so. Was the revenue of the State not chiefly derived from the +Uitlander element--from Uitlander investments, which all throve from the +nation's own buried gold wealth? No scruples existed to provide from +those sources the armaments and all else needed for the common cause of +conquest. + +A secret service fund of some £40,000 per year only was placed upon the +budget list. But this amount was vastly exceeded by the growing +requirements of the Afrikaner Bond for expenditure in South Africa +alone. It was easily contrived to divert, _sub rosa_, large State +receipts to supply the remaining financial needs. Among these figured, +besides the heavy outlays in journalism abroad, gratuities, etc., a +large bill also for secret agencies, spies, and the like. + +The entire expenditure was under the direction of a few only of the +trusted leaders and audited by the chiefs, all being kept otherwise +undivulged. + +The Transvaal thus became the treasury as well as the arsenal of the +entire Afrikaner Bond. + +Hundreds of agents were in constant employ in the Cape Colonies and +Natal suborning the Boer colonists; many of them occupied positions in +various branches of the Colonial Government, and were able to supply +information upon any subject and even to influence elections. + +There were numerous permanent agents drawing large emoluments in Europe +also, and emissaries to different places abroad, some touring in +America, England, and the Continent, as the Rev. Mr. Bosman did +recently, and also the P.M.G., Isaac van Alphen. + +Much energy and money were also devoted to electioneering campaigns, as +had notoriously been done in the Cape Colony towards bringing in a Bond +majority. Large sums are spent in the diplomatic arena in Holland to +propitiate foreign statesmen, soliciting sympathy, and in coquettings +for Transvaal allies. One of these attempts that failed had been with +Germany. It would appear that some progress had been feasible some years +ago in temporarily luring Emperor William to favour a Holland-Transvaal +combination, but when that sovereign had at last penetrated the infamous +business that lay behind it all, he, as a true "_Bayard_" promptly +washed his hands clean of it, preferring to forego obvious brilliant +advantages for his people than to sully Germany's fair fame in a +connection amounting to no less than abetting a foul conspiracy. + +The readers of the Johannesburg _Standard and Diggers' News_ will +remember among the staple attacks upon capitalism quite a series of +articles intended to decoy mining artisans and operatives to Boer views. +Secret agents were also employed for that purpose, and to induce the +belief that the Government was the enemy of capitalism, and would +champion its victims (the mining operatives) in the State. It would +support miners and the working class generally against attempts to +curtail the just rights of labour, and to parade its sincerity actually +passed a law constituting eight tours a legal day's labour. With such +coquettings it was hoped to gain the miners' confidence and adhesion. +Those men were, however, not to be taught by quasi-socialistic +professions of concern, and when, some months later, the exodus prior +to the war occurred, they nearly all left, much to the disgust and +discomfiture of the Government, which had counted upon them to stay to +work the mines for its own account when the moment should arrive. + +The appropriation of gold mines and their exploitation for Government +benefit bring about a singular anomaly for a nation engaged in war, +viz., that of a plethora of gold and a scarcity of paper currency, the +Transvaal mint coining the sinews of war at the expense of its victims, +but the plundered gold after all not equalling commercial paper values. + +In connection with the foregoing remarks the following may also be said. +States professing neutrality still permit themselves to trade with the +Transvaal to a large extent. It is notorious that that State possesses +no funds available for payments except the gold derived from the +misappropriated mines. The output is seized in its entirety, and not +limited to the extent accruing to British scrip holders only. The +hustling rivalry of doing business with the Transvaal thus involves +receiving stolen money in payment of trade accounts. We see the +receivers eager to stand upon the same platform as the thief, thus not +only as his political partisans, but also as his accomplices. + + + + +DISLOYALTY OF COLONIAL BOERS + + +The Boer section in the Cape Colonies represents nearly one-half of the +white population there. Their representatives in the administration were +ever profuse and assertive in professions of loyalty to the Queen and to +the English Government, and any aspersions to the contrary were always +indignantly and stoutly repelled. The Afrikaner Bond was averred to +include nothing to clash with loyal sentiments, no severance from +England, but, on the contrary, that its principal objects were to +strengthen the lines of amity and joint solidarity in view of a general +federation of South Africa upon Imperial bases. In support of such +sentiments one of the first acts of the Bond party when recently come +into power was a vote of £30,000 per year towards British naval outlays, +and in grateful recognition of naval protection; it was at the same time +mooted, in fact almost pledged, that the Transvaal would similarly offer +£12,000 as well. + +The sequel has proven these to be Athenian gifts, for no sooner had the +Republican commandoes invaded the Cape Colonies in November last than +those identical men enthusiastically welcomed the Queen's enemies as +their friends and deliverers from hateful English dominion. There they +stood--self-avowed and unmasked traitors. Members of the Legislative +Assembly met those Boer invaders with addresses and speeches, assuring +them of their own and of every other true Afrikaner's aid and fidelity +in their common cause. "The star of liberty," they said, "had arisen at +last--it had been the nation's desire and prayers during the past +fifteen years." "He could thank God with tears of joy for having granted +those prayers." Such were the words of Mr. van der Walt, M.L.A., uttered +at Colesberg. Mr. de Wet, M.L.A., Mr. van den Heever, M.L.A., and other +colonial notables were spokesmen in similar terms of enthusiasm on other +occasions as the invasion advanced. All this is sadly notorious, but +still it seems a hard task to convince people who prefer to remain blind +or only see a presumptuous adversary in any one who seeks to enlighten +them upon this glaring and premeditated treachery. + +October and November were months of unrestrained exultation to the Boer +party, to judge from letters and articles which appeared in the +_Standard and Diggers' News_, Johannesburg, dated 22nd November, 1899, +and in the Pretoria _Volksstem_, dated 20th November, 1899.[10] There +one sees the mask off, in language of defiant insult and of scurrilous +mendacity against all that is English, avowing that the present +Anglo-Boer War has been the outcome of preparations during the past +thirty years. That letter is not all suitable reading for the tender +sex, but should serve as evidence to the still unconvinced sceptic that +the Boers are fighting for something more than their mere independence +and liberty, viz., for conquest and the domination of Afrikanerdom. His +Excellency Dr. Leyds may deny all those too previous intentions with +his placid effrontery of assumed innocent calm. He may denounce Mr. +Chamberlain, Rhodes, Jameson, and even the Prince of Wales, and he may +use the old device of posing as innocent by accusing others. The +detected robber, however, does not always escape with his booty by +running off himself, whilst shouting "Stop, thief!" + +Something refreshingly analogous to such attempts of screening and +exculpation has been extemporized in Cape journals of late. There, in an +ingeniously pretended dissertation, it is invented how ill founded the +aspersions are against Mr. Premier Schreiner, and that the acts, upon +which he was so wrongly suspected as an amphibious helmsman, are really +attributable to another person--by the way, to one at a safe distance, +viz., to Mr. F.W. Reitz, the Transvaal State Secretary; whilst this +gentleman again, when lecturing at Johannesburg in July last, naively +deplored the confusion of people's ideas who see anything wrong in the +Afrikaner Bond, adding: "Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they +do or talk about." + +"The peace of South Africa is only possible under Boer supremacy," is +the Bond shibboleth. The end justifies the means, even to sedition, to a +war of conquest and the wholesale plunder of investors. + +Many of the younger Boers in the Cape Colony and Natal had shown a +singular ardour in joining the several volunteer corps. They were +equipped with uniforms and best weapons, were drilled into efficiency, +received pay, and all went on well until the oath of allegiance was to +be tendered. This they refused, preferring to resign and to provide arms +from other sources--Mauser rifles by preference. This happened some +considerable time before the outbreak of the war. + + +Boer Arguments Denying Uitlanders' Complaints + +Many plausible arguments are proffered to prove that Uitlanders' +grievances and irritations are purely fictitious, but few, I venture to +say, will bear examination. Taxation, for example, is stoutly averred to +fall alike upon burgher and Uitlander, but a glance at the long rubric +of articles specially taxed will show that the selection is contrived to +hit the latter and to spare, or even to protect and benefit, the burgher +section. + +The gold industry is not charged with a royalty as is customary in other +gold-producing countries, but with 5 per cent. only upon the net +profits; but here an intolerant and corrupt domination proves much more +prejudicial than a heavy royalty would be. + +Proper representation would be the remedy and afford contentment, even +with higher taxation, but that is refused upon Bond principles. + +The Anglo-Boer War is attributed to base motives on the part of the +British Government, operating in collusion with capitalism--to England's +passion for annexation, her rapacious greed for the Transvaal gold, her +inordinate ambition to universal commercial supremacy, etc. What a +confusion of assertions and of self-refuting contradictions! + +Would England really acquire the Transvaal gold by the annexation of +that State, seeing that its mines are already capitalized and as good as +expropriated in favour of the host of shareholders, some of whom are +English, but the greater portion German, French, and of other nations? + +What advantage would accrue to shareholders? Would England, in case of +forcible annexation, not be under the necessity of incurring a heavy +charge in the increase of her South African garrisons, and so be +justified in levying a considerable royalty upon the output, which would +materially reduce the dividends? What advantage would arise to England +by substituting an unproductive and costly war in South Africa for +conditions of peace and prosperity, which alone can yield her commerce +profit? England can only derive profit from wars waged between other +peoples. And as to the incentive of commercial supremacy, England, while +possessing that to a large extent already, freely and voluntarily allows +all comers from other nationalities to share the benefits with her by +her principle of free trade. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 10: Extract from Pretoria _Volksstem_, 20th November, 1899, +from a long letter averred to have appeared in the London _Times_, dated +12th October, 1899, said to have been signed by a well-known Cape Boer, +then in England:-- + +"We have desired delay, and we have had it, and we are now practically +masters of South Africa from the Zambesi to the Cape. All the Afrikaners +in the Cape Colony have been working for years past for this end. + +"For thirty years the Cape Dutch have been waiting their chance, and now +their day has come; they will throw off their mask and their yoke at the +same instant, and 200,000 Dutch heroes will trample you tinder foot. We +can afford to tell you the truth now, and in this letter you have got +it."] + + + + +PORTUGUESE TERRITORY--TRANSVAAL LOW VELDT--MALARIA--HORSE SICKNESS + + +Between the north-eastern borders of the Transvaal and the coast lies +the Portuguese colony Mozambique. Its frontier railway station, Ressario +Garcia, is near that of the Transvaal, viz., Komati poort, which is 53 +miles from Delagoa Bay. A low-lying country extends from the coast about +100 to 200 miles inland, and is tropical. Except some elevated spots, +the whole of it is almost uninhabitable in summer by whites on account +of malaria. During some specially bad seasons natives even succumb to +that malady. The only comparatively safe months are from June to +November. Marshy localities, and wherever there is shaded rank +vegetation in low-lying parts, are dangerous all the year round; in such +places the water is deadly at all times unless first boiled. + +This malarial poison is distinct from that which produces yellow fever +in America, and is so far unlike it as it is not contagious. The theory +is that the poison is produced below the surface by decaying vegetable +matter in low and dank parts during the more inactive but still warm and +sunny winter season and during the hot months preceding the summer +rainfall. Upon the first rains the malarial poison escapes through the +then softened crust in the shape of vapoury miasms. This happens during +the night, after the surface of the earth has been cooled off. Those +miasms are dissipated or neutralised by the action of the sun. The dewy +grass retains the poison until it is thoroughly dried to the root. All +surface water is liable to that poisonous impregnation. Malarial +manifestations occur all over South Africa, but in progressive degrees +of virulence with the advance to warmer latitudes, and with the descent +from the high table-lands to the coast levels. On the Transvaal high +veldt, for example, a mild form is developed which, in midsummer, to a +small extent, affects and kills sheep. It is called _blaauwtong_, and +does not affect horses. Descending further, this danger to sheep +increases and begins earlier. Below 5,000 feet altitude in the Transvaal +the summer season is dangerous to sheep, and horses and mules are +subject to horse sickness; whilst lower still the same malaria attains +sufficient virulence to attack human beings, and becomes very deadly +upon levels nearing the coast. Komati poort, the frontier railway +station already mentioned, is dreaded as a still worse death-trap than +even Delagoa Bay, where it is very unsafe, say, from December to end of +April. The season of horse sickness terminates upon the appearance of +the first sharp frost in May. The safeguards for human beings consist in +avoidance at night and early morning of low-lying localities, or such +elevated places even which are subject to be invaded by miasmatic +emanations produced on and wafted from dangerous lower levels. Drink no +unboiled water except that from deep wells or rain-water; maintain +careful and moderate diet, active habits, but avoiding extreme exertions +and excitements; a very sparing use of alcoholic drinks, preferably +taken with the regular meals, is admissible. + +Donkeys, horned cattle, and goats are exempt from malarial risks. + +For horses and mules no certain remedy appears as yet to be known. The +best research, on behalf of the Transvaal Government, by specially +requisitioned French bacteriologists, assisted by that famous +microbe-hunter, Dr. Theiler (Dr. Theiler is the Transvaal veterinary +surgeon and chief of the Medical Laboratory, Pretoria, a noted Swiss +savant, who, with the aid of the said French experts, discovered the +rinderpest inoculation remedy), has failed to find the bacillus of horse +sickness. Barely five per cent, of the horses attacked recover, and +about ten per cent, of mules. These are then called salted, and are +immune from horse sickness; they can after that be safely used in the +worst localities, and are correspondingly more valuable. They are, +however, liable periodically to light after-attacks, when it is safer to +exempt them from work for a day, or for a few hours at least. + +Some proprietors of mail coaches are in the habit of administering doses +of arsenic to their horses and mules, which are said to operate in +lessening the death rate and to favour the salting process. + +As safeguards for horses and mules, the following rules have been found +to minimise losses in dangerous tracts where the low clinging miasmatic +vapours are so deadly during the night and earlier parts of the morning. +(During rainfall there is hardly any danger, nor is there after a +night's rain for the day following):-- + +Do not traverse low suspicious tracts during the hours between 9 p.m. +and, say, two hours after sunrise, lest poisonous vapours be +encountered and inhaled by man or horse. + +Choose the most elevated spots for camping out at night. No grazing to +be allowed from 10 p.m. to about 10 or 11 a.m., unless it is raining. +Dewy grass is fatally poisoned; the heavy moist air close to the surface +is also suspected. Grazing is only safe after the soil and grass are +dried of all dewy moisture. + +Avoid all water of at all a stagnant nature; rather let the animals +remain thirsty. + +If the animals have been fed with dry fodder during the night, let the +first morning stage be moderate and not exhausting. With empty stomachs +the task might be somewhat increased, but even then it should be less +than any other succeeding stage. When the first symptoms of sickness are +noticed they may pass over if the animal is at once freed from work and +allowed to rest, or is at most led when marching. Among the most +dangerous places for horse sickness and for fever to human beings are +the luxurious dongas, ravines, and valleys which abound along the long +stretches of mountains and broken country immediately below the high +plateaux. + +The passes leading up to the high veldt are few in number, and so +precipitous as to be almost impracticable for vehicles. Of late years +those roads have been allowed to fall into disrepair, in order, it may +be supposed, to check wagon traffic and to promote that by railway; +apart from the railway, communication with Delagoa Bay would now be +impossible. What with the fever climate in summer, and the formidable +mountain barriers, the Transvaal high veldt is well protected from +aggression from the direction of Delagoa Bay. A few thousand men +distributed at the few mountain passes, blocking the tunnel at one of +these (at Waterval Boven), and breaking up some few bridges, would +effectually arrest the progress of any invading force. + + + + +CLIMATE AND TOPOGRAPHY + + +From the tropical Zambesi regions and the torrid Kalahari plains, down +to the 34th parallel at Cape point, a great diversity of climatic +conditions is met with. To the north and north-east are the steaming, +death-breeding low lands, abounding with dank virgin forests and scrubby +stretches; and to the north-west extend the arid, sandy, and stony +levels. There are the temperate and fruitful inland reaches along the +southern and south-eastern littoral, and again further inward the vast +plateaux at 2,000 to 6,500 feet elevation, which represent nearly +one-half of the sub-continent with quite other climatic aspects. In the +southern and western provinces of the Cape Colony the rainy season +occurs during the winter months, probably because of the proximity to +the trade wind influences prevailing over the South Atlantic; over the +rest of South Africa the winters are dry and sunny, the rains falling in +summer, most copiously in December and January, the effect being that +there are hardly any winter rigours, and the heat of summer is +minimised. The most agreeable climate is that on the higher plateau +levels: never hot nor altogether cold, and yet virile and bracing; +something like the climate on sunny days found in the higher Alpine +regions in summer and in the mild Algerine winters. This climate is +found from the Queenstown district at about 3,000 feet elevation, +extending north and westwards over the Stormberg, the Orange Free State, +and along the lordly Drakensberg range and its spurs some 200 to 300 +miles into the Transvaal, where the highest plateau levels occur between +Ermelo and to near Lydenburg, viz., 6,500 feet. The Harrismith district +near that mountain range is at a similar altitude with an identical +climate. + +These high tracts are called _hoogeveldt_ or highlands. Their altitude +rises steadily with the advance northwards towards warmer latitudes, and +with the compensating effect that the climate in the Queenstown +district, Bontebok Flats for example, at 3,000 feet elevation, is +exactly similar to that in the eastern portions of the Orange Free State +at 5,500 feet, right up to near Lydenburg at 6,500 feet altitude, and +being some six degrees further north than Queenstown. The northern half +of Natal also partakes of that character, though there, as well as over +the rest of the eastern slopes of the Drakensberg mountains, the country +is more broken and hilly than on the western side. The Cape Colonial +high veldt near the Drakensberg range is intersected by high +continuations or spurs, but north and westwards those plateaux assume +more the real aspect of continuous high plains. There is a gradual +descent to the west; from occasional hilly ranges those dwindle to +kopjes, and to still less elevated "randjes" occurring in clusters more +and more apart, until yet further westwards one gets to the merely +undulating sterile approaches of the Karoo and the plains around and +beyond Kimberley, which merge at last in the still lower Kalahara +desert. + +Within 200 or 300 miles from the Drakensberg slopes the country is +well-watered, and the rainfall ample and generally regular, but +westwards this abundance progressively decreases with a more tardy and +precarious rainy season, occasioning at times severe droughts +accompanied with correspondingly protracted and very hot weather. + +Those high plains make up one vast green sward from the time of the +spring rains in September to April. From May the absence of rain, +together with the night frosts, shrivel up the herbage, giving the +country a pale-brown aspect. This continues until the return of spring, +varied with large expanses of black, caused by accidental or intentional +grass fires, and here and there a few green spots in specially sheltered +and moist localities. + +Those burnt spaces may extend for miles, and are for the time veritable +deserts. The landscape being quite black and the atmosphere generally +very clear, it is obvious that objects of any lighter colour would be +conspicuous at very long distances: an ideal background for khaki +targets. + +Most of the land is well suited for agriculture, but by far the largest +proportion is as yet used only for raising sheep, horses and cattle. +Angora goats also thrive in the hillier parts. About forty years ago the +Karoo plains, the Orange Free State, and Transvaal were, so to say, +monopolised by milliards of game. Standing upon an eminence or a swell +one could see in all directions, as far as the eye could reach, +innumerable herds of all sorts of game grazing, resting or gambolling; +the different kinds would be ranged in separate groups and could be +distinguished by their special colours--the black-looking wildebeest +(gnu) next to the striped quag-gas, the white-flanked springbocks, +blesbocks with a blaze on their foreheads, the larger elands and other +kinds of the antelope species. Almost all those vast herds have +disappeared since, having been killed off by natives and Boers for their +hides and for food, or else scared away farther north, where rinderpest +extirpated nearly all the rest in 1895-1897. + +In the earlier days, and even not so long ago in some parts, the +farmers' crops required guarding during the night against the +depredations of game. This is still so in the north-western plains of +the Cape Colony, as already remarked. In May most of the Harrismith +district farmers and those of the Transvaal high veldt move their sheep, +horses and cattle to winter in Natal, Swaziland, and to the other +extensive low lands most adjacent, to return after the spring rains in +September or October. Sheep and horses could not with safety remain +longer in those warm regions, as then the fatal malarial _blaauwtong_ +begins there to attack sheep, and horse sickness becomes virulent as +well. The high veldt, as said before, is exempt from that danger. + +Some of the wealthier farmers can arrange it so that they and their +families can winter at their comfortable high-veldt homes and send +attendants with their cattle to the low veldt, while others, not so +well favoured, must close up their houses and accompany their flocks to +winter in the warm tracts, where they live in their wagons and tents and +escape the outlay for winter clothing. + +Owing to the scarcity of wood on the high veldt, kraal fuel used +formerly to be the staple substitute. This would be obtained by penning +up sheep over-night. The deposits were after a month or two dug out in +thick flags, which, after being stacked and dried over the kraal wall, +would burn nearly as well and as brightly as wood. The discovery of coal +beds in so many accessible places in the Cape Colony, Natal, and in the +two Republics has since superseded that sort of fuel to a great extent. + +The small divergence between summer and winter temperature upon the high +table lands will be seen from the following table taken from +observations at 5,500 to 6,000 feet altitude in the Transvaal:-- + + Fahr. Fahr. + +In winter--28° to 40° at night; 35° to 70° by day in the shade. +In summer--40° to 60° at night; 50° to 90° by day in the shade. + +It is not often that 85° is reached, and rarely above. This applies +equally to the more southern and thus colder latitudes of Queenstown, at +3,000 feet elevation, and to the eastern half of the Orange Free State, +at 4,000 to 5,000 feet, the warmth increasing, as said before, +proportionately with the descent in altitude, and on occasions of tardy +summer rains. + +The winter is the most enjoyable of the seasons, being an almost +uninterrupted continuation of fine sunny weather. On occasions there +would be spells of boisterous weather with a rather sudden and inclement +decrease of temperature, brought on by cold south-east winds; if these +are accompanied with rain in winter, which, however, rarely happens, it +would sometimes turn to sleet or even snow, or else to hard freezing at +night. The snow would, however, thaw with the warmth of the sun, and so +restore the temperature as before. The bracing quality of the climate +mostly consists just in those variations of cool nights and warm days, +and the occasional days of comparatively cold, boisterous weather. The +latter must indeed be provided against, for even in December--that is to +say, in the middle of summer--it would be imprudent to travel without +great-coats as well as waterproofs, so as to be protected against +unexpected changes, from say, 100° in the sun, almost suddenly to 40° +with a driving wind, accompanied perhaps with rain. Such transitions are +trying in the open, even if one is well clad, and the blustering weather +is sometimes so severe, if it happens in winter or early spring, as to +approach the character of a blizzard. One such lasted about thirty hours +in the early spring of 1881. It swept over the entire South African +plateaux and destroyed great numbers of sheep and cattle. These fell +exhausted in their flight before they could reach some sheltering hills +or ravines. In situations where such protections from the cold +south-east wind were far apart the veldt was on the following day found +strewn with their carcases, and upon the still more extensive and +unbroken plains antelopes even perished in enormous numbers simply from +exhaustion in trying to escape and find shelter from the cold wind. + +I will just describe one of those occurrences, the severest in my +experience and well remembered by the Free State and the Transvaal +Boers--it was, I think, in 1881. One sunny day, early in August (spring +time), at a place about twenty miles east of Reddersburg, in the Orange +Free State, the wind veered to the south-east, and by afternoon had +begun to blow fairly hard and cold, about 35° Fahrenheit--that is to +say, about 35° below the temperature of a few hours previously. I had +managed to get some milch cows driven near to the kraal, where there +would have been very fair shelter for them, but luckily, as the sequel +proved, they refused to enter, and rushed past in a scared way, just +snatching up one mouthful of forage which had been thrown down to entice +them to stay, and making off as hard as they could. The wind did not +abate till the day after, when tales kept pouring in of terrible losses +of sheep and cattle killed by the cold wind; sheep in open plains had +suffered most, and cattle which had been kraaled were nearly all dead, +whilst the herds of cattle and horses which had been left grazing out +had been driven away and were also believed to have died. At the farm of +a certain Andries Bester, near by, some seventy head of cattle in very +good condition were found dead, piled up to the level of one of the +kraal walls, showing the struggle which some thirty others had in +escaping over the mound of dead cattle to the outside of the kraal. + +The next day all those thirty head were found grazing some fifteen miles +westwards under the lee of hills near Reddersburg, where they had found +safe shelter. Everybody's cattle were recovered which had not been +kraaled, including mine. This was the case as well with cattle which had +been tethered to their transport wagons and which succeeded in breaking +loose, whilst the rest were found dead where they had been tied. + +There was no possibility of restraining cattle or horses from +stampeding--they did it from the instinct of self-preservation, for, +whilst running with the wind, its force of driving cold was +proportionately lessened, and some loss of heat was made good by the +exertion of running, which they had to keep up till in safe shelter of +hills or ravines. + +Had such a cold storm overtaken an army or patrol, the situation would +have been exactly similar, and would have been an ordeal even to +experienced Boers or Colonial farmers, and if an enemy had been located +near Reddersburg, all the cattle and horses would simply have fallen +into his lap. + +The obvious safeguard would be a rug for each horse and mule, and for +oxen the erection of a shelter against the wind, consisting of all +available wagons and stores, or else, if practicable, to move at once to +a sheltered locality and always provide a good reserve supply of forage +or other provender. That sort of boisterous, cold weather continues +sometimes, with more or less severity, two or three days. The want of +food and inclemency besides would result in killing the weak cattle and +weaken the rest so as to be incapable of work for some days after. The +difficulty consists in that such inclement changes occur so suddenly, +and that their severity and duration cannot be forecasted. + +Upon other much less severe occasions entire gangs of 20-50 Kaffirs, +travelling from the warm north to the diamond-fields or gold-mines, and +not sufficiently provided with blankets, would be found at their camping +places huddled together, nearly all numbed to death. The months when +such surprise weather is most liable to occur are from "July to +October," before and during the earlier spring rains. It is then, and +even up to December at times, that the Drakensberg and other mountains +resume their snow-capped winter decorations for some days. There is a +saying which fairly well applies to the high-veldt climate, _i.e._, that +cold and inclement weather is not met with until well in towards summer, +especially about the time of spring rains, and that hot weather of any +considerable continuance mostly occurs in spring. This will be +understood upon considering that the midsummer months, December to +February, are cooled by very frequent and copious rains, whilst the heat +accumulates more during the preceding sunny spring months, which are +interrupted at rarer intervals by short showers only. + +Upon the whole, and despite the few eccentricities mentioned, the high +veldt is favoured with a climate which, for genial comfort all the year +round, exempt from prolonged winter rigours and excessive summer heat, +is not found anywhere else in the world, or only in rare privileged +spots. It is withal most healthy, promoting the highest possible +physical development and even longevity. + +Under such favoured conditions the hand of man only is needed in +providing good habitations, planting trees, in the culture of the soil, +and some irrigation labour, to transform nearly every little farm within +five to ten years from a bare pastoral monotony to a really idyllic +spot. There are many such already in Basutoland, the Orange Free State, +and the Transvaal, as well as in the Cape Colonies and Natal--veritable +Eden-like places, as it were bits dropped from heaven. With a +continuance of peace these could be multiplied to any extent each year, +thus rendering those sparsely inhabited tracts the most beautiful areas +in the world, with a prosperous self-sustaining population, quite apart +from considerations of mineral wealth. + +The foregoing description of the high-veldt climate points to clothing +composed of woollen fabrics as the only _rational and safe_ attire for +men travelling or taking the field. No constitution could be expected to +hold out against the ever-changing temperature and weather if depending +upon being clad, for example, in a cotton suit; this would only do on +warm days for men who are certain of being safely housed at night and +sheltered during rainy weather. Horses and mules in the open should be +provided with woollen rugs during winter and spring. + + + + +BOER PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR + + +The ultimatum cabled to England had no sooner expired at 5 p.m. on the +11th October last than the same evening and on the very next and +succeeding days appeared, published all over the Orange Free State and +the Transvaal, "Government Gazettes extraordinary," filling scores of +pages, comprising proclamations of martial law, and the hundred and one +enactments and provisions regulating that new condition. Their preambles +stated: Whereas in secret session on such and such dates (that is to +say, months previous) the honourable First Volksraad had passed this or +that law--or whereas the two Volksraads, assembled in secret session, +had authorized the Government to frame such and such laws, to come into +force immediately after publication. This shows at least a studious +purpose months beforehand to be in complete readiness, for it obviously +took no little time to prepare all those laws, and have them ready in +type for despatch and publication as had been done. It accords with the +assumption that war had been predetermined, and this is further +confirmed by numerous statements, publicly made by Volksraad members, +and also by President Steyn's famous and now historic message to +President Krüger some short time before, in the laconic and oracular +words, "We are ready." + +That the Afrikaner Bond had been for years past preparing for its _coup +d'état_ is further shown by the following incidents which can be +substantiated by the writer:-- + +During the days of the Jameson raid a very prominent Transvaal Boer, +holding office and who had two sons at the scene of the disturbance, +remarked at a public place in conversation with other burghers:-- + +"England just wants to annex the Transvaal, and no doubt the Orange Free +State too. This we know; but what she does not know is, that we can at +this moment reverse the tale--we can seize in one day Cape Town, Port +Elizabeth, East London, and Durban, and within a very short time turn +every Englishman out of the Colonies, out of the land which England has +robbed us of." + +Those words were spoken by a Bond man who is known to rarely speak in +public. When asked by a Uitlander how it could be done, he relapsed into +his usual prudent reticence, and merely remarked grimly, "We can do it." + +But for subsequent revelations and the present sequel those words would +have been forgotten, and were at the time attributed by some to mere +boastful exuberance. + +In July last the topic was discussed by some Boers at the house of a +highly placed military official, about the five per cent. tax upon the +profits of the gold industry. One said it should be raised to +twenty-five per cent. for the benefit of the burgher estate. That +official, who, by the way, had just returned from a gathering of country +officials at Pretoria, sententiously replied "that it was no more a +question of any tribute, but of taking the mines altogether out of the +capitalists' hands"; and when another burgher interposed a doubt as to +the fairness of such a proceeding, that official continued by saying, +"Fairness indeed! it is we who have submitted to unfairness only too +long--_ons wil nou Engelse schiet_ (we want now to go on the battue of +Englishmen)." + +When the Transvaal Government had secured the assent of both Volksraads +to the seven years' franchise measure it was thought desirable, as a +matter of form and to gain time, to defer the formal passing of the law +until after it had been referred to the burghers. This was not done till +August last. A large section of the people were known to be against +extending the franchise, but the Government had no misgivings about the +result, counting upon the persuasive influence of the Volksraad members +who were to preside at the plebiscite meetings, and had before been +drilled up to their task. Their success was as desired, and the measure +became law in due course. Those meetings in the different districts and +wards of the State were characterised by almost uniform proceedings, so +that the description of one of them can serve for all. + +The burghers assembled on the appointed day at the local Government +Office. The Landdrost, or chief official of the ward, took the chair. +There were four Volksraad members, who each in turn recommended the +adoption of the seven years' franchise measure. The burghers were +invited to express their views. The majority appeared dead against it, +but were gradually appeased, and they finally assented to a motion of +approval presented by the chairman, which also conveyed full confidence +in the Government and their representatives to deal with the enactment +and to modify it as they might consider appropriate. + +One of the burghers had in his speech stated in passionate terms that no +dictation on the part of Uitlanders could be tolerated; they must either +obey the laws or leave the State. The function and prerogative of making +laws belonged to the burghers. They had been ill-used enough by the +English; it would be still worse, he said, if they were invested with +legislative rights. "On the contrary, it is the Boer nation which is +entitled to supremacy, not only in the Transvaal but right to the sea. +The Cape Colonies," he continued, "are ours by divine right, and so is +Natal, and no Afrikaner may rest until we are reinstated." General +approbation and stamping of feet followed that passionately rendered +speech. Not a word of restraint or censure from any of the four +Volksraad members. Some of these had addressed the meeting already, and +the others in turn followed. Their speeches had one import, viz., +"Burghers! The Government and the two Volksraads have carefully and +prayerfully weighed this seven years' franchise measure. You may safely +approve of it; it can result in no harm; it will strengthen our cause. +We know that England wants our land because of the gold in it; but this +law will contribute to thwart her, though it will not avert war. We were +a small nation when our fathers trekked to this side of the Orange +River; we have become united and strong since. It will be soon seen that +our people have to be reckoned with among the other nations of the +earth; we have right on our side, and, with God's help, we are certain +to prevail. Burghers, you may trust us as your representatives; we are +all of one mind with you; you may safely approve of the proposed +franchise law, and leave possible modifications in the hands of the +Government." Then followed tumultuous approval from the great majority, +motions of confidence and of thanks. Those burgher meetings were +convened during July and August. + + * * * * * + +President Krüger is famous for employing clever and original similes in +order to illustrate a policy as he wants his people to understand it. + +It has already been noted that the Franchise Law of 1890 excluded +Uitlanders from full burgher rights until after twenty-one years' +probation. The reduction to seven years was proclaimed to be a +concession to meet Mr. Chamberlain's demand. The simile, as addressed to +the Volksraad and published in the journals, ran as follows:-- + +"First my coat was demanded of me, which I gave; next were asked my +boots, vest, and trousers. I surrendered these as well; and now, as I +stand in my bare shirt, my limbs are wanted besides." + +The people were thus led to be unanimous in the resolve to oppose any +further concession, and to view Sir Alfred Milner's unconditional +insistence for a five years' franchise as a conclusive proof that +England in reality wanted no less than the country itself. In this way +the Boer mind was designedly fashioned into the conviction that war was +inevitable, and that both President and people were absolved from all +responsibility in it. Had the offered franchise of seven years and the +subsequent one of five years been honestly meant, there should, indeed, +have been little difficulty for adjusting in the one case the difference +of two years; but it being so surrounded by impossible trammels that +what purported to be an egg proved more like a stone, and even that was +not intended to be given, it was a mere subterfuge to gain time for +carrying out Bond designs. + + + + +ALLIANCE OF ORANGE FREE STATE WITH TRANSVAAL--SUZERAINTY +SQUABBLE--ARMAMENTS BEFORE JAMESON RAID + + +The project of alliance between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State +had been mooted before 1890. After that came conferences between the +respective Presidents and delegates for closer union as it was then +styled. Mr. John G. Fraser, one of the noblest and most distinguished +Orange Free State statesmen, was conspicuous among the few opponents. +His arguments against federation were so logical and conclusive that it +seemed for a while that the idea would have to be renounced. Among other +grounds adduced against that alliance was the fact that England +possessed claims of suzerainty over the Transvaal, and, the Orange Free +State itself being entirely independent, the incongruity and +incompatibility were obvious of joining a vassal State. There was +trouble if not danger lurking behind it, if such two States were to join +in an actual federation. Whatever was desirable for mutual advantage +might be attained without offensive and defensive alliance. The two +Governments, however, knew how to manipulate matters. The closer union +scheme was carried through before the Jameson incursion, and soon after +that event an offensive and defensive alliance completed the federation. +The Afrikaner Bond then had advanced another important stage. + +Mr. John G. Fraser's persistent objections to federation, upon the +ground that the Transvaal stood under British suzerainty, had given that +question a prominence operating against the Afrikaner Bond project, +viz., that of gaining a strong Power as ally to its cause. It was felt +that no Power could, with decency, enter into a connection with that +State while such a claim was maintained. To overcome that obstacle the +Transvaal Government proceeded to raise a controversy with England, +taking up the position of repudiating the claim of suzerainty, and +averring the complete independence of the State, subject only to the one +clause _re_ treaties with foreign nations. Another object would be +gained, viz., of diverting England from Bond aims by that and similar +controversies. To make a show of sincerity about it all, the opinions +(foregathered, of course) of certain eminent jurists in England and +Holland were obtained, who refuted the claim in elaborate disquisitions +and with that readiness of apparent conviction so peculiar to some +advocates' affected faith in their clients' cause. Thus England was +decoyed into a protracted tournament of words and phrases without any +practical result, but gratifying and inspiring no doubt to certain +well-paid _soi-disant_ champions of the principle defined as the +"_perfection of justice_," who revel in a display of forensic erudition, +which, however, only illustrates to the unedified lay mind how speech is +adaptable to veil inward conviction, and how a mass of rhetoric can be +employed to justify the breach of simple and well-understood +engagements. + +It continues to be clumsily insisted upon in official and paid Press +organs how the need of providing Transvaal armaments became realized +only with that Anglo-capitalistic plot of 1895-96 against Boer +independence, and that, in fact, Dr. Jameson was worthy of the Boer +nation's lasting gratitude for opening their eyes to their helplessly +unarmed and unprepared condition up to that time. In those papers it is +declared with unblushing inexactness how the Transvaal at that epoch +possessed only two hundred and fifty inefficient and ill-equipped +artillerists, with only a few cannons of various antiquated types, and +how the burgher element had, up to that time, continued unarmed and in +unsuspecting insecurity. To stamp these misstatements as false, it needs +only to be considered that from the time of the Boer trek in 1835-38 +every Boer had been a hunter and guerilla soldier possessed of the best +firearms then extant, ready at any sacrifice to provide still more +effective weapons as inventions in arms of precision in turn progressed. +His passion to be well armed only equalled that of his love for land. +From 1881 every Transvaal and Orange Free State Boer without exception +had, and was obliged to have, his Martini-Henry rifle. The Government +arsenals were supplied with reserves of that up to recently unsurpassed +weapon and with large stores of ammunition. The authorities supplied +that rifle at £4 each, and even gratis in the case of indigent burghers. +At the frequent reviews (_wapenschouwingen_) each burgher had to appear +mounted, with his Martini-Henry rifle and thirty rounds ammunition. To +maintain proficiency in rifle practice, prizes and honours were +distributed at Government expense in each ward, whilst there was plenty +of private emulation encouraged among young and old in the science of +sharp-shooting, the Governments of both Republics contributing +ammunition at below cost price. + +In about 1893 the Transvaal Government introduced about 10,000 new +rifles of the Guede pattern, firing a steel-pointed bullet, but the +issue did not become general, as the Martini-Henry rifle continued to be +held more effective for game and for war. The Mauser rifle was only +provided, after long hesitation and much diffidence, for its +rapid-firing quality in war, whereas for game it is still considered +inferior to the larger bored Martini-Henry. + +On the occasion of the Jameson incursion, the Transvaal had in readiness +extensive parks of the most modern quick-firing Maxims and Nordenfeldts +of various calibres, and breech-loading field artillery of the Krupp +make. The Orange Free State hurried to their assistance with similar +artillery, each burgher armed with a Martini-Henry rifle. Besides all +that, there was the dynamite and explosives factory equipped to +manufacture all sorts of modern ammunition as it does now, and this is +why President Krüger described that factory as one of the corner-stones +of Boer independence. In the face of these facts it is a most singular +departure to say that the Transvaal only thought of arming when becoming +alarmed for the future by the Jameson attempt, and that statement could +only have been intended to mislead the uninformed at a distance. "_Qui +s'excuse s'accuse_" is applicable in this as well as in other ruses for +hiding those sinister Bond aims and to pose as the guileless and +victimized Boer nation. It was just the other way about--it was England +who was unprepared and exposed to imminent risk of aggression on the +part of the Boer combination. + +What had amazed and actually exasperated many Boers was the ludicrously +puny attempt made by Jameson and the Johannesburg revolutionary concert. +It was at the time thought that the invasion of some 700 men was only a +first installment, and that much larger developments were in preparation +to attack the State. It was for that reason that only a few batteries of +artillery were despatched at a late moment to Doornkop under Commandant +Trichaart to operate against Jameson's party, while the bulk was held in +reserve with an extensive mobilization of burghers to resist other +supposed opposition of an altogether more formidable but yet undefined +character. When nothing further transpired, the feeling uppermost with +the people was unbounded derision at that impotent fiasco, and a +loathing contempt for the cowering Johannesburg rabble who betrayed and +sacrificed the insensate doctor. It was loudly asserted that the +combined forces of the two Republics were competent to resist an +invasion a hundred times stronger than the one so foolishly attempted; +but, with cooler counsels, it was resolved to adopt the appealing +attitude of the deeply injured party who miraculously and providentially +escaped a great national peril. Upon these lines the raid incident +afforded an immense advantage to Afrikaner Bond tactics, and an impulse +to Bond propaganda which enormously increased Boer partisanship, +inflicting at the same time a fatal check upon the diplomacy of England +and upon the essential peace-preserving measures for safeguarding her +South African interests. The circumstances, however, served to embolden +many hitherto undecided sympathisers into openly declared and vehement +Boer partisans, revealing the singular spectacle, among English people +even, of a morbid cult apparently ready to sacrifice their nation just +to vindicate their judicial dicta about Boer innocence and to parade +their own darling sense of shocked and violated national honour. + +Quite other and more emphatic terms apply to the revolting sewerage such +as the socialistic platform and other purulent nurseries for breeding +wilful and hypocritical abettors, at so much a score, of misguided and +treason-hatching Afrikanerdom. + + + + +THE TRANSVAAL DYNAMITE AND EXPLOSIVES MONOPOLY + + +The factory pertaining to this enterprise, situated near Pretoria, is +recognised to be the most extensive and best equipped of its kind in +existence. It is capable of turning out all the dynamite and similar +blasting material needed for the gold and other mines of the State, also +every description of explosive needed for modern ammunition. + +Its equipments include ateliers and laboratories under the conduct of +eminent scientists and men of most advanced technical proficiency. The +site is a farm named Modderfontein of about 8,000 acres near Pretoria. +The industry provides employment for over 5,000 persons. In connection +with this factory is a foundry at Pretoria for casting shells, etc. The +various ingredients, such as sulphur, guhr, saltpetre, etc., are +believed to be plentiful in the State, but their exploitation is found +to be more costly than it is to import the pure articles from Europe. + +The investment is represented mostly by French and German shareholders, +the Transvaal Government also possessing a portion of the shares. The +contract with the State conveys a complete monopoly for the manufacture +and importation of all descriptions of explosives, and is so framed as +to base its subsistence upon international rights. One of the conditions +is that the issue of ammunition is relegated to State control. In this +manner burghers only get supplies, whilst Uitlanders are limited to very +small quantities for sporting purposes by special permits. + + + + +BOND FIGHTING STRENGTH IN BEGINNING OF 1899 + +Efficiently _Mounted Infantry._ At least about 142,000 +trained. + + 15,000 Orange Free State, between 18-50 + years . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000 + + 25,000 Transvaal, between 18-50 years . . 30,000 + + 40,000 Cape Colonies, between 18-50 + years . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,000 + + 2,000 Natal and elsewhere, between 18-50 + years . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000 + + 18,000 Of above, aged 16-18 and 50-60 . . 30,000 +------- ------ +100,000 _Artillery_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000 + + 600 Orange Free State, including + trained reserves . . . . . . . . 600 + + 1,400 Transvaal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,400 +------- ----- ------- +102,000 . . . . . . . . . . . Total at least about 144,000 + +102,000 highly efficient, and 42,000 partly trained. + +The mounts are docile, hardy and nimble, with large reserves available. +The above includes 500 Johannesburg Mounted Police, a picked body of men +armed with carbine, revolver, and sabre. + + _Small Arms_ . . . . . . . . . About 250,000 + +Martini-Henry rifles in Orange Free State } + } 100,000 + " " " in Transvaal } + +Guede rifles in Transvaal . . . . . . . . 10,000 +Mauser rifles in Transvaal . . . . . . . . 120,000 +Revolvers in both States . . . . . . . . . 20,000 + ------ + + _Artillery, both Republics_ . . . . . . . . 140 + +Maxims and Nordenfeldts, modern . . . . . 50 +Field cannon and Howitzers " . . . . . 70 +Siege and heavy guns " . . . . . 20 + + + + +BOER CONSERVATISM + + +Rudyard Kipling truly said "the Boers are the most conservative people +on earth." Habits and views which had prevailed two hundred years ago +with their forefathers are still tenaciously preserved by them. We see +this in matters of language, religion, in certain antipathies, and even +in attire. They are justly famed for hospitality, not only amongst +themselves, but also towards strangers, and a very pleasing trait, no +doubt handed down from the seigneurial Huguenots, is the genial +politeness which a stranger will receive in an otherwise wholly +uncultured Boer family. + +On his farm the Boer is chief and supreme after the patriarchal +fashion--no thought of tolerating an equal or a rival in authority. +Collectively also, as in governmental representation, he is extremely +averse to the introduction of any foreign element; such a factor would +meet with his undisguised suspicion and jealousy. It must be Boer +supremacy, and to this strangers must submit; the Boers to figure as +the only caste or military aristocracy privileged to carry arms, very +much like the Samouris nobles of Japan, who from of old until recently +had represented the feudal estate, and had made quite a famous cult of +personal bravery, chivalry and devotion to their Mikado and for their +independent caste. Long intercourse and inter-marriage with a Boer +family would ultimately remove the barrier. With such rooted +exclusiveness it is only in accord with Boer nature to be reluctant in +admitting Uitlanders to burgher franchise, and the greater their numbers +and influence of wealth the more would they be viewed as an innovating +menace and their admittance to political equality be resisted. + +Upon newly occupied farms a Boer will always seek to locate one or more +squatters of his own nation upon allotments ultimately intended for the +occupation of some of his own children as soon as they are grown up. The +usual conditions for privileges of residence, grazing, and cultivation +are that the squatter builds a dwelling and does all the other permanent +improvements at his own cost, that he accounts to the owner for half or +one-third of all products raised, and that he and his family should +render services whenever required. When the squatter acquires land of +his own he will in turn adopt similar feudal methods to get it improved +and to obtain services without expense. Should the conditions accorded +to the squatter result in advantages which prove any way lucrative to +him, the owner would in nine cases out of ten immediately impose more +exacting conditions, upon the plea of making provision for his own +children. Such dependants are otherwise treated with familiar equality, +as are also other white employees, and are admitted at the common table +like any of the family, but below the salt. + +To acquire farms is a Boer's greatest ambition. The love of land is his +special passion, so that his children also may be independent owners of +farms. Formerly such land acquisitions were made by encroachments upon +the possessions of natives or by purchases from them and by barter, and +failing those means, by conquest. Since 1885, however, the stipulations +in connection with the Anglo-Swaziland settlement effectually barred +expansion and encroachments in any direction. The Boers resent this +check as an exceedingly sore point. There is not enough land for the +sons who have since grown up. These cannot possibly compete with the +educated Hollanders in quest of good positions, nor are they taught any +handicrafts, and the galling prospect is inevitable that they will have +to content themselves with very humble stations in life, dependent even +upon the more prosperous Uitlanders. No wonder these Boers fell an easy +prey to the seductions and deceptive fallacies of the Afrikaner Bond +doctrine of conquest, for dispossessing England of her Colonies, and to +resume a free hand for expansion northwards as well. + +In connection with the stated inadequacy of spare land it is well to +note that, of the two Republics, the Transvaal only possesses +undeveloped Government reserve land. This is all situated in more or +less low-lying and fever-stricken parts, large tracts being absolutely +uninhabitable for that reason, especially in summer. Some of the rest is +occupied on terms of lease by burghers, and has up to the present +afforded scope for some of the less aspiring class. About one-quarter of +the aggregate Transvaal farms are owned by Uitlander individuals or by +companies who are mostly English. But the bulk of the land owned by +burghers in both States has gradually become cut up by the process of +succession into holdings so small as to admit of hardly any further +division. There are, of course, numerous exceptions of wealthy farmers +who can still bequeath to each of their sons a whole farm of 6,000 +acres, or half a farm. In the face of these restrictive circumstances a +scheme has been in preparation during the past years, promoted by the +Bond coterie in Holland and the Governments of the two Republics, to +effect a large emigration from Holland to those States. A company has +thus been formed, called "Nederlandsche Emigratie Maatschappy voor +Transvaal en Oranje Vry Staat." The prospectus describes the objects as +agricultural, pastoral, and industrial, but, as "members," only such are +invited as are disposed to join hands with the Boer cause. That scheme +came into operation before the outbreak of the war. What else does it +reveal but a thinly veiled recruiting device for auxiliaries against +England? + + +Education + +What has been said about the ignorance and illiteracy of the Boers may +be admitted to apply to the great majority of the grown-up and of the +more maturely aged population; those of youthful age have of late years +had the benefit of a better education than had before been possible to +provide. But the great drawback consists in the still very imperfect +knowledge of High Dutch, and it will take many years yet before a more +general proficiency in that language will qualify the youth for more +than purely elementary studies. There are numerous exceptions, however, +of very creditably educated Boers, whose parents have been able to get +them taught at Colonial schools, such as the Stellenbosch seminary, and +even in Holland. Besides this, there are the children and grandchildren +of the many educated Hollanders who have continued to stream into the +Republics since 1854, and who had the advantage of learning High Dutch +from their parents. Those, as a rule, bestowed great attention to their +children's education, and in many cases sent them to Holland to complete +their studies. The greatest factor of the educated Dutch element in +South Africa consists of the mass of Hollanders itself, who have made +their way to the Republics, and especially to the Transvaal, during the +past eighteen years, among whom are many of highest European +attainments, so that altogether a big muster is made up of +well-instructed people, comparing well enough with other nations, and +ample to meet all the exigencies of the two rapidly developing +Republics. This educated contingent is being continuously supplemented +by like arrivals from Holland, including eminent technical experts and +scientists. It is a well-known feature that many chief posts of the +administration are filled by aged, uneducated burghers who are +altogether without the qualification required for the exercise of their +function, but this drawback is effectually remedied by the expedient of +providing proficient Hollanders as working adjuncts and secretaries, in +which manner all the branches of the administration are nevertheless +efficiently and most creditably served. Hundreds of young Boers are +admitted as supernumeraries into the various offices to prepare them for +responsible positions later on. + + +Dundee Secret Dossier + +The greatest stir was made upon the discovery of secret documents left +behind by the British military at the hurried evacuation of Dundee +(Natal). + +It was made public that those documents contained all the details of a +plan of invading the Orange Free State, and that it furnished most +incontestable proofs of British designs as early as 1896 against the +independence of both Republics. It was promised to publish those +details, but this has not yet been done. It appears, however, that no +incriminating details exist. Nevertheless, the matter has been made to +serve calumniating reports on a considerable scale in the pro-Boer Press +abroad, declaring that those documents conveyed absolute proofs of +England's perfidious intentions of attacking the Orange Free State +unawares, whilst all the time professing friendly relations and +undertaking to respect the complete integrity of the Republican status +of both States. What actually has transpired is that the whole thing was +a mare's nest, simply and nothing more than military information under +cover marked "secret," giving topographical and other details upon the +Orange Free State--a proceeding which is carried out by all military +authorities of any pretensions to prudent activity in the information +department, and no more construable into actual hostile intentions than +are other geographical surveys for general instructions or for school +use. + +The incident again shows the absence of tangible grounds for accusations +against England when a foolish invention as the one cited must do duty +for such, and to rekindle race hatred. + +The interest and the manipulation devoted to that fabrication by the +pro-Boer Press have, however, scored another success to Bond propaganda +in fixing the belief with Boer partisans, of England's really +predetermined designs to annex both Republics. Every Boer has since been +more than ever so persuaded, the conviction fanning the fervour of +patriotism and stimulating his eagerness to resist the would-be +ravishers of his country. + +Considering, on the other hand, that the English Government had known +much about the Afrikaner Bond menace, it is singular that precautionary +measures had halted with that bare effort of making military +observations. The only way to account for this apparent lethargic +inaction is the assumption that a persevering patience and friendly +attitude was expected in time to effectually dissipate all trouble in +South Africa, and that a display of anxiety or of force would have +frustrated such peaceable tactics. In refutation of the aspersion +against England, it may be sufficient to point to the fact that during +those very years (1896-7) both Republics were in a condition of complete +helplessness through the rinderpest scourge which was then raging. If +any hostile designs had in reality existed they could have been carried +out with utmost ease then, as that scourge presented no obstacle to +England. But it was the programme of peace which was pursued as +undeviatingly then as since, with a constancy which refused to be +foiled. + + +Pamphlet entitled _A Hundred Years of Injustice_ + +A mass of so-called proof against England of her guilt in provoking the +present war and justifying the Boer attitude was presented to the public +in South Africa and abroad in November last in the shape of a voluminous +pamphlet entitled _A Hundred Years of Injustice_ (published both in +English and Dutch, and later even translated into French). That +production covers Boer history and its troubles with England up to 1881. +It then travels over the diplomatic appeals of the Transvaal delegation, +which resulted in the renewed convention of 1884. Then it wades through +all the mire of academic squabble _re_ suzerainty, etc. After exhausting +the Jameson episode with bitter invective, and seeking applause for the +Transvaal Government for its professed desire to conciliate and to +propitiate England by the offer of a seven years' franchise, the reader +is, in conclusion, 'treated to a literary display of pyrotechnic +denunciations and prophetic burdens against wicked Albion, with appeals +to divine justice for righting the cause of an innocent nation so foully +driven to a war of pure self-defence. + +Lest he be taken unawares the reader of that pamphlet would do well to +note the significant fact in connection with those preferred accusations +and aspersions that not a single act construable to the prejudice of +England is adduced dating after the Anglo-Transvaal peace of 1881, that +peace which had been mutually understood to close up all by-gones. But +the recriminations all revert to previous history, nothing having +occurred since 1881 to form real grounds for accusations. There had, on +the contrary, been an exhibition of unwearied friendly endeavours on the +part of Great Britain to maintain loyal peace with an ever-shifty and +truculent Government, and to induce it to desist from scandalous +intrigue against imperial interests in South Africa, and to adopt a more +rational attitude towards Uitlanders, which in itself would have +precluded troubles like that of the Johannesburg revolt and the Jameson +raid. + + + + +AN OLD FREE STATER'S ADMONITION + + +The doctrines of the Afrikaner Bond coterie have been so assiduously and +deeply instilled into the Boer mind that demonstrations are utterly +futile in shaking the national conviction of the divinely approved +justice of his cause. The first occasion when I saw this illustrated, +and also the people's unreasoning adherence to their leaders' opinions, +happened about ten years ago at burgher meetings which had been convened +to discuss the then projected law for restraining Uitlanders from +admission to Transvaal franchise and other political topics. + +An old Free State burgher was led then and subsequently to express his +views upon the subject in about the following strain: "It is our duty to +guard our nation against being swamped out or supplanted by strangers; +they are in great force already, and their number will constantly +increase, yet what attracts them, as you know, is our gold. That will +give out eventually, when the majority will again depart. Those +strangers, who then elect to remain with us, might be admitted to full +burgher rights. In the meantime it behoves us to reserve the full +franchise, nor will many aspire to it if they are only treated well as +strangers should be, as we should wish to be treated if we were in their +place. This is what they expect from us, and it can well be done without +giving full franchise, which they indeed do not need and will then not +claim. They will be content if their own interests are not hampered or +interfered with, and will be satisfied with such rights and privileges +as are reasonably due to guests, and we may say welcome guests (for it +is plain that the land is also largely benefited by their presence). In +other respects let us support law and order to suppress evil, which they +desire as well as we do. + +"Does the Bible not say, 'The Lord loveth the stranger?' so also then +must we; and again, 'Thou shalt not devise mischief against the stranger +who dwelleth in peace with thee.' We are reputed as a God-fearing +people. Is it not well that we should take great care to act in +accordance? But I have observed with shame that instead of love and +peace a spirit of hatred and strife has been allowed to gain upon us. +Let us strive to expel that evil, lest we fall under God's displeasure +and forfeit His favour. We cannot afford to lose that." + +At this stage the speaker was interrupted by violent remarks about +England's incurable perfidy and the like, when he added, prolonging his +speech more than he had probably intended: "Yes, we may not trust +England, but what we must do is to trust in God. Did God not pull us +through all along? was it not He who provided the peace of 1881 which +restored our independence? And can that gracious Lord, if we only let +Him act, not also protect us against any wiles and dangers if such +should occur in the future? As yet none such have arisen. The Lord was +with us in our battles for liberty; He was equally present and prompted +the sense and conditions of that very convention of 1881, which the +people were subsequently dissatisfied with and in their own wisdom +sacrificed for that of 1884. It is just possible that that presumptuous +act of wanting to improve upon the Lord's work will result in trouble +and prove to our sorrow that we have simply tampered and tinkered with a +good thing and spoilt it to our hurt. + +"'Thou shalt not provoke thy children to wrath lest they be discouraged +and be tempted to do evil,' applies specially also to the duties of +Governments. Our rulers need wisdom in this direction, and will be +responsible if our strangers are subjected to unfair laws. The older +people here will call to mind, when the old voortrekkers were obliged to +go hundreds of miles, as far as Pietermaritzburg, for their supplies, +that we prayed for shopkeepers in our land so that we might be spared +those long journeys. What was done soon after we had attracted strangers +to establish businesses with us? We were seduced to deliberately attempt +their ruin by starting those _nationale Boerenwinkels_ (national Boer +stores), supported by our own capital, but governed by Hollanders who +eventually squandered our money. Was that dealing fairly by confiding +strangers? Later on, again in response to our prayers, we got railways; +skilled men and much capital from foreign countries, first to prospect +for gold and then to develop and exploit the mines. Their labour and +hard-earned money were risked when the return was still problematic. +Shall we begrudge them their successes now, seeing that our whole land +is equally enriched at the same time, and but for them and their +enterprise the gold would still be lying uselessly hidden in the depths +of the ground? There are now, in 1890, over 100,000 such strangers in +the land, and probably over 200 millions capital invested. Shall they be +treated in a manner to justify the accusation that they were inveigled +into our land with the object of despoiling them afterwards after the +style of 'Come into my parlour, says the spider to the fly'? These +people count upon our honest friendship, especially the many English +among them who ground that confidence upon the honourable peace accorded +us in 1881. Shall we deceive them? May we hate them for old questions +which that peace was intended to bury for ever? Think of the Lord's +dealings with our people--poor, wandering, and despised at first. He had +blessings in store for the tried voortrekkers and their children. 'The +beggar was raised from the dunghill [_asch-hoop, i.e._, ash-heap, was +the word he used] to sit with princes'--'a table laid for us in the +sight of our enemies.' All this is literally fulfilled. Our President +and others representing us have been to Europe and sat with princes, and +we have a country full of riches enough to make any enemy to rage with +jealousy at the sight. Who else but the devil is that enemy? It is he +who persecuted our Dutch and Huguenot ancestors for their faith, and is +pursuing us since. It is he and his army that rage the most at our +unexampled blessings. It is he who wants us to forfeit them all and the +Lord's favour as well. It emanates from the evil one that so many among +us are seduced into wicked political plans to subvert authority +installed by God, to incite our brethren to sedition in the Colonies, +wanting to dispossess the English. For the Queen's Government there is +as much from God as are the authorities over us here and in the Orange +Free State. + +"God saith by Solomon (Prov. xxiv. 21-22): 'My son, fear thou the Lord +and the king; and meddle not with them that are given to change: for +their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the destruction of +them both?'" and he finally warned them of the risk they incurred, after +having been advanced and blessed in an unexampled way, of being flung +back to their previous ignoble position upon the ash heap. There are +plenty of respectable Boers in whose ears those expressions still +tingle. + +The man, who is no speaker, was, nevertheless, apt to grow warm and +impressive, drawn out probably by interruptions and opposing views. The +speeches terminated on one occasion by one of the party saying in +violent Bond fashion: "The English hired the Zulus to massacre our +people. They robbed us of Natal, and drove us from the Colonies. There +can be no peace with them until we have our own. God helps them who help +themselves. Whoever takes their part is against us and against every +true Afrikaner." + + + + +_MODUS VIVENDI_ SUGGESTED BY OLD FREE STATER + + +As is known, the conference between Sir Alfred Milner and President +Krüger, assisted by President Steyn, took place at Bloemfontein during +the first days of June last (1899), and resulted in the refusal to a +demand of a five years' franchise made on behalf of the Transvaal +Uitlanders, which refusal was some time later modified by enacting a law +admitting them to full burgher rights after a probation of seven years, +but coupled with restrictive forms and conditions which made that +measure unacceptable. Some time before that conference the old Free +Stater already mentioned obtained several prolonged interviews with the +hon. State Secretary Reitz, at Pretoria, with the object of dissuading +the Transvaal Government from conferring with Sir Alfred Milner while as +yet no sufficient friendly _rapprochement_ had been reached and no +advance had been made as to mutually approved bases upon which to +confer. He strongly deprecated the idea of granting "full" burgher +rights to Uitlanders, but held that their needs and wishes could be met +by allowing their interests to be amply represented without impinging +upon the special privileges which should be reserved for the burgher +status proper. He was finally invited by Mr. Reitz to submit his scheme +in writing, with the promise that it should receive careful +consideration. That old Free Stater complied, and supplied President +Krüger with a duplicate separately as well. The scheme ran in substance +as follows: + + +"_Modus vivendi_" + +The population of the Transvaal to be divided into two classes, pending +the continued presence of the large floating portion consisting of +Uitlanders who derive their subsistence from the mining industries, +viz.:-- + +1st Class.--The fixed or burgher estate. + +2nd Class.--The floating or alien estate or Guests. + +The 1st Volksraad to be elected by burghers only, and to represent the +highest legislative and administrative powers. + +The 2nd Volksraad to be elected by Uitlanders and burghers, and to be +vested with all such reasonable legislative powers as will cover the +domestic, industrial, and vocative interests of both burghers and +guests. + +The Uitlander franchise shall be limited to representation in the 2nd +Volksraad, and be extended under usual fair conditions of eligibility to +all white persons after two years' residence, retrospectively reckoned. + +Aliens may be admitted to full burgher rights and vote for 1st +Volksraad, President, and Commandant-General, after five years' +residence, if approved of by two-thirds of the burghers of his ward, +possesses landed property to the value of £1,000, and has not been +convicted here or elsewhere of any degrading crime. + +Members of both Volksraads and for public service shall be eligible +without respect of creed. + +The exploitation of mines shall be subject to a tax of 25 per cent., +reckoned upon the yearly net profits, such revenue to be applied at the +discretion of the 1st Volksraad solely for the benefit of the burgher +estate--schools, hospitals, universities, pensions, by means of +permanent endowments. + +The Government of the Transvaal undertakes:-- + +1. There shall be no identification or co-operation permitted, on the +part of any of the Transvaal people, with the association known as the +Afrikaner Bond, or any such-like political complot. + +2. The recognition of British paramountcy over South Africa, including +the Transvaal, in so far as it does not clash with the intentions and +provisions set forth in the conventions of 1881 and 1884, and does not +extend to interference with or curtailment of complete internal +autonomy. + +3. Renunciation of indemnity claim _re_ Jameson incursion. + +4. To regulate the question of coloured British subjects resident in the +Transvaal upon a genial basis, irrespective of the Bloemfontein +arbitration award upon that subject. + +5. Poll and war taxes shall be abolished. + +6. Dual rights equal with the Dutch language shall be accorded to the +English language, similarly as is done in the Cape Colony for Dutch. + +7. The railways and dynamite factory to be expropriated as soon as +possible--the loans required thereto to be amortized within twenty +years, and pending those expropriations the freights upon coal and +oversea goods shall be reduced 10 per cent, and the price of explosives +20s. per case, these reductions to be met from the revenue accruing to +the burgher estate from the tax upon mining profits. + +8. To join a general Customs union upon equitable conditions. + +9. Restore the High Court to independent power in terms of constitution. + +The sequel has shown that Bond counsels prevailed over the suggestions +of that old Free Stater. As to the seven years' franchise offered under +the pretence and colour of meeting Sir Alfred Milner's demand, it had +clearly been intended to serve as a decoy and stop-gap pending the +contemplated war of conquest, and to mask Bond duplicity while further +preparations were to be completed in diplomacy abroad and in the +seditious conspiracy in the Colonies. Natal was at that time swarming +with Boer emissaries, and Transvaal artillery officers with Hollander +engineers in disguise were seen inspecting Laing's Nek tunnel and other +strategic points in that colony. + +Not knowing at the time that State Secretary Reitz was an inveterate +Bondman, that old Free State patriot had roundly denounced to him the +wickedness of Bond aims, and added the remark that the establishment of +a united Boer Republic apart from British supremacy in South Africa was +a deceptive dream. England has a mission in Africa--that of the Boers +can only be subordinate to it. It would need the aid of a powerful +maritime combination to supplant England. The case of America does not +present an analogy; there England only was actually interested, but here +various other nations were concerned in their respective huge +investments. They would have a voice in the business. Armed intervention +would lead to a big European war and extreme misery to entire +Africa--just what the devil wants, but not the investor. Indiscriminate +franchise will cause the loss of national independence, and so might +ultimately cosmopolize and obliterate their distinctive nationality, but +so would also a war with England, with the total sacrifice of their +independence into the bargain. Let the Government rather prove to +England its sincere friendship and agree to deal well by the Uitlanders, +treating them as privileged guests, then the unhappy strain in relations +will cease. Above all, renounce that wicked Afrikaner Bond with its +motto of conquest. The demand for franchise is England's device of +self-protection against Bond designs. England will desist from that +demand if we renounce the Bond and prove our friendship. + +That old Free Stater had moreover expressed his most earnest conviction +that a _modus vivendi_ upon the lines suggested would find ready +consideration as an alternative to the five years' franchise demand, +and that the British Government would hail with the utmost satisfaction +and relief any tentative towards a sound _rapprochement_ based upon the +contentment of the Boer people within the areas of their Republics and +which would terminate Bond aspirations for Boer supremacy in South +Africa. Had he been permitted, the old Free Stater would gladly have +called upon the British agent at Pretoria, Mr. Conyngham Greene, and +felt confident that the _modus vivendi_ would lead finally to a complete +cessation of British interference and to best relations and prosperous +conditions for all instead. He also cautioned the Government at +Pretoria, giving chapter and verse, against counting upon "the arm of +man." They would find they had trusted on reeds--it would be so in +regard to any foreign help, and even in regard to men of their own +nation in the Cape Colony. + +During one of the interviews Mr. Reitz had remarked that he had a +special theory in regard to the situation; but it varied from that of +the President, who, in reality, was King, and whose will overcame all +opposition. + + + + +MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S POLICY TO AVERT WAR + + +Seeing that twenty years of patient, loyal endeavours and friendly +conciliatory proceedings following upon the rehabilitation of the +Transvaal independence had utterly failed in advancing the object of +uniting the English and Boer races, and that instead the existing gulf +was ever widening through the spread of those fell Afrikaner Bond +doctrines, it had become imperative, on the part of British statesmen, +to employ special efforts to overcome the serious menace hanging over +South Africa. The critical situation designedly brought about by the +action of the Transvaal Government and by the influence of the Bond +party indicated the remedy. A liberal franchise in favour of the +Uitlanders would at one stroke correct that evil, and counteract the +other impending danger as well. With a large accession of legitimized +voters working in accord with England's desire for peace and progress, +that good influence would be potent, first to shackle Bond action and +ultimately to reduce it to Colonial limits. The Transvaal would then no +longer be the giant ally, the arsenal, and the treasury of the Afrikaner +Bond, and that organisation would then be checkmated into impotence for +evil. + +The success of such a remedial and defensive measure would naturally +depend upon the adequacy of the franchise aimed at. Mr. Chamberlain and +his colleagues were not a little sanguine in expecting that a five +years' qualification for voting and a representation equal to one-fifth +of the total number of seats in the Legislature would be effective for +all that which was needed; nor could it be averred that the Transvaal +burghers would be swamped out thereby. + +The Bond chiefs did not fail to at once penetrate the object when the +demand for a five years' franchise was made, and in vain did Sir Alfred +display that firm attitude and exhaust his arguments at the historic +Bloemfontein conference. He had pointed out to President Krüger in a +rudimentary fashion which was no doubt convincing enough--that it was +incompatible with professions of concord and desire for peace while +persisting in excluding from representation a large majority of the +population accustomed to and expecting liberal treatment, and which, +moreover, held four-fifths of the wealth invested in the State. There +could be no other result than a dangerous tension and alienation from +the Government, instead of the peaceful co-operation so essential to +security and progress. In these days of advanced ideas of personal and +political liberty people will resist domination by a minority. They want +to be consulted, and to have at least the opportunity of making their +wishes known by means of representation. The right of petitioning could +not meet that need, and in fact implied the recognition of an inferior +status so repugnant to any one's sensibility. When people are ignored +they resent even light impositions and taxes, but if allowed a voice +will cheerfully submit to heavy burdens, because they then become, in a +manner, self-imposed. Representation is the panacea against popular +disaffection and for assuring governmental stability. To concede to +Uitlanders one-fifth of the seats in the Legislature could not operate +to the prejudice of burgher interests, but less would not meet the case. + +It was, however, not President Krüger alone who had to decide--it +affected the Bond as a whole. The diplomatic contest so far proved just +the thing to ripen conditions for the meditated Bond _coup d'état_. An +alternative offer of a seven years' franchise was interposed as a mere +ruse. Never for a moment did the Afrikaner Bond leaders waver or quail +in the face of resolute firmness, display of force, or even of moral +pressure and notes of advice from imposing quarters, as Mr. Chamberlain +had at first still fondly hoped. To the Bond it had all resolved itself +to a mere question of time, of choosing the most opportune moment when +to assume the aggressive. British attitude had only hastened the issue. +Mr. Jan Hofmeyer had indeed been sent for from the Cape so as to assure +that section of the Bond of Transvaal firmness, but he found no sign of +flinching or of renouncing the common object laboured for so long and +then so near fruition. The only difficulty was that British action had +hastened the issue somewhat too fast. Hence the repeated hurried visits +of the Bond leaders--Jan Hofmeyer, Abraham Fisher, and others--the +frequent caucus meetings of the Executive in consultation with those +delegates, the secret midnight sessions of the combined Volksraads and +Executive, the prolonged telegraphic conferences between the two +Presidents, and the final resulting word of "ready" which preceded the +fatal war ultimatum. The Gordian knot had been in evidence many years +ago; it is now recognised with regret that England had deferred action +for cutting it much too long. + +But why not agree to arbitration, it will be asked, that peaceable +method so strenuously appealed for by the Transvaal Government and +advocated by her partisans, to adjust all differences, of which the +suzerainty claim and the Uitlander question appeared to be the principal +ones? The reply is not that England was unwilling, but because the +Transvaal was insincere, and the request was a cover for shameless +duplicity, for, while it had been declared by the former that the claim +to suzerainty would be left in abeyance and that infractions of +convention which had been committed by the latter would be overlooked in +consideration of future friendly relations and co-operation, the +Transvaal Government in reality never for a moment meant to be content +with less than British overthrow and complete Boer supremacy in South +Africa, and efforts and intrigues were never relaxed, in concert with +the Bond, to compass those objects. + + + + +AFRIKANER BOND GUILT IN GRADATIONS + + +The promiscuous details and incidents, together with the circumstantial +and _primâ facie_ evidence thus far adduced in arraigning the Afrikaner +Bond combination, point mostly to conditions existent before the war +broke out. We had the smoke before the conflagration--it is a wonder how +people could manage to ignore the menace. Now the war torch is over us +in its full luridness. + +Ordinary fires, if not kindled, originate either from accident, +spontaneous combustion, or incendiarism. With war the origin may be +traced to similar causes either singly or in combination, or, when we +cannot hit the exact diagnosis, we explain it with a handy word and call +it evolution, as we may do in the case of the present Anglo-Boer +conflict. + +We may for a moment review the material and then also the agencies and +incentives which operated that evolution against harmony and peace, and +to which the conflagration is due. We have noted the legal acquisition +of the Cape Colonies by Great Britain, the equally recognised occupation +under treaties with England of the two Boer Republics, the English and +Boer races in progress of friendly assimilation and in happy prosperity +all over South Africa. This was essentially the position in 1881, until +it became gradually marred by an invidious element. We have further +noted the declining condition of Holland, its moribund language, and +finally the prospects which South Africa presented for that nation's +restoration to powerful significance, the English factor only standing +in the way. + +The next aspect brings out the marring manifestations: greed of land and +of conquest with the Pretoria-Bloemfontein combination; malignant +sedition in the Cape Colonies, urged by lust to participate more +directly in the wealth of gold and diamonds in the north and to share +general plunder--both categories of covetousness merged into one +purulent fester by men of conceited ambition, all cemented with +collusion, but the whole of it devised, engineered, and operated by the +most malignant agencies from Holland under the coaching of the evil one +himself. + +The reader may be able to assess the degrees of guilt of each +category--of the Republican Boer aspirant for land, the Colonial Boer +rebel seeking his particular profit, the accomplices who for ambitious +ends lead the first two, and the insidious Hollander intriguers who +seduced and actuated all in order to seize the lion's share of the +spoliation. + +To sum up, the respective rewards which lured them all are: Plunder for +the Boers and rebels, laurels and "fat" places for the Bond leaders, and +a substantial harvest for entire Holland, with pæans of praise for the +coterie and Dr. Leyds from a grateful people for successfully restoring +the good fortunes of the Dutch nation, and for effecting a retributive +vendetta upon England, all under world-wide, gloating acclaims of +gratified and vindictive jealousy. + +The Hollander coterie may plead patriotism which pointed to the duty of +using the tempting opportunity presented in South Africa in saving +Holland from national submersion and political extinction by means of +the Boer nation, but against this stands the unparalleled vileness of +expedients and the treacherous deceptions employed to attain that +object. It involved the wholesale seduction of one section of that +nation into sedition and rebellion against a most beneficent and just +Government under which they prospered and enjoyed the highest +conceivable degree of liberty and even special privileges, and of +pitting the other section into hostility and war against a Power which +meant nothing else than peace and amity towards them, thus placing both +into a position of risk to forfeit all their prosperity, apart from the +inevitable horrors of a war evoked by their rapacious and murderous +Hollander malice. + +The Bond scientists in Holland had fully persevered in their craftily +laid programme. After having succeeded in producing race hatred between +Boer and English, the next step had been to convince the Boer leaders +and the people of the inevitableness of a contest for ensuring the +supremacy of the Afrikaners, coupled with the absolute necessity of the +complete expulsion of the entire British element. As arguments were +adduced that the British element had proved itself unassimilable and +irreconcilable, its retention in South Africa would necessitate +continuous provisions to keep it in a state of subjection. The existence +of such conditions would be inconsistent and incompatible with the true +ideal liberty as intended for the whole of South Africa, and which must +be linked with all-round equality and fraternity. The presence of a +British factor would be an unsurmountable bar to that consummation, +hence the necessity of its total removal. + +The Bond leaders are the next in guilt; with these the incentive is +principally ambition, which, by degrees, became mis-shaped into a +specious patriotism. It is known how an ardently desired object pursued +for a long period is apt to so monopolize and infatuate the mind as to +totally vitiate and pervert the sense of discernment between right and +wrong, both as to the legitimacy of the object and the means to be +employed for its attainment. As the realization remains deferred and the +efforts are increased, the object from being considered legitimate is by +degrees invested with merit, a halo of virtue is added to the aspect, +its pursuit is viewed as a duty by fair or by questionable means, the +end justifying the latter. All, it is said, is fair in love and warfare. +This diagnosis appears particularly applicable to President Krüger and +State Secretary F.W. Reitz, both men of sincere piety (perhaps also to +Mr. Schreiner), who would have abandoned their project and renounced and +repudiated the Afrikaner Bond if ever they had doubted its legitimacy of +principle. So also with most of the other Boer leaders and their clergy +too. The agencies must have been exceedingly subtle, and the jugglery +and artifice superhuman, to operate such processes of reasoning, such +deception and aberration in honest-minded and even godly persons. + +As to the bulk of the Boer people, they are simply led by their chiefs +and superiors, in whom they repose unquestioning confidence. They go +unreasoningly with the stream of opinion under the firm belief that all +is divinely sanctioned, including rebellion and violence, and blindly +obey their call, considering their cause analogous to that of the Jews +of old, who were enjoined to spoil the Egyptians and then to pass over +and conquer their land of promise. No papal bull of indulgence ever +freed people's consciences more than the Boer people now feel in regard +to the warfare in which they are engaged. + + + + +RÉSUMÉ + + +The Boers in the Cape Colonies have been prospering in a marked degree +since the British accession in 1814, enjoying ideal liberty and good +government upon perfect equality with the English colonists. + +The people of the Orange Free State fared equally well under best +relations with the British Government up to the outbreak of the present +war. + +In the Transvaal the Boers were more handicapped, being furthest removed +from profitable Cape connections, and having to cope with powerful +hostile tribes within their border. The most redoubtable, under +Secoecoenie, was subdued during the British occupation in 1878. Then +followed the short war of 1880, with the voluntary retrocession and +peace of January, 1881. All appeared to progress remarkably well for +about ten years after, until the irrational treatment by the Boers of +British subjects in the Transvaal furnished the first cause of +friction, and engendered at last the Johannesburg crisis with the +Jameson incursion, followed by four years' vain attempts on the part of +England to bring about satisfactory and peaceful relations. + +The Afrikaner Bond had been inaugurated some thirty years ago, under the +mask of a constitutional organization, professing loyalty to England; +that body had succeeded in hiding its object, which was no less than the +expulsion from South Africa of all that is English, and which object was +brutally avowed since the outbreak of the war by declarations in the +Press and by incendiary speeches of Colonial Bond leaders and members of +the Cape Parliament. + +The British Government did not view very seriously the information it +received regarding the Bond menace until the definite action of the +Transvaal Government partially opened its eyes prior to the Johannesburg +revolt. The hope was, however, still clung to in an undefined way that +patience and forbearance would yet overcome Boer prejudice and disperse +racial antipathies, and with characteristic self-confidence as well, +things were allowed to drift rather out of hand. + +The two Republics had been _de facto_ allied some time before the +Johannesburg crisis in 1895. Both were then already provided with very +abundant armaments of up-to-date types, with equipments and preparations +far and away above any conceivable needs except indeed for a _coup +d'état_ against British supremacy and to sustain a Colonial revolt. + +On the occasion of the Jameson incursion the Orange Free State promptly +appeared near the scene with best equipped mounted Boer commandoes and +artillery to assist the Transvaal if needed. + +Before 1881 and some time subsequently there had been continued progress +towards the assimilation of the English and Boer races in South Africa. +This was marred by Afrikaner Bond doctrines and intrigues proceeding +from a Hollander coterie, the formula being "Afrika voor de +Afrikaners"--the aims including the usurpation of British authority in +the Colonies, supremacy of the Boer nation under one great Republican +federation, and an affiliated status with Holland which should restore +that people, all to the prejudice of England, to a political and +economic significance and power surpassing its former epoch of European +and Colonial eminence. As to the incentives to the Boer nation, these +were principally the plunder of capital investments and land conquests, +which the people had learnt to consider legitimate and in fact +incumbent as a duty to themselves and descendants. + +The means employed in that conspiracy were a subtle, so to say, occult +propaganda to seduce a simple people to false convictions, to induce the +creation of gigantic armaments, a secret service employing at a vast +cost journalism, emissaries, and agencies, to gain partisans and allies +outside South Africa, the Transvaal mint to coin the sinews of war from +the appropriation of the mines and their output, the dynamite factory +(that Bond corner-stone for manufacturing ammunition[11]), a system of +immigration from Holland towards supplanting the English factor and to +introduce auxiliaries. Other such means were: laws for admitting +auxiliaries to immediate full burgher rights and privilege to carry +arms, from which Uitlanders were rigorously excluded, the rabid campaign +proscribing the English language and fostering High Dutch instead (which +was much less understood by the entire Boer people, and much harder for +them to learn than English). To the above list of devices came the +exhaustive efforts to obtain an independent seaport for the Transvaal, +first at St. Lucia Bay, then at Delagoa Bay (ostensibly with a German +syndicate, and since by subsidizing Portugal or suborning Portuguese +notables and officials). + +The climax of duplicity is reached when it is averred that the pursuit +of such an organized programme during the past twenty years and more had +meant peace only, never a thought of conquest, as Ambassador Leyds so +innocently declared after failing to gain abroad the hoped-for support +for the monstrous Bond enormity. + +The Afrikaner Bond leaders would have preferred the war to have been +deferred a little longer--preferably to a moment when England might be +embroiled elsewhere. It was also thought of importance that the +Transvaal should first realize the auriferous "underground rights" +situated around the Johannesburg mines, which Government asset was +expected to net at least fifty million pounds sterling. The sales had +already been advertised, and were in preparation when the outbreak of +the war intervened. Upon the word "ready," flashed from Bloemfontein, +followed at once the fateful Pretoria ultimatum. The proceeds of those +underground rights must now come in afterwards to defray the war bill. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 11: President Krüger's reference to that factory is well +known, styling it as one of the corner-stones of Boer independence.] + + + + +THE BOERS' NATIVE POLICY + + +Boer views regarding coloured peoples are those retained from Dutch +practices of a hundred and more years ago, when the Cape of Good Hope +still belonged to that nation. Servitude, if not absolute slavery, was +then generally recognised as the proper status for coloured aborigines, +and that principle of differentiation continues to be upheld and applied +in a modified form, it must be admitted, in all the Colonial possessions +of Holland. The authority for this stand is sought from ancient biblical +history, where the descendants of Ham appear marked out for servitude, +and from that basis it is interpreted that people so marked are not +designed for tuition or evangelization until after they have been +subjugated. According to such a doctrine the injunction to preach the +Gospel to every creature would be limited to civilized whites, and might +only be extended to such coloured peoples who have been fitted, as is +said, for the reception of the Christian faith by being placed under +the subserviency of whites, as their sponsors if not their actual +masters, and requiring mundane tuition and education as essential bases +to precede conversion. + +For the refutation of such monstrous doctrines it may be urged that, +according to Scripture, savage as well as cultured peoples have a +consciousness of guilt towards the Divine Judge. The object of the +Gospel is to end the history of the culprit as such and to place him +upon a new standing--"the wind bloweth as it listeth": a new birth +operated by the acceptance of the Gospel proclamation addressed to every +creature, black as well as white. Growth and moral amendment properly +"follow" that spiritual birth; neither is conceivable before, except +purely human education, which is incapable of effecting a change, and in +fact tends only to fortify the natural man in his implacable hostility +against the newly implanted element, each lusting against the other.[12] + +History records how the Spanish and other early explorers operated with +the aborigines in the regions discovered by them. The territories with +their inhabitants were declared possessions accruing to their respective +sovereigns, whose main policy was the exploitation of all the wealth +possible. The aborigines were dispossessed, treated as conquered +peoples, and forced to do the exploiting labour. No other results could +follow than the gradual diminution and final exhaustion of all the +wealth and the partial, if not total, extinction of the aboriginal +races. + +What retribution overtook those nations is also on record. Those +enslaved peoples were forced to accept the religion of their conquerors. +Can true converts be made to order by constraint, motives of +self-interest, or by baptizing them _en bloc_? What else but deepest +aversion and mistrust could a religion inspire which is professed and +taught by a people who practise spoliation, murder, and other +descriptions of wickedness abhorrent even to a savage mind? The +aborigines would daily behold their own land and possessions enjoyed by +usurpers and "would be teachers," who subjected them besides to slavery +and abject misery. Could the religion of such teachers ever find favour +with their victims? How could doctrines of righteousness and love be +understood when so glaringly violated by their preceptors? + +It presents a sad paradox to see that the Boers, who are in many +respects consistently religious and even exemplary, could uphold +principles which place coloured people out of caste, not only in regard +to political rights but also as to the common religious standing before +the Creator. It would be unjust to charge the Boers with actually +barbarous practices towards the natives--what they do enforce is their +submission to the condition of servants. + +The Boer people ever chafed against the restraining action of the +British Government as to their practice of slavery, and they have not +hesitated either to exhibit their hostility to missionary enterprise. +The confiscation of Protestant mission sites in the Orange Free State is +one of the instances; another was exemplified in a raid perpetrated +about forty years ago by the Transvaal Boers upon the inoffensive +Bechuana tribe, whose chief and many of his people had accepted the +Christian faith through the teaching of Moffat, David Livingstone, and +other evangelists. The pretext for that raid was a lying report that +that Bechuana chief had bartered some 400 guns from traders to fight the +Boers with. The Boers sent an ultimatum requiring the surrender of +those weapons. Despite the protestation of the chief and his people that +not more than eight guns had been bartered for hunting, which had later +proved true, a commando was sent against them under Commandant Paul +Krüger, now President Krüger. Many of the natives were slain, their +villages burnt, their cattle seized, and great numbers of the tribe +taken captive for distribution as servants among the Boer farmers in the +Transvaal. That raid was further signalized by the total destruction of +Moffat's mission station--church, school buildings, and industrial +shops. These, after being looted, were all consigned to the flames, as +also the missionary dwellings, among which was that of David +Livingstone, with his furniture, books, and belongings. There are +abundant records, besides that of the Bechuana nation, that barbarous +and idolatrous peoples are amenable to Christianity without the prior +influences of civilization or individual education, or that they should +be subjugated first, as the Boers would have it. What indeed is of +immense aid for moral and economic advancement is the operation of +civilized and liberal governmental authority, repressing slavery, under +which proprietary rights and justice are equally afforded to black and +white, and where the Gospel might have a free course without constraint +and without inducements of material advantages. + +It seemed that such conditions were on the eve of eventuating for the +rescue and disenthralment of darkest Africa. This is what Moffat, +Livingstone, Coillard, and many other devoted servants of the Gospel had +prayed for all their lives, what has been and still is the burden of the +prayers (no doubt all inspired) of millions of Christians. The interior +is no more a blank on the map. Much is done for the suppression of +slavery. The whole continent is parcelled out among different nations, +who have assumed the task of civilizing their respective spheres. The +world's energy and capital stand available for the object, and it +appeared that many souls were being seriously aroused to the +responsibility of obeying the charge pronounced in Ezekiel xxxiii. 1-11. +But sinister influences have not failed in attempts to bar beneficent +dispensations. We have seen fanaticism resulting in the fierce revolt of +Mahdism in the north, and are now awaiting the issue of the war brought +on by Afrikaner Bondism in the south. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 12: Another has aptly illustrated the change by comparing such +a man's new condition to a hotel that has come under totally different +and perfectly new management and controlling proprietorship.] + + + + +ENGLAND'S NATIVE AND COLONIAL POLICY + + +Until the earlier parts of this nineteenth century England has been +conspicuous among other nations in tolerating slavery in some of her +possessions, and in permitting her people to engage in systematic +man-hunts, with the accompanying atrocities and horrors of a regular +slave trade. Manifestations of national abhorrence and condemnation of +that inhuman traffic and of slavery in general appeared during the first +quarter of this century. The nation hid its shame and contrition in acts +towards remedying its share of the evil committed. These took the shape +of expending some twenty million pounds sterling towards the +emancipation of slaves and various other costly measures to repress the +trade in human beings, and in proclaiming personal freedom for all +slaves in her dominions. The desire to do justice to coloured races was +further exemplified in the adoption, dating some fifty years back, of a +totally altered colonial and native policy. Up to then the practice +with all colonizing Powers had been to utilize their foreign dominions +as preserves for financial exploitation, involving the most crying +injustice to aborigines. The departure then effected consisted in a +policy of just laws instead, directed to ensure to those people +equitable treatment and a recognition of their rights to fixed property +and to a position before the law equal with that of white inhabitants. +The revenues produced by the Colonies were thenceforward all to be +devoted to the advancement of their own local prosperity. Free trade +followed that _régime_ of liberty and equity, and, as intended, such +Colonial dominions began to partake of the character and were +constituted off-shoots of the mother country, with a like status of +liberty and enjoying the benefit of British protection at the same time. +Many were the auguries that the experiment would result in political and +economic failure, but the good results to all concerned proved to be so +far-reaching as to startle even its most sanguine advocates. The +extension of privileges and rights operated upon the natives as a +magical incentive to labour and emulation for the improvement of their +economic condition; people who had before preferred an indolent, +semi-nomadic existence betook themselves more to agricultural and +sedentary habits, living in much greater comfort and steadily increasing +in wealth. + +Civilization went on apace, and with it the moral improvement of the +aborigines, paving the way as well for the spread of Christianity. All +this was accompanied with an immense and ever-advancing expansion of +trade with England and the recognition of British prestige as a +successful colonizing power. + +Numerous other principalities courted the privilege of coming under the +ægis of the English flag, their potentates and people readily submitting +to the abolition of practices which were not in accord with humane and +civilized usages and eager to share the benefits and advancement of +civilization which were enjoyed under British rule. In not a few +instances it was, however, not feasible to extend the protectorate so +coveted. + +While other nations were engaged in wars during the past half-century, +England had opportunities to largely expand and consolidate her Colonial +dominions. At the same time British trade, industries and shipping +advanced with gigantic strides, and that nation has since gained the +foremost rank as a commercial and Colonial empire, governing over the +choicest portions of the globe some four hundred millions of loyal and +contented subjects, who enjoy liberty and a degree of prosperity +unequalled elsewhere as yet, the whole being protected by a navy which +constitutes England as champion on sea as well. + +All this national success and example of liberal government have had a +salutary influence upon the rest of the world in evoking wholesome +competition and emulation. But another and very untoward effect is that +widespread and deep-rooted envy and jealousy have also been aroused, +which on occasion are apt to develop into pretexts for actual hostility, +or hostile partisanship as is now the case. + +What signalises the beneficent reign of Queen Victoria more than +anything else is the peculiarly devoted manner in which that august lady +has personally acquitted herself of her duty and responsibility in +regard to the elevation and rehabilitation of the hitherto socially +enslaved condition of womanhood in her Indian empire; for it is well +known how the philosophic religions of the East have been subtly adapted +for establishing the political and social pre-eminence of certain +classes of a population over its majority, at the same time dooming +womanhood generally to the lowest rank of drudges, perpetual contempt +and ignorance, refusing them education (as had been done in the case of +the Roman slaves)--specially despised if without a husband, and if a +widow, immolated at last upon her husband's funeral pyre. + +Step by step, by means of strenuous and disinterested exertions, +employing prestige and encouragements, by legislation and otherwise, a +breach was effected which bids fair to break down that caste-fenced and +chained thraldom, and to raise over a hundred millions of her humble +subject sisters from unnatural degradation to occupy the honourable and +responsible rank assigned by the Creator to woman as man's social help, +meet for him, and to whom honour is due as to the weaker vessel. +Millions of women have already found emancipation and recognition of +their right position, to man's reciprocal joy and to the felicity of +their families. Their sons and daughters in turn now form armies to +complete the mission of liberty so zealously inaugurated by their +beloved Empress, their own peculiar star of India. + +Maybe this and similar earnests evinced during that noble Queen's reign, +among which the shelter afforded to the Jewish people, will come into +remembrance in mitigation of visitations deserved by the nation for its +previous complicity in the hideous traffic in African souls of men. + +It throws a light upon the credulity and simplicity of the bulk of the +poor deluded peasant Boers when, in the face of most genial rule and +almost an excess of liberty and privileges, Bond artifice could succeed +in conjuring up contrary notions, and to poison them into the monstrous +belief that they, the Boers, were an oppressed people, whose downfall +was designed by rapacious England, and that no other remedy existed for +preserving independence, religion and homes than to expel that wicked +English people from African soil. This is, then, what Bond artifice +effected in the absence of actual cause and in order to dissimulate its +own nefarious objects. It was the work of twenty years' sedulously +applied deception and calumnious machinations. + +The Hollander coterie has at last succeeded in its ardently desired +purpose of pitting the Boer nation against England, and to bring about +the present war. What is even more astounding is the success of those +villainous artificers upon intelligent partisans of the Boer cause +outside of Africa and in England even. + + + + +OCCULT OPERATIONS AND AGENCIES + + +Will it be considered the mere fancy of enthusiasts, which admits the +thought of occult forces of a sinister kind set in array to overturn +beneficent dispensations, that the evil one, the father of lies, has +been active in all this marring of peace? Had that personage or evil +principle, if this term is more acceptable, not scored with his +malignant skill of deception 6,000 years ago, and been walking up and +down his domain ever since, intent upon undoing redemptive provisions +and counteracting all endeavours to ameliorate the miseries of humanity? +His malice would seem discernible against the Boer nation, the people +who continued in the simple faith which had been kept by their ancestors +despite the persecutions heaped upon them in France and by the oppressor +of Holland; he must have viewed with growing rage the designs of a +gracious Providence surrounding that very people with the blessings of +security and peace and accumulations of unparalleled riches, all +construable as in compensation for the sacrifices so willingly submitted +to by their forefathers and for their own fidelity to the faith. Would +he tamely brook that--and not bend on all his artifices to reverse those +provisions and to divert those rich dispensations in favour of his own +devotees instead, or else rather cause them to be devoured by wasting +war? He has so far succeeded in instigating the Boer nation to acts +which involve the forfeiture of their special heirlooms. He would also +thwart the programme of the world's nations for the civilization of +Central Africa, and would gratify his malice against the people to whom +is largely attributable the spread of governmental principles of equity +and liberty. He would seek to stamp with failure those hitherto +successful and self-rewarding methods, and so strike an effective blow +against their further adoption as being goody-goody, weak and +inefficient. + +We see civilized humanity congested with over-population, excess of +energy and of production and suffering from a plethora of capital, the +entire condition rife on the one hand with prodigal waste and on the +other fraught with the cruel want of toiling and jostling millions +vainly fighting for space and the most modest means of +existence--conditions which presage an inevitable and universal crash +unless checked by a Malthusian or else by a beneficent and humane +remedy. We know the right remedy for at least staving off the impending +universal crisis lies in the manifold opportunities of creating outlets. +These exist to the full in the vast fallow regions of Africa, and in the +scope for industries and commerce in Asia and elsewhere. Each +well-devised colonizing scheme, every railway built, and every other new +investment would afford improved employment and relieve the general +strain; every true convert gained by the spread of Christianity would +become an obedient and reliable unit towards the menaced stability of +authorized Governments. We see capital impelled to vast enterprises, as +it were by secret forces;[13] we are aware of the activity of nations +singly and in co-operation in promoting and sustaining such projects. +All those efforts and outlets would serve as safety-valves for the +discontent of the ill-provided masses, and their success would render +them governable at a lesser cost, and even admit the reduction of +standing armies and other objects treated by the recent Peace Conference +at the Hague. The essential thing, indeed, is peace, and that in turn +would consolidate security and progress. But the enemy is interested +exactly the other way. His ascendancy is coincident, not with the +mitigation of the conditions of human existence, but in accentuating the +misery of the masses, driving them to desperation and to embrace illogic +and deceptive maxims of socialism and violent anarchy. It is with those +forces that he intends to uproot and usurp divinely instituted authority +expressly set up to repress evil and to protect person and property. He +wants by licence and not liberty to hasten the advent of that murderous +political power prophetically depicted with the statue standing upon +feet of clay and iron: supreme authority vested in the world's +proletariat in unstable and uncohesive union with militarism, Satan +himself the actual lawless animator.[14] As to the scope for outlets in +the East, it is more restricted to industries and commerce, but those +enterprises, however brilliantly promising, are fraught with the risks +incidental to hostile rivalries and political complications, while in +Africa the openings are at least as vast and inviting immigration on a +huge scale as well, but all with much greater security, inasmuch as the +spheres of operation are definitely apportioned to various nations, and +where in the nature of things the success of each would be promoted by +joint-solidarity, and thus afford a guarantee for the peaceable and +prosperous development of the whole continent. Our common enemy would +fain frustrate it all with his Afrikaner Bond device, and then finally +gloat over the accomplished ruin of his deluded Boer victims. + +Africa has for some thousands of years been the enemy's favourite and +undisturbed haunt for his gory orgies, for the hecatombs of millions of +immolated victims each year, the teeming recruiting preserve for his +contingents. + +Is he likely to surrender it all to an invading beneficent operation? +Will he not rather continue a most determined and desperate resistance +and oppose the most advanced of his subtle devices? The malignant power +of his agencies is ever and anon manifest--if restrained in one +direction his sway is doubly asserted in another. While the Boer war is +proceeding a diversion upon a large scale is being effected in Asia +which may result in deferring progress in Africa, or history may be +brought to repeat itself by the production of some African Attila or +Grenseric or a Saladin or another Moselikatse or Mahdi, whose +overrunning hordes will efface all the good work thus far done and +restore conditions in accord with his murderous sway, whilst at the same +time revelling over the ominous developments looming in Europe and +America for the production of giant strikes and other imminent +socialistic outbursts which could all be prevented, or at least staved +off for a long time, if the existing immense spheres for civilizing +outlets could only be peaceably utilized. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 13: One of those enterprises is the railway which is to +connect the Cape with Cairo.] + +[Footnote 14: Pro-Boer Propaganda is persisting in designating England +as answering to that prophetic image destined to signal destruction.] + + + + +RELIGION + + +The old voortrekkers who emigrated from the Cape Colony all belonged to +the Dutch Reformed Protestant persuasion. With very little learning, the +Bible, catechism, and the orthodox "psalm and hymn-book" constituted +their sole means for building up their faith. The scope of their +education was likewise limited to these simple aids during their +chequered wanderings for nearly twenty years, proving ample, however, in +preserving themselves and children from the tendencies of receding into +barbarism. The Bible was the recognised reference and guide in private +and public affairs, and it is so still. It is, indeed, notable with what +wisdom and prudence those simple people managed to frame their treaties +with native potentates, their conventions with the Portuguese and the +British Governments, and, finally, in compiling their own constitutions. +Their experiences teem with incidents of extreme sufferings, dangers, +and reverses, and also with many signal deliverances, which all +operated in deepening religious fervour and dependence upon the +Almighty. + +Their vicissitudes led them to make analogous comparisons with ancient +Jewish history. This practice resulted in some erroneous conceptions, +notably in regard to their relations with aborigines and general native +policy, as referred to in previous chapters. It also imperceptibly +fostered sentiments confounding legality with grace, and the by-product +of that subtle corrupting leaven which is apt to see a splint in the eye +of another whilst unmindful of the beam in one's own. + +Upon the whole, the religious status of the Boers may be fairly compared +to that of the old American pilgrim fathers, only much less intolerant, +fairly strict sabbatarians, and jealous in maintaining national and +individual morality. About forty years ago a small group seceded from +the Dutch Reformed Church and formed a separate connection under the +name of "Enkel gereformende Kerk" (simply reformed Church), more +generally known under the sobriquet of "Doppers." This cult is identical +with the parent Church, and differs only in a somewhat stricter church +discipline and the rejection of the hymns from the common psalm and +hymn-book upon the ground that many of them are tainted with dangerously +anti-scriptural doctrine.[15] These Doppers are really very worthy +people, but noted for their strong conservatism and adherence to old +habits and customs, even in the matter of dress. President Krüger is one +of their prominent members and so is General Piet Cronjé. + +The devotional habits of the Boers form one of their national +characteristics. The family collect at dawn for morning worship, led by +the parent or else by the tutor--it consists of a hymn, +Scripture-reading, and prayer--similarly before retiring at night, +devout grace before and after each meal. These practices are not relaxed +when travelling with their wagons or when in the field. On Sundays an +extra (forenoon) service is added. Strangers and travellers receiving +hospitality are always courteously and unostentatiously admitted to +those family devotions. One may thus meet with one or more wagons camped +in the wilderness and find a cluster of men, women, and children +engaged in happy devotions and singing psalms or hymns in the familiar +old "Herrenhut" melodies, or one may come upon a scene where men just +returned to camp, begrimed and still perspiring from a day's hunt or +battle, join with husky voices an already assembled group in the +customary service. + +Such practices of piety cannot fail to have a salutary effect upon the +young, nor can it be with justice said that the bulk of the people are +inconsistent in their conduct, though formality and insincerity are +sadly frequent enough, and in late years a decadence in seriousness and +an increase of frivolity instead have marked the present epoch, +especially among those who are exposed to the pernicious influences and +contaminations incidental to town life. The old Free Stater mentioned +before expressed the expectation that the present war and trials will +tend to check that declension, and in that way prove to have a +compensating character for good. During my frequent travels it had been +my privilege as a guest to make the acquaintance of numerous truly +Christian Boer families, both well-to-do and poor. On one occasion I had +to accept the hospitality at a farmhouse of one named Brits,[16] +nicknamed "vuil" or dirty Brits. This was an old blind widower; his +household was composed, besides himself, of an old brother, also a +widower, and the family of a son-in-law. After the evening meal the +service was led by the blind man, the daughter reading some chapters in +the Bible indicated by him. The two old men and I occupied separate cots +in one small side room. Happening to wake up at dawn the following +morning, I saw those old men sit up facing each other, with their feet +upon the floor, and begin their morning hymn of praise, after which the +house resounded with younger voices from the other end with a similar +song. I do not call to mind any special untidiness at that poor blind +man's house to warrant his sobriquet; my recollections are, on the +contrary, of the happiest, and I mentally called him clean Brits, clean +every whit. In another part of the country I was privileged to meet with +a family, which included a grown-up blind daughter,' who had St. John's +Gospel in raised letters. While reading with her fingers her upturned +face would shine with joy when repeating some of the salient, consoling, +and sustaining verses. And how common are the records among those simple +Boers of happy and triumphant death-bed scenes of old and young, +softening the grief of the bereaved believers. Frivolous education and +advanced surroundings are accountable for a certain waning of the +original habits of serious piety; this is to some extent more the case +among the Cape Colonial and Orange Free State Boers, the declension +appearing greatest with those residing in or in close proximity to +towns. Among the men of exemplary and consistent piety in the Transvaal +are conspicuous: President Krüger, State Secretary Reitz, +Commandant-General Joubert, General Piet Cronjé, and others holding +highest positions, and also many of the Volksraad members, including the +late General Kock. + +Upon the occasion when the Transvaal Executive, with the assembled +Volksraads, finally determined upon war, and the momentous matter had +been considered of handing over the passports to Mr. Greene, the British +agent, just before signing them, President Krüger was observed occupied +in silent prayer for a few moments, while many of the others bowed their +heads similarly engaged, after which the documents were firmly +completed. When the first commandoes were about to depart for the field, +the President addressed a farewell to the burghers, assuring them that +God's aid could confidently be implored for their just cause; he also +quoted part of the Verse, "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall +lose it," intending it as an exhortation for the timorous, warning them +of the greater danger incurred by retreat or flight than when +maintaining a manful stand. (The reader will know that the above +quotation does not complete the verse, the rest being, "But whosoever +shall lose his life for my sake or for the Gospel shall preserve it.") + +It points to the operation of most persevering and subtle agencies and +potent illusions that could mislead and carry away the chief men and the +most intelligent of the Boer nation so far as to engender the erroneous +convictions which caused them to court the present war and to consider +it just. As to the bulk of the people, they are in turn led astray by +their leaders' example and opinions as victims of the general delusion. + +These convictions, together with the acceptance of Afrikaner Bond +doctrines, have developed into quite a national infatuation, a kind of +Boer Koran, invested with similar fanaticism. Analogies are assumed as +existing between the case of the Israelites brought by Moses through the +wilderness, and led by Joshua into the conquered possession of their +promised Canaan. Following those prototypes, Paul Krüger is held as +having guided the Boer nation thus far through the mazes of political +troubles, and so also is General Joubert,[17] now their leader in the +conquest, South Africa in its entirety being considered as rightfully +belonging to them. The Orange River stands for Jordan, dividing as yet +the possessions of the people, and the analogy only needs completion by +a Pisgah for President Krüger. That such hallucinations have taken deep +root appears from the fact that the wife of President Krüger dreamt of +the accomplishment of such a typical history, and that her husband had +died at an early stage of the conquest. Such complete faith is attached +to the prophetic import of that dream that the President was prevailed +upon to permit its publication in full detail some time in November +last. The President's death was anticipated within two months after. (I +am far from referring to those incidents in a mocking mood, but rather +to show the intense sincerity of Boer convictions, confounding the +Christian's exalted calling with one which is temporal; and I fancy that +those very Boers, if equally well instructed, might sadly eclipse some +of us who have the privilege and also the responsibility of enjoying +correct teaching.) + +The writer has endeavoured to represent in a true light both the +character of the Boer nation and its responsibility in regard to the +origin of the present deplorable war. The reader will be able to judge +whether that people is wilfully guilty, or whether the circumstances +admit of generous, mitigating condonement, always considered apart from +that horrible Hollander element which has been the root and instigating +cause of all the evil. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 15: Some readers will recognise the significance, the +protective competence, the keen and reliable instinct which enable +untutored believers to discern and detect doctrinal leaven insidiously +concealed in the garb of worship.] + +[Footnote 16: At Modder River, on the road between Bloemfontein and +Kimberley.] + +[Footnote 17: At the time, December, 1899, when this was intended for +publication.] + + + + +PHYSIQUE AND HABITS + + +We have noted in former pages that the Boers' ancestry some two +centuries ago was composed of about two-thirds of sturdy Dutch peasants, +artizans, etc., while the other third consisted mostly of French +Huguenots. + +It is known that the immigrant class, though generally somewhat poor, +are uniformly men and women endowed with an adventurous, self-reliant +spirit and with unimpaired health. Naturally none but robust persons +were permitted to join the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. + +We see in that combination the patient, resolute quality prevailing in +Holland and the more ardent, vivacious, and chivalrous character found +with the French people. The Huguenot refugees belonged undisputably to +the cream of that impulsive nation--intellectual, educated, and +fearless--whilst both portions were pervaded with deep-rooted religious +fervour and habituated to moral and temperate lives. + +Those combined qualities and habits would naturally be transmitted to +the progeny; prosperity and splendid climatic conditions tended still +further to develop a virile physique of first order. The moral and +physical standards were maintained by the practice of men and women +marrying early in life, and by occupations which required the people to +pass most of their time in the open. Educationally, there was +unavoidably some retrogression, but there is always plenty of scope in +the existence of colonists in a new country for the exercise of a +vigorous mind in the study of nature, in overcoming difficulties and in +cultivating the faculty of resourcefulness. + +Whilst missing the intellectual benefits of advanced civilization, the +people escaped the dangers of its vitiating tendencies, thus preserving +a healthy mental calibre as well as robust physical health. In addition +may be mentioned a very notable fecundal power, which accounts for the +phenomenally rapid increase of the people. All those conditions have +continued to be maintained with the successive generations up to now. + +Those who joined in the exodus north of the Orange River in 1835 and the +years following comprised the most indomitable and best endowed of that +stalwart race. Twenty years of a nomadic life after that and until they +got somewhat settled down served to weed out the weaklings among them; +since then their mode of life accorded well to keep up the highest +physical standard, not pampered with many comforts, inured to hardships +and to out-of-door exercise, with a diet consisting very largely of meat +and venison, coupled with energetic exercise of mind and body (the women +sharing in the less arduous duties). All this constituted a regimen and +training which did not fail to keep the people in a constant condition +of high efficiency and equipoise for the performance of tasks and for +surmounting difficulties needing more than usual strength, endurance, +and fortitude. + +The rough labour all over South Africa is done mostly by Kaffirs and +other coloured people. A Boer farmer will have from two to ten or more +Kaffirs (men and women) employed for out-of-door work and for domestic +drudgery. Often absent from home on hunting trips and sometimes on +commando, the men entrust their work on such occasions (as is now the +case during the present war) to the care of their wives and daughters, +assisted by some younger sons, if the family includes any, or else +simply with the aid of Kaffir servants. Sometimes they are without any +such help, when they take a pride in doing it alone. + +Girls as well as boys learn to ride on horseback when quite young. It is +quite a usual thing to see women riding astride fashion, collecting +sheep and cattle, or driving their horse carts and spiders (carriages), +unattended by males, over distances of over twenty and thirty +miles--women spanning in ox-teams to their travelling wagons, driving +them with long whips on journeys occupying one or more days. During the +Kaffir wars the Boers used to trek (travel) in bodies with their wagons, +which would serve to form a laager or fort, their families and +belongings being placed in the centre. During an attack the women would +attend to the men's wants, reload their rifles, and even take a more +active part in repelling the enemy, many of them being also crack shots. +The above-stated efficient and hardy habits with men and women apply +more to the people in the two Republics, and particularly so to those of +the Transvaal, while the Colonial Boers on the whole have had no such +experience, but instead have lived in uninterrupted peace and comfort +for generations, and may be classed with farmers of any other +well-governed and protected country or colony. The Boer farmers in the +northern portions of the Cape Colony, however, approximate to those of +the Orange Free State in hardy habits and ability to fend for themselves +when in difficulty. But with the Transvaal Boers the training incident +to wars, hunting, and nomadic movements has been more sustained, and +they are thus in best form and fitness of efficiency compared with all +the rest. + +In the Orange Free State nearly every man above fifty years of age has +had the experience of the three years' Basuto war in 1865-67, and almost +all above forty are very expert huntsmen and crack shots. Quite a good +number have also taken part in the Transvaal war against the English in +1880; the rest have been trained by the elder veterans, and, though not +so well seasoned, are good horsemen, expert with the rifle, and +competent in the field. As to the Transvaalers, the men have all had +plenty of field practice before the previous war with England and since, +in subduing formidable Kaffir rebellions, the last being the operations +against the Magato chief, which terminated just before the outbreak of +the present Anglo-Boer war. + +Besides this, game had continued longer in abundance in the Transvaal, +and is still hunted with success in the northern low veldt and in the +adjacent Portuguese territory. Added to this, the young Boers in the +Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal have been +encouraged to attain proficiency in rifle practice and competence in the +field, ostensibly for the gratification of keeping up old traditions, +but in reality to be prepared for the struggle against England meditated +by the Afrikaner Bond. + +About thirty odd years ago the Orange Free State and Transvaal were +still swarming with all sorts of game. Venison was the staple diet. +Lions and leopards also infested those States, but these and the game +have been pretty well extirpated since, except in some of the lower +parts of the Transvaal. In the earlier days ammunition was costly and +hard to procure, and the use had to be husbanded accordingly. It became +thus a practice never to pull a trigger unless with intense aim and the +certainty of an effective shot. A man would go out stalking for an hour +or so with perhaps but one or two charges, and would rarely fail in +bringing home the kind of game wanted--either a springbock, blesbock, or +wildebeest (gnu). In hunting lions, the lads would form part of the +company for the purpose of being taught. The boys would learn that if a +lion meant to attack he would approach to within twenty or thirty +yards, and then straighten himself up before making the final charge. It +was during that short halt that the disabling or killing shot would have +to be delivered. Father and son would then be standing ready--the son to +fire first; if unsuccessful, the animal would be brought down by the +father. If there were a larger party and the lions numerous, the lessons +would be learnt so much better by way of emulation. The boys soon +realized that a lion, means business only when he advances silently and +with smoothed gait, but that bristling up and roaring is a sure prelude +to his skulking off. What we read of the terror-inspiring roar is to the +Boer stripling pure romance and non-sense; but what he does realize is +that he must hit the animal in a vital spot at the right moment or else +run the risk of being clawed and bitten. The confidence, however, which +he has in his gun gives him all the requisite nerve, and mishaps are of +very rare occurrence. Those lion hunts used to be very profitable, not +only for the valuable skins, but especially when a number of young cubs +were also caught, which would realize considerably high prices from +menagerie purveyors. + +At the age of about eight years a boy would be taught to ride on +horseback; when twelve years old he would be an expert horseman and a +deadly rifle shot as well; at sixteen he would be able to perform all +farm duties and rank with pride and confidence as an efficient burgher +to take the field against any enemy. His brain is not addled with school +lore, but is thoroughly versed and taught from nature's book. Hardened +to the fatigue of long rides over unfamiliar country in search of stray +cattle, the Boer youth has often to subsist upon a bit of dried biltong +(junked beef or venison), endure at intervals scorching heat and +drenching rains, swim rivers, and pass the night with a stone for a +pillow and his saddle as the only shelter, while his horse, securely +hobbled, feeds upon the grass around. Never will he lose his way; if +landmarks fail him and clouds hide moon and stars, he is guided by wind, +the run of water or his horse's instincts. Accustomed to wide horizons, +he can promptly distinguish objects at a distance, which, to an +ordinarily good eyesight, would need careful scanning through a +field-glass. + +He is expert in finding and following any trail, and can promptly tell +the imprint from whatever animal it might be, or of whatever human +origin; an ideal scout and unsurpassed as a pioneer. When travelling +over roadless country the Boer's instinct will direct him in tracing +the most practicable route for his wagons, and with his experience he +can foretell what kind of topography he will in succession have to +traverse, avoiding unnegotiable spots and unnecessary detours, and when +about to halt, a surveying gaze will locate the safest and most suitable +position for his temporary camp. Such capacities serve with obvious +advantage in defensive and offensive war tactics. Prompt in seizing an +advantage and in avoiding danger, he has also learnt to be an adept in +ruses to decoy and mislead an enemy, and as for self-help and +resourcefulness, there is hardly a situation or difficulty conceivable +which will not be successfully surmounted. The usual Boer can also fend +for himself and cope with the minor perplexities of every-day life in +the field, which would strand a less initiated man. He can cook, bake +bread, mend clothes, make boots, repair saddles, harness, and vehicles, +and is full of expedients and able to make shift. Most of them know how +to shoe their horses, whilst many of them are expert also in working +wood and metals and similar handicrafts. In short, the Boers make ideal +scouts and are unique as colonizing pioneers. In their nomadic +wanderings and frequent wars, the Boers have gained much useful +experience in tactics, strategy, and in the wiles of diplomacy too. +They also learnt to adopt methods of organization, of cohesion, combined +action, and a certain amount of discipline among themselves. + +They elect as subordinate and chief leaders men whose abilities and +influence have commended them for such responsible appointments. Before +committing themselves to any very important step these leaders would +first confer with the people, who in turn would generally be easily +swayed to their opinions, and who found by experience that it was safest +to follow their judgment. It thus also became a habit to leave the main +thinking over to those leaders, which enhanced unanimity and led to a +self-imposed obedience and discipline recognised as necessary for the +common welfare and also indispensable for common safety. + +So prevalent had the practice become of deferring to the opinions of +their leaders that it engendered an apathy among the people against +considering political and public matters which were not altogether of +engrossing importance. Public meetings would be poorly attended, and at +elections not half the votes were recorded. "Let the elected heads see +to it; they are paid for doing the controlling and thinking work"--that +used to be the general feeling. But during the past twenty years public +interest has by degrees been successfully aroused by the activities of +the Afrikaner Bond; the former apathy and distaste to the consideration +of public concerns have given place to a more lively identification even +with politics, but the tendency of being swayed by men of influence of +their own kind remains unchanged. + +The Boers are great smokers--tobacco appears to have no hurtful effects +whatever upon them, but seems rather to serve as a grateful sedative. +The first thing offered on meeting a Boer is his tobacco pouch, and if +one is a guest at his house, this is followed by one or more cups of +coffee. This is drunk by men and women in large quantities, often +without sugar, but very weak. The people are justly famed for cordial +hospitality to strangers, and the pleasing tact and unostentatious +correct politeness met with from the most ordinary and uneducated Boer +are only accountable for on the theory that that particular culture of +manners has been transmitted from his noble French ancestry of a couple +of hundred years ago. + +In stature the men near the average of six feet (say five feet ten +inches)--full-bearded, brawny-limbed, and of stalwart build, suggesting +a homeric capacity for aggression and resistance. They present a +standard of sturdy and active manhood, which would have delighted the +critical eye of Frederick the Great for the formation of his very best +regiments. What is really singular is the infinitesimally small +proportion of ineffective and sickly men found left behind when all the +commandoes are called out, and also the considerable number of hale old +men above sixty who voluntarily join the field. And when the hardy +training and general high efficiency are considered down to the youth of +sixteen, one may estimate the formidableness of such a foe, all well +mounted on tough and nimble horses, well provisioned and provided with +the best weapons extant, guided by very competent chiefs and European +advisers--withal self-reliant and conscious of a superior aggressive and +defensive capability for repeating their splendid ancestral records of +prowess. Add to this inbred patriotism stimulated to an enthusiasm +approaching fanaticism by a mind fashioned to the belief that their war +is against an unjust usurper destined to be overthrown; it all sums up a +long way towards balancing numerical inferiority and inexperience in the +science of modern warfare. As to military science, they are apt to +become quickly tutored into proficiency by daily observation and +experience, and by the coaching of the numerous military officers who +have joined their ranks. + +Another advantage upon the Boer side consists in complete +acclimatization and perfect knowledge of the country. Lastly, but by no +means less important, is the rational practice of always going as light +and unencumbered as at all possible, preferably with stripped saddle, +and to subsist mostly upon meat when in the field, both serving to +enhance staying power and to provide a reserve of stamina and of energy +for occasions of supreme effort, which often decide the fate of battle +against combatants, however courageous, who are fagged out with marching +on foot, and through being overladen with accoutrements and pack and a +lumbersome diet as well. What can such panting, unsteadied men do in +conflict with Boers who are fresh and in well-preserved form, and whose +steady sharp-shooting simply results in Calvaries for their opponents, +however brave, disciplined and well equipped they may be? + +Yet to be noted is the small commissariat needed for Boer horses and +mules. These are accustomed to subsist altogether on grass, and when it +is plentiful, during summer and fall, to keep in good condition, working +six to ten hours daily, if only allowed to graze during the rest of the +time. They are then usually knee-haltered, _i.e._, one foreleg tied to +the halter, with about eighteen inches space between. A few feeds of dry +mealies (maize) will be amply supplementary when the pasture is +inferior, or if the animals have to be picketed much. + +As said before, alcoholism does not prevail among the Boers, and any +tendency to it is sedulously checked by legislation and public +reprobation. President Krüger is an absolute abstainer from intoxicants, +and even at banquets he will sip water only when joining in a toast. His +contention is that the effects generally go beyond a harmlessly +exhilarating point; the action of alcohol unbalances the nervous +equilibrium, producing in most cases an excitement above the normal +level, followed by a corresponding depressive reaction below it, +creating an appetite for repeating the potation, with exactly similar +and progressively aggravated results. Then man's moral standard and +general efficiency and dignity become impaired, to the serious damage of +his own welfare and involving the common weal as well. When at the +outbreak of the war the sale of intoxicants became totally prohibited +the measure was received with willing submission and hailed with general +approval, which speaks volumes for the burgher population and without +doubt also tends to preserve their efficiency and stamina. + + + + +PRESIDENT KRÜGER + + +Stephanus Johannes Paulus Krüger is about the most accessible President +on record. Every morning--except Sundays and holidays, after family +worship, that is to say, from 5.30 in summer and 6 in winter to 8 +o'clock--he gives audience to Boer and Uitlander, rich or poor alike, +and also on each afternoon, from 4 to 6 and even later. His residence in +the west end of Church Street, Pretoria, is quite an ordinary modest +building of the bungalow type. The only distinction observable is two +crouching lion figures, life size, on pedestals about three feet high, +at the balustrade entrance to the front verandah. A lawn of about thirty +feet across extends to the street limit, where at a very unpretentious +gate two armed burgher guards are constantly stationed. These will +receive an intending visitor's name, an unarmed domestic guard will then +come forward, who, after a short scrutiny, if the person is a stranger, +will report to the President and will immediately return to conduct you +to that dignitary, who may be sitting under the front verandah or in the +adjoining reception-room. There the President will readily shake hands +and point to a chair, rather near by because he is slightly hard of +hearing, the domestic guard standing or sitting between, but a good way +back. By his questions and final remarks one feels assured that the +topic introduced has been attentively listened to and fully grasped. +While conversing, other audience-seekers would drop in, and, while +waiting their turn, coffee would usually be served to all. The manners +observed are devoid of any stiffness of etiquette, but rather marked +with a cordial decorum approaching intimacy, most assuring to the +simplest and humblest visitor. + +The only leisure the President enjoys is the interval from 12 to 2, +between his official labours at the Government buildings, which are +about half a mile distant from his house. He drives there and back in a +modest carriage attended by a guard of mounted policemen. His Honour is +invariably dressed in black cloth, with the usual tall silk hat. Six +feet high, with a slight stoop, broad shouldered, deep-chested, with +well-developed limbs, arms rather long, the President presents a +stately, burly figure, portly without obesity. When younger he was +noted, as something like a Ulysses, for personal strength and prowess as +well as for sagacity. Although seventy-five years old now, Mr. Krüger +has still a remarkably hale bearing and an intellect of undiminished +quality. His eyesight, however, has been suffering of late, rendering +the attendance of an oculist necessary. His Honour is in his fifth term +of presidency, and has held the office twenty-two years. His salary is +£8,000 per annum, of which he probably does not expend £1,000, his +habits being exceedingly simple and frugal, Mrs. Krüger being equally +conservative and thrifty, preferring rather to expend money for her +children and in unostentatious benevolence than in superfluities. + +President Krüger is an exemplary Christian, an earnest student of the +Bible since his youth, ever ready to employ his gifts to strengthen the +faith of his people and to maintain their religious standard. He often +occupies the pulpit, and on other occasions gives exhorting discourses. +Upon the completion of the imposing Johannesburg synagogue his Honour +was requested to preside at its dedication. It was an impressive +function, and withal so anomalous and unrabbinical a departure--the head +of the State, a devout Christian, opening the edifice for Jewish +worship and addressing a discourse to the thousands of assembled +Israelites. In his zeal and concern Mr. Krüger could not refrain from +adverting to their blessed Messiah, the God-man of Jewish stock, +rejected through ignorance by their forefathers, exalted since, but who +loved His people nevertheless, as typified by Joseph's narrative when he +revealed himself to his brethren in Egypt. He adjured them to a +prayerful reading of their Old Testament, and he invoked God's mercy to +remove the veil which obscured from their eyes their own and also the +Gentiles' glorious Immanuel. The ceremony was concluded with perfect +decorum, despite the surprise that the address had drifted into an +impassioned Gospel sermon. + +This grand old Boer is the very personification of noble patriotism and +devoted concern for the welfare of his nation. While admiring and loving +the man, what sorrow on the one side and indignant execration on the +other do not overwhelm one, seeing that such a pattern and leader of men +should have become the victim of that heartless Hollander coterie! One +cannot but marvel at the same time at the alert skill and wily patience +which must have been employed during the many years past to hold +President Krüger with State Secretary Keitz and President Steyn in the +Afrikaner Bond leash ready to let loose with unshaken convictions upon +the supreme contest designed for them and their people by the +machinations intended for upraising Holland at the risk of immolating +the victimized Boer nation. + + + + +PEACE ADJUSTMENTS + + +Upon this topic a few remarks may be placed under the assumption that +the arch enemy's triumph in the present war will be circumscribed by the +havoc and the bereavements created by it, and by the forfeiture +inflicted upon the poor deluded Boers of their special heirlooms. One of +the considerations would be the war cost and its recoupment, and another +important one is the measures needful to prevent a repetition of a Bond +revolt. + +As to the war indemnity: it is well understood on all hands that the +supremacy of Great Britain, when once established as the result of the +war, will greatly enhance the value of all existing capital +investments--10 to 50 per cent., and many even 100 per cent. It is not +to be denied that capitalism has evinced decided eagerness that English +supremacy should be asserted, and it is in a manner amenable together +with the Afrikaner Bond, for secretly striving to bring about the +contest each independently in its own way, but without the least concert +with each other. It appears therefore equitable that capital should +become contributable to the cost of the war which will eventually result +in so largely enhancing its invested values. + +A tax of 2-1/2 per cent. upon the aggregate investment values and a +royalty upon the mining industries of 25 per cent. of the net profits +would appear reasonable. + +The 2-1/2 per cent. tax might bring a sum of ....... 15 millions + +The royalty could be reckoned at capitalized + value ............................................ 50 " + +The confiscations might reach ...................... 10 " + +And the underground rights around the Johannesburg + mines might realize .............................. 50 " + +Thus together 125 millions, possibly not sufficient to cover the entire +war cost if pensions are to be included. It is a sad reflection to note +that the entire wealth which constituted the national heirloom of the +Transvaal will have been wasted, and comes far short to cover the actual +war expenditure. In regard to preventive measures against another Bond +war, nothing appears clearer than the necessity of applying the _lex +talionis_ upon the Hollander element in South Africa (though not in that +inhuman fashion as was practised upon the English refugees before and at +the commencement of the war). + +Whilst not so guilty to the same extent of enormity as the coterie in +Holland, who devised all the Bond mischief at a safe distance, the +Hollanders in South Africa were nevertheless their eager abettors and +sedulous henchmen. It will be remembered that the Bond cry had been +"Drive the English into the sea, out of Africa," and that the first +earnest in carrying out that fiat was practised some months before the +outbreak of the war upon the unaggressive coloured British subjects, +traders, merchants, etc., whose removal from their residences and +businesses to ghettos outside the towns practically compassed their ruin +and expulsion from the Transvaal. This was followed, first by a +voluntary and afterwards by the forced exodus of Uitlanders at the rate +of thousands per day--men, women, and children packed in uncleansed coal +and cattle trucks, together with Coolies, Kaffirs, and Hottentots, and +hustled over the Portuguese border, dumped down at that death-trap +Komati Poort if unable to pay the railway fare for fifty-three miles +further to Delagoa Bay. Those refugees were obliged to abandon or +sacrifice their belongings--they had no time allowed to realize them; it +meant their financial ruin. + +That Hollander element comprises the most insidious menace, and, like a +cancer, must be unsparingly excised from South Africa, unless +encouragement is intended to be given for an attempt to go one better +next time, with a repetition, or rather an aggravation, of the horrors +of war and the cost in life and treasure, turning the sub-continent into +a second vast Algeria, with perhaps such another "Abd El Kadr" to +subdue, and without any reserve asset, as now, to fall back upon towards +reimbursing the expense. Their expulsion should, however, not be +effected without giving some fair notice affording them time for the +realization of their estates. As to the Dutch language, it will not +entail any excessive hardship if it is equally banished as an official +language, seeing that English is on the whole not more unfamiliar to the +bulk of the Boer people than pure High Dutch is, and seeing that the +dual right was accorded to Dutch as an official language under this +almost inconceivable feature, that it admittedly had yet to be learnt to +become of any practical use or utility other than as an instrument for +keeping the races apart and to facilitate the Bond objects of usurpation +and revolt. + + +FINIS + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed +(2nd ed.), by C. H. 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Thomas. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd +ed.), by C. H. Thomas + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.) + The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked + +Author: C. H. Thomas + +Release Date: February 18, 2005 [EBook #15106] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIGIN OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Garrett Alley, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1><a name="Page_-6" id="Page_-6" /><a name="Page_-5" id="Page_-5" />ORIGIN OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR REVEALED</h1> + +<h3>The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked</h3> + +<h2>By C.H. THOMAS</h2> + +<p class="center">of Belfast Transvaal formerly Orange Free State Burgher</p> + + +<p class="center"><br /><br />SECOND EDITION</p> + +<p class="center">LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON</p> + +<p class="center">27 PATERNOSTER ROW MCM</p> + +<p class="center"><a name="Page_-4" id="Page_-4" /><i>Butler & Tanner The Selwood Printing Works Frome and London</i> +<br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + + + +<h2><a name="Page_-3" id="Page_-3" />NOTICE</h2> + + +<p>The present book had been intended for publication in South Africa +before the end of 1899, with the object of laying bare the wicked and +delusive aims of the Afrikaner Bond combination, to which the Anglo-Boer +war alone is attributable, and to counteract its disastrous influences +so far as then still possible. But until quite lately circumstances had +conspired so as to prevent the writer from leaving the Transvaal, and +when he at last obtained the required passport to Lourenço Marques he +was there denied a permit to visit a colonial port. He therefore sailed +for London in order to publish this book without more loss of time. +Though too late to serve as a deterrent, the contents may be effective +towards showing up the really guilty parties—the instigators and +seducers of the deluded Boer nation, and so pave and widen the avenue of +peace and of conciliation between Boer and Briton who were duped and +victimized alike.</p> + +<p>The exposure of the actual culprits and originators should also operate +favourably, and in miti<a name="Page_-2" id="Page_-2" />gation in behalf of the much less guilty Boers, +so as to dispose the victors to the exercise of magnanimous +consideration. In exposing the villainy of the Dutch coterie in Holland, +the writer is far from impugning the honourable character of that +nation, the better part of whom, when once undeceived, will be the first +to reprobate and disown those arch-plotters who sacrificed the peace of +South Africa for personal and national advantage.</p> + +<p>Some other information regarding the Boers and South Africa will be +found interspersed in this study, which will be found of use to the +uninitiated and to intending emigrants to that sub-continent. As the +reader proceeds with the examination of this book it will suggest +comparisons and even analogies which may commend themselves as +singularly apposite and instructive in relation with the study of the +presently budding Eastern question.</p> + +<p>C.H. THOMAS</p> + + +<p>NOTE TO SECOND EDITION</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The issue of a Second Edition has afforded an opportunity to + correct a few linguistic blemishes, but the work has only been + very slightly revised.</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS" /><a name="Page_-1" id="Page_-1" />CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="5"> +<tr><td><br /></td><td>Page</td></tr> + <tr><td><a href="#Page_-3"><b>NOTICE</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_-3">v</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#CONTENTS"><b>CONTENTS</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_-1">vii</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#INTRODUCTION"><b>INTRODUCTION</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#CURSORY_HISTORY_OF_THE_BOER_NATION"><b>CURSORY HISTORY OF THE BOER NATION</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_6">6</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#PROSPERITY_OF_BOERS_AND_POLITICAL_RELATIONS_WITH_ENGLAND_UP_TO_1881"><b>PROSPERITY OF BOERS AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND<br />UP TO 1881</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#TRANSVAAL_HISTORY_SUZERAINTY"><b>TRANSVAAL HISTORY—SUZERAINTY</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#TRANSVAAL_HISTORY_TREATMENT_OF_UITLANDERSmdashFRANCHISE"><b>TREATMENT OF UITLANDERS—FRANCHISE</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#MONSTER_PETITION_JAMESON_INCURSIONmdashARMAMENTS"><b>MONSTER PETITION—JAMESON INCURSION—ARMAMENTS</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#BLOEMFONTEIN_FRANCHISE_CONFERENCE_BOER_ULTIMATUM"><b>BLOEMFONTEIN FRANCHISE CONFERENCE—BOER ULTIMATUM</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#BOER_LANGUAGE"><b>BOER LANGUAGE</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#THE_DUTCH_COTERIE_ITS_SEAT_IN_HOLLAND"><b>THE DUTCH COTERIE: ITS SEAT IN HOLLAND</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#AFRIKANER_BOND_OUTLINES_AND_PROGRAMME"><b>AFRIKANER BOND—OUTLINES AND PROGRAMME</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#PACIFIC_POLICY_OF_GREAT_BRITAIN"><b>PACIFIC POLICY OF GREAT BRITAIN</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#BOND_PRESS_PROPAGANDA_SECRET_SERVICEmdashTRADE_RIVALRIES"><b>BOND PRESS PROPAGANDA—SECRET SERVICE—TRADE RIVALRIES</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#DISLOYALTY_OF_COLONIAL_BOERS"><b>DISLOYALTY OF COLONIAL BOERS</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#PORTUGUESE_TERRITORY_TRANSVAAL_LOW_VELDTmdashMALARIAmdashHORSE_SICKNESS"><b>PORTUGUESE TERRITORY—TRANSVAAL LOW VELDT—MALARIA—HORSE<br />SICKNESS</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#CLIMATE_AND_TOPOGRAPHY"><b>CLIMATE AND TOPOGRAPHY</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#BOER_PREPAREDNESS_FOR_WAR"><b>BOER PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#ALLIANCE_OF_ORANGE_FREE_STATE_WITH_TRANSVAAL_SUZERAINTY"><b>ALLIANCE OF ORANGE FREE STATE WITH TRANSVAAL—SUZERAINTY</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#THE_TRANSVAAL_DYNAMITE_AND_EXPLOSIVES_MONOPOLY"><b>THE TRANSVAAL DYNAMITE AND EXPLOSIVES MONOPOLY</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#BOND_FIGHTING_STRENGTH_IN_BEGINNING_OF_1899"><b>BOND FIGHTING STRENGTH IN BEGINNING OF 1899</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#BOER_CONSERVATISM"><b>BOER CONSERVATISM</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#AN_OLD_FREE_STATERS_ADMONITION"><b>AN OLD FREE STATER'S ADMONITION</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#MODUS_VIVENDI_SUGGESTED_BY_OLD_FREE_STATER"><b>MODUS VIVENDI SUGGESTED BY OLD FREE STATER</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#MR_CHAMBERLAINS_POLICY_TO_AVERT_WAR"><b>MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S POLICY TO AVERT WAR</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#AFRIKANER_BOND_GUILT_IN_GRADATIONS"><b>AFRIKANER BOND GUILT IN GRADATIONS</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_155">155</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#RESUME"><b>RÉSUMÉ</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#THE_BOERS_NATIVE_POLICY"><b>THE BOERS' NATIVE POLICY</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_166">167</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#ENGLANDS_NATIVE_AND_COLONIAL_POLICY"><b>ENGLAND'S NATIVE AND COLONIAL POLICY</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#OCCULT_OPERATIONS_AND_AGENCIES"><b>OCCULT OPERATIONS AND AGENCIES</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_178">178</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#RELIGION"><b>RELIGION</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#PHYSIQUE_AND_HABITS"><b>PHYSIQUE AND HABITS</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_193">193</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#PRESIDENT_KRUGER"><b>PRESIDENT KRÜGER</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> <a href="#PEACE_ADJUSTMENTS"><b>PEACE ADJUSTMENTS</b></a></td><td><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td></tr> +</table> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION" /><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1" />INTRODUCTION</h2> + + +<p>Apart from the progress of the present Anglo-Boer war a world-wide +interest has been excited also upon the question of its actual origin. +Much disparity of opinion prevails yet as to how it was provoked and +upon which side the guilt of it all lay.</p> + +<p>English statesmen of noblest character and best discriminating gifts are +seen professing opposite convictions; one party earnestly asserting the +complete blamelessness of their Government, whilst the other, with +equally sincere assurance, denounces the responsible Ministry for having +provoked a most unjust war against a totally inoffensive people, whose +only fault consisted in asserting its love of freedom, and for thus +plunging the entire British nation into blackest guilt deserving +universal reprobation, a blot and stigma upon Her Majesty's reign.</p> + +<p>In following the course of the arguments which <a name="Page_2" id="Page_2" />have led to those +opposing verdicts, one is impressed with the paucity and the clashing +character of the information adduced. The marked reticence on the part +of the British Cabinet in regard to its diplomatic proceedings tends +further to mystify the inquirer, and leaves the bulk of the British +nation in a painful state of suspense without conclusive data for +judging whether the war is really justifiable or not.</p> + +<p>Nor do the various pamphlets and Press articles furnish sufficient light +for exploring the maze and producing an approximate unanimity of +conviction.</p> + +<p>It is hoped that the succeeding pages will be found to supplement the +material so essential for diagnosing those grave questions with some +degree of certainty, and to locate the guilt more precisely.</p> + +<p>Since my youth I have passed nearly forty years in uninterrupted and +intimate intercourse with all classes of Boers, resulting in a sincere +attachment to that people, with no small appreciation of its many good +traits and character. Besides making myself familiar with the earlier +portion of that nation's history, I have had leisure and opportunities +to closely follow up its later interesting phases up to the present +moment. These presented a more perplexing aspect during the last decade, +<a name="Page_3" id="Page_3" />adding a zest to my endeavours for unravelling them, and happening to +be a good deal in the know I felt that I might not remain quiet.</p> + +<p>Being anything but anti-Boer, nor an Englishman, but a foreigner, born +of continental parents and brought up in Europe, these facts should +exempt me from a supposition of bias in exonerating England. It is with +real grief that I must record my convictions against the Boer nation as +solely and entirely guilty, but with this qualification, that its +responsibility is much attenuated by the fact, as I will endeavour to +show, that the bulk of that people has been unconsciously decoyed as +tools of a gigantic intrigue, a conspiracy which was originated some +thirty years ago by an infamous Hollander coterie, and operated since by +its product and engine, the now well-known "Afrikaner Bond Association," +with its significant motto of "Afrika voor Afrikaners"<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1" /><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>—its object +being no less than the eviction of all that is English from South +Africa, and to substitute a federation of all South African States into +one free and independent Republic, the affiliation to be with Holland +instead, and Dutch the common and official language, other nations, in +return for afforded aid, to partici<a name="Page_4" id="Page_4" />pate in the trade and other +advantages wrested from England.</p> + +<p>I only regret that my ability falls so much short for the task of +demonstrating all this in an approved style—for doing justice to the +subject. Its investigation embraces a wider range of details to serve as +evidence than may, upon first thought, be held as relevant; but I +believe that a willing study will show their connection as serviceable +for arriving at an independent and unhesitating verdict.</p> + +<p>A very strong and convincing case is indeed needed for remodelling +opinions where there is preconceived Boer partisanship, and where party +spirit or else foreign jealousy have already warped judgment and +established bias.</p> + +<p>It would be no small relief to every honest-minded person, especially in +England, to be clear upon the subject that England is free of +guilt—equally so to the soldier who is called upon to fight her +battles. But other objects of no less importance are in view, viz., to +open the eyes of the misguided Boer people to the wicked artifices by +which it has been seduced from friendly relations with England into an +unjustifiable war, to deter the still wavering portion from joining the +ranks of sedition, and, lastly, the grounds for palliation being +recognised, <a name="Page_5" id="Page_5" />to pave the way to an early termination of the war by +adjustments which could restore mutual goodwill and respect between the +contending parties, and so bring about a speedy return of South African +prosperity and progress.</p> + +<p>The writer is fully prepared to give data and names of the incidents +adduced in this paper in support of their authenticity.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1" /><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Africa for white African citizens.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CURSORY_HISTORY_OF_THE_BOER_NATION" id="CURSORY_HISTORY_OF_THE_BOER_NATION" /><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6" />CURSORY HISTORY OF THE BOER NATION</h2> + +<p>The two principal elements of the Boer nation were the settlers of the +Dutch trading company at the Cape of Good Hope, sturdy farmers and +tradesmen belonging to the proletarian class of Holland, and a +subsequent contingent of French Huguenot refugees and their families who +joined as colonists soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I +mention below the names still existing which form a large proportion of +the present Boer nation of Huguenot descent:—</p> + +<pre> +Billion Blignaut Bisseux Delporte<br /> +Du prez Du Toit De la Bey Durand<br /> +Davel De Langue Duvenage Fourie<br /> +Fouché Grove Hugo Jourdan<br /> +Lombard Le Roux Roux Lagrange<br /> +Labuscaque Maré Marais Malan<br /> +Malraison Maynard Malherbe De Meillon<br /> +De Marillac Matthée Naudé Nortier<br /> +Rousseau Taillard Theron Terblanche<br /> +De Villiers Fortier Lindeque Vervier<br /> +Vercueil Basson Pinard Duvenage<br /> +Celliers de Clercq Leclercq Devinare<br /> +</pre> + +<p><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" />Men of the best French stock, noted for honour, energy and +perseverance, rather than recant their Protestant faith, abandoned +seigneurial homes, high positions and lucrative callings to carve out +fresh careers, and even to become humble farmers wherever they found +asylums and tolerance, men who became very valuable accessions to the +nations who received them and a correspondingly significant loss to +France. To those two main elements were added sparse accessions from +other nations at later intervals, and also a strain of aboriginal blood, +of which a more or less faint tinge is still discernible in some +families, an admixture which many deplore and others consider as most +serviceable, supplying a subtle piquancy for perfecting the general +stock.</p> + +<p>The early Cape Governors aimed at the prompt assimilation of those +French people with their own colonists—to make Dutchmen of them. Among +other drastic enactments to enforce that object, no other language but +Dutch was permitted to be used in public of pain of corporal punishment. +Not a few noble Frenchmen were subjected to that indignity for +inadvertent breaches of that draconian law, but, as conscientious +observers of biblical commands which enjoin subjection to all +governmental rule, they willingly submitted and obeyed. Inter<a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" />marriages +with their Dutch fellow-colonists further promoted assimilation into one +cohesive community. At the same time the Huguenot faith was transmitted +to their descendants, and had a marked influence in sustaining common +religious fervour and consistency. They did not look for a reward or +compensation for the sacrifices endured, for the sake of faith, by those +refugees, though a gracious providence, as the sequel showed, held in +store a most ample restitution—magnificent heirlooms for their later +descendants, heirlooms which are now unhappily staked in this present +war.</p> + +<p>In 1814 a payment of six millions sterling received by the Prince of +Orange closed the transfer of the Dutch Cape settlement to Great +Britain. Immigration of English settlers followed and the area of the +colony soon largely extended. As under the Dutch <i>régime</i>, the practice +of slavery had continued until its abolition in 1833 by the ransom +payable by the English Government to the owners of slaves. The Boer +colonists deeply resented that act, and especially the next to +impracticable condition which provided that payments could only be +received in England instead of on the spot. Many were cheated of all +their emancipation money by their appointed proxies or agents, or else +<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" />had to submit to exorbitant charges and commissions; a great number +voluntarily renounced all in disgust.</p> + +<p>By that time the existence had become known of promising tracts of +country lying north of the Orange River beyond the confines of the +British colonies, and a large number of Boers combined with the +intention of establishing an independent community northwards free from +British restraint.</p> + +<p>The British authorities appeared at that time not to fully realize that +that movement was rife with future dangers and complications to their +own colonial interests, that it meant the creation of a nucleus of a +people openly averse to the English, and who would independently carry +out practices in near proximity, especially in dealing with aborigines, +which would seriously compromise them and become a standing menace +against peaceful expansion and civilization.</p> + +<p>It was, on the other hand, anticipated that the movement could only end +in disaster, the people being too few to make a successful stand against +the numerous hostile Kaffir tribes. The Government, therefore, refrained +from preventive measures, and confined its efforts to discouraging the +emigration and to reconcile the malcontents. Those efforts, <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" />however, +proved fruitless; the people held to their project with resolute +fearlessness and self-confidence, and were even content to sacrifice +their farms and homesteads, their sale being in some cases forbidden by +special enactment.</p> + +<p>The terms of "Boer" and "Boer nation" do not convey or mean anything +disparaging, rather the contrary. Boer simply means farmer, as a rule +the proprietor of a farm of about 3,000 to 10,000 acres, who combines +stock-breeding with a variety of other farming enterprises as well, +according to the soil and locality. As a national designation, the term +"Boer" conveys the distinction from the recently arrived Dutchman, who +is called "Hollander." Hollanders, again, delight of late to claim the +Boer nation as their kith and kin, but prefer to ignore the existence of +the French Huguenot factor.</p> + +<p>The great "trek," with families and movables, as the emigration movement +is called, occurred in 1836; some families started even before, and +other contingents followed shortly afterwards. After many vicissitudes +and nearly twenty years of wanderings, and a nomadic life attended with +untold hardships and dangers, intermittent conflicts with native tribes, +and at times also contests with British forces, they were eventually +permitted, under treaty <a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" />with England, to settle down and to constitute +the independent Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics. That was in +1854 and 1852 respectively.</p> + +<p>But, until then, progress in the British colonies and peaceful relations +with the several Kaffir nations had at times been sadly impeded by the +aggressive native policy pursued by the Boers after the pattern adopted +from the previous Dutch <i>régime</i>, which admitted of slavery, whilst +English law had abolished and forbade that practice as contrary to a +soundly moral method of civilizing natives and inimical to prosperous +and peaceable colonial progress. Broils and wars between Boers and +Kaffirs had been almost incessant, and intervals of peace only proved +their mutually latent hostility. Besides being occasionally engaged in +unavoidable wars with neighbouring tribes themselves, it became +frequently incumbent upon the British military authorities to intervene +in conflicts induced by the Boers, alternately protecting them against +natives and natives against the Boers, and all that at the unnecessary +expenditure of much blood and treasure.</p> + +<p>The Boer occupation of Natal was found to be wholly prejudicial to +British interests on aforesaid accounts, and was, besides, contrary to +the express <a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" />declaration of the Boer emigrants at the time of their +exodus from the Cape Colony, which was that their new settlements should +be located north of the Orange River. Stepping in to the eastward and +claiming part of the littoral constituted a rivalry in conflict with +that understanding, and England therefore considered it within her +rights to expel the Boers from Natal, and to proceed with the +colonization there with British settlers instead. That temporary +occupation of Natal had been fraught to the Boers with most stirring +episodes—some of the most melancholy description, and others +representing records of really unsurpassed heroism, which can but arouse +deepest emotions and admiration in any reader of their history. There +was the treacherous massacre of Retief and Potgeiter and his party by +the Zulu king Dingaan at his military kraal, followed by other wholesale +massacres of men, women, and children at Weenen and other Boer camps in +Natal. Then came the punitive expedition of 450 Boers, armed with +flint-locks only, who utterly defeated Dingaan's most redoubtable impi +of 10,000 warriors, and resulted in the complete overthrow of that Zulu +monarch.</p> + +<p>When that punitive Boer commando was about to start upon its mission it +was solemnly vowed to <a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" />observe a day of national thanksgiving each year +if Divine aid were vouchsafed to accomplish the object. That brilliant +victory had occurred on the 16th December, 1838, and the day has ever +since been religiously observed as had been vowed. The celebrations in +the Transvaal take place at Paarden-kraal, near Johannesburg, and some +other accessible and central camping grounds, where the burghers with +their families congregate in thousands—a sort of feast of tabernacles, +lasting three days, undeterred by the most boisterous weather. The +declaration of independence fell on that same date at Paarden-kraal in +1879, and it was also in December of the succeeding year that the Boers +proved victorious over the British troops in Natal, after which the +Transvaal had its independence generously restored by the Gladstone +Ministry (subject to treaty 1881).</p> + +<p>On those anniversaries stirring speeches would be made by the elder +leading men, rehearsing the events of the nation's history so as to +grave them upon the minds of the younger, and to revive the thankful +memories of the elder people. It is only in human nature that +unsympathetic feelings against the English would intrude upon the +thanksgivings on those occasions, especially as it continues yet to be +averred that the British author<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" />ities had incited the Zulu king Dingaan +to those massacres. Nevertheless, except in instances of implacable +natures, the predominant sentiments at those gatherings were those of +gratitude to the Almighty and good-will towards all men. After the peace +of 1881, it used to be publicly recognised that the English were +entitled thenceforth to a first place in the nation's friendship, and +that the retrocession put a term to all recriminations applying to +previous dates.</p> + +<p>The sequel has shown that soon afterwards another spirit was allowed to +intrude to displace those good and just sentiments, and that without any +reason or provocation and despite a persistently loyal and sincere +attitude of friendship and confidence observed towards the Boers by the, +British Government and the English people in South Africa. As instances +may be cited: (1) England's conceding spirit in assenting to a +modification of the convention of 1881 and agreeing to that of 1884; (2) +genial treatment of the colonial Boers on perfect equality with English +colonists, sharing in the privileges of self-government, the Dutch +language also raised to equal rights with English; (3) most harmonious +relations with the Orange Free State; (4) reduction of transit duties +for goods <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" />to the Republics to 5 per cent, and later to 3 per cent.; (5) +unrestricted privilege for the importations of arms and ammunition to +both Republics. In lieu of friendly reciprocity the return began to be +rancorous mistrust and revival of hatred.</p> + +<p>In the course of our study to account for this sad and unwarrantable +change on the part of the Boers we will be following the trail of the +serpent and track it right up to its Hollander lair and to its at first +unsuspected product, the Afrikaner Bond.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PROSPERITY_OF_BOERS_AND_POLITICAL_RELATIONS_WITH_ENGLAND_UP_TO_1881" id="PROSPERITY_OF_BOERS_AND_POLITICAL_RELATIONS_WITH_ENGLAND_UP_TO_1881" /><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" />PROSPERITY OF BOERS AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND UP TO 1881</h2> + + +<p>A period of about twenty-five years following the establishment of the +Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics was marked with much progress +and prosperity in the Cape Colonies and Natal, both Republics also +having cause to rejoice over similar advancement.</p> + +<p>The evil influence which aimed at rending good relations between Boer +and English became more apparent after 1881. During the preceding era +the two races actually had been in a fair way towards friendly +assimilation. Mutual appreciation was further stimulated by the +reciprocal benefits arising from trade and economic relations. +Intermarriages became more frequent under such friendly intercourse, a +respectable Englishman being truly prized in those days as a Boer's +son-in-law. The English language also largely advanced in favour and +prestige not only among the Cape Colonial and <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" />Natal Boers, but also in +both Republics, and anti-English sentiments were fast being supplanted +by amity and goodwill.</p> + +<p>The principal event in the Orange Free State during that period was a +three years' exhaustive war with the Basuto nation, which ended in the +latter's defeat in 1867. Their chief Moshesh then appealed for British +intervention. The Basutos thus came under England's protection, and a +peace resulted which has ever since continued, through British prestige +and authority as well as good government. The Orange Free State gained a +large tract of the territory conquered by that State, but had to +renounce the rest.</p> + +<p>Then, in about 1870, came the discovery of the diamond-fields, situated +on the then still ill-defined western limits of the State. According to +a boundary line claimed by Great Britain, those diamond-fields fell +outside Free State territory. That State received £90,000 compensation +for improvements and expenses incurred during its short occupation of +that disputed strip of diamondiferous ground. The diamond-fields at +Jagersfontein and Koffyfontein were subsequently discovered and lie deep +within the confines of the State. President Brand had proved his +sagacity and discretion in concluding the <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" />negotiations with England +upon the question of the peace with the Basutos and then again in +submitting to the boundary delimitations, it being contended even yet +that the Orange Free State had the weightier arguments in its favour in +both instances.</p> + +<p>The people of that Republic proved however to be the ultimate gainers in +those adjustments; they did not miss the more solid advantages attending +the discovery of the diamond-fields. Believed of the grave +responsibility involved in governing a turbulent population of foreign +diggers, the geographical position of the Kimberley fields secured to +the Free State farmers an almost entire monopoly in the supply of +products; trade also flourished apace, all tending to enrich the +inhabitants and the State revenue as well.</p> + +<p>But the Orange Free State derived a permanent advantage, quite unique +and more than compensating the apparent set-back suffered by the loss of +the diamond-field territory and by British intervention in the Basuto +war matter, in that the method of those procedures saddled England with +the responsibility of guaranteeing the internal safety of the State from +those hitherto unprotected borders "altogether at her own cost." The +Keate <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" />award completed the British cordon around the Free State, +excepting only in regard to the Transvaal frontier. No need thenceforth +for costly military provisions for the protection of the State—it was, +as it were, walled and fenced in at British expense, and the State +revenue was thus for ever relieved of a very heavy item of expenditure, +which could be devoted to the increase of the national wealth instead—a +peaceful security accompanied with an intrinsic gain constituting a +veritable and permanent heirloom for the people of that State.</p> + +<p>It is notable that the position of the Orange Free State, without any +other access to the sea-board than from colonial ports, made its status +and welfare entirely dependent upon the friendly and loyal good faith of +England. Up to the present unhappy war that State enjoyed unaltered the +best relations without being ever subjected to even a trace of chicanery +from the part of Great Britain.</p> + +<p>By what illusion, it may well be asked, could that hitherto friendly +people have been deluded to risk all in a disloyal breach with England +by joining the Transvaal in a "Bond" issue against her best friend? +Towards the Transvaal also had England proved her earnest desire to +maintain an intercourse on the basis of sincere amity, desirous only of +reciprocity, <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" />which indeed could be expected in willing return, seeing +that England took upon her own shoulders to provide for the protection +and welfare of the entire area of South Africa by sea and land, whilst +both Republics freely participated in all the great benefits so derived. +These considerations should substantially disprove the wicked aspersion +lately made that British policy aimed at the subversion of republican +autonomy in those two States. All that Great Britain needed and +confidently expected in return for her goodwill was friendly adhesion, +and a willing recognition of her paramountcy in matters affecting the +common weal of South Africa as a whole, and also such reciprocity and +mutual concern in the welfare of all as consistently comport with common +interests. How fell and malignant the "influence" which operated a +treacherous ingratitude and hostility instead!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="TRANSVAAL_HISTORY_SUZERAINTY" id="TRANSVAAL_HISTORY_SUZERAINTY" /><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" />TRANSVAAL HISTORY—SUZERAINTY</h2> + + +<p>The references made to the history of the Transvaal so far reach up to +the rehabilitation of its independence and the convention of 1881. Some +of the conditions of that treaty, especially the subordinate position +imposed by the suzerainty clause, were found to be repugnant to the +burghers. Delegates were therefore commissioned to proceed to England in +order to get the treaty so altered as to place the State into the status +provided by the Sand River convention, which conceded absolute +independence. Mr. Jorrison, a violent anti-English Hollander, was the +chief adviser of the members of that delegation.</p> + +<p>To that the English Ministry could not assent, but sought to meet the +wishes of the people by agreeing to certain modifications of the +convention of 1881. This was effected with the treaty of 1884. The +delegates had specially urged the renunciation of the suzerainty claim, +but that claim appears not <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" />to have been abandoned, to judge from the +absence of such mention in the novated treaty. Had its renunciation been +agreed to, as has been since averred, it is quite certain that the +delegates would not have been content without the mention in most +distinct terms of that, to them, so important point. It may therefore be +assumed as a fact that the negotiations did not result in an active +suspension of the relations as set forth in the convention of 1881, and +that the Transvaal continued in a status of subordinacy to England, but +only with a wider range in regard to conditions of autonomy. To most lay +minds it therefore appears perfectly clear that the Transvaal delegates +had well understood and accepted, and so had also their Government, that +the convention of 1884 was <i>de facto</i> a renewal of that of 1881, with +the only difference that it provided an enlarged exercise of autonomy, +but without in the least abrogating the principles of respective +relations, which were left intact, or at least latent.</p> + +<p>It has been averred and a strong point made in the theory of repudiating +suzerainty or over-lordship that Lord Kimberley had given the assurance +that the right of Transvaal autonomy and independence was meant to equal +that of the Orange <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" />Free State. This need not be contested, as that +Minister obviously relied upon a similar observance of staunch adhesion +towards England which that State had shown during a period of thirty +years previous; the fact that the Transvaal was quite differently +situated as to adjoining territory imposed the necessity, if only as a +matter of form, to preserve the written conditions of Transvaal +vassalage.</p> + +<p>Lord Kimberley, in 1889, intimated the readiness of his Government to +afford advisory and other co-operation with the Transvaal Government in +order to cope with the new element of foreign immigration, resulting +from the discovery of the rich gold-fields, and to provide appropriate +relations with a new floating population, without materially altering +the status of Transvaal authority, or the methods of government then in +practice.</p> + +<p>The Transvaal Government, however, preferred to ignore that loyal offer, +and to be guided by Bond principles instead. That circumstance affords +another proof that England did not then see the necessity, as has +subsequently been the case, of strengthening her position against Bond +aggression by imposing a demand of general franchise for Uitlanders.</p> + +<p>One aspect of the prolonged controversy <i>re</i> suze<a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" />rainty forced upon +England would be to denote a lack of honour, which is not of unfrequent +occurrence when one party to a contract seeks by cavil and legal quibble +to evade compliance with some of its conditions, simply because the +written terms appear to afford scope for doing so. But the principal +reason of the Transvaal contention proceeded from the project of gaining +over some strong foreign ally who would see an obstacle, if not +scruples, in joining common cause whilst England's claim of +over-lordship remained unshaken. But for that consideration the +Transvaal Government inwardly viewed the whole of the treaties as waste +paper, since it was not only intended to violate them all, but also to +bring about, at an opportune moment, a hostile severance from England. +In the meantime, the academic squabble was to serve as a decoy to hide +Transvaal identification with any such sinister objects, and to divert +attention and suspicion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="TRANSVAAL_HISTORY_TREATMENT_OF_UITLANDERSmdashFRANCHISE" id="TRANSVAAL_HISTORY_TREATMENT_OF_UITLANDERSmdashFRANCHISE" /><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" />TREATMENT OF UITLANDERS—FRANCHISE</h2> + + +<p>To resume the cursory history of the Transvaal. Mr. Burger, during his +Presidency in the early seventies, went to Europe with the mission of +attracting capital to the development and exploitation of gold, etc., +then already authentically discovered; also, to provide for the building +of a railway connecting with Delagoa Bay. The Transvaal Boers were at +that time exceedingly poor, and without a sufficient revenue for +properly maintaining the administration. Beyond creating a lively +interest, his success was confined to an agreement with a company in +Holland for building a section of that railroad, which, however, fell +through, because the Transvaal proved ultimately unable to furnish its +quota of the necessary funds. The present President fared better. A +Dutch company styled "The Nederlandsch Zuid Afrikaansche Spoorweg +Maatschappy," abbreviated "Z.A.S.M.," undertook the work and completed +it in 1887, from the Portuguese border to Pretoria. <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" />The line from +Pretoria to the Natal border was soon after built, as also several +extensions around the Wit-waters Rand, and that from Pretoria to +Pietersburg. The section connecting Delagoa Bay as far as the Transvaal +border had previously been completed by McMurdo, and is the subject of +the present Berne arbitration.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2" /><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>The contract conferred to the Dutch Company a monopoly, and most +advantageous financial terms as well. By that time great strides had +been made in the development of the Transvaal gold-fields, especially at +the Wit-waters Rand (Johannesburg); and immigration on a large scale +from all parts of the world had set in, and was constantly increasing +with vast amounts of investments in mercantile and other enterprises, as +well as in mining industries. At first, equitable laws governed burghers +and Uitlanders alike, administered by an independent judiciary. All +desirable security was afforded for person and property, with confidence +in the safety of investments, and great general prosperity kept pace +with ever-increasing activities and enterprise.</p> + +<p>It was a great satisfaction to Uitlanders that the peace of 1881, and +the reinstatement of Transvaal independence, had restored harmony +between Boer <a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" />and English, and that a policy was being followed to +preclude friction between the respective Governments. Those facts +largely stimulated investments and enhanced confidence. By 1887 the +alien population had already exceeded 100,000, and the capital +investments £200,000,000 sterling, and the desire so ardently +entertained by the people of the land, for twenty years back, was +gratified at last. The burghers shared in the prosperity to a very large +degree, and in lieu of former poverty, competence and wealth became the +rule, and many of them became exceedingly rich. It was not unusual to +hear Boers expressing undisguised gratitude, not merely for the natural +gold deposits, but specially also that people had come to prospect and +to invest capital, without which the wealth of the land would have +remained unexploited and lain fallow. Harmony and cordiality were the +proper outcome between foreigners and Boers. The influx of capital and +of immigrants continued to increase, but not so the happy conditions. +These were gradually getting marred by a spirit of variance, no one +seemed to know how. The study of this paper will reveal it. The variance +between Boers and Uitlanders began to be specially discernible from 1887 +and had been increasing like a blight ever since. This was notice<a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" />ably +coincident with the numerous arrivals of educated Hollanders employed +for the railways and the Government administration.</p> + +<p>In the earlier period of the Transvaal Republic, one year's residence +was first held sufficient for acquiring full franchise or burgher rights +and voting qualifications. The condition was successively raised to two, +three, and five years; but in 1890 laws were passed which required +fourteen years' probation, with conditions which virtually brought the +term to twenty-one years, and even then left the acquisition of full +franchise to the caprice of field-cornets and higher officials. +Englishmen and their descendants were at one time totally and for ever +excluded and disqualified just merely because of their nationality +whilst Hollanders were admitted in very large numbers without having to +pass any probation at all or only comparatively short terms. The English +language became a target for hostility and as good as proscribed; +impracticable and ludicrous attempts even were made to exclude its use +in Johannesburg, where hardly any Uitlander understood Dutch, whilst +every Boer official was well versed in English: market and auction sales +were to be conducted only in Dutch; bills of fare at hotels <a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" />and +restaurants were also to be in full-fledged Dutch only—and all this, it +must be remembered, some years before the Jameson incursion took place.</p> + +<p>The judiciary, which, according to the "Grondwet" (Constitution), was +the highest legal authority, was by one stroke of enactment rendered +subservient and subordinate to the First Volksraad. The then Chief +Justice (Kotzee) was ignominiously deposed for honourably contending +against the grave departure from right and justice in subverting the +sacred prerogative due to the highest tribunal, which Boer and Uitlander +alike relied upon for independent justice.</p> + +<p>A new system of education was next introduced which admitted only High +Dutch as the medium of instruction in public schools. As only Hollander +children could benefit by such tuition, and whereas those of other +immigrants could not understand that language, the effect was that +parents of English and other nationalities had to combine in +establishing private schools or else to employ private teachers at their +own expense—whilst paying, in the way of taxation, for Hollander public +schools as well. That oppressive system was subsequently somewhat +modified in a manner which admitted the English language as a medium for +a portion of the school hours, the proportion so accorded being larger +<a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" />in Johannesburg and other such wholly English-speaking centres than in +other parts of the State; but the amelioration did not take place until +after much irritation and expense had been occasioned, nor did it meet +the case of hardship more than half-way. I may here place the remark +that the public educational department is conducted without stint of +expenditure in providing from Holland the amplest and best school +equipments and highly salaried Dutch professors and teachers.</p> + +<p>Irritating class legislation began to be systematically resorted to, to +the prejudice of Uitlanders (the majority of whom, it will be borne in +mind, were English), which painfully pointed to a fixed determination on +the part of the Boers to lord it over them as a totally inferior class, +allowing them no representation, and to treat them, in fact, just as a +conquered people placed under tribute and proper only to be dominated +and exploited.</p> + +<p>Boers could walk or ride about armed to the teeth, whilst Uitlanders +were forbidden to possess arms under penalty of confiscation and other +punishments (except sporting-guns under special permit). The like +irritations became rampant by 1890 already.</p> + +<p>The alien population were at first too much occupied with their +prosperous vocations to combine <a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" />in the way of protesting against such +prevailing usage. The Press was, however, eventually employed, and the +Government was approached with respectful petitions praying for redress +of the most glaring causes of discontent; but those were invariably +either disdainfully rejected or ignored, or, if some matter was +relieved, other more exasperating enactments were defiantly substituted. +They were cynically told that they had come to their (the Boer's) +country unasked, and were at liberty, and in fact invited, to leave it +if the laws did not please them. This was said, well knowing that to +leave would involve too great sacrifices of homes and investments. The +Uitlanders could not, however, be brought to the belief that the +Government of a conscientious people could persist in dealing with them +as if a previous design had existed—first to inveigle them and their +capital into their midst, with the object of goading and despoiling them +afterwards. The course of petitioning and respectful remonstrances was +therefore persevered in, but all to no purpose. Indignation and +resentment were the natural result of those failures. There appeared no +alternative but to submit or else to abandon all and leave the country.</p> + +<p>It is true that numerous Uitlanders acquired <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" />competences, and some were +amassing fortunes, but such prizes were comparatively few. The majority +just managed, with varying success, to reap a reasonable return for +their outlays and energies, or only to live more or less comfortably. +The fashion of luxurious and unthrifty living, so prevalent among the +"<i>nouveaux riches</i>" and the section who vied with them, impressed the +Boers with the notion that all were getting rich, and that soon there +would be nothing left for them in the race. In their Hollander Press +they were reminded that the gold, in reality belonging to them, was +rapidly being exhausted, and the wealth appropriated by aliens, whose +hewers of wood and drawers of water they would finally become. All this +galled them to the heart, and the Government readily lent itself to +proceedings intended to balance conditions in favour of their burghers, +as the process was described. I will adduce a few instances. As is well +known, it is only burghers and some privileged Hollanders who are +employed in Government service, from President down to policeman. There +are very few exceptions to this rule, which also applies to the +nominations of jurymen, who are well paid too. The salaries of all, +especially in the higher grades, had been largely augmented; <a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" />the +President receiving £8,000 per year, and so on downwards.</p> + +<p>For Government supplies and public works the tenders of burghers only, +and perhaps of some privileged persons, are accepted. In many instances +the tenderers are without any pretence of ability for the performance of +the contract, but are nevertheless accepted, performing only a <i>sub rosa +rôle</i>. One such instance occurred some years ago when a burgher who did +not possess £100—a simple farmer and a kind of "slim" +speculator—received by Volksraad vote the contract for building a +certain railway.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3" /><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The price included a very large margin to be +distributed in places of interest—as douceurs of £1,000 to £5,000 each, +and £10,000 for the <i>pro forma</i> contractor and his Volksraad +confederates; all those sums were paid out by the firm for whom the +contract was actually taken up.</p> + +<p>Similarly in contracts for road making, repairing, and making streets, +etc., etc. On one occasion a rather highly placed official obtained a +contract for repairing certain streets in Pretoria for £60,000. The work +being worth £20,000 at most, the difference went to be shared by the +several official participants.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" />One of the first instances of glaring peculation occurred about fifteen +years ago in relation with the Selati railway contract obtained by Baron +Oppenheim.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4" /><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> The procedure was publicly stigmatized as bribery. It had +transpired that nearly all the Volksraad's members had received gifts in +cash and values ranging each from £50 to £1,000 prior to voting the +contract, but what was paid after voting did not become public at the +time of exposure.</p> + +<p>The acceptance of those gifts was ultimately admitted, in the face of +evidence adduced in a certain law case; denial became, in fact, +impossible. The plea of exoneration was that those gifts had been freely +accepted without pledging the vote. The President publicly exculpated +the honourable members, expressing his conviction that none of them +could have meant to prejudice the State in their votes for the contract; +and as there had been no pledge on their part, the donor had actually +incurred the risk of missing his object. From that time the practice of +obtaining and selling concessions or of sinecures and other lucrative +advantages <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" />grew quite into a trade; and receiving douceurs became a +hankering passion from highest to lowest, but happily with not a few +exceptions where the official's honour was above being priced.</p> + +<p>There was nothing shocking in all this venality to the bulk of the +Johannesburg speculator class and others of that category. The rest +assessed official morality at a depreciated value, but hoped the +blemishes might be purged out with other and graver causes for +discontent, if Uitlanders, were only granted some effective +representation in public matters. That appeared to be the only +constitutional remedy. But this continued to be resentfully refused, +even in matters which partook of purely domestic interest, such as +education, municipal privileges, etc. The latter were opposed upon the +specious argument that such extended rights would constitute an +<i>imperium in imperio,</i> and thus a condition incompatible with the safety +and the conservation of complete control.</p> + +<p>In the usual intercourse with burghers and officials a great deal of +exasperating and even humiliating experiences had often to be endured, +Uitlanders being treated as an inferior class, with scarcely veiled and +often with arrogant assumption of superiority.</p> + +<p>I witnessed a field cornet enjoying free and <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" />courteous hospitality at a +Uitlander's house, while being entertained by his host and others in the +vernacular Dutch, peremptorily object to the conversation in English in +which the lady of the house happened to be engaged with another guest at +the further end of the table. His remark was to the effect "that he +could not tolerate English being spoken within his hearing"; this was in +about 1888.</p> + +<p>No wonder that under such conditions and ungenial usage Englishmen and +other Uitlanders were put in a resentful mood, and many of them +bethought themselves of methods other than constitutional to improve +their position.</p> + +<p>Identification was resorted to with the Imperial League, a political +organization called into being in the Cape Colony to stem Boer +assertiveness there and to restrain Bond aspirations. It was also +seriously mooted to obtain the good offices of Great Britain as an +influence for intervention and remonstrance.</p> + +<p>It was not that the Transvaal Government was unaware of its duty and +responsibility to remove causes which produced discontent and resentment +among by far the larger section of the people under its rule. It seemed +rather that the Uitlanders were provoked with systematic intention.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2" /><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The Berne award has, as is well known, since been given.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3" /><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The Ermelo-Machadodorp branch.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4" /><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> These very details were since made public in the Belgian +Law courts in the recent <i>cause célèbre</i> of "The Government of the South +African Republic <i>versus</i> Baron Oppenheim."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MONSTER_PETITION_JAMESON_INCURSIONmdashARMAMENTS" id="MONSTER_PETITION_JAMESON_INCURSIONmdashARMAMENTS" /><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" />MONSTER PETITION—JAMESON INCURSION—ARMAMENTS</h2> + +<p>It was at this stage in May, 1894, that a monster petition with some +25,000 signatures was presented to the Volksraad, setting forth the +entire position, and praying for a commission to be appointed to examine +the merits of the Uitlander complaints, and to frame a programme of +reforms, the interests of the mining community needing such in a most +urgent degree, not only for the sake of its own prosperity, but for the +welfare of the entire State. A commission was indeed appointed, who +reported in favour of the petitioners, and suggested a series of +reforms; but the final Volksraad vote resulted in an angry rejection of +the petition and denunciation of its organizers.</p> + +<p>As on the occasion of previous memorials, some few abuses were +redressed, but those benefits were made worse than nugatory by +enactments in other directions of a still more galling nature. The +<a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" />petitioners found themselves snubbed and in the position of humiliating +defeat.</p> + + +<p>Treatment of Coloured British Subjects</p> + +<p>A glaring instance of oppression practised by the Transvaal Government +was its cruel treatment of coloured British subjects who had been +admitted into the State. Among these figured some thousands of educated +Asiatic traders, including numerous cultured Indian and Parsee merchants +with large stakes in the State and well-appointed residences, people +whose very religion exacted the most scrupulous cleanliness and who had +all proved themselves obedient and law-abiding. These were classed under +one rubric with the vastly inferior coolie labourer, with Kaffirs and +Hottentots, and actually compelled to abandon their stores and +residences to reside in one common ghetto upon the outskirts of the +towns, a measure which entailed great losses apart from the gratuitous +humiliation—to many it involved ruin and in fact meant their expulsion.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered that some years before already the English +Government had felt it incumbent to advocate the cause of coloured +British <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" />subjects and to remonstrate against their ill-usage. The matter +was ultimately submitted to arbitration at Bloemfontein, under the +umpireship of Sir Henry de Villiers, whose award, contrary to +expectation, was adverse to the coloured people. Here was indeed a +unique occasion for the Transvaal Government to exercise geniality upon +a point sorely felt by the British Government; but the very contrary +course was adopted under the ægis of that notorious award, and upon the +untenable plea that sanitation and regard to public health necessitated +that measure of segregation.</p> + +<p>Despite the fact that no royalty was yet exacted upon the gold output, +probably to please French, American, and German investors, there seemed +to exist a veiled hostility against the representatives of mining +capitalists, as if the Government regretted to have allowed the +exploitation of the mines to fall into private hands and would welcome +an opportunity to take them under State control altogether.</p> + +<p>The Uitlander Press vented public sentiment and denounced the Government +attitude in unmistakable terms; there were besides some angry public +demonstrations. It was an alarming time of impending crisis, rife with +signs of open revolt; the Government looking calmly on awaiting +develop<a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" />ments. It was then that the President's since famous saying was +pronounced, viz., "that the tortoise must first be allowed to put out +its head before it could be struck off, and that he was ready for any +emergency."</p> + +<p>The situation had a truly anomalous aspect. More discoveries of gold and +even of diamonds followed apace, and the scope for mining, commercial +and industrial enterprises expanded to an incalculable magnitude. All +that was needed was a stable and good Government to encourage the +needful investments. A most tantalizing picture indeed, based upon +undeniably well-grounded facts.</p> + +<p>As it was, the situation was one of alarm for capital already +invested—a stake then of over 300 millions sterling in a country where +more than half of the population were in almost open revolt against a +Government commanding very large repressive forces, and resolved to +maintain its stand.</p> + +<p>British intervention appeared to be the only means of salvation to +restore security, and to give a fillip to the brilliant prospects of the +country, for the good of the burgher estate as well as for the sake of +Uitlanders.</p> + +<p>As the Government continued deaf and obdurate to representations, other +means were sought for. No <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" />wonder the Uitlanders longed for a change, +not by any means with the object of altering the style of Republican +status, but to get the Augean stable of misgovernment cleansed, to +escape oppressive and rapacious Boer domination.</p> + +<p>The farcical failure of Dr. Jameson was the outcome of those endeavours. +The unspeakable cowardice of his Johannesburg confederates was the chief +feature of that puny attempt. Laurels, like those gained by Lord +Peterborough, Warren Hastings, or Lord Clive, were not decreed to that +ill-advised emulator.</p> + +<p>Nothing could have been more propitious than that very Jameson incursion +to fan race hatred and to advance the projects of the Afrikaner +Bond—"Afrika voor de Afrikaners," for, whilst no one acquainted with +the facts can for a moment doubt the guilt of the Transvaal Government +for having systematically provoked that attempt at revolution, "Bond" +propaganda and paid journalism had a rare chance to set up the theory +that annexation on behalf of Great Britain had been foully planned—the +Prince of Wales even being an abettor of the attempted <i>coup d'état</i> +purely to gratify the lust of greed for the gold and diamonds of the +poor innocent Boers. No terms were too vituperative to <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" />denounce the +enormity. Millions of honest persons all over the world were +deluded—there was a bitter cry of almost universal indignation. The +Boer Government posed as innocent; the designs of the Afrikaner Bond +were not even suspected—its ranks, in sympathy with those delusions +sped on filling up faster than ever, and the father of lies was scoring +another very sensible triumph.</p> + +<p>In lieu of reforms, Bond projects and armaments were secretly pursued +with redoubled vigour towards the climax which should install +Afrikanerdom supreme in South Africa, financially as well as +politically.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BLOEMFONTEIN_FRANCHISE_CONFERENCE_BOER_ULTIMATUM" id="BLOEMFONTEIN_FRANCHISE_CONFERENCE_BOER_ULTIMATUM" /><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" />BLOEMFONTEIN FRANCHISE CONFERENCE—BOER ULTIMATUM</h2> + +<p>Capitalists had already begun to feel nervous about the final security +of their investments; operations and credit became restricted, fresh +projects were abandoned and a persistent withdrawal of capital set in. +Trade and prosperity were progressively waning, accompanied with still +more ominous portents for the Uitlanders' future. It all meant a very +extensive weeding out of investments under enormous losses, except such +as stood in relation with dividend-paying mines. England, though +apparently apathetic and inactive, was not inattentive to the situation. +Whoever had a stake, whether in South Africa or abroad, looked to Great +Britain as the Power upon whom the duty devolved to provide a peaceable +remedy. The suzerainty controversy was then followed by other questions +of diplomatic difference, among which that of the <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" />franchise reform. +Upon this matter English intervention took an insistent form. It clearly +turned all upon that—and once it were satisfactorily arranged, the +amicable solution of other questions might in turn be expected to +follow. As to suzerainty, that claim appeared relegated to remain in +abeyance. A conference was convened at Bloemfontein early in June, 1899, +for the discussion of those topics between the Colonial Governor, Sir +Alfred Milner, and the Presidents of the two Republics. The outcome was +a final demand for the right of representation of the Uitlander +interests in the legislative bodies of the Transvaal, amounting to +one-fifth of the total aggregate of members, the voting qualifications +to consist in the usual reasonable conditions and a residence in the +State of five years, operating retrospectively.</p> + +<p>We may here consider whether such a demand contained any real feature of +unfairness to warrant refusal.</p> + +<p>Three-fifths of the entire white Transvaal population were Uitlanders, +the majority of them English. They own four-fifths of the total wealth +invested in the State. About half of them have been domiciled, with +house and other fixed property, for periods of from five to ten years +and more.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" />The preponderance is not only in numbers and wealth, but also in +intelligence and in contributing at least four-fifths of the total State +revenues.</p> + +<p>Is it right or prudent to exclude such interests and such a majority +from legislative representation?</p> + +<p>Could a minority of one-fifth, that is to say, twelve Uitlander members +against forty-eight Boer members, be said to constitute a menace to the +status or to the conservative interests of State?</p> + +<p>Do Uitlanders not deserve equal recognition with the burghers in respect +to intrinsic interest in the land, seeing that the former supplied all +the skill and the capital to explore and exploit the mine wealth, all at +their risk, and without which it would all have remained hidden and the +country continued fallow and poor?</p> + +<p>Though one-fifth would be so small a minority, it would at least have +afforded the constitutional method of declaring the wishes of +Uitlanders, and have done away with the disquieting and less effective +practices of Press agitations, public demonstrations, and petitions. The +measure could also have been expected to open up the way towards +reconciling relations between the English and Boer races, beginning in +the Transvaal, where it was hoped that the burghers would be gained over +as friends, and <a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" />so to stand aloof from the Afrikaner Bond. These were +the supreme objects for peaceful progress and not for annexation. Solemn +assurances from highest quarters were repeatedly given that no designs +existed against the integrity of the Republic, that nothing unfriendly +lurked behind the franchise demand, but that necessity dictated it for +general good and the preservation of peace. Nor were other diplomatic +means left unemployed to ensure the acceptance of the franchise reform. +In addition to firmness of attitude and a display of actual force, most +of the other Powers, including the United States of America, were +induced to add their weight of persuasion in urging upon the Transvaal +the adoption of the measures demanded by England for correcting the +existing trouble. It may be urged that the display of force in sending +the first batches of troops would have afforded grounds for +exasperation, and be construed by the Transvaal as a menace and actual +hostility, tending to precipitate a conflict which it was so earnestly +intended to avoid. To this may be replied that the 20,000 men sent in +August were readily viewed as placing the hitherto undermanned Colonial +garrisons upon an appropriate peace effective only; but not so with +respect to the army corps of 50,000 <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" />men despatched in September—this +was felt as an intended restraint against "Bond" projects, to enforce +the observance of any agreement which the Transvaal might for the nonce +assent to, and above all it was tending, unless at once opposed by the +Bond, to weaken its ranks by producing hesitation and ultimate defection +from that body; the die was thus to be cast, duplicity appeared to be +played out—the ultimatum of 9th October was the outcome; and England, +though unprepared, could not possibly accept it otherwise than as a +wilful challenge to war.</p> + +<p>As the pursuit of our study will show, the success of Mr. Chamberlain's +diplomacy to avert war depended upon the very slender prospects that the +Transvaal Government might have been induced to waver, and finally to +break with the Afrikaner Bond—a forlorn hope indeed, considering the +perfection which that formidable organization had reached. Its cherished +objects were not meant to be abandoned. The advice of "Bond" leaders +prevailed. War was declared and the Rubicon crossed in enthusiastic +expectations of soon realizing the long-deferred Bond motto: "The +expulsion of the hateful English."</p> + +<p>It is true the Transvaal had made a show of <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" />acquiescence to British and +foreign pressure. This first took the shape of an offer of a seven +years' franchise, and then one of five years, exceeding even Mr. +Milner's demands as to the number of Uitlander representation. That of +seven years was so fenced in with nugatory trammels and conditions that +it had for those reasons to be rejected; whilst that at five years was +coupled with the equally unacceptable conditions that the claim of +suzerainty should be renounced, and that in all other respects the +Transvaal should be recognised as absolutely independent in terms of the +Sand River Convention of 1852.</p> + +<p>Those offers could hardly have been made in sincerity, but rather as a +temporary device and to meet the susceptibilities of the advising +Powers, for all the time preparations for war were never relaxed for a +moment, but were pushed on with extreme vigour. On the other hand, the +British programme seeking to ensure peace by the franchise expedient had +been strictly followed without deviation. When the Transvaal Government +professed irritation over the disposition of some British troops too +near the Transvaal border, they were promptly removed to more remote and +less strategic positions, rather than incur the risk of <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" />rupture. During +the month preceding the outbreak of the war, some large continental +consignments of war munitions were, as usual, permitted to reach the +Republics unhindered through several Colonial ports, portions being +actually smuggled over the Colonial railways as merchandise addressed to +a well-known Pretoria firm, but on arrival were secretly delivered, +under cover of night, at the various forts and arsenals. These +proceedings were carried out with the connivance of the Colonial Bond +authorities, and though known to the British Governor, it was all winked +at rather than hazard the momentous objects of peace by the introduction +of another knotty subject. To sum up the situation, it was a diplomatic +contest on the part of Great Britain aiming at peace and to safeguard +her possessions and prestige, while the Afrikaner Bond, on the other +part, continued active in the work of sedition and preparing for a war +of usurpation. Every one must admit that the demand of the British +Ministry for an immediate and adequate representation proceeded from the +necessity and the desire to overcome the South African crisis in a just +and pacific way. The measure was counted upon to effect conciliation +between the Uitlander and burgher elements, and <a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" />as a further result was +earnestly hoped to bring about the secession of the Transvaal from the +Afrikaner Bond, and so reduce that dangerous confederacy to a somewhat +negligible impotence. To discover other objects of a sinister sort +lurking behind needs a more than inventive genius. A united Afrikaner +Bond, persistent to carry out its fell project, definitely meant war +sooner or later. Its first step in launching out to it was that +notorious ultimatum, which was tantamount to snatching back the feigned +offers of the seven and five years' franchise. According to original +programme, the very next step to accomplish the <i>coup d'état</i>was the +immediate seizure of all Colonial ports, and to complete a general and +irrevocable Boer rising all over the Colonies.</p> + +<p>All the while the old device had been put into practice of hiding Bond +guilt by accusing England of designs against the integrity of the Boer +Republics. But directly after, in the exultation of victorious +invasions, the mask was shamelessly dropped, and Boerdom stands out +defiantly and nakedly self-confessed, aiming at conquest and supremacy +over all South Africa. Will the ensuing century have in store an +instance to match that record plot of artifice and dissimulation, and +see <a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" />half the world duped into partisanship with it—by journalistic +craft?</p> + +<p>It may well be imagined that Mr. Chamberlain and his noble colleagues +had anything but beds of roses whilst pursuing the diplomacy adopted to +checkmate the Bond. They had to gain national support without divulging +their own proceeding, and were at the same time reduced to a situation +which imposed a spartan fortitude in concealing and repressing +involuntary perturbation in the presence of an impending national +crisis, and also the stoical endurance of bitter recriminations on the +part of an opposition comprising a large and honourable but poorly +informed section of the English nation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BOER_LANGUAGE" id="BOER_LANGUAGE" /><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" />BOER LANGUAGE</h2> + + +<p>We come now to the topic of language, which will be found relevant, +showing Hollander and Bond influence in using that also as a hostile +weapon. What the Boers still speak is a vernacular or dialect so far +removed from High Dutch as to be unintelligible to the uninitiated +Hollander. It took its form from the dialects brought to the Cape of +Good Hope by unlettered Dutch colonists and a large admixture of locally +produced idioms, with a slight trace of the structure of the French +language in expressing negations. In the two Republics High Dutch rules +for official purposes, but in common intercourse the vernacular Dutch is +still about the same as it had been a hundred years ago. For an +English-Dutch interpreter the thorough knowledge of the vernacular is +essential. Preachers and teachers have to adapt their speech by +combining High Dutch with the dialect, the one or the other +predominating according to the capacity of <a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" />the hearers. Hollanders +follow the same method when learning the vernacular Dutch.</p> + +<p>In towns and villages, not only in the Colonies, but also in both +Republics, English is almost exclusively used. The Boers, and especially +the younger generation, have a much greater aptitude and penchant for +learning English than for High Dutch; and generally it has been held +more important by the parents that their children should become +proficient in English, that language being more easily acquired and of +vastly greater use than Dutch. The latter, it was truly averred, would +be learnt as they grew up quite sufficiently for all purposes.</p> + +<p>The feeling thus existed some twenty years ago that English would become +general, and ultimately oust both Dutch and the vernacular. Numerous +Boer patriots then devised the remedy of preserving the vernacular by +raising it to the standard of a written and printed language for +official as well as common use. The Rev. du Toit, later appointed +Minister (or Superintendent) of Education in the Transvaal, worked +tenaciously towards making that movement a national success. He had the +co-operation of many other educated patriots likewise. The <i>Paarl +Patriot</i>, a journal <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" />published in the vernacular, is one of the +surviving efforts. Vocabularies, school books, etc., etc., were printed +in that dialect, and the translation of the Bible had also been brought +to an advanced stage, when the project had to be abandoned, principally +through Hollander influence, aided by some of the Republican leaders and +Bond men. Dr. Mansfeld, the present Superintendent of Education in the +Transvaal, was subsequently appointed—a very able Hollander, but also a +very strong advocate in the general Hollander Bond movement for +proscribing the use of the English language, and making High Dutch the +compulsory medium of instruction. Since then, and during the past ten +years, considerable progress has been made by the average Boer children, +and even the grown-up people, in approaching a better knowledge of High +Dutch. Before 1880 hardly any Boer cared to read a newspaper except, +perhaps, the <i>Paarl Patriot</i>, the vernacular journal referred to. High +Dutch and English papers were equally beyond his ready knowledge, but +since then the interest in politics gave an impulse to a reading +tendency, and at this moment the majority of the Boers manage to read +and understand fairly well what is presented in simply written High +Dutch by the local Press. They also <a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" />are fond of simply written books of +travels, and especially of narratives of a religious trend. With the +Bible they are most familiar from childhood, but literature in High +Dutch is beyond them as yet. Greater pains have of late years been taken +to qualify Boer sons for the administrative service of the Republics, +where imperfect knowledge of High Dutch is an obvious bar to +advancement, and Hollanders would otherwise continue to monopolize the +better positions.</p> + +<p>Taking the fairly educated Free State and Transvaal youth, the average +proficiency in English compared to that in High Dutch is as two to one, +whilst many possess even a literary mastery in English whilst quite poor +in the other language.</p> + +<p>In the Cape Colony the above comparison among the Boer section is still +more in favour of English.</p> + +<p>It may be judged what an important <i>rôle</i> the educated Hollander group +can take in those Republics, and are yet aiming at in the Colonies.</p> + +<p>It is also worthy of reflection why and how the Dutch language has been +raised to equality with English in the Cape Colony, seeing English was +more generally understood by the Boers there than High Dutch, and none +of the Boer legislators or members of Parliament even now know more +<a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" />than the Dutch vernacular, the High Dutch language having actually yet +to be learnt by the Boer population—an important step thus gained by +Afrikanerdom under the indulgent ægis of self-government, the thin end +of another wedge to nurse sedition and treason introduced by that odious +Bond under pretence and veil of Boer patriotism and loyalty.</p> + +<p>As one of the world's languages, Dutch figures under a very sorry <i>rôle</i> +indeed. It had been ignored everywhere outside of Holland and her +distant Colonies. The consequence to Hollanders is that they are of +necessity subjected to the ordeal of learning several other continental +languages for commercial intercourse, and in order to keep at all +abreast with the progress of science, literature, and culture. Dutch is +in the moribund stage; its salvation from imminent extinction consists +in the expansion of its sphere. Boer successes in South Africa would +just accomplish that.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_DUTCH_COTERIE_ITS_SEAT_IN_HOLLAND" id="THE_DUTCH_COTERIE_ITS_SEAT_IN_HOLLAND" /><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" />THE DUTCH COTERIE: ITS SEAT IN HOLLAND</h2> + + +<p>As has been shown, the conditions of the two Boer Republics, with High +Dutch as the official language, lent themselves to favour the +immigration into those States of educated Dutchmen (Hollanders, as they +are styled, to distinguish them from the old-established Boer Dutchmen). +These were indeed indispensable, as none of the Boers possessed the +competence in High Dutch requisite for the conduct of the more important +portion of the clerical work in the administration. The professional +branches were recruited from Holland likewise, in natural sequence. They +were men of high attainments and possessed of energy and astuteness and +of various qualifications—doctors, lawyers, editors, clergymen, +teachers. Those who did not receive Government appointments quickly +found lucrative positions in their vocations. The scope increased as +time went by and as those States developed with the growth of the +populations and the establish<a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" />ment of numerous towns and villages, +especially after the discovery of the diamond-fields in 1870. Every year +brought fresh contingents from Holland, including also the commercial +class, artisans, and even servants of both sexes, and agriculturists. +Preserving a constant intercourse with their native country, those +Hollanders also maintained cohesion and clanship among themselves in +their newly-adopted homes. Nor did Holland fail to realize the great +advantages accruing to that country and its people from the new South +African outlets—regular preserves with almost unlimited scope for +further extension and for increasing permanent, profitable connections. +A formidable barrier presented itself in the gradually ascendant +tendencies of the English language and English trade, with corresponding +neglect of the Dutch factors. Regretful forebodings aroused energetic +efforts to check rival interests. The prize was too valuable, and +increasing each year in importance. A dyke needed to be erected to stem +the English encroachments and to preserve and consolidate the Hollander +position of vantage. The ablest men in Holland and South Africa +exercised themselves with that task with an ardour impelled by jealous +hatred against the English and intensified by successive revelations <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59" />of +more startling discoveries of gold and other mineral wealth in the +Transvaal. It was then, about thirty years ago, that a well-informed, +influential and unscrupulous coterie in Holland devised the fell +projects which developed into that potential association since known as +the Afrikaner Bond.</p> + +<p>The building of the Transvaal railway lines brought other large +accessions of educated Hollanders, and as they were completed some +thousands more were added to serve as permanent staff. Dutch influence +was thus attaining strength to assert and consolidate its interests with +an expanding impulse. The monopolized railway company promoted +immigration from Holland by largely increasing the salaries to such of +the staff who were married. The Transvaal Government, under the advice +of their educational chief, Dr. Mansfeld, provided similar premiums to +secure married teachers from Holland and by raising the salaries of +married Hollander officials already placed. The Hollander population +attracted to the Transvaal since 1850, and which did not number above +500 in 1870, had increased by 1898 to fully 12,000, representing, as +ranged with the Boers, by far the largest factor of educated +intelligence, attached to and dependent upon the Government and its +staunch allies. The <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" />men received full burghership as a rule soon after +arrival, exempt from the formalities and probation prescribed by law.</p> + +<p>Holland being the locality of the inception, I may say the ingestion, of +the Afrikaner Bond, one's thoughts are apt to retrace, by way of +contrast, that little nation's creditable past. The view presents those +dykes, monuments of labour's heroism; then that glorious resistance +against the mighty persecutor of religion, those unsurpassed +performances in the arena of culture, arts, and sciences, and that long +epoch of success in exploits of colonization, finance, and commerce.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"But view them closer, craft and fraud appear;<br /></span> +<span>Even liberty itself is bartered here."—<i>Goldsmith</i>.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5" /><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>One notes the placid landscapes intersected by those still but +deep-flowing rivers and canals, scenes so conducive to mental +exercise—the Dutch patriot mourning over the transition of former +national prestige to present condition of decadence presaging complete +national submersion, but at the same time courageously employing his +fertile brain in devis<a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" />ing far-reaching projects of remedy over distant +perspectives so as to stem that tide of decadence and declension and to +erect a firm barrier against that menace—to gain (by inspiration from +the titular genius of commerce and craft so conspicuous in that famed +art representation<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6" /><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> exhibited in his Bourse) a dazzling prize for his +nation by one fell swoop and, so to say, with folded arms, just by +pitting against the English his almost forgotten and long-neglected +clan, the Boer nation, inciting them to usurp Great Britain in South +Africa, Holland sharing the spoils. See here the master mind exulting in +the conception, gestation, and birth of the Afrikaner Bond conspiracy; +note the Hollander patriot's glitter of satisfaction at the vista of +realizing the restoration of Holland to a position excelling its former +glory, of a moribund language revived to significance, and of witnessing +besides a sweet vendetta operated upon England, the old enemy and +despoiler of his nation, to compass the humiliation and disintegration +of the British Empire. Patience, dear reader; preserve judicial +composure. Evidence is following on the heels of the charge.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5" /><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This is of course not directed against the nation as a +whole. See also notice, page vi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6" /><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Oil painting in the Amsterdam Exchange building +representing Mercurius.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AFRIKANER_BOND_OUTLINES_AND_PROGRAMME" id="AFRIKANER_BOND_OUTLINES_AND_PROGRAMME" /><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" />AFRIKANER BOND—OUTLINES AND PROGRAMME</h2> + + +<p>The late Mr. Jan Brand, that noble President who was succeeded by Reitz +and now by Steyn in the presidency of the Orange Free State, appeared to +have had early intimations, or at least presages, as to the true nature +of the Afrikaner Bond, for during the early eighties that association +had yet posed as a harmless body, intended to preserve old Boer +traditions upon perfectly constitutional lines. President Brand and some +others then already suspected more, as the following incident will show. +In 1883 President Brand officially opened the new wagon-road bridge over +the Caledon River at Commissie drift, near Smithfield, Orange Free +State. Towards the conclusion of the ceremony, one of the other +speakers, Mr. Advocate Peeters, member of the Volksraad for Smithfield +district, in the course of his speech formally suggested that President +Brand should accept the leadership of the Orange Free State section of +the Afrikaner Bond. The President, <a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" />addressing the burghers and all +present, replied in about the following terms: The proposal just then +made by Advocate Peeters had pained and offended him; the festive event +would be marred by that incident were it not that it afforded him the +opportunity, which he otherwise would have missed, of telling them all +what he thought of the Afrikaner Bond—that it was an evil thing; he +could not find terms strong enough to warn the people against its subtle +seductions. The Afrikaner Bond professed its objects to be peace and +harmony, but it really contained the pernicious seeds of division and +strife, to set up enmity between English Afrikaners and Boer Afrikaners. +He pointed out the sincerity of friendly relations on the part of +England towards both the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republics. +The peace which restored to the Transvaal its independence a few years +before was one big proof; his Government had many proofs of England's +good will, too. It suited both parties to maintain harmony—it behoved +every Afrikaner to be one-minded in friendly reciprocation. Through a +gracious Providence both Republics were prosperous and enjoyed +independence. All over the world the prosperity of States depended upon +good relations with their neighbours—this was especially so as <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" />regards +the Orange Free State. They knew what kind of bond the Bible enjoined. +It was the bond of peace and concord; and he concluded by declaring his +well-grounded fears that the Afrikaner Bond was a device of the devil +directed against the well-being of the entire Afrikaner nation. Instead +of being encouraged, it should, like the "Boete Bosch"<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7" /><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> (<i>Xanthium +spinosum</i>, burr weed), be extirpated from the soil of South Africa.</p> + + +<p>MEMORANDA OF BOND PROGRAMME, EMANATING FROM HOLLAND (TRANSLATION FROM +GLEANINGS).</p> + +<p>The Afrikaner Bond has as final object what is summed up in its motto of +"Afrika voor de Afrikaners."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8" /><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> The whole of South Africa belongs by +just right to the Afrikaner nation. It is the privilege and duty of +every Afrikaner to contribute all in his power towards the expulsion of +the English usurper. The States of South Africa to be federated in one +independent Republic.</p> + +<p>The Afrikaner Bond prepares for this consummation.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" />Argument in justification:—</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) The transfer of the Cape Colony to the British Government took +place by circumstances of <i>force majeure</i> and without the consent of the +Dutch nation, who renounce all claim in favour of the Afrikaner or Boer +nation.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Natal is territory which accrued to a contingent of the Boer +nation by purchase from the Zulu King, who received the consideration +agreed for.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) The British authorities expelled the rightful owners from Natal by +force of arms without just cause.</p> + +<p>The task of the Afrikaner Bond consists in:—</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Procuring the staunch adhesion and co-operation of every Afrikaner +and other real friend of the cause.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) To obtain the sympathy, the moral and effective aid of one or more +of the world's Powers.</p> + +<p>The means to accomplish those tasks are:—</p> + +<p>Personal persuasion, Press propaganda, legislation and diplomacy.</p> + +<p>The direction of the application of those means is entrusted to a select +body of members eligible for their loyalty to the cause and their +abilities and position. That body will conduct such measures as need the +observance of special secrecy. Upon the rest <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" />of the members will +devolve activities of a general character under the direction of the +selected chiefs.</p> + +<p>One of the indispensable requisites is the proper organization of an +effective fund, which is to be regularly sustained. Bond members will +aid each other in all relations of public life in preference to +non-members.</p> + +<p>In the efforts of gaining adherents to the cause it is of importance to +distinguish three categories of persons—</p> + +<p>(1) The class of Afrikaners who are to some extent deteriorated by +assimilative influences with the English race, whose restoration to +patriotism will need great efforts, discretion, and patience.</p> + +<p>(2)The apparently unthinking and apathetic class, who prefer to relegate +all initiative to leaders whom they will loyally follow. This class is +the most numerous by far.</p> + +<p>(3) The warmly patriotic class, including men gifted with intelligence, +energy, and speech, qualified as leaders and apt to exercise influence +over the rest.</p> + +<p>Among those three classes many exist whose views and religious scruples +need to be corrected. Scripture abounds in proofs and salient analogies +applying to the situation and justifying our cause. In this, as well as +in other directions, the members who work <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" />in circulating written +propaganda will supply the correct and conclusive arguments accessible +to all.</p> + +<p>Upon the basis of our just rights, the British Government, if not the +entire nation, is the usurping enemy of the Boer nation.</p> + +<p>In dealing with an enemy it is justifiable to employ, besides force, +also means of a less open character, such as diplomacy and stratagem.</p> + +<p>The greatest danger to Afrikanerdom is the English policy of Anglicizing +the Boer nation—to submerge it by the process of assimilation.</p> + +<p>A distinct attitude of holding aloof from English influences is the only +remedy against that peril and for thwarting that insidious policy.</p> + +<p>It is only such an attitude that will preserve the nation in its simple +faith and habits of morality, and provide safety against the dangers of +contamination and pernicious examples, with all their fateful +consequences to body and soul.</p> + +<p>Let the Dutch language have the place of honour in schools and homes.</p> + +<p>Let alliances of marriage with the English be stamped as unpatriotic.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9" /><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" />Let every Afrikaner see that he is at all times well armed with the +best possible weapons, and maintains the expert use of the rifle among +young and old, so as to be ready when duty calls and the time is ripe +for asserting the nation's rights and be rid of English thraldom.</p> + +<p>Employ teachers only who are animated with truly patriotic sentiments.</p> + +<p>Let it be well understood that English domination will also bring +religious intolerance and servitude, for it is only a very frail link +which separates the English State Church from actual Romanism, and its +proselytism <i>en bloc</i> is only a matter of short time.</p> + +<p>Equally repugnant and dangerous is England's policy towards the coloured +races, whom she aims, for the sake of industrial profit, at elevating to +equal rank with whites, in direct conflict with scriptural authority—a +policy which incites coloured people to rivalry with their superiors, +and can only end in common disaster.</p> + +<p>Whilst remaining absolutely independent, the ties of blood relationship +and language point to Holland for a domestic base.</p> + +<p>As to commerce, Germany, America, and other industrial nations could +more than fill the gap left <a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" />by England, and such connections should be +cultivated as a potent means towards obtaining foreign support to our +cause and identification with it.</p> + +<p>If the mineral wealth of the Transvaal and Orange Free State becomes +established—as appears certain from discoveries already made—England +will not rest until those are also hers.</p> + +<p>The leopard will retain its spots. The independence of both Republics is +at stake on that account alone, with the risk that the rightful owners +of the land will become the hewers of wood and drawers of water for the +usurpers.</p> + +<p>There is no alternative hope for the peace and progress of South Africa +except by the total excision of the British ulcer.</p> + +<p>Reliable signs are not wanting to show that our nation is designed by +Providence as the instrument for the recovery of its rights, and for the +chastisement of proud, perfidious Albion.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7" /><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Literally "bush of fines" (fines imposed on landowners +where the burr weed was not eradicated).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8" /><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Africa for the African citizen or African-born whites.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9" /><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> It is notorious that from about 1890 such marriages were +denounced from the Boer pulpits and on the occasions of the Independence +day anniversaries (16th December).</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PACIFIC_POLICY_OF_GREAT_BRITAIN" id="PACIFIC_POLICY_OF_GREAT_BRITAIN" /><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" />PACIFIC POLICY OF GREAT BRITAIN</h2> + + +<p>During the period of, say, twenty-five years after the inception of the +Afrikaner Bond, and while its organization and development were secretly +kept at full pace with occurring events, the British Government +consistently and openly pursued the policy of bringing about the +unification of South Africa. Mr. Froude, a speaker of rare gifts, was +sent to lecture upon the topic: this was in about 1873. The Colonial +Governor, Sir Bartle Frere, strenuously advocated that union. The lines +suggested were a general federation under one protective flag, +self-government in the Colonies, and the continuance of uncurtailed +autonomic independence in the two Republics. The benefits which such a +coalition promised to all concerned in South Africa are obvious. It +would guarantee harmony between the two white races without involving +the least sacrifice of liberty with any party—it simply meant +coincident peace, prosperity and security, and would relieve England of +a considerable burden <a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" />of anxiety. The scheme promised to find all-round +acceptance, but, unaccountably, except to Bond men, its greatest +opponents were the Cape Colonial Boers. It was, however, confidently +hoped that, with patience, opposition and indifference would be +overcome, and in view of this no opportunity was lost to prove England's +loyal sincerity by genial treatment, by conciliating the various +interests, and gratifying the wishes of the Boer communities, and so to +ensure the desideratum of complete <i>rapprochement</i> between the white +races.</p> + +<p>Conferences were convened with the objects of coming to agreements for +the establishment of a general South African Customs Union, and for +adjusting railway tariffs upon fair bases and a more reliable permanency +of rates suggesting reciprocal terms advantageous to the Republics. +These efforts also proved fruitless through similar opposition.</p> + +<p>The Afrikaner Bond party, as the reader will understand, had ranged +itself against all such attempts, whilst successfully masking its own +object all the time.</p> + +<p>Other differences, which, with a friendly and united spirit, were +capable of easy adjustment, were welcomed by that party as grist to its +mill in order to widen the gulf and to increase the tension.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" />Besides the chagrin over the failure of its peace policy, the British +Cabinet had finally to admit itself confronted with a very real and +ominous national peril, face to face with the South African Medusa, +Afrikanerdom, defying Great Britain in preconcerted aggression and +revolt. That apparition was all the more startlingly disquieting because +of the suddenness with which the magnitude of the menace and its wide +perspectives had begun to expand into clearer view. It was interesting +to note how the English ministry responded to the call upon its +fortitude; the terrifying apparition did not seem to petrify that body +of men, despite the galling handicapping consequences through the +opposition of part of the nation, which was indeed tantamount to +encouraging South African rebels and usurpers.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BOND_PRESS_PROPAGANDA_SECRET_SERVICEmdashTRADE_RIVALRIES" id="BOND_PRESS_PROPAGANDA_SECRET_SERVICEmdashTRADE_RIVALRIES" /><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" />BOND PRESS PROPAGANDA—SECRET SERVICE—TRADE RIVALRIES</h2> + + +<p>The Bond leaders in Holland and South Africa had at an early stage acted +upon Stuart Mill's recognised saying, "that conviction in a cause is of +more potent avail than mere interest in it." Among those leaders there +was no lack of men of erudition and of psychological science, than whom +no one knew better the prime importance of ensuring uniformity of +convictions among the Boers and their partisans, and that the public +mind needs to be framed and trained so as to view the Boer cause as just +and that of the English as odiously wicked. They knew how indispensable +the Press is for attaining those objects, how journalism is capable of +plausibly representing black as white and to convince people so—that, +in fact, it is on occasion an agency of persuasion more potent than +armies are. Its needs are unscrupulous pens and ample payments. For +money is the sinews of journalism as well as of war, whether the +projectiles be charged with lyddite or with lies, whether it is bullets +or throwing dust into people's eyes.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" />We have seen how a few articles (for which a leading French paper +received £100,000) were instrumental in enabling the Panama Canal Co. to +swindle the French public of forty million pounds sterling, and more +recently, where through Press agency it became feasible to a combination +of Jesuitism and militarism to seduce by far the greater portion of the +noble French nation into frenzied agitation and anti-Semitic excesses, +and load the entire people with almost ineffaceable guilt in the matter +of that unfortunate Dreyfus. In its Press campaign the Afrikaner Bond +employed several leading Colonial organs—the Bloemfontein <i>Express</i>, +the Pretoria <i>Volksstem</i>, the <i>Standard and Diggers' News</i> of +Johannesburg, and numerous papers of note abroad as well. These were +coached, in the usual masterly manner, sophisticating and perverting +truth. Whenever a lull occurred in treating one or other of the more +salient questions, those South African papers would invariably +contain—especially in their Dutch columns—aspersive articles, coupled +with invective comments to prejudice the Boer mind and to reawaken +anti-English sentiments. It is notable as a proof that the Bond party +lacked all occasions for recriminations, so that those papers had to +resort for material for their <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" />vituperation to distorted incidents of +Transvaal history prior to the peace of 1881. There would, for example, +be dished up falsely rendered and dramatically coloured and perverted +selections, such as the treacherous massacre of Retief's party in 1838, +averring that the Zulu king, Dingaan, had been incited thereto by the +British authorities; tragic descriptions of events, coupled with the +massacres by Zulu impis soon after at Weenen and Blaauwkrantz, averred +also to have taken place at the instance of the English Government, and +ever and anon references and full tragic descriptions of the +Slachtersnek execution in 1816, omitting to state that the Boer culprits +were hanged after fair and open trial and conviction by a "Boer" jury +for high treason in conspiring with Kaffirs against the Government, +which crime had led to bloodshed, and that their relatives had been +ordered to witness the execution because they had been abettors and +privy to the crime.</p> + +<p>Books teaching the history of South Africa were adapted for school use +wherein denunciations against the English appear in almost every +chapter. Poetry in the vernacular Dutch and pamphlets teeming with like +burdens and calumnies also did their share in inspiring race hatred.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" />Pro-Boer journalism in England and elsewhere abroad had assumed such +dimensions, especially during the past decade, as to bring the Secret +Service expenditure on that head during recent years to over £100,000 +per annum. Dr. Leyds, the Transvaal ambassador, now (December, 1899) in +Europe, is known to some to have with him some £250,000 to defray Press +expenditure, etc., apart from the millions to which he is authorized to +engage his Government in diplomatic projects, such as procuring allies, +or to create embroilments and diversions to the prejudice of England.</p> + +<p>To sum up the success achieved by anti-English propaganda, we find the +Boer nation, from the Zambesi to the Cape, unanimous in convictions as +to their fancied claims, their own absolute innocence, and the +immeasurable guilt of the British Government, abetted by +capitalism—guilt which cries to heaven for retribution; and those +convictions take with each man the form of a resolute patriotism wherein +mingled fanaticism and religious fervour in their cause form a +powerfully sustaining part.</p> + +<p>Partisanship outside of Africa counts by millions of individuals and +entire peoples; with these it is not so much conviction, but rather +persuasion induced by political hatred and the souring effects <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" />of +jealousy and unsuccessful rivalry. This feature is, of course, most +accentuated in Holland, where, with the eyes set upon the loaves and +fishes in South Africa, that nation has for some time been "publicly +praying" for Boer victory over England. These are instances of mere +interest in lieu of genuine convictions. In England the spectacle is +more varied. There we see interest where there are paid agencies, and +persuasion more or less pronounced induced by political party spirit and +also by real convictions. It is in regard to the latter category where +perverted journalism triumphs most and stabs deepest, where men of +honour and patriotism have adopted views which clash against public +interest, and convictions which torture their own minds with grief and +shame under the supposed idea of England's unjust attitude towards the +Boer people, assuming that a Government majority allows itself to be +actuated by base motives.</p> + +<p>Is it not attributable in a large proportion to misguided as well as to +venal journalism that the Boer cause has so heavily scored?</p> + +<p>Was all this not manifest in the divisions of England's counsels, in the +hampered progress of her diplomacy, her fateful hesitancy and delay in +providing appropriate preventive and protective measures in South +Africa?</p> + +<p><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" />And as regards the tenacity of those convictions, it is with them as it +is in plant life. The longer a tree is in maturing, the harder is it to +uproot it.</p> + +<p>The activities of Bond propaganda have been in continuance for many +years, and the prejudices fostered so long are correspondingly +deep-rooted.</p> + +<p>Bond patriotism was not long subjected to the strain of individual +contributions and unpaid performances. When the Transvaal revenues +advanced with such giant strides the Afrikaner Bond leaders in that +State contrived arrangements by which the financial requirements were +supplied from State receipts. Nor was the least compunction felt in +doing so. Was the revenue of the State not chiefly derived from the +Uitlander element—from Uitlander investments, which all throve from the +nation's own buried gold wealth? No scruples existed to provide from +those sources the armaments and all else needed for the common cause of +conquest.</p> + +<p>A secret service fund of some £40,000 per year only was placed upon the +budget list. But this amount was vastly exceeded by the growing +requirements of the Afrikaner Bond for expenditure in South Africa +alone. It was easily contrived to divert, <i>sub rosa</i>, large State +receipts to supply the remaining financial needs. Among these figured, +<a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" />besides the heavy outlays in journalism abroad, gratuities, etc., a +large bill also for secret agencies, spies, and the like.</p> + +<p>The entire expenditure was under the direction of a few only of the +trusted leaders and audited by the chiefs, all being kept otherwise +undivulged.</p> + +<p>The Transvaal thus became the treasury as well as the arsenal of the +entire Afrikaner Bond.</p> + +<p>Hundreds of agents were in constant employ in the Cape Colonies and +Natal suborning the Boer colonists; many of them occupied positions in +various branches of the Colonial Government, and were able to supply +information upon any subject and even to influence elections.</p> + +<p>There were numerous permanent agents drawing large emoluments in Europe +also, and emissaries to different places abroad, some touring in +America, England, and the Continent, as the Rev. Mr. Bosman did +recently, and also the P.M.G., Isaac van Alphen.</p> + +<p>Much energy and money were also devoted to electioneering campaigns, as +had notoriously been done in the Cape Colony towards bringing in a Bond +majority. Large sums are spent in the diplomatic arena in Holland to +propitiate foreign statesmen, soliciting sympathy, and in coquettings +for Transvaal allies. One of these attempts that failed had <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" />been with +Germany. It would appear that some progress had been feasible some years +ago in temporarily luring Emperor William to favour a Holland-Transvaal +combination, but when that sovereign had at last penetrated the infamous +business that lay behind it all, he, as a true "<i>Bayard</i>" promptly +washed his hands clean of it, preferring to forego obvious brilliant +advantages for his people than to sully Germany's fair fame in a +connection amounting to no less than abetting a foul conspiracy.</p> + +<p>The readers of the Johannesburg <i>Standard and Diggers' News</i> will +remember among the staple attacks upon capitalism quite a series of +articles intended to decoy mining artisans and operatives to Boer views. +Secret agents were also employed for that purpose, and to induce the +belief that the Government was the enemy of capitalism, and would +champion its victims (the mining operatives) in the State. It would +support miners and the working class generally against attempts to +curtail the just rights of labour, and to parade its sincerity actually +passed a law constituting eight tours a legal day's labour. With such +coquettings it was hoped to gain the miners' confidence and adhesion. +Those men were, however, not to be taught by quasi-socialistic +professions of concern, <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" />and when, some months later, the exodus prior +to the war occurred, they nearly all left, much to the disgust and +discomfiture of the Government, which had counted upon them to stay to +work the mines for its own account when the moment should arrive.</p> + +<p>The appropriation of gold mines and their exploitation for Government +benefit bring about a singular anomaly for a nation engaged in war, +viz., that of a plethora of gold and a scarcity of paper currency, the +Transvaal mint coining the sinews of war at the expense of its victims, +but the plundered gold after all not equalling commercial paper values.</p> + +<p>In connection with the foregoing remarks the following may also be said. +States professing neutrality still permit themselves to trade with the +Transvaal to a large extent. It is notorious that that State possesses +no funds available for payments except the gold derived from the +misappropriated mines. The output is seized in its entirety, and not +limited to the extent accruing to British scrip holders only. The +hustling rivalry of doing business with the Transvaal thus involves +receiving stolen money in payment of trade accounts. We see the +receivers eager to stand upon the same platform as the thief, thus not +only as his political partisans, but also as his accomplices.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="DISLOYALTY_OF_COLONIAL_BOERS" id="DISLOYALTY_OF_COLONIAL_BOERS" /><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" />DISLOYALTY OF COLONIAL BOERS</h2> + + +<p>The Boer section in the Cape Colonies represents nearly one-half of the +white population there. Their representatives in the administration were +ever profuse and assertive in professions of loyalty to the Queen and to +the English Government, and any aspersions to the contrary were always +indignantly and stoutly repelled. The Afrikaner Bond was averred to +include nothing to clash with loyal sentiments, no severance from +England, but, on the contrary, that its principal objects were to +strengthen the lines of amity and joint solidarity in view of a general +federation of South Africa upon Imperial bases. In support of such +sentiments one of the first acts of the Bond party when recently come +into power was a vote of £30,000 per year towards British naval outlays, +and in grateful recognition of naval protection; it was at the same time +mooted, in fact almost pledged, that the Transvaal would similarly offer +£12,000 as well.</p> + +<p>The sequel has proven these to be Athenian gifts, <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" />for no sooner had the +Republican commandoes invaded the Cape Colonies in November last than +those identical men enthusiastically welcomed the Queen's enemies as +their friends and deliverers from hateful English dominion. There they +stood—self-avowed and unmasked traitors. Members of the Legislative +Assembly met those Boer invaders with addresses and speeches, assuring +them of their own and of every other true Afrikaner's aid and fidelity +in their common cause. "The star of liberty," they said, "had arisen at +last—it had been the nation's desire and prayers during the past +fifteen years." "He could thank God with tears of joy for having granted +those prayers." Such were the words of Mr. van der Walt, M.L.A., uttered +at Colesberg. Mr. de Wet, M.L.A., Mr. van den Heever, M.L.A., and other +colonial notables were spokesmen in similar terms of enthusiasm on other +occasions as the invasion advanced. All this is sadly notorious, but +still it seems a hard task to convince people who prefer to remain blind +or only see a presumptuous adversary in any one who seeks to enlighten +them upon this glaring and premeditated treachery.</p> + +<p>October and November were months of unrestrained exultation to the Boer +party, to judge <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" />from letters and articles which appeared in the +<i>Standard and Diggers' News</i>, Johannesburg, dated 22nd November, 1899, +and in the Pretoria <i>Volksstem</i>, dated 20th November, 1899.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10" /><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> There +one sees the mask off, in language of defiant insult and of scurrilous +mendacity against all that is English, avowing that the present +Anglo-Boer War has been the outcome of preparations during the past +thirty years. That letter is not all suitable reading for the tender +sex, but should serve as evidence to the still unconvinced sceptic that +the Boers are fighting for something more than their mere independence +and liberty, viz., for conquest and the domination of Afrikanerdom. His +Excellency Dr. Leyds may deny all those too previous <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" />intentions with +his placid effrontery of assumed innocent calm. He may denounce Mr. +Chamberlain, Rhodes, Jameson, and even the Prince of Wales, and he may +use the old device of posing as innocent by accusing others. The +detected robber, however, does not always escape with his booty by +running off himself, whilst shouting "Stop, thief!"</p> + +<p>Something refreshingly analogous to such attempts of screening and +exculpation has been extemporized in Cape journals of late. There, in an +ingeniously pretended dissertation, it is invented how ill founded the +aspersions are against Mr. Premier Schreiner, and that the acts, upon +which he was so wrongly suspected as an amphibious helmsman, are really +attributable to another person—by the way, to one at a safe distance, +viz., to Mr. F.W. Reitz, the Transvaal State Secretary; whilst this +gentleman again, when lecturing at Johannesburg in July last, naively +deplored the confusion of people's ideas who see anything wrong in the +Afrikaner Bond, adding: "Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they +do or talk about."</p> + +<p>"The peace of South Africa is only possible under Boer supremacy," is +the Bond shibboleth. The end justifies the means, even to sedition, to a +war of conquest and the wholesale plunder of investors.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" />Many of the younger Boers in the Cape Colony and Natal had shown a +singular ardour in joining the several volunteer corps. They were +equipped with uniforms and best weapons, were drilled into efficiency, +received pay, and all went on well until the oath of allegiance was to +be tendered. This they refused, preferring to resign and to provide arms +from other sources—Mauser rifles by preference. This happened some +considerable time before the outbreak of the war.</p> + + +<p>Boer Arguments Denying Uitlanders' Complaints</p> + +<p>Many plausible arguments are proffered to prove that Uitlanders' +grievances and irritations are purely fictitious, but few, I venture to +say, will bear examination. Taxation, for example, is stoutly averred to +fall alike upon burgher and Uitlander, but a glance at the long rubric +of articles specially taxed will show that the selection is contrived to +hit the latter and to spare, or even to protect and benefit, the burgher +section.</p> + +<p>The gold industry is not charged with a royalty as is customary in other +gold-producing countries, but with 5 per cent. only upon the net +profits; but here an intolerant and corrupt domination <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" />proves much more +prejudicial than a heavy royalty would be.</p> + +<p>Proper representation would be the remedy and afford contentment, even +with higher taxation, but that is refused upon Bond principles.</p> + +<p>The Anglo-Boer War is attributed to base motives on the part of the +British Government, operating in collusion with capitalism—to England's +passion for annexation, her rapacious greed for the Transvaal gold, her +inordinate ambition to universal commercial supremacy, etc. What a +confusion of assertions and of self-refuting contradictions!</p> + +<p>Would England really acquire the Transvaal gold by the annexation of +that State, seeing that its mines are already capitalized and as good as +expropriated in favour of the host of shareholders, some of whom are +English, but the greater portion German, French, and of other nations?</p> + +<p>What advantage would accrue to shareholders? Would England, in case of +forcible annexation, not be under the necessity of incurring a heavy +charge in the increase of her South African garrisons, and so be +justified in levying a considerable royalty upon the output, which would +materially reduce the dividends? What advantage would arise to England +by substituting an unproductive and <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" />costly war in South Africa for +conditions of peace and prosperity, which alone can yield her commerce +profit? England can only derive profit from wars waged between other +peoples. And as to the incentive of commercial supremacy, England, while +possessing that to a large extent already, freely and voluntarily allows +all comers from other nationalities to share the benefits with her by +her principle of free trade.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10" /><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Extract from Pretoria <i>Volksstem</i>, 20th November, 1899, +from a long letter averred to have appeared in the London <i>Times</i>, dated +12th October, 1899, said to have been signed by a well-known Cape Boer, +then in England:— +</p><p> +"We have desired delay, and we have had it, and we are now practically +masters of South Africa from the Zambesi to the Cape. All the Afrikaners +in the Cape Colony have been working for years past for this end. +</p><p> +"For thirty years the Cape Dutch have been waiting their chance, and now +their day has come; they will throw off their mask and their yoke at the +same instant, and 200,000 Dutch heroes will trample you tinder foot. We +can afford to tell you the truth now, and in this letter you have got +it."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PORTUGUESE_TERRITORY_TRANSVAAL_LOW_VELDTmdashMALARIAmdashHORSE_SICKNESS" id="PORTUGUESE_TERRITORY_TRANSVAAL_LOW_VELDTmdashMALARIAmdashHORSE_SICKNESS" /><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" />PORTUGUESE TERRITORY—TRANSVAAL LOW VELDT—MALARIA—HORSE SICKNESS</h2> + + +<p>Between the north-eastern borders of the Transvaal and the coast lies +the Portuguese colony Mozambique. Its frontier railway station, Ressario +Garcia, is near that of the Transvaal, viz., Komati poort, which is 53 +miles from Delagoa Bay. A low-lying country extends from the coast about +100 to 200 miles inland, and is tropical. Except some elevated spots, +the whole of it is almost uninhabitable in summer by whites on account +of malaria. During some specially bad seasons natives even succumb to +that malady. The only comparatively safe months are from June to +November. Marshy localities, and wherever there is shaded rank +vegetation in low-lying parts, are dangerous all the year round; in such +places the water is deadly at all times unless first boiled.</p> + +<p>This malarial poison is distinct from that which produces yellow fever +in America, and is so far <a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" />unlike it as it is not contagious. The theory +is that the poison is produced below the surface by decaying vegetable +matter in low and dank parts during the more inactive but still warm and +sunny winter season and during the hot months preceding the summer +rainfall. Upon the first rains the malarial poison escapes through the +then softened crust in the shape of vapoury miasms. This happens during +the night, after the surface of the earth has been cooled off. Those +miasms are dissipated or neutralised by the action of the sun. The dewy +grass retains the poison until it is thoroughly dried to the root. All +surface water is liable to that poisonous impregnation. Malarial +manifestations occur all over South Africa, but in progressive degrees +of virulence with the advance to warmer latitudes, and with the descent +from the high table-lands to the coast levels. On the Transvaal high +veldt, for example, a mild form is developed which, in midsummer, to a +small extent, affects and kills sheep. It is called <i>blaauwtong</i>, and +does not affect horses. Descending further, this danger to sheep +increases and begins earlier. Below 5,000 feet altitude in the Transvaal +the summer season is dangerous to sheep, and horses and mules are +subject to horse sickness; whilst lower still the same malaria attains +sufficient virulence to <a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" />attack human beings, and becomes very deadly +upon levels nearing the coast. Komati poort, the frontier railway +station already mentioned, is dreaded as a still worse death-trap than +even Delagoa Bay, where it is very unsafe, say, from December to end of +April. The season of horse sickness terminates upon the appearance of +the first sharp frost in May. The safeguards for human beings consist in +avoidance at night and early morning of low-lying localities, or such +elevated places even which are subject to be invaded by miasmatic +emanations produced on and wafted from dangerous lower levels. Drink no +unboiled water except that from deep wells or rain-water; maintain +careful and moderate diet, active habits, but avoiding extreme exertions +and excitements; a very sparing use of alcoholic drinks, preferably +taken with the regular meals, is admissible.</p> + +<p>Donkeys, horned cattle, and goats are exempt from malarial risks.</p> + +<p>For horses and mules no certain remedy appears as yet to be known. The +best research, on behalf of the Transvaal Government, by specially +requisitioned French bacteriologists, assisted by that famous +microbe-hunter, Dr. Theiler (Dr. Theiler is the Transvaal veterinary +surgeon and chief of the <a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" />Medical Laboratory, Pretoria, a noted Swiss +savant, who, with the aid of the said French experts, discovered the +rinderpest inoculation remedy), has failed to find the bacillus of horse +sickness. Barely five per cent, of the horses attacked recover, and +about ten per cent, of mules. These are then called salted, and are +immune from horse sickness; they can after that be safely used in the +worst localities, and are correspondingly more valuable. They are, +however, liable periodically to light after-attacks, when it is safer to +exempt them from work for a day, or for a few hours at least.</p> + +<p>Some proprietors of mail coaches are in the habit of administering doses +of arsenic to their horses and mules, which are said to operate in +lessening the death rate and to favour the salting process.</p> + +<p>As safeguards for horses and mules, the following rules have been found +to minimise losses in dangerous tracts where the low clinging miasmatic +vapours are so deadly during the night and earlier parts of the morning. +(During rainfall there is hardly any danger, nor is there after a +night's rain for the day following):—</p> + +<p>Do not traverse low suspicious tracts during the hours between 9 p.m. +and, say, two hours after <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" />sunrise, lest poisonous vapours be +encountered and inhaled by man or horse.</p> + +<p>Choose the most elevated spots for camping out at night. No grazing to +be allowed from 10 p.m. to about 10 or 11 a.m., unless it is raining. +Dewy grass is fatally poisoned; the heavy moist air close to the surface +is also suspected. Grazing is only safe after the soil and grass are +dried of all dewy moisture.</p> + +<p>Avoid all water of at all a stagnant nature; rather let the animals +remain thirsty.</p> + +<p>If the animals have been fed with dry fodder during the night, let the +first morning stage be moderate and not exhausting. With empty stomachs +the task might be somewhat increased, but even then it should be less +than any other succeeding stage. When the first symptoms of sickness are +noticed they may pass over if the animal is at once freed from work and +allowed to rest, or is at most led when marching. Among the most +dangerous places for horse sickness and for fever to human beings are +the luxurious dongas, ravines, and valleys which abound along the long +stretches of mountains and broken country immediately below the high +plateaux.</p> + +<p>The passes leading up to the high veldt are few <a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" />in number, and so +precipitous as to be almost impracticable for vehicles. Of late years +those roads have been allowed to fall into disrepair, in order, it may +be supposed, to check wagon traffic and to promote that by railway; +apart from the railway, communication with Delagoa Bay would now be +impossible. What with the fever climate in summer, and the formidable +mountain barriers, the Transvaal high veldt is well protected from +aggression from the direction of Delagoa Bay. A few thousand men +distributed at the few mountain passes, blocking the tunnel at one of +these (at Waterval Boven), and breaking up some few bridges, would +effectually arrest the progress of any invading force.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CLIMATE_AND_TOPOGRAPHY" id="CLIMATE_AND_TOPOGRAPHY" /><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" />CLIMATE AND TOPOGRAPHY</h2> + + +<p>From the tropical Zambesi regions and the torrid Kalahari plains, down +to the 34th parallel at Cape point, a great diversity of climatic +conditions is met with. To the north and north-east are the steaming, +death-breeding low lands, abounding with dank virgin forests and scrubby +stretches; and to the north-west extend the arid, sandy, and stony +levels. There are the temperate and fruitful inland reaches along the +southern and south-eastern littoral, and again further inward the vast +plateaux at 2,000 to 6,500 feet elevation, which represent nearly +one-half of the sub-continent with quite other climatic aspects. In the +southern and western provinces of the Cape Colony the rainy season +occurs during the winter months, probably because of the proximity to +the trade wind influences prevailing over the South Atlantic; over the +rest of South Africa the winters are dry and sunny, the rains falling in +summer, most copiously in December and <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" />January, the effect being that +there are hardly any winter rigours, and the heat of summer is +minimised. The most agreeable climate is that on the higher plateau +levels: never hot nor altogether cold, and yet virile and bracing; +something like the climate on sunny days found in the higher Alpine +regions in summer and in the mild Algerine winters. This climate is +found from the Queenstown district at about 3,000 feet elevation, +extending north and westwards over the Stormberg, the Orange Free State, +and along the lordly Drakensberg range and its spurs some 200 to 300 +miles into the Transvaal, where the highest plateau levels occur between +Ermelo and to near Lydenburg, viz., 6,500 feet. The Harrismith district +near that mountain range is at a similar altitude with an identical +climate.</p> + +<p>These high tracts are called <i>hoogeveldt</i> or highlands. Their altitude +rises steadily with the advance northwards towards warmer latitudes, and +with the compensating effect that the climate in the Queenstown +district, Bontebok Flats for example, at 3,000 feet elevation, is +exactly similar to that in the eastern portions of the Orange Free State +at 5,500 feet, right up to near Lydenburg at 6,500 feet altitude, and +being some six degrees further north than Queenstown. The northern half +of Natal also <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" />partakes of that character, though there, as well as over +the rest of the eastern slopes of the Drakensberg mountains, the country +is more broken and hilly than on the western side. The Cape Colonial +high veldt near the Drakensberg range is intersected by high +continuations or spurs, but north and westwards those plateaux assume +more the real aspect of continuous high plains. There is a gradual +descent to the west; from occasional hilly ranges those dwindle to +kopjes, and to still less elevated "randjes" occurring in clusters more +and more apart, until yet further westwards one gets to the merely +undulating sterile approaches of the Karoo and the plains around and +beyond Kimberley, which merge at last in the still lower Kalahara +desert.</p> + +<p>Within 200 or 300 miles from the Drakensberg slopes the country is +well-watered, and the rainfall ample and generally regular, but +westwards this abundance progressively decreases with a more tardy and +precarious rainy season, occasioning at times severe droughts +accompanied with correspondingly protracted and very hot weather.</p> + +<p>Those high plains make up one vast green sward from the time of the +spring rains in September to April. From May the absence of rain, +together with the night frosts, shrivel up the herbage, <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" />giving the +country a pale-brown aspect. This continues until the return of spring, +varied with large expanses of black, caused by accidental or intentional +grass fires, and here and there a few green spots in specially sheltered +and moist localities.</p> + +<p>Those burnt spaces may extend for miles, and are for the time veritable +deserts. The landscape being quite black and the atmosphere generally +very clear, it is obvious that objects of any lighter colour would be +conspicuous at very long distances: an ideal background for khaki +targets.</p> + +<p>Most of the land is well suited for agriculture, but by far the largest +proportion is as yet used only for raising sheep, horses and cattle. +Angora goats also thrive in the hillier parts. About forty years ago the +Karoo plains, the Orange Free State, and Transvaal were, so to say, +monopolised by milliards of game. Standing upon an eminence or a swell +one could see in all directions, as far as the eye could reach, +innumerable herds of all sorts of game grazing, resting or gambolling; +the different kinds would be ranged in separate groups and could be +distinguished by their special colours—the black-looking wildebeest +(gnu) next to the striped quag-gas, the white-flanked springbocks, +blesbocks with a blaze on their foreheads, the larger elands and <a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" />other +kinds of the antelope species. Almost all those vast herds have +disappeared since, having been killed off by natives and Boers for their +hides and for food, or else scared away farther north, where rinderpest +extirpated nearly all the rest in 1895-1897.</p> + +<p>In the earlier days, and even not so long ago in some parts, the +farmers' crops required guarding during the night against the +depredations of game. This is still so in the north-western plains of +the Cape Colony, as already remarked. In May most of the Harrismith +district farmers and those of the Transvaal high veldt move their sheep, +horses and cattle to winter in Natal, Swaziland, and to the other +extensive low lands most adjacent, to return after the spring rains in +September or October. Sheep and horses could not with safety remain +longer in those warm regions, as then the fatal malarial <i>blaauwtong</i> +begins there to attack sheep, and horse sickness becomes virulent as +well. The high veldt, as said before, is exempt from that danger.</p> + +<p>Some of the wealthier farmers can arrange it so that they and their +families can winter at their comfortable high-veldt homes and send +attendants with their cattle to the low veldt, while others, not <a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" />so +well favoured, must close up their houses and accompany their flocks to +winter in the warm tracts, where they live in their wagons and tents and +escape the outlay for winter clothing.</p> + +<p>Owing to the scarcity of wood on the high veldt, kraal fuel used +formerly to be the staple substitute. This would be obtained by penning +up sheep over-night. The deposits were after a month or two dug out in +thick flags, which, after being stacked and dried over the kraal wall, +would burn nearly as well and as brightly as wood. The discovery of coal +beds in so many accessible places in the Cape Colony, Natal, and in the +two Republics has since superseded that sort of fuel to a great extent.</p> + +<p>The small divergence between summer and winter temperature upon the high +table lands will be seen from the following table taken from +observations at 5,500 to 6,000 feet altitude in the Transvaal:—</p> + +<pre> + Fahr. Fahr.<br /> +In winter—28° to 40° at night; 35° to 70° by day in the shade. +In summer—40° to 60° at night; 50° to 90° by day in the shade.<br /> +</pre> + +<p>It is not often that 85° is reached, and rarely above. This applies +equally to the more southern and thus colder latitudes of Queenstown, at +3,000 feet elevation, and to the eastern half of the Orange Free State, +at 4,000 to 5,000 feet, the warmth increasing, as <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" />said before, +proportionately with the descent in altitude, and on occasions of tardy +summer rains.</p> + +<p>The winter is the most enjoyable of the seasons, being an almost +uninterrupted continuation of fine sunny weather. On occasions there +would be spells of boisterous weather with a rather sudden and inclement +decrease of temperature, brought on by cold south-east winds; if these +are accompanied with rain in winter, which, however, rarely happens, it +would sometimes turn to sleet or even snow, or else to hard freezing at +night. The snow would, however, thaw with the warmth of the sun, and so +restore the temperature as before. The bracing quality of the climate +mostly consists just in those variations of cool nights and warm days, +and the occasional days of comparatively cold, boisterous weather. The +latter must indeed be provided against, for even in December—that is to +say, in the middle of summer—it would be imprudent to travel without +great-coats as well as waterproofs, so as to be protected against +unexpected changes, from say, 100° in the sun, almost suddenly to 40° +with a driving wind, accompanied perhaps with rain. Such transitions are +trying in the open, even if one is well clad, and the blustering weather +is sometimes so severe, if it happens in winter or early <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" />spring, as to +approach the character of a blizzard. One such lasted about thirty hours +in the early spring of 1881. It swept over the entire South African +plateaux and destroyed great numbers of sheep and cattle. These fell +exhausted in their flight before they could reach some sheltering hills +or ravines. In situations where such protections from the cold +south-east wind were far apart the veldt was on the following day found +strewn with their carcases, and upon the still more extensive and +unbroken plains antelopes even perished in enormous numbers simply from +exhaustion in trying to escape and find shelter from the cold wind.</p> + +<p>I will just describe one of those occurrences, the severest in my +experience and well remembered by the Free State and the Transvaal +Boers—it was, I think, in 1881. One sunny day, early in August (spring +time), at a place about twenty miles east of Reddersburg, in the Orange +Free State, the wind veered to the south-east, and by afternoon had +begun to blow fairly hard and cold, about 35° Fahrenheit—that is to +say, about 35° below the temperature of a few hours previously. I had +managed to get some milch cows driven near to the kraal, where there +would have been very fair <a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" />shelter for them, but luckily, as the sequel +proved, they refused to enter, and rushed past in a scared way, just +snatching up one mouthful of forage which had been thrown down to entice +them to stay, and making off as hard as they could. The wind did not +abate till the day after, when tales kept pouring in of terrible losses +of sheep and cattle killed by the cold wind; sheep in open plains had +suffered most, and cattle which had been kraaled were nearly all dead, +whilst the herds of cattle and horses which had been left grazing out +had been driven away and were also believed to have died. At the farm of +a certain Andries Bester, near by, some seventy head of cattle in very +good condition were found dead, piled up to the level of one of the +kraal walls, showing the struggle which some thirty others had in +escaping over the mound of dead cattle to the outside of the kraal.</p> + +<p>The next day all those thirty head were found grazing some fifteen miles +westwards under the lee of hills near Reddersburg, where they had found +safe shelter. Everybody's cattle were recovered which had not been +kraaled, including mine. This was the case as well with cattle which had +been tethered to their transport wagons and which succeeded in <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" />breaking +loose, whilst the rest were found dead where they had been tied.</p> + +<p>There was no possibility of restraining cattle or horses from +stampeding—they did it from the instinct of self-preservation, for, +whilst running with the wind, its force of driving cold was +proportionately lessened, and some loss of heat was made good by the +exertion of running, which they had to keep up till in safe shelter of +hills or ravines.</p> + +<p>Had such a cold storm overtaken an army or patrol, the situation would +have been exactly similar, and would have been an ordeal even to +experienced Boers or Colonial farmers, and if an enemy had been located +near Reddersburg, all the cattle and horses would simply have fallen +into his lap.</p> + +<p>The obvious safeguard would be a rug for each horse and mule, and for +oxen the erection of a shelter against the wind, consisting of all +available wagons and stores, or else, if practicable, to move at once to +a sheltered locality and always provide a good reserve supply of forage +or other provender. That sort of boisterous, cold weather continues +sometimes, with more or less severity, two or three days. The want of +food and inclemency besides would result in killing the weak cattle and +weaken the <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" />rest so as to be incapable of work for some days after. The +difficulty consists in that such inclement changes occur so suddenly, +and that their severity and duration cannot be forecasted.</p> + +<p>Upon other much less severe occasions entire gangs of 20-50 Kaffirs, +travelling from the warm north to the diamond-fields or gold-mines, and +not sufficiently provided with blankets, would be found at their camping +places huddled together, nearly all numbed to death. The months when +such surprise weather is most liable to occur are from "July to +October," before and during the earlier spring rains. It is then, and +even up to December at times, that the Drakensberg and other mountains +resume their snow-capped winter decorations for some days. There is a +saying which fairly well applies to the high-veldt climate, <i>i.e.</i>, that +cold and inclement weather is not met with until well in towards summer, +especially about the time of spring rains, and that hot weather of any +considerable continuance mostly occurs in spring. This will be +understood upon considering that the midsummer months, December to +February, are cooled by very frequent and copious rains, whilst the heat +accumulates more during the preceding sunny spring months, which are +interrupted at rarer intervals by short showers only.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" />Upon the whole, and despite the few eccentricities mentioned, the high +veldt is favoured with a climate which, for genial comfort all the year +round, exempt from prolonged winter rigours and excessive summer heat, +is not found anywhere else in the world, or only in rare privileged +spots. It is withal most healthy, promoting the highest possible +physical development and even longevity.</p> + +<p>Under such favoured conditions the hand of man only is needed in +providing good habitations, planting trees, in the culture of the soil, +and some irrigation labour, to transform nearly every little farm within +five to ten years from a bare pastoral monotony to a really idyllic +spot. There are many such already in Basutoland, the Orange Free State, +and the Transvaal, as well as in the Cape Colonies and Natal—veritable +Eden-like places, as it were bits dropped from heaven. With a +continuance of peace these could be multiplied to any extent each year, +thus rendering those sparsely inhabited tracts the most beautiful areas +in the world, with a prosperous self-sustaining population, quite apart +from considerations of mineral wealth.</p> + +<p>The foregoing description of the high-veldt climate points to clothing +composed of woollen <a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" />fabrics as the only <i>rational and safe</i> attire for +men travelling or taking the field. No constitution could be expected to +hold out against the ever-changing temperature and weather if depending +upon being clad, for example, in a cotton suit; this would only do on +warm days for men who are certain of being safely housed at night and +sheltered during rainy weather. Horses and mules in the open should be +provided with woollen rugs during winter and spring.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BOER_PREPAREDNESS_FOR_WAR" id="BOER_PREPAREDNESS_FOR_WAR" /><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" />BOER PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR</h2> + + +<p>The ultimatum cabled to England had no sooner expired at 5 p.m. on the +11th October last than the same evening and on the very next and +succeeding days appeared, published all over the Orange Free State and +the Transvaal, "Government Gazettes extraordinary," filling scores of +pages, comprising proclamations of martial law, and the hundred and one +enactments and provisions regulating that new condition. Their preambles +stated: Whereas in secret session on such and such dates (that is to +say, months previous) the honourable First Volksraad had passed this or +that law—or whereas the two Volksraads, assembled in secret session, +had authorized the Government to frame such and such laws, to come into +force immediately after publication. This shows at least a studious +purpose months beforehand to be in complete readiness, for it obviously +took no little time to prepare all those laws, and have them ready in +type for <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" />despatch and publication as had been done. It accords with the +assumption that war had been predetermined, and this is further +confirmed by numerous statements, publicly made by Volksraad members, +and also by President Steyn's famous and now historic message to +President Krüger some short time before, in the laconic and oracular +words, "We are ready."</p> + +<p>That the Afrikaner Bond had been for years past preparing for its <i>coup +d'état</i> is further shown by the following incidents which can be +substantiated by the writer:—</p> + +<p>During the days of the Jameson raid a very prominent Transvaal Boer, +holding office and who had two sons at the scene of the disturbance, +remarked at a public place in conversation with other burghers:—</p> + +<p>"England just wants to annex the Transvaal, and no doubt the Orange Free +State too. This we know; but what she does not know is, that we can at +this moment reverse the tale—we can seize in one day Cape Town, Port +Elizabeth, East London, and Durban, and within a very short time turn +every Englishman out of the Colonies, out of the land which England has +robbed us of."</p> + +<p>Those words were spoken by a Bond man who is <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" />known to rarely speak in +public. When asked by a Uitlander how it could be done, he relapsed into +his usual prudent reticence, and merely remarked grimly, "We can do it."</p> + +<p>But for subsequent revelations and the present sequel those words would +have been forgotten, and were at the time attributed by some to mere +boastful exuberance.</p> + +<p>In July last the topic was discussed by some Boers at the house of a +highly placed military official, about the five per cent. tax upon the +profits of the gold industry. One said it should be raised to +twenty-five per cent. for the benefit of the burgher estate. That +official, who, by the way, had just returned from a gathering of country +officials at Pretoria, sententiously replied "that it was no more a +question of any tribute, but of taking the mines altogether out of the +capitalists' hands"; and when another burgher interposed a doubt as to +the fairness of such a proceeding, that official continued by saying, +"Fairness indeed! it is we who have submitted to unfairness only too +long—<i>ons wil nou Engelse schiet</i> (we want now to go on the battue of +Englishmen)."</p> + +<p>When the Transvaal Government had secured the assent of both Volksraads +to the seven years' <a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" />franchise measure it was thought desirable, as a +matter of form and to gain time, to defer the formal passing of the law +until after it had been referred to the burghers. This was not done till +August last. A large section of the people were known to be against +extending the franchise, but the Government had no misgivings about the +result, counting upon the persuasive influence of the Volksraad members +who were to preside at the plebiscite meetings, and had before been +drilled up to their task. Their success was as desired, and the measure +became law in due course. Those meetings in the different districts and +wards of the State were characterised by almost uniform proceedings, so +that the description of one of them can serve for all.</p> + +<p>The burghers assembled on the appointed day at the local Government +Office. The Landdrost, or chief official of the ward, took the chair. +There were four Volksraad members, who each in turn recommended the +adoption of the seven years' franchise measure. The burghers were +invited to express their views. The majority appeared dead against it, +but were gradually appeased, and they finally assented to a motion of +approval presented by the chairman, which also conveyed full confidence +in the Government and their representa<a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" />tives to deal with the enactment +and to modify it as they might consider appropriate.</p> + +<p>One of the burghers had in his speech stated in passionate terms that no +dictation on the part of Uitlanders could be tolerated; they must either +obey the laws or leave the State. The function and prerogative of making +laws belonged to the burghers. They had been ill-used enough by the +English; it would be still worse, he said, if they were invested with +legislative rights. "On the contrary, it is the Boer nation which is +entitled to supremacy, not only in the Transvaal but right to the sea. +The Cape Colonies," he continued, "are ours by divine right, and so is +Natal, and no Afrikaner may rest until we are reinstated." General +approbation and stamping of feet followed that passionately rendered +speech. Not a word of restraint or censure from any of the four +Volksraad members. Some of these had addressed the meeting already, and +the others in turn followed. Their speeches had one import, viz., +"Burghers! The Government and the two Volksraads have carefully and +prayerfully weighed this seven years' franchise measure. You may safely +approve of it; it can result in no harm; it will strengthen our cause. +We know that England wants our land because of the gold in it; <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" />but this +law will contribute to thwart her, though it will not avert war. We were +a small nation when our fathers trekked to this side of the Orange +River; we have become united and strong since. It will be soon seen that +our people have to be reckoned with among the other nations of the +earth; we have right on our side, and, with God's help, we are certain +to prevail. Burghers, you may trust us as your representatives; we are +all of one mind with you; you may safely approve of the proposed +franchise law, and leave possible modifications in the hands of the +Government." Then followed tumultuous approval from the great majority, +motions of confidence and of thanks. Those burgher meetings were +convened during July and August.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>President Krüger is famous for employing clever and original similes in +order to illustrate a policy as he wants his people to understand it.</p> + +<p>It has already been noted that the Franchise Law of 1890 excluded +Uitlanders from full burgher rights until after twenty-one years' +probation. The reduction to seven years was proclaimed to be a +concession to meet Mr. Chamberlain's demand. The simile, as addressed to +the Volksraad and published in the journals, ran as follows:—</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" />First my coat was demanded of me, which I gave; next were asked my +boots, vest, and trousers. I surrendered these as well; and now, as I +stand in my bare shirt, my limbs are wanted besides."</p> + +<p>The people were thus led to be unanimous in the resolve to oppose any +further concession, and to view Sir Alfred Milner's unconditional +insistence for a five years' franchise as a conclusive proof that +England in reality wanted no less than the country itself. In this way +the Boer mind was designedly fashioned into the conviction that war was +inevitable, and that both President and people were absolved from all +responsibility in it. Had the offered franchise of seven years and the +subsequent one of five years been honestly meant, there should, indeed, +have been little difficulty for adjusting in the one case the difference +of two years; but it being so surrounded by impossible trammels that +what purported to be an egg proved more like a stone, and even that was +not intended to be given, it was a mere subterfuge to gain time for +carrying out Bond designs.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ALLIANCE_OF_ORANGE_FREE_STATE_WITH_TRANSVAAL_SUZERAINTY" id="ALLIANCE_OF_ORANGE_FREE_STATE_WITH_TRANSVAAL_SUZERAINTY" /> +<a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" />ALLIANCE OF ORANGE FREE STATE WITH TRANSVAAL—SUZERAINTY<br /> +SQUABBLE—ARMAMENTS BEFORE JAMESON RAID</h2> + + +<p>The project of alliance between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State +had been mooted before 1890. After that came conferences between the +respective Presidents and delegates for closer union as it was then +styled. Mr. John G. Fraser, one of the noblest and most distinguished +Orange Free State statesmen, was conspicuous among the few opponents. +His arguments against federation were so logical and conclusive that it +seemed for a while that the idea would have to be renounced. Among other +grounds adduced against that alliance was the fact that England +possessed claims of suzerainty over the Transvaal, and, the Orange Free +State itself being entirely independent, the incongruity and +incompatibility were obvious of joining a vassal State. There was +trouble if not danger lurking behind it, if such two States were to join +in an actual federation. Whatever was desirable for <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" />mutual advantage +might be attained without offensive and defensive alliance. The two +Governments, however, knew how to manipulate matters. The closer union +scheme was carried through before the Jameson incursion, and soon after +that event an offensive and defensive alliance completed the federation. +The Afrikaner Bond then had advanced another important stage.</p> + +<p>Mr. John G. Fraser's persistent objections to federation, upon the +ground that the Transvaal stood under British suzerainty, had given that +question a prominence operating against the Afrikaner Bond project, +viz., that of gaining a strong Power as ally to its cause. It was felt +that no Power could, with decency, enter into a connection with that +State while such a claim was maintained. To overcome that obstacle the +Transvaal Government proceeded to raise a controversy with England, +taking up the position of repudiating the claim of suzerainty, and +averring the complete independence of the State, subject only to the one +clause <i>re</i> treaties with foreign nations. Another object would be +gained, viz., of diverting England from Bond aims by that and similar +controversies. To make a show of sincerity about it all, the opinions +(foregathered, of course) of certain <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" />eminent jurists in England and +Holland were obtained, who refuted the claim in elaborate disquisitions +and with that readiness of apparent conviction so peculiar to some +advocates' affected faith in their clients' cause. Thus England was +decoyed into a protracted tournament of words and phrases without any +practical result, but gratifying and inspiring no doubt to certain +well-paid <i>soi-disant</i> champions of the principle defined as the +"<i>perfection of justice</i>," who revel in a display of forensic erudition, +which, however, only illustrates to the unedified lay mind how speech is +adaptable to veil inward conviction, and how a mass of rhetoric can be +employed to justify the breach of simple and well-understood +engagements.</p> + +<p>It continues to be clumsily insisted upon in official and paid Press +organs how the need of providing Transvaal armaments became realized +only with that Anglo-capitalistic plot of 1895-96 against Boer +independence, and that, in fact, Dr. Jameson was worthy of the Boer +nation's lasting gratitude for opening their eyes to their helplessly +unarmed and unprepared condition up to that time. In those papers it is +declared with unblushing inexactness how the Transvaal at that epoch +possessed only two hundred and fifty inefficient and ill-<a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" />equipped +artillerists, with only a few cannons of various antiquated types, and +how the burgher element had, up to that time, continued unarmed and in +unsuspecting insecurity. To stamp these misstatements as false, it needs +only to be considered that from the time of the Boer trek in 1835-38 +every Boer had been a hunter and guerilla soldier possessed of the best +firearms then extant, ready at any sacrifice to provide still more +effective weapons as inventions in arms of precision in turn progressed. +His passion to be well armed only equalled that of his love for land. +From 1881 every Transvaal and Orange Free State Boer without exception +had, and was obliged to have, his Martini-Henry rifle. The Government +arsenals were supplied with reserves of that up to recently unsurpassed +weapon and with large stores of ammunition. The authorities supplied +that rifle at £4 each, and even gratis in the case of indigent burghers. +At the frequent reviews (<i>wapenschouwingen</i>) each burgher had to appear +mounted, with his Martini-Henry rifle and thirty rounds ammunition. To +maintain proficiency in rifle practice, prizes and honours were +distributed at Government expense in each ward, whilst there was plenty +of private emulation encouraged among young and old in the science <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" />of +sharp-shooting, the Governments of both Republics contributing +ammunition at below cost price.</p> + +<p>In about 1893 the Transvaal Government introduced about 10,000 new +rifles of the Guede pattern, firing a steel-pointed bullet, but the +issue did not become general, as the Martini-Henry rifle continued to be +held more effective for game and for war. The Mauser rifle was only +provided, after long hesitation and much diffidence, for its +rapid-firing quality in war, whereas for game it is still considered +inferior to the larger bored Martini-Henry.</p> + +<p>On the occasion of the Jameson incursion, the Transvaal had in readiness +extensive parks of the most modern quick-firing Maxims and Nordenfeldts +of various calibres, and breech-loading field artillery of the Krupp +make. The Orange Free State hurried to their assistance with similar +artillery, each burgher armed with a Martini-Henry rifle. Besides all +that, there was the dynamite and explosives factory equipped to +manufacture all sorts of modern ammunition as it does now, and this is +why President Krüger described that factory as one of the corner-stones +of Boer independence. In the face of these facts it is a most singular +departure to say that the Transvaal only thought of arming when becoming +alarmed for the future by <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" />the Jameson attempt, and that statement could +only have been intended to mislead the uninformed at a distance. "<i>Qui +s'excuse s'accuse</i>" is applicable in this as well as in other ruses for +hiding those sinister Bond aims and to pose as the guileless and +victimized Boer nation. It was just the other way about—it was England +who was unprepared and exposed to imminent risk of aggression on the +part of the Boer combination.</p> + +<p>What had amazed and actually exasperated many Boers was the ludicrously +puny attempt made by Jameson and the Johannesburg revolutionary concert. +It was at the time thought that the invasion of some 700 men was only a +first installment, and that much larger developments were in preparation +to attack the State. It was for that reason that only a few batteries of +artillery were despatched at a late moment to Doornkop under Commandant +Trichaart to operate against Jameson's party, while the bulk was held in +reserve with an extensive mobilization of burghers to resist other +supposed opposition of an altogether more formidable but yet undefined +character. When nothing further transpired, the feeling uppermost with +the people was unbounded derision at that impotent fiasco, and a +loathing contempt for the cowering Johannesburg rabble who betrayed and +sacrificed <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" />the insensate doctor. It was loudly asserted that the +combined forces of the two Republics were competent to resist an +invasion a hundred times stronger than the one so foolishly attempted; +but, with cooler counsels, it was resolved to adopt the appealing +attitude of the deeply injured party who miraculously and providentially +escaped a great national peril. Upon these lines the raid incident +afforded an immense advantage to Afrikaner Bond tactics, and an impulse +to Bond propaganda which enormously increased Boer partisanship, +inflicting at the same time a fatal check upon the diplomacy of England +and upon the essential peace-preserving measures for safeguarding her +South African interests. The circumstances, however, served to embolden +many hitherto undecided sympathisers into openly declared and vehement +Boer partisans, revealing the singular spectacle, among English people +even, of a morbid cult apparently ready to sacrifice their nation just +to vindicate their judicial dicta about Boer innocence and to parade +their own darling sense of shocked and violated national honour.</p> + +<p>Quite other and more emphatic terms apply to the revolting sewerage such +as the socialistic platform and other purulent nurseries for breeding +wilful and hypocritical abettors, at so much a score, of misguided and +treason-hatching Afrikanerdom.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_TRANSVAAL_DYNAMITE_AND_EXPLOSIVES_MONOPOLY" id="THE_TRANSVAAL_DYNAMITE_AND_EXPLOSIVES_MONOPOLY" /><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" />THE TRANSVAAL DYNAMITE AND EXPLOSIVES MONOPOLY</h2> + + +<p>The factory pertaining to this enterprise, situated near Pretoria, is +recognised to be the most extensive and best equipped of its kind in +existence. It is capable of turning out all the dynamite and similar +blasting material needed for the gold and other mines of the State, also +every description of explosive needed for modern ammunition.</p> + +<p>Its equipments include ateliers and laboratories under the conduct of +eminent scientists and men of most advanced technical proficiency. The +site is a farm named Modderfontein of about 8,000 acres near Pretoria. +The industry provides employment for over 5,000 persons. In connection +with this factory is a foundry at Pretoria for casting shells, etc. The +various ingredients, such as sulphur, guhr, saltpetre, etc., are +believed to be plentiful in the State, but their exploitation is found +to be more costly than it is to import the pure articles from Europe.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" />The investment is represented mostly by French and German shareholders, +the Transvaal Government also possessing a portion of the shares. The +contract with the State conveys a complete monopoly for the manufacture +and importation of all descriptions of explosives, and is so framed as +to base its subsistence upon international rights. One of the conditions +is that the issue of ammunition is relegated to State control. In this +manner burghers only get supplies, whilst Uitlanders are limited to very +small quantities for sporting purposes by special permits.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BOND_FIGHTING_STRENGTH_IN_BEGINNING_OF_1899" id="BOND_FIGHTING_STRENGTH_IN_BEGINNING_OF_1899" /><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" />BOND FIGHTING STRENGTH IN BEGINNING OF 1899</h2> + +<pre> +Efficiently <i>Mounted Infantry.</i> At least about 142,000 + trained.<br /> + 15,000 Orange Free State, between 18-50 years 20,000<br /> + 25,000 Transvaal, between 18-50 years 30,000<br /> + 40,000 Cape Colonies, between 18-50 years 60,000<br /> + 2,000 Natal and elsewhere, between 18-50 years 2,000<br /> + 18,000 Of above, aged 16-18 and 50-60 30,000<br /> + ------- ------- + 100,000 <i>Artillery</i> 2,000<br /> + + 600 Orange Free State, including trained reserves 600<br /> + 1,400 Transvaal 1,400<br /> + ------- ----- -------<br /> + 102,000 Total at least about 144,000<br /> +</pre> + +<p>102,000 highly efficient, and 42,000 partly trained.</p> + +<p>The mounts are docile, hardy and nimble, with large reserves available. +The above includes 500 Johannesburg Mounted Police, a picked body of men +armed with carbine, revolver, and sabre.</p> + +<pre><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" /> + <i>Small Arms</i> About 250,000<br /> + Martini-Henry rifles in Orange Free State } + } 100,000 + " " " in Transvaal } + Guede rifles in Transvaal . . . . . . . . 10,000<br /> + Mauser rifles in Transvaal . . . . . . . . 120,000<br /> + Revolvers in both States . . . . . . . . . 20,000<br /> + -------<br /> + <i>Artillery, both Republics</i> 140<br /> + Maxims and Nordenfeldts, modern 50<br /> + Field cannon and Howitzers " 70<br /> + Siege and heavy guns " 20<br /> +</pre> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BOER_CONSERVATISM" id="BOER_CONSERVATISM" /><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" />BOER CONSERVATISM</h2> + + +<p>Rudyard Kipling truly said "the Boers are the most conservative people +on earth." Habits and views which had prevailed two hundred years ago +with their forefathers are still tenaciously preserved by them. We see +this in matters of language, religion, in certain antipathies, and even +in attire. They are justly famed for hospitality, not only amongst +themselves, but also towards strangers, and a very pleasing trait, no +doubt handed down from the seigneurial Huguenots, is the genial +politeness which a stranger will receive in an otherwise wholly +uncultured Boer family.</p> + +<p>On his farm the Boer is chief and supreme after the patriarchal +fashion—no thought of tolerating an equal or a rival in authority. +Collectively also, as in governmental representation, he is extremely +averse to the introduction of any foreign element; such a factor would +meet with his undisguised suspicion and jealousy. It must be Boer +supremacy, <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" />and to this strangers must submit; the Boers to figure as +the only caste or military aristocracy privileged to carry arms, very +much like the Samouris nobles of Japan, who from of old until recently +had represented the feudal estate, and had made quite a famous cult of +personal bravery, chivalry and devotion to their Mikado and for their +independent caste. Long intercourse and inter-marriage with a Boer +family would ultimately remove the barrier. With such rooted +exclusiveness it is only in accord with Boer nature to be reluctant in +admitting Uitlanders to burgher franchise, and the greater their numbers +and influence of wealth the more would they be viewed as an innovating +menace and their admittance to political equality be resisted.</p> + +<p>Upon newly occupied farms a Boer will always seek to locate one or more +squatters of his own nation upon allotments ultimately intended for the +occupation of some of his own children as soon as they are grown up. The +usual conditions for privileges of residence, grazing, and cultivation +are that the squatter builds a dwelling and does all the other permanent +improvements at his own cost, that he accounts to the owner for half or +one-third of all products raised, and that he and his family should +<a name="Page_128" id="Page_128" />render services whenever required. When the squatter acquires land of +his own he will in turn adopt similar feudal methods to get it improved +and to obtain services without expense. Should the conditions accorded +to the squatter result in advantages which prove any way lucrative to +him, the owner would in nine cases out of ten immediately impose more +exacting conditions, upon the plea of making provision for his own +children. Such dependants are otherwise treated with familiar equality, +as are also other white employees, and are admitted at the common table +like any of the family, but below the salt.</p> + +<p>To acquire farms is a Boer's greatest ambition. The love of land is his +special passion, so that his children also may be independent owners of +farms. Formerly such land acquisitions were made by encroachments upon +the possessions of natives or by purchases from them and by barter, and +failing those means, by conquest. Since 1885, however, the stipulations +in connection with the Anglo-Swaziland settlement effectually barred +expansion and encroachments in any direction. The Boers resent this +check as an exceedingly sore point. There is not enough land for the +sons who have since grown up. These cannot possibly compete with the +<a name="Page_129" id="Page_129" />educated Hollanders in quest of good positions, nor are they taught any +handicrafts, and the galling prospect is inevitable that they will have +to content themselves with very humble stations in life, dependent even +upon the more prosperous Uitlanders. No wonder these Boers fell an easy +prey to the seductions and deceptive fallacies of the Afrikaner Bond +doctrine of conquest, for dispossessing England of her Colonies, and to +resume a free hand for expansion northwards as well.</p> + +<p>In connection with the stated inadequacy of spare land it is well to +note that, of the two Republics, the Transvaal only possesses +undeveloped Government reserve land. This is all situated in more or +less low-lying and fever-stricken parts, large tracts being absolutely +uninhabitable for that reason, especially in summer. Some of the rest is +occupied on terms of lease by burghers, and has up to the present +afforded scope for some of the less aspiring class. About one-quarter of +the aggregate Transvaal farms are owned by Uitlander individuals or by +companies who are mostly English. But the bulk of the land owned by +burghers in both States has gradually become cut up by the process of +succession into holdings so small as to admit of hardly any further +division. There are, of course, numerous exceptions <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130" />of wealthy farmers +who can still bequeath to each of their sons a whole farm of 6,000 +acres, or half a farm. In the face of these restrictive circumstances a +scheme has been in preparation during the past years, promoted by the +Bond coterie in Holland and the Governments of the two Republics, to +effect a large emigration from Holland to those States. A company has +thus been formed, called "Nederlandsche Emigratie Maatschappy voor +Transvaal en Oranje Vry Staat." The prospectus describes the objects as +agricultural, pastoral, and industrial, but, as "members," only such are +invited as are disposed to join hands with the Boer cause. That scheme +came into operation before the outbreak of the war. What else does it +reveal but a thinly veiled recruiting device for auxiliaries against +England?</p> + + +<p>Education</p> + +<p>What has been said about the ignorance and illiteracy of the Boers may +be admitted to apply to the great majority of the grown-up and of the +more maturely aged population; those of youthful age have of late years +had the benefit of a better education than had before been possible to +provide. But the great drawback consists in the still very <a name="Page_131" id="Page_131" />imperfect +knowledge of High Dutch, and it will take many years yet before a more +general proficiency in that language will qualify the youth for more +than purely elementary studies. There are numerous exceptions, however, +of very creditably educated Boers, whose parents have been able to get +them taught at Colonial schools, such as the Stellenbosch seminary, and +even in Holland. Besides this, there are the children and grandchildren +of the many educated Hollanders who have continued to stream into the +Republics since 1854, and who had the advantage of learning High Dutch +from their parents. Those, as a rule, bestowed great attention to their +children's education, and in many cases sent them to Holland to complete +their studies. The greatest factor of the educated Dutch element in +South Africa consists of the mass of Hollanders itself, who have made +their way to the Republics, and especially to the Transvaal, during the +past eighteen years, among whom are many of highest European +attainments, so that altogether a big muster is made up of +well-instructed people, comparing well enough with other nations, and +ample to meet all the exigencies of the two rapidly developing +Republics. This educated contingent is being continuously supplemented +by like arrivals from <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132" />Holland, including eminent technical experts and +scientists. It is a well-known feature that many chief posts of the +administration are filled by aged, uneducated burghers who are +altogether without the qualification required for the exercise of their +function, but this drawback is effectually remedied by the expedient of +providing proficient Hollanders as working adjuncts and secretaries, in +which manner all the branches of the administration are nevertheless +efficiently and most creditably served. Hundreds of young Boers are +admitted as supernumeraries into the various offices to prepare them for +responsible positions later on.</p> + + +<p>Dundee Secret Dossier</p> + +<p>The greatest stir was made upon the discovery of secret documents left +behind by the British military at the hurried evacuation of Dundee +(Natal).</p> + +<p>It was made public that those documents contained all the details of a +plan of invading the Orange Free State, and that it furnished most +incontestable proofs of British designs as early as 1896 against the +independence of both Republics. It was promised to publish those +details, but this has not yet been done. It appears, however, that no +in<a name="Page_133" id="Page_133" />criminating details exist. Nevertheless, the matter has been made to +serve calumniating reports on a considerable scale in the pro-Boer Press +abroad, declaring that those documents conveyed absolute proofs of +England's perfidious intentions of attacking the Orange Free State +unawares, whilst all the time professing friendly relations and +undertaking to respect the complete integrity of the Republican status +of both States. What actually has transpired is that the whole thing was +a mare's nest, simply and nothing more than military information under +cover marked "secret," giving topographical and other details upon the +Orange Free State—a proceeding which is carried out by all military +authorities of any pretensions to prudent activity in the information +department, and no more construable into actual hostile intentions than +are other geographical surveys for general instructions or for school +use.</p> + +<p>The incident again shows the absence of tangible grounds for accusations +against England when a foolish invention as the one cited must do duty +for such, and to rekindle race hatred.</p> + +<p>The interest and the manipulation devoted to that fabrication by the +pro-Boer Press have, however, scored another success to Bond propaganda +in fixing the belief with Boer partisans, of England's <a name="Page_134" id="Page_134" />really +predetermined designs to annex both Republics. Every Boer has since been +more than ever so persuaded, the conviction fanning the fervour of +patriotism and stimulating his eagerness to resist the would-be +ravishers of his country.</p> + +<p>Considering, on the other hand, that the English Government had known +much about the Afrikaner Bond menace, it is singular that precautionary +measures had halted with that bare effort of making military +observations. The only way to account for this apparent lethargic +inaction is the assumption that a persevering patience and friendly +attitude was expected in time to effectually dissipate all trouble in +South Africa, and that a display of anxiety or of force would have +frustrated such peaceable tactics. In refutation of the aspersion +against England, it may be sufficient to point to the fact that during +those very years (1896-7) both Republics were in a condition of complete +helplessness through the rinderpest scourge which was then raging. If +any hostile designs had in reality existed they could have been carried +out with utmost ease then, as that scourge presented no obstacle to +England. But it was the programme of peace which was pursued as +undeviatingly then as since, with a constancy which refused to be +foiled.</p> + + +<p><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135" />Pamphlet entitled <i>A Hundred Years of Injustice</i></p> + +<p>A mass of so-called proof against England of her guilt in provoking the +present war and justifying the Boer attitude was presented to the public +in South Africa and abroad in November last in the shape of a voluminous +pamphlet entitled <i>A Hundred Years of Injustice</i> (published both in +English and Dutch, and later even translated into French). That +production covers Boer history and its troubles with England up to 1881. +It then travels over the diplomatic appeals of the Transvaal delegation, +which resulted in the renewed convention of 1884. Then it wades through +all the mire of academic squabble <i>re</i> suzerainty, etc. After exhausting +the Jameson episode with bitter invective, and seeking applause for the +Transvaal Government for its professed desire to conciliate and to +propitiate England by the offer of a seven years' franchise, the reader +is, in conclusion, 'treated to a literary display of pyrotechnic +denunciations and prophetic burdens against wicked Albion, with appeals +to divine justice for righting the cause of an innocent nation so foully +driven to a war of pure self-defence.</p> + +<p>Lest he be taken unawares the reader of that <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136" />pamphlet would do well to +note the significant fact in connection with those preferred accusations +and aspersions that not a single act construable to the prejudice of +England is adduced dating after the Anglo-Transvaal peace of 1881, that +peace which had been mutually understood to close up all by-gones. But +the recriminations all revert to previous history, nothing having +occurred since 1881 to form real grounds for accusations. There had, on +the contrary, been an exhibition of unwearied friendly endeavours on the +part of Great Britain to maintain loyal peace with an ever-shifty and +truculent Government, and to induce it to desist from scandalous +intrigue against imperial interests in South Africa, and to adopt a more +rational attitude towards Uitlanders, which in itself would have +precluded troubles like that of the Johannesburg revolt and the Jameson +raid.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AN_OLD_FREE_STATERS_ADMONITION" id="AN_OLD_FREE_STATERS_ADMONITION" /><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137" />AN OLD FREE STATER'S ADMONITION</h2> + + +<p>The doctrines of the Afrikaner Bond coterie have been so assiduously and +deeply instilled into the Boer mind that demonstrations are utterly +futile in shaking the national conviction of the divinely approved +justice of his cause. The first occasion when I saw this illustrated, +and also the people's unreasoning adherence to their leaders' opinions, +happened about ten years ago at burgher meetings which had been convened +to discuss the then projected law for restraining Uitlanders from +admission to Transvaal franchise and other political topics.</p> + +<p>An old Free State burgher was led then and subsequently to express his +views upon the subject in about the following strain: "It is our duty to +guard our nation against being swamped out or supplanted by strangers; +they are in great force already, and their number will constantly +increase, yet what attracts them, as you know, is our gold. That will +give out eventually, when the majority will again depart. Those +strangers, who then elect to remain with us, might be admitted to full +burgher <a name="Page_138" id="Page_138" />rights. In the meantime it behoves us to reserve the full +franchise, nor will many aspire to it if they are only treated well as +strangers should be, as we should wish to be treated if we were in their +place. This is what they expect from us, and it can well be done without +giving full franchise, which they indeed do not need and will then not +claim. They will be content if their own interests are not hampered or +interfered with, and will be satisfied with such rights and privileges +as are reasonably due to guests, and we may say welcome guests (for it +is plain that the land is also largely benefited by their presence). In +other respects let us support law and order to suppress evil, which they +desire as well as we do.</p> + +<p>"Does the Bible not say, 'The Lord loveth the stranger?' so also then +must we; and again, 'Thou shalt not devise mischief against the stranger +who dwelleth in peace with thee.' We are reputed as a God-fearing +people. Is it not well that we should take great care to act in +accordance? But I have observed with shame that instead of love and +peace a spirit of hatred and strife has been allowed to gain upon us. +Let us strive to expel that evil, lest we fall under God's displeasure +and forfeit His favour. We cannot afford to lose that."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139" />At this stage the speaker was interrupted by violent remarks about +England's incurable perfidy and the like, when he added, prolonging his +speech more than he had probably intended: "Yes, we may not trust +England, but what we must do is to trust in God. Did God not pull us +through all along? was it not He who provided the peace of 1881 which +restored our independence? And can that gracious Lord, if we only let +Him act, not also protect us against any wiles and dangers if such +should occur in the future? As yet none such have arisen. The Lord was +with us in our battles for liberty; He was equally present and prompted +the sense and conditions of that very convention of 1881, which the +people were subsequently dissatisfied with and in their own wisdom +sacrificed for that of 1884. It is just possible that that presumptuous +act of wanting to improve upon the Lord's work will result in trouble +and prove to our sorrow that we have simply tampered and tinkered with a +good thing and spoilt it to our hurt.</p> + +<p>"'Thou shalt not provoke thy children to wrath lest they be discouraged +and be tempted to do evil,' applies specially also to the duties of +Governments. Our rulers need wisdom in this direction, and will be +responsible if our strangers are subjected to un<a name="Page_140" id="Page_140" />fair laws. The older +people here will call to mind, when the old voortrekkers were obliged to +go hundreds of miles, as far as Pietermaritzburg, for their supplies, +that we prayed for shopkeepers in our land so that we might be spared +those long journeys. What was done soon after we had attracted strangers +to establish businesses with us? We were seduced to deliberately attempt +their ruin by starting those <i>nationale Boerenwinkels</i> (national Boer +stores), supported by our own capital, but governed by Hollanders who +eventually squandered our money. Was that dealing fairly by confiding +strangers? Later on, again in response to our prayers, we got railways; +skilled men and much capital from foreign countries, first to prospect +for gold and then to develop and exploit the mines. Their labour and +hard-earned money were risked when the return was still problematic. +Shall we begrudge them their successes now, seeing that our whole land +is equally enriched at the same time, and but for them and their +enterprise the gold would still be lying uselessly hidden in the depths +of the ground? There are now, in 1890, over 100,000 such strangers in +the land, and probably over 200 millions capital invested. Shall they be +treated in a manner to justify the accusation <a name="Page_141" id="Page_141" />that they were inveigled +into our land with the object of despoiling them afterwards after the +style of 'Come into my parlour, says the spider to the fly'? These +people count upon our honest friendship, especially the many English +among them who ground that confidence upon the honourable peace accorded +us in 1881. Shall we deceive them? May we hate them for old questions +which that peace was intended to bury for ever? Think of the Lord's +dealings with our people—poor, wandering, and despised at first. He had +blessings in store for the tried voortrekkers and their children. 'The +beggar was raised from the dunghill [<i>asch-hoop, i.e.</i>, ash-heap, was +the word he used] to sit with princes'—'a table laid for us in the +sight of our enemies.' All this is literally fulfilled. Our President +and others representing us have been to Europe and sat with princes, and +we have a country full of riches enough to make any enemy to rage with +jealousy at the sight. Who else but the devil is that enemy? It is he +who persecuted our Dutch and Huguenot ancestors for their faith, and is +pursuing us since. It is he and his army that rage the most at our +unexampled blessings. It is he who wants us to forfeit them all and the +Lord's favour as well. It emanates from the evil one that <a name="Page_142" id="Page_142" />so many among +us are seduced into wicked political plans to subvert authority +installed by God, to incite our brethren to sedition in the Colonies, +wanting to dispossess the English. For the Queen's Government there is +as much from God as are the authorities over us here and in the Orange +Free State.</p> + +<p>"God saith by Solomon (Prov. xxiv. 21-22): 'My son, fear thou the Lord +and the king; and meddle not with them that are given to change: for +their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the destruction of +them both?'" and he finally warned them of the risk they incurred, after +having been advanced and blessed in an unexampled way, of being flung +back to their previous ignoble position upon the ash heap. There are +plenty of respectable Boers in whose ears those expressions still +tingle.</p> + +<p>The man, who is no speaker, was, nevertheless, apt to grow warm and +impressive, drawn out probably by interruptions and opposing views. The +speeches terminated on one occasion by one of the party saying in +violent Bond fashion: "The English hired the Zulus to massacre our +people. They robbed us of Natal, and drove us from the Colonies. There +can be no peace with them until we have our own. God helps them who help +themselves. Whoever takes their part is against us and against every +true Afrikaner."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MODUS_VIVENDI_SUGGESTED_BY_OLD_FREE_STATER" id="MODUS_VIVENDI_SUGGESTED_BY_OLD_FREE_STATER" /><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143" /><i>MODUS VIVENDI</i> SUGGESTED BY OLD FREE STATER</h2> + + +<p>As is known, the conference between Sir Alfred Milner and President +Krüger, assisted by President Steyn, took place at Bloemfontein during +the first days of June last (1899), and resulted in the refusal to a +demand of a five years' franchise made on behalf of the Transvaal +Uitlanders, which refusal was some time later modified by enacting a law +admitting them to full burgher rights after a probation of seven years, +but coupled with restrictive forms and conditions which made that +measure unacceptable. Some time before that conference the old Free +Stater already mentioned obtained several prolonged interviews with the +hon. State Secretary Reitz, at Pretoria, with the object of dissuading +the Transvaal Government from conferring with Sir Alfred Milner while as +yet no sufficient friendly <i>rapprochement</i> had been reached and no +advance had been made as to mutually <a name="Page_144" id="Page_144" />approved bases upon which to +confer. He strongly deprecated the idea of granting "full" burgher +rights to Uitlanders, but held that their needs and wishes could be met +by allowing their interests to be amply represented without impinging +upon the special privileges which should be reserved for the burgher +status proper. He was finally invited by Mr. Reitz to submit his scheme +in writing, with the promise that it should receive careful +consideration. That old Free Stater complied, and supplied President +Krüger with a duplicate separately as well. The scheme ran in substance +as follows:</p> + + +<p>"<i>Modus vivendi</i>"</p> + +<p>The population of the Transvaal to be divided into two classes, pending +the continued presence of the large floating portion consisting of +Uitlanders who derive their subsistence from the mining industries, +viz.:—</p> + +<p>1st Class.—The fixed or burgher estate.</p> + +<p>2nd Class.—The floating or alien estate or Guests.</p> + +<p>The 1st Volksraad to be elected by burghers only, and to represent the +highest legislative and administrative powers.</p> + +<p>The 2nd Volksraad to be elected by Uitlanders and burghers, and to be +vested with all such <a name="Page_145" id="Page_145" />reasonable legislative powers as will cover the +domestic, industrial, and vocative interests of both burghers and +guests.</p> + +<p>The Uitlander franchise shall be limited to representation in the 2nd +Volksraad, and be extended under usual fair conditions of eligibility to +all white persons after two years' residence, retrospectively reckoned.</p> + +<p>Aliens may be admitted to full burgher rights and vote for 1st +Volksraad, President, and Commandant-General, after five years' +residence, if approved of by two-thirds of the burghers of his ward, +possesses landed property to the value of £1,000, and has not been +convicted here or elsewhere of any degrading crime.</p> + +<p>Members of both Volksraads and for public service shall be eligible +without respect of creed.</p> + +<p>The exploitation of mines shall be subject to a tax of 25 per cent., +reckoned upon the yearly net profits, such revenue to be applied at the +discretion of the 1st Volksraad solely for the benefit of the burgher +estate—schools, hospitals, universities, pensions, by means of +permanent endowments.</p> + +<p>The Government of the Transvaal undertakes:—</p> + +<p>1. There shall be no identification or co-operation permitted, on the +part of any of the Transvaal <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146" />people, with the association known as the +Afrikaner Bond, or any such-like political complot.</p> + +<p>2. The recognition of British paramountcy over South Africa, including +the Transvaal, in so far as it does not clash with the intentions and +provisions set forth in the conventions of 1881 and 1884, and does not +extend to interference with or curtailment of complete internal +autonomy.</p> + +<p>3. Renunciation of indemnity claim <i>re</i> Jameson incursion.</p> + +<p>4. To regulate the question of coloured British subjects resident in the +Transvaal upon a genial basis, irrespective of the Bloemfontein +arbitration award upon that subject.</p> + +<p>5. Poll and war taxes shall be abolished.</p> + +<p>6. Dual rights equal with the Dutch language shall be accorded to the +English language, similarly as is done in the Cape Colony for Dutch.</p> + +<p>7. The railways and dynamite factory to be expropriated as soon as +possible—the loans required thereto to be amortized within twenty +years, and pending those expropriations the freights upon coal and +oversea goods shall be reduced 10 per cent, and the price of explosives +20s. per case, these reductions to be met from the revenue accruing to +the burgher estate from the tax upon mining profits.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147" />8. To join a general Customs union upon equitable conditions.</p> + +<p>9. Restore the High Court to independent power in terms of constitution.</p> + +<p>The sequel has shown that Bond counsels prevailed over the suggestions +of that old Free Stater. As to the seven years' franchise offered under +the pretence and colour of meeting Sir Alfred Milner's demand, it had +clearly been intended to serve as a decoy and stop-gap pending the +contemplated war of conquest, and to mask Bond duplicity while further +preparations were to be completed in diplomacy abroad and in the +seditious conspiracy in the Colonies. Natal was at that time swarming +with Boer emissaries, and Transvaal artillery officers with Hollander +engineers in disguise were seen inspecting Laing's Nek tunnel and other +strategic points in that colony.</p> + +<p>Not knowing at the time that State Secretary Reitz was an inveterate +Bondman, that old Free State patriot had roundly denounced to him the +wickedness of Bond aims, and added the remark that the establishment of +a united Boer Republic apart from British supremacy in South Africa was +a deceptive dream. England has a mission in Africa—that of the Boers +can only be subordinate to it. <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148" />It would need the aid of a powerful +maritime combination to supplant England. The case of America does not +present an analogy; there England only was actually interested, but here +various other nations were concerned in their respective huge +investments. They would have a voice in the business. Armed intervention +would lead to a big European war and extreme misery to entire +Africa—just what the devil wants, but not the investor. Indiscriminate +franchise will cause the loss of national independence, and so might +ultimately cosmopolize and obliterate their distinctive nationality, but +so would also a war with England, with the total sacrifice of their +independence into the bargain. Let the Government rather prove to +England its sincere friendship and agree to deal well by the Uitlanders, +treating them as privileged guests, then the unhappy strain in relations +will cease. Above all, renounce that wicked Afrikaner Bond with its +motto of conquest. The demand for franchise is England's device of +self-protection against Bond designs. England will desist from that +demand if we renounce the Bond and prove our friendship.</p> + +<p>That old Free Stater had moreover expressed his most earnest conviction +that a <i>modus vivendi</i> upon the lines suggested would find ready +consideration as <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149" />an alternative to the five years' franchise demand, +and that the British Government would hail with the utmost satisfaction +and relief any tentative towards a sound <i>rapprochement</i> based upon the +contentment of the Boer people within the areas of their Republics and +which would terminate Bond aspirations for Boer supremacy in South +Africa. Had he been permitted, the old Free Stater would gladly have +called upon the British agent at Pretoria, Mr. Conyngham Greene, and +felt confident that the <i>modus vivendi</i> would lead finally to a complete +cessation of British interference and to best relations and prosperous +conditions for all instead. He also cautioned the Government at +Pretoria, giving chapter and verse, against counting upon "the arm of +man." They would find they had trusted on reeds—it would be so in +regard to any foreign help, and even in regard to men of their own +nation in the Cape Colony.</p> + +<p>During one of the interviews Mr. Reitz had remarked that he had a +special theory in regard to the situation; but it varied from that of +the President, who, in reality, was King, and whose will overcame all +opposition.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MR_CHAMBERLAINS_POLICY_TO_AVERT_WAR" id="MR_CHAMBERLAINS_POLICY_TO_AVERT_WAR" /><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150" />MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S POLICY TO AVERT WAR</h2> + + +<p>Seeing that twenty years of patient, loyal endeavours and friendly +conciliatory proceedings following upon the rehabilitation of the +Transvaal independence had utterly failed in advancing the object of +uniting the English and Boer races, and that instead the existing gulf +was ever widening through the spread of those fell Afrikaner Bond +doctrines, it had become imperative, on the part of British statesmen, +to employ special efforts to overcome the serious menace hanging over +South Africa. The critical situation designedly brought about by the +action of the Transvaal Government and by the influence of the Bond +party indicated the remedy. A liberal franchise in favour of the +Uitlanders would at one stroke correct that evil, and counteract the +other impending danger as well. With a large accession of legitimized +voters working in accord with England's desire for peace and progress, +that good influence would be potent, first to shackle <a name="Page_151" id="Page_151" />Bond action and +ultimately to reduce it to Colonial limits. The Transvaal would then no +longer be the giant ally, the arsenal, and the treasury of the Afrikaner +Bond, and that organisation would then be checkmated into impotence for +evil.</p> + +<p>The success of such a remedial and defensive measure would naturally +depend upon the adequacy of the franchise aimed at. Mr. Chamberlain and +his colleagues were not a little sanguine in expecting that a five +years' qualification for voting and a representation equal to one-fifth +of the total number of seats in the Legislature would be effective for +all that which was needed; nor could it be averred that the Transvaal +burghers would be swamped out thereby.</p> + +<p>The Bond chiefs did not fail to at once penetrate the object when the +demand for a five years' franchise was made, and in vain did Sir Alfred +display that firm attitude and exhaust his arguments at the historic +Bloemfontein conference. He had pointed out to President Krüger in a +rudimentary fashion which was no doubt convincing enough—that it was +incompatible with professions of concord and desire for peace while +persisting in excluding from representation a large majority of the +population accustomed to and expecting liberal treatment, and <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152" />which, +moreover, held four-fifths of the wealth invested in the State. There +could be no other result than a dangerous tension and alienation from +the Government, instead of the peaceful co-operation so essential to +security and progress. In these days of advanced ideas of personal and +political liberty people will resist domination by a minority. They want +to be consulted, and to have at least the opportunity of making their +wishes known by means of representation. The right of petitioning could +not meet that need, and in fact implied the recognition of an inferior +status so repugnant to any one's sensibility. When people are ignored +they resent even light impositions and taxes, but if allowed a voice +will cheerfully submit to heavy burdens, because they then become, in a +manner, self-imposed. Representation is the panacea against popular +disaffection and for assuring governmental stability. To concede to +Uitlanders one-fifth of the seats in the Legislature could not operate +to the prejudice of burgher interests, but less would not meet the case.</p> + +<p>It was, however, not President Krüger alone who had to decide—it +affected the Bond as a whole. The diplomatic contest so far proved just +the thing to ripen conditions for the meditated Bond <i>coup <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153" />d'état</i>. An +alternative offer of a seven years' franchise was interposed as a mere +ruse. Never for a moment did the Afrikaner Bond leaders waver or quail +in the face of resolute firmness, display of force, or even of moral +pressure and notes of advice from imposing quarters, as Mr. Chamberlain +had at first still fondly hoped. To the Bond it had all resolved itself +to a mere question of time, of choosing the most opportune moment when +to assume the aggressive. British attitude had only hastened the issue. +Mr. Jan Hofmeyer had indeed been sent for from the Cape so as to assure +that section of the Bond of Transvaal firmness, but he found no sign of +flinching or of renouncing the common object laboured for so long and +then so near fruition. The only difficulty was that British action had +hastened the issue somewhat too fast. Hence the repeated hurried visits +of the Bond leaders—Jan Hofmeyer, Abraham Fisher, and others—the +frequent caucus meetings of the Executive in consultation with those +delegates, the secret midnight sessions of the combined Volksraads and +Executive, the prolonged telegraphic conferences between the two +Presidents, and the final resulting word of "ready" which preceded the +fatal war ultimatum. The Gordian knot had been in evidence many years +ago; it is <a name="Page_154" id="Page_154" />now recognised with regret that England had deferred action +for cutting it much too long.</p> + +<p>But why not agree to arbitration, it will be asked, that peaceable +method so strenuously appealed for by the Transvaal Government and +advocated by her partisans, to adjust all differences, of which the +suzerainty claim and the Uitlander question appeared to be the principal +ones? The reply is not that England was unwilling, but because the +Transvaal was insincere, and the request was a cover for shameless +duplicity, for, while it had been declared by the former that the claim +to suzerainty would be left in abeyance and that infractions of +convention which had been committed by the latter would be overlooked in +consideration of future friendly relations and co-operation, the +Transvaal Government in reality never for a moment meant to be content +with less than British overthrow and complete Boer supremacy in South +Africa, and efforts and intrigues were never relaxed, in concert with +the Bond, to compass those objects.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AFRIKANER_BOND_GUILT_IN_GRADATIONS" id="AFRIKANER_BOND_GUILT_IN_GRADATIONS" /><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155" />AFRIKANER BOND GUILT IN GRADATIONS</h2> + + +<p>The promiscuous details and incidents, together with the circumstantial +and <i>primâ facie</i> evidence thus far adduced in arraigning the Afrikaner +Bond combination, point mostly to conditions existent before the war +broke out. We had the smoke before the conflagration—it is a wonder how +people could manage to ignore the menace. Now the war torch is over us +in its full luridness.</p> + +<p>Ordinary fires, if not kindled, originate either from accident, +spontaneous combustion, or incendiarism. With war the origin may be +traced to similar causes either singly or in combination, or, when we +cannot hit the exact diagnosis, we explain it with a handy word and call +it evolution, as we may do in the case of the present Anglo-Boer +conflict.</p> + +<p>We may for a moment review the material and then also the agencies and +incentives which operated that evolution against harmony and peace, and +to <a name="Page_156" id="Page_156" />which the conflagration is due. We have noted the legal acquisition +of the Cape Colonies by Great Britain, the equally recognised occupation +under treaties with England of the two Boer Republics, the English and +Boer races in progress of friendly assimilation and in happy prosperity +all over South Africa. This was essentially the position in 1881, until +it became gradually marred by an invidious element. We have further +noted the declining condition of Holland, its moribund language, and +finally the prospects which South Africa presented for that nation's +restoration to powerful significance, the English factor only standing +in the way.</p> + +<p>The next aspect brings out the marring manifestations: greed of land and +of conquest with the Pretoria-Bloemfontein combination; malignant +sedition in the Cape Colonies, urged by lust to participate more +directly in the wealth of gold and diamonds in the north and to share +general plunder—both categories of covetousness merged into one +purulent fester by men of conceited ambition, all cemented with +collusion, but the whole of it devised, engineered, and operated by the +most malignant agencies from Holland under the coaching of the evil one +himself.</p> + +<p>The reader may be able to assess the degrees of <a name="Page_157" id="Page_157" />guilt of each +category—of the Republican Boer aspirant for land, the Colonial Boer +rebel seeking his particular profit, the accomplices who for ambitious +ends lead the first two, and the insidious Hollander intriguers who +seduced and actuated all in order to seize the lion's share of the +spoliation.</p> + +<p>To sum up, the respective rewards which lured them all are: Plunder for +the Boers and rebels, laurels and "fat" places for the Bond leaders, and +a substantial harvest for entire Holland, with pæans of praise for the +coterie and Dr. Leyds from a grateful people for successfully restoring +the good fortunes of the Dutch nation, and for effecting a retributive +vendetta upon England, all under world-wide, gloating acclaims of +gratified and vindictive jealousy.</p> + +<p>The Hollander coterie may plead patriotism which pointed to the duty of +using the tempting opportunity presented in South Africa in saving +Holland from national submersion and political extinction by means of +the Boer nation, but against this stands the unparalleled vileness of +expedients and the treacherous deceptions employed to attain that +object. It involved the wholesale seduction of one section of that +nation into sedition and rebellion against a most beneficent and just +Government <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158" />under which they prospered and enjoyed the highest +conceivable degree of liberty and even special privileges, and of +pitting the other section into hostility and war against a Power which +meant nothing else than peace and amity towards them, thus placing both +into a position of risk to forfeit all their prosperity, apart from the +inevitable horrors of a war evoked by their rapacious and murderous +Hollander malice.</p> + +<p>The Bond scientists in Holland had fully persevered in their craftily +laid programme. After having succeeded in producing race hatred between +Boer and English, the next step had been to convince the Boer leaders +and the people of the inevitableness of a contest for ensuring the +supremacy of the Afrikaners, coupled with the absolute necessity of the +complete expulsion of the entire British element. As arguments were +adduced that the British element had proved itself unassimilable and +irreconcilable, its retention in South Africa would necessitate +continuous provisions to keep it in a state of subjection. The existence +of such conditions would be inconsistent and incompatible with the true +ideal liberty as intended for the whole of South Africa, and which must +be linked with all-round equality and fraternity. The pres<a name="Page_159" id="Page_159" />ence of a +British factor would be an unsurmountable bar to that consummation, +hence the necessity of its total removal.</p> + +<p>The Bond leaders are the next in guilt; with these the incentive is +principally ambition, which, by degrees, became mis-shaped into a +specious patriotism. It is known how an ardently desired object pursued +for a long period is apt to so monopolize and infatuate the mind as to +totally vitiate and pervert the sense of discernment between right and +wrong, both as to the legitimacy of the object and the means to be +employed for its attainment. As the realization remains deferred and the +efforts are increased, the object from being considered legitimate is by +degrees invested with merit, a halo of virtue is added to the aspect, +its pursuit is viewed as a duty by fair or by questionable means, the +end justifying the latter. All, it is said, is fair in love and warfare. +This diagnosis appears particularly applicable to President Krüger and +State Secretary F.W. Reitz, both men of sincere piety (perhaps also to +Mr. Schreiner), who would have abandoned their project and renounced and +repudiated the Afrikaner Bond if ever they had doubted its legitimacy of +principle. So also with most of the other Boer leaders and their clergy +too. The <a name="Page_160" id="Page_160" />agencies must have been exceedingly subtle, and the jugglery +and artifice superhuman, to operate such processes of reasoning, such +deception and aberration in honest-minded and even godly persons.</p> + +<p>As to the bulk of the Boer people, they are simply led by their chiefs +and superiors, in whom they repose unquestioning confidence. They go +unreasoningly with the stream of opinion under the firm belief that all +is divinely sanctioned, including rebellion and violence, and blindly +obey their call, considering their cause analogous to that of the Jews +of old, who were enjoined to spoil the Egyptians and then to pass over +and conquer their land of promise. No papal bull of indulgence ever +freed people's consciences more than the Boer people now feel in regard +to the warfare in which they are engaged.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RESUME" id="RESUME" /><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161" />RÉSUMÉ</h2> + + +<p>The Boers in the Cape Colonies have been prospering in a marked degree +since the British accession in 1814, enjoying ideal liberty and good +government upon perfect equality with the English colonists.</p> + +<p>The people of the Orange Free State fared equally well under best +relations with the British Government up to the outbreak of the present +war.</p> + +<p>In the Transvaal the Boers were more handicapped, being furthest removed +from profitable Cape connections, and having to cope with powerful +hostile tribes within their border. The most redoubtable, under +Secoecoenie, was subdued during the British occupation in 1878. Then +followed the short war of 1880, with the voluntary retrocession and +peace of January, 1881. All appeared to progress remarkably well for +about ten years after, until the irrational treatment by the Boers of +British subjects in the Transvaal furnished the <a name="Page_162" id="Page_162" />first cause of +friction, and engendered at last the Johannesburg crisis with the +Jameson incursion, followed by four years' vain attempts on the part of +England to bring about satisfactory and peaceful relations.</p> + +<p>The Afrikaner Bond had been inaugurated some thirty years ago, under the +mask of a constitutional organization, professing loyalty to England; +that body had succeeded in hiding its object, which was no less than the +expulsion from South Africa of all that is English, and which object was +brutally avowed since the outbreak of the war by declarations in the +Press and by incendiary speeches of Colonial Bond leaders and members of +the Cape Parliament.</p> + +<p>The British Government did not view very seriously the information it +received regarding the Bond menace until the definite action of the +Transvaal Government partially opened its eyes prior to the Johannesburg +revolt. The hope was, however, still clung to in an undefined way that +patience and forbearance would yet overcome Boer prejudice and disperse +racial antipathies, and with characteristic self-confidence as well, +things were allowed to drift rather out of hand.</p> + +<p>The two Republics had been <i>de facto</i> allied some <a name="Page_163" id="Page_163" />time before the +Johannesburg crisis in 1895. Both were then already provided with very +abundant armaments of up-to-date types, with equipments and preparations +far and away above any conceivable needs except indeed for a <i>coup +d'état</i> against British supremacy and to sustain a Colonial revolt.</p> + +<p>On the occasion of the Jameson incursion the Orange Free State promptly +appeared near the scene with best equipped mounted Boer commandoes and +artillery to assist the Transvaal if needed.</p> + +<p>Before 1881 and some time subsequently there had been continued progress +towards the assimilation of the English and Boer races in South Africa. +This was marred by Afrikaner Bond doctrines and intrigues proceeding +from a Hollander coterie, the formula being "Afrika voor de +Afrikaners"—the aims including the usurpation of British authority in +the Colonies, supremacy of the Boer nation under one great Republican +federation, and an affiliated status with Holland which should restore +that people, all to the prejudice of England, to a political and +economic significance and power surpassing its former epoch of European +and Colonial eminence. As to the incentives to the Boer nation, these +were principally the plunder of capital investments and land conquests, +which the people had learnt to con<a name="Page_164" id="Page_164" />sider legitimate and in fact +incumbent as a duty to themselves and descendants.</p> + +<p>The means employed in that conspiracy were a subtle, so to say, occult +propaganda to seduce a simple people to false convictions, to induce the +creation of gigantic armaments, a secret service employing at a vast +cost journalism, emissaries, and agencies, to gain partisans and allies +outside South Africa, the Transvaal mint to coin the sinews of war from +the appropriation of the mines and their output, the dynamite factory +(that Bond corner-stone for manufacturing ammunition<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11" /><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>), a system of +immigration from Holland towards supplanting the English factor and to +introduce auxiliaries. Other such means were: laws for admitting +auxiliaries to immediate full burgher rights and privilege to carry +arms, from which Uitlanders were rigorously excluded, the rabid campaign +proscribing the English language and fostering High Dutch instead (which +was much less understood by the entire Boer people, and much harder for +them to learn than English). To the above list of devices came the +exhaustive efforts to obtain an <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165" />independent seaport for the Transvaal, +first at St. Lucia Bay, then at Delagoa Bay (ostensibly with a German +syndicate, and since by subsidizing Portugal or suborning Portuguese +notables and officials).</p> + +<p>The climax of duplicity is reached when it is averred that the pursuit +of such an organized programme during the past twenty years and more had +meant peace only, never a thought of conquest, as Ambassador Leyds so +innocently declared after failing to gain abroad the hoped-for support +for the monstrous Bond enormity.</p> + +<p>The Afrikaner Bond leaders would have preferred the war to have been +deferred a little longer—preferably to a moment when England might be +embroiled elsewhere. It was also thought of importance that the +Transvaal should first realize the auriferous "underground rights" +situated around the Johannesburg mines, which Government asset was +expected to net at least fifty million pounds sterling. The sales had +already been advertised, and were in preparation when the outbreak of +the war intervened. Upon the word "ready," flashed from Bloemfontein, +followed at once the fateful Pretoria ultimatum. The proceeds of those +underground rights must now come in afterwards to defray the war bill.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11" /><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> President Krüger's reference to that factory is well +known, styling it as one of the corner-stones of Boer independence.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_BOERS_NATIVE_POLICY" id="THE_BOERS_NATIVE_POLICY" /><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166" />THE BOERS' NATIVE POLICY</h2> + + +<p>Boer views regarding coloured peoples are those retained from Dutch +practices of a hundred and more years ago, when the Cape of Good Hope +still belonged to that nation. Servitude, if not absolute slavery, was +then generally recognised as the proper status for coloured aborigines, +and that principle of differentiation continues to be upheld and applied +in a modified form, it must be admitted, in all the Colonial possessions +of Holland. The authority for this stand is sought from ancient biblical +history, where the descendants of Ham appear marked out for servitude, +and from that basis it is interpreted that people so marked are not +designed for tuition or evangelization until after they have been +subjugated. According to such a doctrine the injunction to preach the +Gospel to every creature would be limited to civilized whites, and might +only be extended to such coloured peoples who have been fitted, as is +said, for the reception <a name="Page_167" id="Page_167" />of the Christian faith by being placed under +the subserviency of whites, as their sponsors if not their actual +masters, and requiring mundane tuition and education as essential bases +to precede conversion.</p> + +<p>For the refutation of such monstrous doctrines it may be urged that, +according to Scripture, savage as well as cultured peoples have a +consciousness of guilt towards the Divine Judge. The object of the +Gospel is to end the history of the culprit as such and to place him +upon a new standing—"the wind bloweth as it listeth": a new birth +operated by the acceptance of the Gospel proclamation addressed to every +creature, black as well as white. Growth and moral amendment properly +"follow" that spiritual birth; neither is conceivable before, except +purely human education, which is incapable of effecting a change, and in +fact tends only to fortify the natural man in his implacable hostility +against the newly implanted element, each lusting against the other.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12" /><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>History records how the Spanish and other early <a name="Page_168" id="Page_168" />explorers operated with +the aborigines in the regions discovered by them. The territories with +their inhabitants were declared possessions accruing to their respective +sovereigns, whose main policy was the exploitation of all the wealth +possible. The aborigines were dispossessed, treated as conquered +peoples, and forced to do the exploiting labour. No other results could +follow than the gradual diminution and final exhaustion of all the +wealth and the partial, if not total, extinction of the aboriginal +races.</p> + +<p>What retribution overtook those nations is also on record. Those +enslaved peoples were forced to accept the religion of their conquerors. +Can true converts be made to order by constraint, motives of +self-interest, or by baptizing them <i>en bloc</i>? What else but deepest +aversion and mistrust could a religion inspire which is professed and +taught by a people who practise spoliation, murder, and other +descriptions of wickedness abhorrent even to a savage mind? The +aborigines would daily behold their own land and possessions enjoyed by +usurpers and "would be teachers," who subjected them besides to slavery +and abject misery. Could the religion of such teachers ever find favour +with their victims? How could doctrines of righteous<a name="Page_169" id="Page_169" />ness and love be +understood when so glaringly violated by their preceptors?</p> + +<p>It presents a sad paradox to see that the Boers, who are in many +respects consistently religious and even exemplary, could uphold +principles which place coloured people out of caste, not only in regard +to political rights but also as to the common religious standing before +the Creator. It would be unjust to charge the Boers with actually +barbarous practices towards the natives—what they do enforce is their +submission to the condition of servants.</p> + +<p>The Boer people ever chafed against the restraining action of the +British Government as to their practice of slavery, and they have not +hesitated either to exhibit their hostility to missionary enterprise. +The confiscation of Protestant mission sites in the Orange Free State is +one of the instances; another was exemplified in a raid perpetrated +about forty years ago by the Transvaal Boers upon the inoffensive +Bechuana tribe, whose chief and many of his people had accepted the +Christian faith through the teaching of Moffat, David Livingstone, and +other evangelists. The pretext for that raid was a lying report that +that Bechuana chief had bartered some 400 guns from traders to fight the +Boers with. The Boers sent an ultimatum requir<a name="Page_170" id="Page_170" />ing the surrender of +those weapons. Despite the protestation of the chief and his people that +not more than eight guns had been bartered for hunting, which had later +proved true, a commando was sent against them under Commandant Paul +Krüger, now President Krüger. Many of the natives were slain, their +villages burnt, their cattle seized, and great numbers of the tribe +taken captive for distribution as servants among the Boer farmers in the +Transvaal. That raid was further signalized by the total destruction of +Moffat's mission station—church, school buildings, and industrial +shops. These, after being looted, were all consigned to the flames, as +also the missionary dwellings, among which was that of David +Livingstone, with his furniture, books, and belongings. There are +abundant records, besides that of the Bechuana nation, that barbarous +and idolatrous peoples are amenable to Christianity without the prior +influences of civilization or individual education, or that they should +be subjugated first, as the Boers would have it. What indeed is of +immense aid for moral and economic advancement is the operation of +civilized and liberal governmental authority, repressing slavery, under +which proprietary rights and justice are equally afforded to black and +white, and where <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171" />the Gospel might have a free course without constraint +and without inducements of material advantages.</p> + +<p>It seemed that such conditions were on the eve of eventuating for the +rescue and disenthralment of darkest Africa. This is what Moffat, +Livingstone, Coillard, and many other devoted servants of the Gospel had +prayed for all their lives, what has been and still is the burden of the +prayers (no doubt all inspired) of millions of Christians. The interior +is no more a blank on the map. Much is done for the suppression of +slavery. The whole continent is parcelled out among different nations, +who have assumed the task of civilizing their respective spheres. The +world's energy and capital stand available for the object, and it +appeared that many souls were being seriously aroused to the +responsibility of obeying the charge pronounced in Ezekiel xxxiii. 1-11. +But sinister influences have not failed in attempts to bar beneficent +dispensations. We have seen fanaticism resulting in the fierce revolt of +Mahdism in the north, and are now awaiting the issue of the war brought +on by Afrikaner Bondism in the south.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12" /><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Another has aptly illustrated the change by comparing such +a man's new condition to a hotel that has come under totally different +and perfectly new management and controlling proprietorship.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ENGLANDS_NATIVE_AND_COLONIAL_POLICY" id="ENGLANDS_NATIVE_AND_COLONIAL_POLICY" /><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172" />ENGLAND'S NATIVE AND COLONIAL POLICY</h2> + + +<p>Until the earlier parts of this nineteenth century England has been +conspicuous among other nations in tolerating slavery in some of her +possessions, and in permitting her people to engage in systematic +man-hunts, with the accompanying atrocities and horrors of a regular +slave trade. Manifestations of national abhorrence and condemnation of +that inhuman traffic and of slavery in general appeared during the first +quarter of this century. The nation hid its shame and contrition in acts +towards remedying its share of the evil committed. These took the shape +of expending some twenty million pounds sterling towards the +emancipation of slaves and various other costly measures to repress the +trade in human beings, and in proclaiming personal freedom for all +slaves in her dominions. The desire to do justice to coloured races was +further exemplified in the adoption, dating some fifty years back, of a +totally altered colonial and native policy. <a name="Page_173" id="Page_173" />Up to then the practice +with all colonizing Powers had been to utilize their foreign dominions +as preserves for financial exploitation, involving the most crying +injustice to aborigines. The departure then effected consisted in a +policy of just laws instead, directed to ensure to those people +equitable treatment and a recognition of their rights to fixed property +and to a position before the law equal with that of white inhabitants. +The revenues produced by the Colonies were thenceforward all to be +devoted to the advancement of their own local prosperity. Free trade +followed that <i>régime</i> of liberty and equity, and, as intended, such +Colonial dominions began to partake of the character and were +constituted off-shoots of the mother country, with a like status of +liberty and enjoying the benefit of British protection at the same time. +Many were the auguries that the experiment would result in political and +economic failure, but the good results to all concerned proved to be so +far-reaching as to startle even its most sanguine advocates. The +extension of privileges and rights operated upon the natives as a +magical incentive to labour and emulation for the improvement of their +economic condition; people who had before preferred an indolent, +semi-nomadic existence betook themselves more to agricultural <a name="Page_174" id="Page_174" />and +sedentary habits, living in much greater comfort and steadily increasing +in wealth.</p> + +<p>Civilization went on apace, and with it the moral improvement of the +aborigines, paving the way as well for the spread of Christianity. All +this was accompanied with an immense and ever-advancing expansion of +trade with England and the recognition of British prestige as a +successful colonizing power.</p> + +<p>Numerous other principalities courted the privilege of coming under the +ægis of the English flag, their potentates and people readily submitting +to the abolition of practices which were not in accord with humane and +civilized usages and eager to share the benefits and advancement of +civilization which were enjoyed under British rule. In not a few +instances it was, however, not feasible to extend the protectorate so +coveted.</p> + +<p>While other nations were engaged in wars during the past half-century, +England had opportunities to largely expand and consolidate her Colonial +dominions. At the same time British trade, industries and shipping +advanced with gigantic strides, and that nation has since gained the +foremost rank as a commercial and Colonial empire, governing over the +choicest portions of the globe some four hundred millions of loyal and +contented subjects, who enjoy <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175" />liberty and a degree of prosperity +unequalled elsewhere as yet, the whole being protected by a navy which +constitutes England as champion on sea as well.</p> + +<p>All this national success and example of liberal government have had a +salutary influence upon the rest of the world in evoking wholesome +competition and emulation. But another and very untoward effect is that +widespread and deep-rooted envy and jealousy have also been aroused, +which on occasion are apt to develop into pretexts for actual hostility, +or hostile partisanship as is now the case.</p> + +<p>What signalises the beneficent reign of Queen Victoria more than +anything else is the peculiarly devoted manner in which that august lady +has personally acquitted herself of her duty and responsibility in +regard to the elevation and rehabilitation of the hitherto socially +enslaved condition of womanhood in her Indian empire; for it is well +known how the philosophic religions of the East have been subtly adapted +for establishing the political and social pre-eminence of certain +classes of a population over its majority, at the same time dooming +womanhood generally to the lowest rank of drudges, perpetual contempt +and ignorance, refusing them education (as had been done in the case of +the Roman <a name="Page_176" id="Page_176" />slaves)—specially despised if without a husband, and if a +widow, immolated at last upon her husband's funeral pyre.</p> + +<p>Step by step, by means of strenuous and disinterested exertions, +employing prestige and encouragements, by legislation and otherwise, a +breach was effected which bids fair to break down that caste-fenced and +chained thraldom, and to raise over a hundred millions of her humble +subject sisters from unnatural degradation to occupy the honourable and +responsible rank assigned by the Creator to woman as man's social help, +meet for him, and to whom honour is due as to the weaker vessel. +Millions of women have already found emancipation and recognition of +their right position, to man's reciprocal joy and to the felicity of +their families. Their sons and daughters in turn now form armies to +complete the mission of liberty so zealously inaugurated by their +beloved Empress, their own peculiar star of India.</p> + +<p>Maybe this and similar earnests evinced during that noble Queen's reign, +among which the shelter afforded to the Jewish people, will come into +remembrance in mitigation of visitations deserved by the nation for its +previous complicity in the hideous traffic in African souls of men.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177" />It throws a light upon the credulity and simplicity of the bulk of the +poor deluded peasant Boers when, in the face of most genial rule and +almost an excess of liberty and privileges, Bond artifice could succeed +in conjuring up contrary notions, and to poison them into the monstrous +belief that they, the Boers, were an oppressed people, whose downfall +was designed by rapacious England, and that no other remedy existed for +preserving independence, religion and homes than to expel that wicked +English people from African soil. This is, then, what Bond artifice +effected in the absence of actual cause and in order to dissimulate its +own nefarious objects. It was the work of twenty years' sedulously +applied deception and calumnious machinations.</p> + +<p>The Hollander coterie has at last succeeded in its ardently desired +purpose of pitting the Boer nation against England, and to bring about +the present war. What is even more astounding is the success of those +villainous artificers upon intelligent partisans of the Boer cause +outside of Africa and in England even.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="OCCULT_OPERATIONS_AND_AGENCIES" id="OCCULT_OPERATIONS_AND_AGENCIES" /><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178" />OCCULT OPERATIONS AND AGENCIES</h2> + + +<p>Will it be considered the mere fancy of enthusiasts, which admits the +thought of occult forces of a sinister kind set in array to overturn +beneficent dispensations, that the evil one, the father of lies, has +been active in all this marring of peace? Had that personage or evil +principle, if this term is more acceptable, not scored with his +malignant skill of deception 6,000 years ago, and been walking up and +down his domain ever since, intent upon undoing redemptive provisions +and counteracting all endeavours to ameliorate the miseries of humanity? +His malice would seem discernible against the Boer nation, the people +who continued in the simple faith which had been kept by their ancestors +despite the persecutions heaped upon them in France and by the oppressor +of Holland; he must have viewed with growing rage the designs of a +gracious Providence surrounding that very people with the blessings of +security and peace and ac<a name="Page_179" id="Page_179" />cumulations of unparalleled riches, all +construable as in compensation for the sacrifices so willingly submitted +to by their forefathers and for their own fidelity to the faith. Would +he tamely brook that—and not bend on all his artifices to reverse those +provisions and to divert those rich dispensations in favour of his own +devotees instead, or else rather cause them to be devoured by wasting +war? He has so far succeeded in instigating the Boer nation to acts +which involve the forfeiture of their special heirlooms. He would also +thwart the programme of the world's nations for the civilization of +Central Africa, and would gratify his malice against the people to whom +is largely attributable the spread of governmental principles of equity +and liberty. He would seek to stamp with failure those hitherto +successful and self-rewarding methods, and so strike an effective blow +against their further adoption as being goody-goody, weak and +inefficient.</p> + +<p>We see civilized humanity congested with over-population, excess of +energy and of production and suffering from a plethora of capital, the +entire condition rife on the one hand with prodigal waste and on the +other fraught with the cruel want of toiling and jostling millions +vainly fighting for space and the most modest means of +existence—conditions <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180" />which presage an inevitable and universal crash +unless checked by a Malthusian or else by a beneficent and humane +remedy. We know the right remedy for at least staving off the impending +universal crisis lies in the manifold opportunities of creating outlets. +These exist to the full in the vast fallow regions of Africa, and in the +scope for industries and commerce in Asia and elsewhere. Each +well-devised colonizing scheme, every railway built, and every other new +investment would afford improved employment and relieve the general +strain; every true convert gained by the spread of Christianity would +become an obedient and reliable unit towards the menaced stability of +authorized Governments. We see capital impelled to vast enterprises, as +it were by secret forces;<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13" /><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> we are aware of the activity of nations +singly and in co-operation in promoting and sustaining such projects. +All those efforts and outlets would serve as safety-valves for the +discontent of the ill-provided masses, and their success would render +them governable at a lesser cost, and even admit the reduction of +standing armies and other objects treated by the recent Peace Conference +at the <a name="Page_181" id="Page_181" />Hague. The essential thing, indeed, is peace, and that in turn +would consolidate security and progress. But the enemy is interested +exactly the other way. His ascendancy is coincident, not with the +mitigation of the conditions of human existence, but in accentuating the +misery of the masses, driving them to desperation and to embrace illogic +and deceptive maxims of socialism and violent anarchy. It is with those +forces that he intends to uproot and usurp divinely instituted authority +expressly set up to repress evil and to protect person and property. He +wants by licence and not liberty to hasten the advent of that murderous +political power prophetically depicted with the statue standing upon +feet of clay and iron: supreme authority vested in the world's +proletariat in unstable and uncohesive union with militarism, Satan +himself the actual lawless animator.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14" /><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> As to the scope for outlets in +the East, it is more restricted to industries and commerce, but those +enterprises, however brilliantly promising, are fraught with the risks +incidental to hostile rivalries and political complications, while in +Africa the openings are at least as vast and <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182" />inviting immigration on a +huge scale as well, but all with much greater security, inasmuch as the +spheres of operation are definitely apportioned to various nations, and +where in the nature of things the success of each would be promoted by +joint-solidarity, and thus afford a guarantee for the peaceable and +prosperous development of the whole continent. Our common enemy would +fain frustrate it all with his Afrikaner Bond device, and then finally +gloat over the accomplished ruin of his deluded Boer victims.</p> + +<p>Africa has for some thousands of years been the enemy's favourite and +undisturbed haunt for his gory orgies, for the hecatombs of millions of +immolated victims each year, the teeming recruiting preserve for his +contingents.</p> + +<p>Is he likely to surrender it all to an invading beneficent operation? +Will he not rather continue a most determined and desperate resistance +and oppose the most advanced of his subtle devices? The malignant power +of his agencies is ever and anon manifest—if restrained in one +direction his sway is doubly asserted in another. While the Boer war is +proceeding a diversion upon a large scale is being effected in Asia +which may result in deferring progress in Africa, or history may be +brought to <a name="Page_183" id="Page_183" />repeat itself by the production of some African Attila or +Grenseric or a Saladin or another Moselikatse or Mahdi, whose +overrunning hordes will efface all the good work thus far done and +restore conditions in accord with his murderous sway, whilst at the same +time revelling over the ominous developments looming in Europe and +America for the production of giant strikes and other imminent +socialistic outbursts which could all be prevented, or at least staved +off for a long time, if the existing immense spheres for civilizing +outlets could only be peaceably utilized.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13" /><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> One of those enterprises is the railway which is to +connect the Cape with Cairo.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14" /><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Pro-Boer Propaganda is persisting in designating England +as answering to that prophetic image destined to signal destruction.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RELIGION" id="RELIGION" /><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184" />RELIGION</h2> + + +<p>The old voortrekkers who emigrated from the Cape Colony all belonged to +the Dutch Reformed Protestant persuasion. With very little learning, the +Bible, catechism, and the orthodox "psalm and hymn-book" constituted +their sole means for building up their faith. The scope of their +education was likewise limited to these simple aids during their +chequered wanderings for nearly twenty years, proving ample, however, in +preserving themselves and children from the tendencies of receding into +barbarism. The Bible was the recognised reference and guide in private +and public affairs, and it is so still. It is, indeed, notable with what +wisdom and prudence those simple people managed to frame their treaties +with native potentates, their conventions with the Portuguese and the +British Governments, and, finally, in compiling their own constitutions. +Their experiences teem with incidents of extreme sufferings, dangers, +and reverses, <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185" />and also with many signal deliverances, which all +operated in deepening religious fervour and dependence upon the +Almighty.</p> + +<p>Their vicissitudes led them to make analogous comparisons with ancient +Jewish history. This practice resulted in some erroneous conceptions, +notably in regard to their relations with aborigines and general native +policy, as referred to in previous chapters. It also imperceptibly +fostered sentiments confounding legality with grace, and the by-product +of that subtle corrupting leaven which is apt to see a splint in the eye +of another whilst unmindful of the beam in one's own.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole, the religious status of the Boers may be fairly compared +to that of the old American pilgrim fathers, only much less intolerant, +fairly strict sabbatarians, and jealous in maintaining national and +individual morality. About forty years ago a small group seceded from +the Dutch Reformed Church and formed a separate connection under the +name of "Enkel gereformende Kerk" (simply reformed Church), more +generally known under the sobriquet of "Doppers." This cult is identical +with the parent Church, and differs only in a somewhat stricter church +discipline and the rejection of the hymns from the common psalm <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186" />and +hymn-book upon the ground that many of them are tainted with dangerously +anti-scriptural doctrine.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15" /><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> These Doppers are really very worthy +people, but noted for their strong conservatism and adherence to old +habits and customs, even in the matter of dress. President Krüger is one +of their prominent members and so is General Piet Cronjé.</p> + +<p>The devotional habits of the Boers form one of their national +characteristics. The family collect at dawn for morning worship, led by +the parent or else by the tutor—it consists of a hymn, +Scripture-reading, and prayer—similarly before retiring at night, +devout grace before and after each meal. These practices are not relaxed +when travelling with their wagons or when in the field. On Sundays an +extra (forenoon) service is added. Strangers and travellers receiving +hospitality are always courteously and unostentatiously admitted to +those family devotions. One may thus meet with one or more wagons camped +in the wilderness and find a cluster of men, women, and children +<a name="Page_187" id="Page_187" />engaged in happy devotions and singing psalms or hymns in the familiar +old "Herrenhut" melodies, or one may come upon a scene where men just +returned to camp, begrimed and still perspiring from a day's hunt or +battle, join with husky voices an already assembled group in the +customary service.</p> + +<p>Such practices of piety cannot fail to have a salutary effect upon the +young, nor can it be with justice said that the bulk of the people are +inconsistent in their conduct, though formality and insincerity are +sadly frequent enough, and in late years a decadence in seriousness and +an increase of frivolity instead have marked the present epoch, +especially among those who are exposed to the pernicious influences and +contaminations incidental to town life. The old Free Stater mentioned +before expressed the expectation that the present war and trials will +tend to check that declension, and in that way prove to have a +compensating character for good. During my frequent travels it had been +my privilege as a guest to make the acquaintance of numerous truly +Christian Boer families, both well-to-do and poor. On one occasion I had +to accept the hospitality at a farmhouse of one named Brits,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16" /><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> +<a name="Page_188" id="Page_188" />nicknamed "vuil" or dirty Brits. This was an old blind widower; his +household was composed, besides himself, of an old brother, also a +widower, and the family of a son-in-law. After the evening meal the +service was led by the blind man, the daughter reading some chapters in +the Bible indicated by him. The two old men and I occupied separate cots +in one small side room. Happening to wake up at dawn the following +morning, I saw those old men sit up facing each other, with their feet +upon the floor, and begin their morning hymn of praise, after which the +house resounded with younger voices from the other end with a similar +song. I do not call to mind any special untidiness at that poor blind +man's house to warrant his sobriquet; my recollections are, on the +contrary, of the happiest, and I mentally called him clean Brits, clean +every whit. In another part of the country I was privileged to meet with +a family, which included a grown-up blind daughter,' who had St. John's +Gospel in raised letters. While reading with her fingers her upturned +face would shine with joy when repeating some of the salient, consoling, +and sustaining verses. And how common are the records among those simple +Boers of happy and triumphant death-bed scenes of old and young, +<a name="Page_189" id="Page_189" />softening the grief of the bereaved believers. Frivolous education and +advanced surroundings are accountable for a certain waning of the +original habits of serious piety; this is to some extent more the case +among the Cape Colonial and Orange Free State Boers, the declension +appearing greatest with those residing in or in close proximity to +towns. Among the men of exemplary and consistent piety in the Transvaal +are conspicuous: President Krüger, State Secretary Reitz, +Commandant-General Joubert, General Piet Cronjé, and others holding +highest positions, and also many of the Volksraad members, including the +late General Kock.</p> + +<p>Upon the occasion when the Transvaal Executive, with the assembled +Volksraads, finally determined upon war, and the momentous matter had +been considered of handing over the passports to Mr. Greene, the British +agent, just before signing them, President Krüger was observed occupied +in silent prayer for a few moments, while many of the others bowed their +heads similarly engaged, after which the documents were firmly +completed. When the first commandoes were about to depart for the field, +the President addressed a farewell to the burghers, assuring them that +God's aid could confidently be <a name="Page_190" id="Page_190" />implored for their just cause; he also +quoted part of the Verse, "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall +lose it," intending it as an exhortation for the timorous, warning them +of the greater danger incurred by retreat or flight than when +maintaining a manful stand. (The reader will know that the above +quotation does not complete the verse, the rest being, "But whosoever +shall lose his life for my sake or for the Gospel shall preserve it.")</p> + +<p>It points to the operation of most persevering and subtle agencies and +potent illusions that could mislead and carry away the chief men and the +most intelligent of the Boer nation so far as to engender the erroneous +convictions which caused them to court the present war and to consider +it just. As to the bulk of the people, they are in turn led astray by +their leaders' example and opinions as victims of the general delusion.</p> + +<p>These convictions, together with the acceptance of Afrikaner Bond +doctrines, have developed into quite a national infatuation, a kind of +Boer Koran, invested with similar fanaticism. Analogies are assumed as +existing between the case of the Israelites brought by Moses through the +wilderness, and led by Joshua into the conquered possession of their +promised Canaan. Following those proto<a name="Page_191" id="Page_191" />types, Paul Krüger is held as +having guided the Boer nation thus far through the mazes of political +troubles, and so also is General Joubert,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17" /><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> now their leader in the +conquest, South Africa in its entirety being considered as rightfully +belonging to them. The Orange River stands for Jordan, dividing as yet +the possessions of the people, and the analogy only needs completion by +a Pisgah for President Krüger. That such hallucinations have taken deep +root appears from the fact that the wife of President Krüger dreamt of +the accomplishment of such a typical history, and that her husband had +died at an early stage of the conquest. Such complete faith is attached +to the prophetic import of that dream that the President was prevailed +upon to permit its publication in full detail some time in November +last. The President's death was anticipated within two months after. (I +am far from referring to those incidents in a mocking mood, but rather +to show the intense sincerity of Boer convictions, confounding the +Christian's exalted calling with one which is temporal; and I fancy that +those very Boers, if equally well instructed, might sadly eclipse some +of us who have the privilege and <a name="Page_192" id="Page_192" />also the responsibility of enjoying +correct teaching.)</p> + +<p>The writer has endeavoured to represent in a true light both the +character of the Boer nation and its responsibility in regard to the +origin of the present deplorable war. The reader will be able to judge +whether that people is wilfully guilty, or whether the circumstances +admit of generous, mitigating condonement, always considered apart from +that horrible Hollander element which has been the root and instigating +cause of all the evil.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15" /><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Some readers will recognise the significance, the +protective competence, the keen and reliable instinct which enable +untutored believers to discern and detect doctrinal leaven insidiously +concealed in the garb of worship.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16" /><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> At Modder River, on the road between Bloemfontein and +Kimberley.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17" /><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> At the time, December, 1899, when this was intended for +publication.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PHYSIQUE_AND_HABITS" id="PHYSIQUE_AND_HABITS" /><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193" />PHYSIQUE AND HABITS</h2> + + +<p>We have noted in former pages that the Boers' ancestry some two +centuries ago was composed of about two-thirds of sturdy Dutch peasants, +artizans, etc., while the other third consisted mostly of French +Huguenots.</p> + +<p>It is known that the immigrant class, though generally somewhat poor, +are uniformly men and women endowed with an adventurous, self-reliant +spirit and with unimpaired health. Naturally none but robust persons +were permitted to join the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope.</p> + +<p>We see in that combination the patient, resolute quality prevailing in +Holland and the more ardent, vivacious, and chivalrous character found +with the French people. The Huguenot refugees belonged undisputably to +the cream of that impulsive nation—intellectual, educated, and +fearless—whilst both portions were pervaded with deep-rooted religious +fervour and habituated to moral and temperate lives.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194" />Those combined qualities and habits would naturally be transmitted to +the progeny; prosperity and splendid climatic conditions tended still +further to develop a virile physique of first order. The moral and +physical standards were maintained by the practice of men and women +marrying early in life, and by occupations which required the people to +pass most of their time in the open. Educationally, there was +unavoidably some retrogression, but there is always plenty of scope in +the existence of colonists in a new country for the exercise of a +vigorous mind in the study of nature, in overcoming difficulties and in +cultivating the faculty of resourcefulness.</p> + +<p>Whilst missing the intellectual benefits of advanced civilization, the +people escaped the dangers of its vitiating tendencies, thus preserving +a healthy mental calibre as well as robust physical health. In addition +may be mentioned a very notable fecundal power, which accounts for the +phenomenally rapid increase of the people. All those conditions have +continued to be maintained with the successive generations up to now.</p> + +<p>Those who joined in the exodus north of the Orange River in 1835 and the +years following comprised the most indomitable and best endowed of <a name="Page_195" id="Page_195" />that +stalwart race. Twenty years of a nomadic life after that and until they +got somewhat settled down served to weed out the weaklings among them; +since then their mode of life accorded well to keep up the highest +physical standard, not pampered with many comforts, inured to hardships +and to out-of-door exercise, with a diet consisting very largely of meat +and venison, coupled with energetic exercise of mind and body (the women +sharing in the less arduous duties). All this constituted a regimen and +training which did not fail to keep the people in a constant condition +of high efficiency and equipoise for the performance of tasks and for +surmounting difficulties needing more than usual strength, endurance, +and fortitude.</p> + +<p>The rough labour all over South Africa is done mostly by Kaffirs and +other coloured people. A Boer farmer will have from two to ten or more +Kaffirs (men and women) employed for out-of-door work and for domestic +drudgery. Often absent from home on hunting trips and sometimes on +commando, the men entrust their work on such occasions (as is now the +case during the present war) to the care of their wives and daughters, +assisted by some younger sons, if the family includes any, or else +simply with the aid of Kaffir servants. Sometimes <a name="Page_196" id="Page_196" />they are without any +such help, when they take a pride in doing it alone.</p> + +<p>Girls as well as boys learn to ride on horseback when quite young. It is +quite a usual thing to see women riding astride fashion, collecting +sheep and cattle, or driving their horse carts and spiders (carriages), +unattended by males, over distances of over twenty and thirty +miles—women spanning in ox-teams to their travelling wagons, driving +them with long whips on journeys occupying one or more days. During the +Kaffir wars the Boers used to trek (travel) in bodies with their wagons, +which would serve to form a laager or fort, their families and +belongings being placed in the centre. During an attack the women would +attend to the men's wants, reload their rifles, and even take a more +active part in repelling the enemy, many of them being also crack shots. +The above-stated efficient and hardy habits with men and women apply +more to the people in the two Republics, and particularly so to those of +the Transvaal, while the Colonial Boers on the whole have had no such +experience, but instead have lived in uninterrupted peace and comfort +for generations, and may be classed with farmers of any other +well-governed and protected country or colony. The Boer farmers in the +<a name="Page_197" id="Page_197" />northern portions of the Cape Colony, however, approximate to those of +the Orange Free State in hardy habits and ability to fend for themselves +when in difficulty. But with the Transvaal Boers the training incident +to wars, hunting, and nomadic movements has been more sustained, and +they are thus in best form and fitness of efficiency compared with all +the rest.</p> + +<p>In the Orange Free State nearly every man above fifty years of age has +had the experience of the three years' Basuto war in 1865-67, and almost +all above forty are very expert huntsmen and crack shots. Quite a good +number have also taken part in the Transvaal war against the English in +1880; the rest have been trained by the elder veterans, and, though not +so well seasoned, are good horsemen, expert with the rifle, and +competent in the field. As to the Transvaalers, the men have all had +plenty of field practice before the previous war with England and since, +in subduing formidable Kaffir rebellions, the last being the operations +against the Magato chief, which terminated just before the outbreak of +the present Anglo-Boer war.</p> + +<p>Besides this, game had continued longer in abundance in the Transvaal, +and is still hunted with success in the northern low veldt and in the +adjacent <a name="Page_198" id="Page_198" />Portuguese territory. Added to this, the young Boers in the +Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal have been +encouraged to attain proficiency in rifle practice and competence in the +field, ostensibly for the gratification of keeping up old traditions, +but in reality to be prepared for the struggle against England meditated +by the Afrikaner Bond.</p> + +<p>About thirty odd years ago the Orange Free State and Transvaal were +still swarming with all sorts of game. Venison was the staple diet. +Lions and leopards also infested those States, but these and the game +have been pretty well extirpated since, except in some of the lower +parts of the Transvaal. In the earlier days ammunition was costly and +hard to procure, and the use had to be husbanded accordingly. It became +thus a practice never to pull a trigger unless with intense aim and the +certainty of an effective shot. A man would go out stalking for an hour +or so with perhaps but one or two charges, and would rarely fail in +bringing home the kind of game wanted—either a springbock, blesbock, or +wildebeest (gnu). In hunting lions, the lads would form part of the +company for the purpose of being taught. The boys would learn that if a +lion meant to attack he would approach to within <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199" />twenty or thirty +yards, and then straighten himself up before making the final charge. It +was during that short halt that the disabling or killing shot would have +to be delivered. Father and son would then be standing ready—the son to +fire first; if unsuccessful, the animal would be brought down by the +father. If there were a larger party and the lions numerous, the lessons +would be learnt so much better by way of emulation. The boys soon +realized that a lion, means business only when he advances silently and +with smoothed gait, but that bristling up and roaring is a sure prelude +to his skulking off. What we read of the terror-inspiring roar is to the +Boer stripling pure romance and non-sense; but what he does realize is +that he must hit the animal in a vital spot at the right moment or else +run the risk of being clawed and bitten. The confidence, however, which +he has in his gun gives him all the requisite nerve, and mishaps are of +very rare occurrence. Those lion hunts used to be very profitable, not +only for the valuable skins, but especially when a number of young cubs +were also caught, which would realize considerably high prices from +menagerie purveyors.</p> + +<p>At the age of about eight years a boy would be taught to ride on +horseback; when twelve years old <a name="Page_200" id="Page_200" />he would be an expert horseman and a +deadly rifle shot as well; at sixteen he would be able to perform all +farm duties and rank with pride and confidence as an efficient burgher +to take the field against any enemy. His brain is not addled with school +lore, but is thoroughly versed and taught from nature's book. Hardened +to the fatigue of long rides over unfamiliar country in search of stray +cattle, the Boer youth has often to subsist upon a bit of dried biltong +(junked beef or venison), endure at intervals scorching heat and +drenching rains, swim rivers, and pass the night with a stone for a +pillow and his saddle as the only shelter, while his horse, securely +hobbled, feeds upon the grass around. Never will he lose his way; if +landmarks fail him and clouds hide moon and stars, he is guided by wind, +the run of water or his horse's instincts. Accustomed to wide horizons, +he can promptly distinguish objects at a distance, which, to an +ordinarily good eyesight, would need careful scanning through a +field-glass.</p> + +<p>He is expert in finding and following any trail, and can promptly tell +the imprint from whatever animal it might be, or of whatever human +origin; an ideal scout and unsurpassed as a pioneer. When travelling +over roadless country the Boer's instinct <a name="Page_201" id="Page_201" />will direct him in tracing +the most practicable route for his wagons, and with his experience he +can foretell what kind of topography he will in succession have to +traverse, avoiding unnegotiable spots and unnecessary detours, and when +about to halt, a surveying gaze will locate the safest and most suitable +position for his temporary camp. Such capacities serve with obvious +advantage in defensive and offensive war tactics. Prompt in seizing an +advantage and in avoiding danger, he has also learnt to be an adept in +ruses to decoy and mislead an enemy, and as for self-help and +resourcefulness, there is hardly a situation or difficulty conceivable +which will not be successfully surmounted. The usual Boer can also fend +for himself and cope with the minor perplexities of every-day life in +the field, which would strand a less initiated man. He can cook, bake +bread, mend clothes, make boots, repair saddles, harness, and vehicles, +and is full of expedients and able to make shift. Most of them know how +to shoe their horses, whilst many of them are expert also in working +wood and metals and similar handicrafts. In short, the Boers make ideal +scouts and are unique as colonizing pioneers. In their nomadic +wanderings and frequent wars, the Boers have gained much useful +experience in tactics, strategy, and in the wiles of <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202" />diplomacy too. +They also learnt to adopt methods of organization, of cohesion, combined +action, and a certain amount of discipline among themselves.</p> + +<p>They elect as subordinate and chief leaders men whose abilities and +influence have commended them for such responsible appointments. Before +committing themselves to any very important step these leaders would +first confer with the people, who in turn would generally be easily +swayed to their opinions, and who found by experience that it was safest +to follow their judgment. It thus also became a habit to leave the main +thinking over to those leaders, which enhanced unanimity and led to a +self-imposed obedience and discipline recognised as necessary for the +common welfare and also indispensable for common safety.</p> + +<p>So prevalent had the practice become of deferring to the opinions of +their leaders that it engendered an apathy among the people against +considering political and public matters which were not altogether of +engrossing importance. Public meetings would be poorly attended, and at +elections not half the votes were recorded. "Let the elected heads see +to it; they are paid for doing the controlling and thinking work"—that +used to be the general feeling. But during the past twenty years public +interest <a name="Page_203" id="Page_203" />has by degrees been successfully aroused by the activities of +the Afrikaner Bond; the former apathy and distaste to the consideration +of public concerns have given place to a more lively identification even +with politics, but the tendency of being swayed by men of influence of +their own kind remains unchanged.</p> + +<p>The Boers are great smokers—tobacco appears to have no hurtful effects +whatever upon them, but seems rather to serve as a grateful sedative. +The first thing offered on meeting a Boer is his tobacco pouch, and if +one is a guest at his house, this is followed by one or more cups of +coffee. This is drunk by men and women in large quantities, often +without sugar, but very weak. The people are justly famed for cordial +hospitality to strangers, and the pleasing tact and unostentatious +correct politeness met with from the most ordinary and uneducated Boer +are only accountable for on the theory that that particular culture of +manners has been transmitted from his noble French ancestry of a couple +of hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>In stature the men near the average of six feet (say five feet ten +inches)—full-bearded, brawny-limbed, and of stalwart build, suggesting +a homeric capacity for aggression and resistance. They present <a name="Page_204" id="Page_204" />a +standard of sturdy and active manhood, which would have delighted the +critical eye of Frederick the Great for the formation of his very best +regiments. What is really singular is the infinitesimally small +proportion of ineffective and sickly men found left behind when all the +commandoes are called out, and also the considerable number of hale old +men above sixty who voluntarily join the field. And when the hardy +training and general high efficiency are considered down to the youth of +sixteen, one may estimate the formidableness of such a foe, all well +mounted on tough and nimble horses, well provisioned and provided with +the best weapons extant, guided by very competent chiefs and European +advisers—withal self-reliant and conscious of a superior aggressive and +defensive capability for repeating their splendid ancestral records of +prowess. Add to this inbred patriotism stimulated to an enthusiasm +approaching fanaticism by a mind fashioned to the belief that their war +is against an unjust usurper destined to be overthrown; it all sums up a +long way towards balancing numerical inferiority and inexperience in the +science of modern warfare. As to military science, they are apt to +become quickly tutored into proficiency by daily observation and +experience, and by the coaching of <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205" />the numerous military officers who +have joined their ranks.</p> + +<p>Another advantage upon the Boer side consists in complete +acclimatization and perfect knowledge of the country. Lastly, but by no +means less important, is the rational practice of always going as light +and unencumbered as at all possible, preferably with stripped saddle, +and to subsist mostly upon meat when in the field, both serving to +enhance staying power and to provide a reserve of stamina and of energy +for occasions of supreme effort, which often decide the fate of battle +against combatants, however courageous, who are fagged out with marching +on foot, and through being overladen with accoutrements and pack and a +lumbersome diet as well. What can such panting, unsteadied men do in +conflict with Boers who are fresh and in well-preserved form, and whose +steady sharp-shooting simply results in Calvaries for their opponents, +however brave, disciplined and well equipped they may be?</p> + +<p>Yet to be noted is the small commissariat needed for Boer horses and +mules. These are accustomed to subsist altogether on grass, and when it +is plentiful, during summer and fall, to keep in good condition, working +six to ten hours daily, if only allowed to graze during the rest of the +time. They <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206" />are then usually knee-haltered, <i>i.e.</i>, one foreleg tied to +the halter, with about eighteen inches space between. A few feeds of dry +mealies (maize) will be amply supplementary when the pasture is +inferior, or if the animals have to be picketed much.</p> + +<p>As said before, alcoholism does not prevail among the Boers, and any +tendency to it is sedulously checked by legislation and public +reprobation. President Krüger is an absolute abstainer from intoxicants, +and even at banquets he will sip water only when joining in a toast. His +contention is that the effects generally go beyond a harmlessly +exhilarating point; the action of alcohol unbalances the nervous +equilibrium, producing in most cases an excitement above the normal +level, followed by a corresponding depressive reaction below it, +creating an appetite for repeating the potation, with exactly similar +and progressively aggravated results. Then man's moral standard and +general efficiency and dignity become impaired, to the serious damage of +his own welfare and involving the common weal as well. When at the +outbreak of the war the sale of intoxicants became totally prohibited +the measure was received with willing submission and hailed with general +approval, which speaks volumes for the burgher population and without +doubt also tends to preserve their efficiency and stamina.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PRESIDENT_KRUGER" id="PRESIDENT_KRUGER" /><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207" />PRESIDENT KRÜGER</h2> + + +<p>Stephanus Johannes Paulus Krüger is about the most accessible President +on record. Every morning—except Sundays and holidays, after family +worship, that is to say, from 5.30 in summer and 6 in winter to 8 +o'clock—he gives audience to Boer and Uitlander, rich or poor alike, +and also on each afternoon, from 4 to 6 and even later. His residence in +the west end of Church Street, Pretoria, is quite an ordinary modest +building of the bungalow type. The only distinction observable is two +crouching lion figures, life size, on pedestals about three feet high, +at the balustrade entrance to the front verandah. A lawn of about thirty +feet across extends to the street limit, where at a very unpretentious +gate two armed burgher guards are constantly stationed. These will +receive an intending visitor's name, an unarmed domestic guard will then +come forward, who, after a short scrutiny, if the person is a stranger, +will report to the President <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208" />and will immediately return to conduct you +to that dignitary, who may be sitting under the front verandah or in the +adjoining reception-room. There the President will readily shake hands +and point to a chair, rather near by because he is slightly hard of +hearing, the domestic guard standing or sitting between, but a good way +back. By his questions and final remarks one feels assured that the +topic introduced has been attentively listened to and fully grasped. +While conversing, other audience-seekers would drop in, and, while +waiting their turn, coffee would usually be served to all. The manners +observed are devoid of any stiffness of etiquette, but rather marked +with a cordial decorum approaching intimacy, most assuring to the +simplest and humblest visitor.</p> + +<p>The only leisure the President enjoys is the interval from 12 to 2, +between his official labours at the Government buildings, which are +about half a mile distant from his house. He drives there and back in a +modest carriage attended by a guard of mounted policemen. His Honour is +invariably dressed in black cloth, with the usual tall silk hat. Six +feet high, with a slight stoop, broad shouldered, deep-chested, with +well-developed limbs, arms rather long, the President presents a +stately, burly figure, <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209" />portly without obesity. When younger he was +noted, as something like a Ulysses, for personal strength and prowess as +well as for sagacity. Although seventy-five years old now, Mr. Krüger +has still a remarkably hale bearing and an intellect of undiminished +quality. His eyesight, however, has been suffering of late, rendering +the attendance of an oculist necessary. His Honour is in his fifth term +of presidency, and has held the office twenty-two years. His salary is +£8,000 per annum, of which he probably does not expend £1,000, his +habits being exceedingly simple and frugal, Mrs. Krüger being equally +conservative and thrifty, preferring rather to expend money for her +children and in unostentatious benevolence than in superfluities.</p> + +<p>President Krüger is an exemplary Christian, an earnest student of the +Bible since his youth, ever ready to employ his gifts to strengthen the +faith of his people and to maintain their religious standard. He often +occupies the pulpit, and on other occasions gives exhorting discourses. +Upon the completion of the imposing Johannesburg synagogue his Honour +was requested to preside at its dedication. It was an impressive +function, and withal so anomalous and unrabbinical a departure—the head +<a name="Page_210" id="Page_210" />of the State, a devout Christian, opening the edifice for Jewish +worship and addressing a discourse to the thousands of assembled +Israelites. In his zeal and concern Mr. Krüger could not refrain from +adverting to their blessed Messiah, the God-man of Jewish stock, +rejected through ignorance by their forefathers, exalted since, but who +loved His people nevertheless, as typified by Joseph's narrative when he +revealed himself to his brethren in Egypt. He adjured them to a +prayerful reading of their Old Testament, and he invoked God's mercy to +remove the veil which obscured from their eyes their own and also the +Gentiles' glorious Immanuel. The ceremony was concluded with perfect +decorum, despite the surprise that the address had drifted into an +impassioned Gospel sermon.</p> + +<p>This grand old Boer is the very personification of noble patriotism and +devoted concern for the welfare of his nation. While admiring and loving +the man, what sorrow on the one side and indignant execration on the +other do not overwhelm one, seeing that such a pattern and leader of men +should have become the victim of that heartless Hollander coterie! One +cannot but marvel at the same time at the alert skill and wily patience +which must have been employed during the many years past to hold +<a name="Page_211" id="Page_211" />President Krüger with State Secretary Keitz and President Steyn in the +Afrikaner Bond leash ready to let loose with unshaken convictions upon +the supreme contest designed for them and their people by the +machinations intended for upraising Holland at the risk of immolating +the victimized Boer nation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PEACE_ADJUSTMENTS" id="PEACE_ADJUSTMENTS" /><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212" />PEACE ADJUSTMENTS</h2> + + +<p>Upon this topic a few remarks may be placed under the assumption that +the arch enemy's triumph in the present war will be circumscribed by the +havoc and the bereavements created by it, and by the forfeiture +inflicted upon the poor deluded Boers of their special heirlooms. One of +the considerations would be the war cost and its recoupment, and another +important one is the measures needful to prevent a repetition of a Bond +revolt.</p> + +<p>As to the war indemnity: it is well understood on all hands that the +supremacy of Great Britain, when once established as the result of the +war, will greatly enhance the value of all existing capital +investments—10 to 50 per cent., and many even 100 per cent. It is not +to be denied that capitalism has evinced decided eagerness that English +supremacy should be asserted, and it is in a manner amenable together +with the Afrikaner Bond, for secretly striving to bring about the +contest each independently in its own way, but without the least concert +with each other. It appears therefore <a name="Page_213" id="Page_213" />equitable that capital should +become contributable to the cost of the war which will eventually result +in so largely enhancing its invested values.</p> + +<p>A tax of 2-1/2 per cent. upon the aggregate investment values and a +royalty upon the mining industries of 25 per cent. of the net profits +would appear reasonable.</p> + +<pre> +The 2-1/2 per cent. tax might bring a sum of 15 millions +The royalty could be reckoned at capitalized value 50 " +The confiscations might reach 10 " +And the underground rights around the Johannesburg + mines might realize 50 "<br /> +</pre> + +<p>Thus together 125 millions, possibly not sufficient to cover the entire +war cost if pensions are to be included. It is a sad reflection to note +that the entire wealth which constituted the national heirloom of the +Transvaal will have been wasted, and comes far short to cover the actual +war expenditure. In regard to preventive measures against another Bond +war, nothing appears clearer than the necessity of applying the <i>lex +talionis</i> upon the Hollander element in South Africa (though not in that +inhuman fashion as was practised upon the English refugees before and at +the commencement of the war).</p> + +<p><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214" />Whilst not so guilty to the same extent of enormity as the coterie in +Holland, who devised all the Bond mischief at a safe distance, the +Hollanders in South Africa were nevertheless their eager abettors and +sedulous henchmen. It will be remembered that the Bond cry had been +"Drive the English into the sea, out of Africa," and that the first +earnest in carrying out that fiat was practised some months before the +outbreak of the war upon the unaggressive coloured British subjects, +traders, merchants, etc., whose removal from their residences and +businesses to ghettos outside the towns practically compassed their ruin +and expulsion from the Transvaal. This was followed, first by a +voluntary and afterwards by the forced exodus of Uitlanders at the rate +of thousands per day—men, women, and children packed in uncleansed coal +and cattle trucks, together with Coolies, Kaffirs, and Hottentots, and +hustled over the Portuguese border, dumped down at that death-trap +Komati Poort if unable to pay the railway fare for fifty-three miles +further to Delagoa Bay. Those refugees were obliged to abandon or +sacrifice their belongings—they had no time allowed to realize them; it +meant their financial ruin.</p> + +<p>That Hollander element comprises the most <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215" />insidious menace, and, like a +cancer, must be unsparingly excised from South Africa, unless +encouragement is intended to be given for an attempt to go one better +next time, with a repetition, or rather an aggravation, of the horrors +of war and the cost in life and treasure, turning the sub-continent into +a second vast Algeria, with perhaps such another "Abd El Kadr" to +subdue, and without any reserve asset, as now, to fall back upon towards +reimbursing the expense. Their expulsion should, however, not be +effected without giving some fair notice affording them time for the +realization of their estates. As to the Dutch language, it will not +entail any excessive hardship if it is equally banished as an official +language, seeing that English is on the whole not more unfamiliar to the +bulk of the Boer people than pure High Dutch is, and seeing that the +dual right was accorded to Dutch as an official language under this +almost inconceivable feature, that it admittedly had yet to be learnt to +become of any practical use or utility other than as an instrument for +keeping the races apart and to facilitate the Bond objects of usurpation +and revolt.</p> + + +<p>FINIS</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed +(2nd ed.), by C. H. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.) + The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked + +Author: C. H. Thomas + +Release Date: February 18, 2005 [EBook #15106] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIGIN OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Garrett Alley, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + +ORIGIN OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR REVEALED + +The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked + +By C.H. THOMAS + +of Belfast Transvaal formerly Orange Free State Burgher + + +SECOND EDITION + +LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON + +27 PATERNOSTER ROW MCM + +_Butler & Tanner The Selwood Printing Works Frome and London_ + + + + +NOTICE + + +The present book had been intended for publication in South Africa +before the end of 1899, with the object of laying bare the wicked and +delusive aims of the Afrikaner Bond combination, to which the Anglo-Boer +war alone is attributable, and to counteract its disastrous influences +so far as then still possible. But until quite lately circumstances had +conspired so as to prevent the writer from leaving the Transvaal, and +when he at last obtained the required passport to Lourenco Marques he +was there denied a permit to visit a colonial port. He therefore sailed +for London in order to publish this book without more loss of time. +Though too late to serve as a deterrent, the contents may be effective +towards showing up the really guilty parties--the instigators and +seducers of the deluded Boer nation, and so pave and widen the avenue of +peace and of conciliation between Boer and Briton who were duped and +victimized alike. + +The exposure of the actual culprits and originators should also operate +favourably, and in mitigation in behalf of the much less guilty Boers, +so as to dispose the victors to the exercise of magnanimous +consideration. In exposing the villainy of the Dutch coterie in Holland, +the writer is far from impugning the honourable character of that +nation, the better part of whom, when once undeceived, will be the first +to reprobate and disown those arch-plotters who sacrificed the peace of +South Africa for personal and national advantage. + +Some other information regarding the Boers and South Africa will be +found interspersed in this study, which will be found of use to the +uninitiated and to intending emigrants to that sub-continent. As the +reader proceeds with the examination of this book it will suggest +comparisons and even analogies which may commend themselves as +singularly apposite and instructive in relation with the study of the +presently budding Eastern question. + +C.H. THOMAS + + +NOTE TO SECOND EDITION + + The issue of a Second Edition has afforded an opportunity to + correct a few linguistic blemishes, but the work has only been + very slightly revised. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +NOTICE V + +INTRODUCTION 1 + +CURSORY HISTORY OF THE BOER NATION 6 + +PROSPERITY OF BOERS AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND UP TO 1881 16 + +TRANSVAAL HISTORY--SUZERAINTY 21 + +TREATMENT OF UITLANDERS, FRANCHISE, VENALITY, BRIBERY 25 + +MONSTER PETITION, JAMESON INCURSION, ARMAMENTS 37 + +BLOEMFONTEIN CONFERENCE, BOER ULTIMATUM 43 + +BOER LANGUAGE 52 + +THE DUTCH COTERIE, ITS SEAT IN HOLLAND 57 + +AFRIKANER BOND--OUTLINES AND PROGRAMME 62 + +PACIFIC POLICY OF GREAT BRITAIN 70 + +PRESS PROPAGANDA--SECRET SERVICE--TRADE RIVALRIES 72 + +DISLOYALTY OF COLONIAL BOERS 82 + +PORTUGUESE TERRITORY--TRANSVAAL LOW VELDT--MALARIA--HORSE SICKNESS 89 + +CLIMATE AND TOPOGRAPHY 95 + +BOER PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR 108 + +ALLIANCE OF ORANGE FREE STATE WITH TRANSVAAL--SUZERAINTY + SQUABBLE--TRANSVAAL ARMAMENTS PRIOR TO JAMESON RAID 115 + +THE TRANSVAAL DYNAMITE AND EXPLOSIVES MONOPOLY 122 + +BOER FIGHTING STRENGTH 124 + +BOER CONSERVATISM, EDUCATION, DUNDEE DOSSIER, ANTI-ENGLISH + PAMPHLET ENTITLED "A HUNDRED YEARS' INJUSTICE" 126 + +AN OLD FREE STATER'S ADMONITION 137 + +MODUS VIVENDI SUGGESTED BY OLD FREE STATER 143 + +MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S POLICY TO AVERT WAR 150 + +AFRIKANER BOND GUILT IN GRADATIONS 155 + +RESUME 161 + +BOERS' NATIVE POLICY 167 + +ENGLAND'S NATIVE AND COLONIAL POLICY 172 + +OCCULT OPERATIONS AND AGENCIES 178 + +RELIGION 184 + +PHYSIQUE AND HABITS 193 + +PRESIDENT KRUeGER 207 + +PEACE ADJUSTMENTS 212 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Apart from the progress of the present Anglo-Boer war a world-wide +interest has been excited also upon the question of its actual origin. +Much disparity of opinion prevails yet as to how it was provoked and +upon which side the guilt of it all lay. + +English statesmen of noblest character and best discriminating gifts are +seen professing opposite convictions; one party earnestly asserting the +complete blamelessness of their Government, whilst the other, with +equally sincere assurance, denounces the responsible Ministry for having +provoked a most unjust war against a totally inoffensive people, whose +only fault consisted in asserting its love of freedom, and for thus +plunging the entire British nation into blackest guilt deserving +universal reprobation, a blot and stigma upon Her Majesty's reign. + +In following the course of the arguments which have led to those +opposing verdicts, one is impressed with the paucity and the clashing +character of the information adduced. The marked reticence on the part +of the British Cabinet in regard to its diplomatic proceedings tends +further to mystify the inquirer, and leaves the bulk of the British +nation in a painful state of suspense without conclusive data for +judging whether the war is really justifiable or not. + +Nor do the various pamphlets and Press articles furnish sufficient light +for exploring the maze and producing an approximate unanimity of +conviction. + +It is hoped that the succeeding pages will be found to supplement the +material so essential for diagnosing those grave questions with some +degree of certainty, and to locate the guilt more precisely. + +Since my youth I have passed nearly forty years in uninterrupted and +intimate intercourse with all classes of Boers, resulting in a sincere +attachment to that people, with no small appreciation of its many good +traits and character. Besides making myself familiar with the earlier +portion of that nation's history, I have had leisure and opportunities +to closely follow up its later interesting phases up to the present +moment. These presented a more perplexing aspect during the last decade, +adding a zest to my endeavours for unravelling them, and happening to +be a good deal in the know I felt that I might not remain quiet. + +Being anything but anti-Boer, nor an Englishman, but a foreigner, born +of continental parents and brought up in Europe, these facts should +exempt me from a supposition of bias in exonerating England. It is with +real grief that I must record my convictions against the Boer nation as +solely and entirely guilty, but with this qualification, that its +responsibility is much attenuated by the fact, as I will endeavour to +show, that the bulk of that people has been unconsciously decoyed as +tools of a gigantic intrigue, a conspiracy which was originated some +thirty years ago by an infamous Hollander coterie, and operated since by +its product and engine, the now well-known "Afrikaner Bond Association," +with its significant motto of "Afrika voor Afrikaners"[1]--its object +being no less than the eviction of all that is English from South +Africa, and to substitute a federation of all South African States into +one free and independent Republic, the affiliation to be with Holland +instead, and Dutch the common and official language, other nations, in +return for afforded aid, to participate in the trade and other +advantages wrested from England. + +I only regret that my ability falls so much short for the task of +demonstrating all this in an approved style--for doing justice to the +subject. Its investigation embraces a wider range of details to serve as +evidence than may, upon first thought, be held as relevant; but I +believe that a willing study will show their connection as serviceable +for arriving at an independent and unhesitating verdict. + +A very strong and convincing case is indeed needed for remodelling +opinions where there is preconceived Boer partisanship, and where party +spirit or else foreign jealousy have already warped judgment and +established bias. + +It would be no small relief to every honest-minded person, especially in +England, to be clear upon the subject that England is free of +guilt--equally so to the soldier who is called upon to fight her +battles. But other objects of no less importance are in view, viz., to +open the eyes of the misguided Boer people to the wicked artifices by +which it has been seduced from friendly relations with England into an +unjustifiable war, to deter the still wavering portion from joining the +ranks of sedition, and, lastly, the grounds for palliation being +recognised, to pave the way to an early termination of the war by +adjustments which could restore mutual goodwill and respect between the +contending parties, and so bring about a speedy return of South African +prosperity and progress. + +The writer is fully prepared to give data and names of the incidents +adduced in this paper in support of their authenticity. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Africa for white African citizens.] + + + + +CURSORY HISTORY OF THE BOER NATION + +The two principal elements of the Boer nation were the settlers of the +Dutch trading company at the Cape of Good Hope, sturdy farmers and +tradesmen belonging to the proletarian class of Holland, and a +subsequent contingent of French Huguenot refugees and their families who +joined as colonists soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I +mention below the names still existing which form a large proportion of +the present Boer nation of Huguenot descent:-- + +Billion Blignaut Bisseux Delporte +Du prez Du Toit De la Bey Durand +Davel De Langue Duvenage Fourie +Fouche Grove Hugo Jourdan +Lombard Le Roux Roux Lagrange +Labuscaque Mare Marais Malan +Malraison Maynard Malherbe De Meillon +De Marillac Matthee Naude Nortier +Rousseau Taillard Theron Terblanche +De Villiers Fortier Lindeque Vervier +Vercueil Basson Pinard Duvenage +Celliers de Clercq Leclercq Devinare + +Men of the best French stock, noted for honour, energy and +perseverance, rather than recant their Protestant faith, abandoned +seigneurial homes, high positions and lucrative callings to carve out +fresh careers, and even to become humble farmers wherever they found +asylums and tolerance, men who became very valuable accessions to the +nations who received them and a correspondingly significant loss to +France. To those two main elements were added sparse accessions from +other nations at later intervals, and also a strain of aboriginal blood, +of which a more or less faint tinge is still discernible in some +families, an admixture which many deplore and others consider as most +serviceable, supplying a subtle piquancy for perfecting the general +stock. + +The early Cape Governors aimed at the prompt assimilation of those +French people with their own colonists--to make Dutchmen of them. Among +other drastic enactments to enforce that object, no other language but +Dutch was permitted to be used in public of pain of corporal punishment. +Not a few noble Frenchmen were subjected to that indignity for +inadvertent breaches of that draconian law, but, as conscientious +observers of biblical commands which enjoin subjection to all +governmental rule, they willingly submitted and obeyed. Intermarriages +with their Dutch fellow-colonists further promoted assimilation into one +cohesive community. At the same time the Huguenot faith was transmitted +to their descendants, and had a marked influence in sustaining common +religious fervour and consistency. They did not look for a reward or +compensation for the sacrifices endured, for the sake of faith, by those +refugees, though a gracious providence, as the sequel showed, held in +store a most ample restitution--magnificent heirlooms for their later +descendants, heirlooms which are now unhappily staked in this present +war. + +In 1814 a payment of six millions sterling received by the Prince of +Orange closed the transfer of the Dutch Cape settlement to Great +Britain. Immigration of English settlers followed and the area of the +colony soon largely extended. As under the Dutch _regime_, the practice +of slavery had continued until its abolition in 1833 by the ransom +payable by the English Government to the owners of slaves. The Boer +colonists deeply resented that act, and especially the next to +impracticable condition which provided that payments could only be +received in England instead of on the spot. Many were cheated of all +their emancipation money by their appointed proxies or agents, or else +had to submit to exorbitant charges and commissions; a great number +voluntarily renounced all in disgust. + +By that time the existence had become known of promising tracts of +country lying north of the Orange River beyond the confines of the +British colonies, and a large number of Boers combined with the +intention of establishing an independent community northwards free from +British restraint. + +The British authorities appeared at that time not to fully realize that +that movement was rife with future dangers and complications to their +own colonial interests, that it meant the creation of a nucleus of a +people openly averse to the English, and who would independently carry +out practices in near proximity, especially in dealing with aborigines, +which would seriously compromise them and become a standing menace +against peaceful expansion and civilization. + +It was, on the other hand, anticipated that the movement could only end +in disaster, the people being too few to make a successful stand against +the numerous hostile Kaffir tribes. The Government, therefore, refrained +from preventive measures, and confined its efforts to discouraging the +emigration and to reconcile the malcontents. Those efforts, however, +proved fruitless; the people held to their project with resolute +fearlessness and self-confidence, and were even content to sacrifice +their farms and homesteads, their sale being in some cases forbidden by +special enactment. + +The terms of "Boer" and "Boer nation" do not convey or mean anything +disparaging, rather the contrary. Boer simply means farmer, as a rule +the proprietor of a farm of about 3,000 to 10,000 acres, who combines +stock-breeding with a variety of other farming enterprises as well, +according to the soil and locality. As a national designation, the term +"Boer" conveys the distinction from the recently arrived Dutchman, who +is called "Hollander." Hollanders, again, delight of late to claim the +Boer nation as their kith and kin, but prefer to ignore the existence of +the French Huguenot factor. + +The great "trek," with families and movables, as the emigration movement +is called, occurred in 1836; some families started even before, and +other contingents followed shortly afterwards. After many vicissitudes +and nearly twenty years of wanderings, and a nomadic life attended with +untold hardships and dangers, intermittent conflicts with native tribes, +and at times also contests with British forces, they were eventually +permitted, under treaty with England, to settle down and to constitute +the independent Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics. That was in +1854 and 1852 respectively. + +But, until then, progress in the British colonies and peaceful relations +with the several Kaffir nations had at times been sadly impeded by the +aggressive native policy pursued by the Boers after the pattern adopted +from the previous Dutch _regime_, which admitted of slavery, whilst +English law had abolished and forbade that practice as contrary to a +soundly moral method of civilizing natives and inimical to prosperous +and peaceable colonial progress. Broils and wars between Boers and +Kaffirs had been almost incessant, and intervals of peace only proved +their mutually latent hostility. Besides being occasionally engaged in +unavoidable wars with neighbouring tribes themselves, it became +frequently incumbent upon the British military authorities to intervene +in conflicts induced by the Boers, alternately protecting them against +natives and natives against the Boers, and all that at the unnecessary +expenditure of much blood and treasure. + +The Boer occupation of Natal was found to be wholly prejudicial to +British interests on aforesaid accounts, and was, besides, contrary to +the express declaration of the Boer emigrants at the time of their +exodus from the Cape Colony, which was that their new settlements should +be located north of the Orange River. Stepping in to the eastward and +claiming part of the littoral constituted a rivalry in conflict with +that understanding, and England therefore considered it within her +rights to expel the Boers from Natal, and to proceed with the +colonization there with British settlers instead. That temporary +occupation of Natal had been fraught to the Boers with most stirring +episodes--some of the most melancholy description, and others +representing records of really unsurpassed heroism, which can but arouse +deepest emotions and admiration in any reader of their history. There +was the treacherous massacre of Retief and Potgeiter and his party by +the Zulu king Dingaan at his military kraal, followed by other wholesale +massacres of men, women, and children at Weenen and other Boer camps in +Natal. Then came the punitive expedition of 450 Boers, armed with +flint-locks only, who utterly defeated Dingaan's most redoubtable impi +of 10,000 warriors, and resulted in the complete overthrow of that Zulu +monarch. + +When that punitive Boer commando was about to start upon its mission it +was solemnly vowed to observe a day of national thanksgiving each year +if Divine aid were vouchsafed to accomplish the object. That brilliant +victory had occurred on the 16th December, 1838, and the day has ever +since been religiously observed as had been vowed. The celebrations in +the Transvaal take place at Paarden-kraal, near Johannesburg, and some +other accessible and central camping grounds, where the burghers with +their families congregate in thousands--a sort of feast of tabernacles, +lasting three days, undeterred by the most boisterous weather. The +declaration of independence fell on that same date at Paarden-kraal in +1879, and it was also in December of the succeeding year that the Boers +proved victorious over the British troops in Natal, after which the +Transvaal had its independence generously restored by the Gladstone +Ministry (subject to treaty 1881). + +On those anniversaries stirring speeches would be made by the elder +leading men, rehearsing the events of the nation's history so as to +grave them upon the minds of the younger, and to revive the thankful +memories of the elder people. It is only in human nature that +unsympathetic feelings against the English would intrude upon the +thanksgivings on those occasions, especially as it continues yet to be +averred that the British authorities had incited the Zulu king Dingaan +to those massacres. Nevertheless, except in instances of implacable +natures, the predominant sentiments at those gatherings were those of +gratitude to the Almighty and good-will towards all men. After the peace +of 1881, it used to be publicly recognised that the English were +entitled thenceforth to a first place in the nation's friendship, and +that the retrocession put a term to all recriminations applying to +previous dates. + +The sequel has shown that soon afterwards another spirit was allowed to +intrude to displace those good and just sentiments, and that without any +reason or provocation and despite a persistently loyal and sincere +attitude of friendship and confidence observed towards the Boers by the, +British Government and the English people in South Africa. As instances +may be cited: (1) England's conceding spirit in assenting to a +modification of the convention of 1881 and agreeing to that of 1884; (2) +genial treatment of the colonial Boers on perfect equality with English +colonists, sharing in the privileges of self-government, the Dutch +language also raised to equal rights with English; (3) most harmonious +relations with the Orange Free State; (4) reduction of transit duties +for goods to the Republics to 5 per cent, and later to 3 per cent.; (5) +unrestricted privilege for the importations of arms and ammunition to +both Republics. In lieu of friendly reciprocity the return began to be +rancorous mistrust and revival of hatred. + +In the course of our study to account for this sad and unwarrantable +change on the part of the Boers we will be following the trail of the +serpent and track it right up to its Hollander lair and to its at first +unsuspected product, the Afrikaner Bond. + + + + +PROSPERITY OF BOERS AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND UP TO 1881 + + +A period of about twenty-five years following the establishment of the +Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics was marked with much progress +and prosperity in the Cape Colonies and Natal, both Republics also +having cause to rejoice over similar advancement. + +The evil influence which aimed at rending good relations between Boer +and English became more apparent after 1881. During the preceding era +the two races actually had been in a fair way towards friendly +assimilation. Mutual appreciation was further stimulated by the +reciprocal benefits arising from trade and economic relations. +Intermarriages became more frequent under such friendly intercourse, a +respectable Englishman being truly prized in those days as a Boer's +son-in-law. The English language also largely advanced in favour and +prestige not only among the Cape Colonial and Natal Boers, but also in +both Republics, and anti-English sentiments were fast being supplanted +by amity and goodwill. + +The principal event in the Orange Free State during that period was a +three years' exhaustive war with the Basuto nation, which ended in the +latter's defeat in 1867. Their chief Moshesh then appealed for British +intervention. The Basutos thus came under England's protection, and a +peace resulted which has ever since continued, through British prestige +and authority as well as good government. The Orange Free State gained a +large tract of the territory conquered by that State, but had to +renounce the rest. + +Then, in about 1870, came the discovery of the diamond-fields, situated +on the then still ill-defined western limits of the State. According to +a boundary line claimed by Great Britain, those diamond-fields fell +outside Free State territory. That State received L90,000 compensation +for improvements and expenses incurred during its short occupation of +that disputed strip of diamondiferous ground. The diamond-fields at +Jagersfontein and Koffyfontein were subsequently discovered and lie deep +within the confines of the State. President Brand had proved his +sagacity and discretion in concluding the negotiations with England +upon the question of the peace with the Basutos and then again in +submitting to the boundary delimitations, it being contended even yet +that the Orange Free State had the weightier arguments in its favour in +both instances. + +The people of that Republic proved however to be the ultimate gainers in +those adjustments; they did not miss the more solid advantages attending +the discovery of the diamond-fields. Believed of the grave +responsibility involved in governing a turbulent population of foreign +diggers, the geographical position of the Kimberley fields secured to +the Free State farmers an almost entire monopoly in the supply of +products; trade also flourished apace, all tending to enrich the +inhabitants and the State revenue as well. + +But the Orange Free State derived a permanent advantage, quite unique +and more than compensating the apparent set-back suffered by the loss of +the diamond-field territory and by British intervention in the Basuto +war matter, in that the method of those procedures saddled England with +the responsibility of guaranteeing the internal safety of the State from +those hitherto unprotected borders "altogether at her own cost." The +Keate award completed the British cordon around the Free State, +excepting only in regard to the Transvaal frontier. No need thenceforth +for costly military provisions for the protection of the State--it was, +as it were, walled and fenced in at British expense, and the State +revenue was thus for ever relieved of a very heavy item of expenditure, +which could be devoted to the increase of the national wealth instead--a +peaceful security accompanied with an intrinsic gain constituting a +veritable and permanent heirloom for the people of that State. + +It is notable that the position of the Orange Free State, without any +other access to the sea-board than from colonial ports, made its status +and welfare entirely dependent upon the friendly and loyal good faith of +England. Up to the present unhappy war that State enjoyed unaltered the +best relations without being ever subjected to even a trace of chicanery +from the part of Great Britain. + +By what illusion, it may well be asked, could that hitherto friendly +people have been deluded to risk all in a disloyal breach with England +by joining the Transvaal in a "Bond" issue against her best friend? +Towards the Transvaal also had England proved her earnest desire to +maintain an intercourse on the basis of sincere amity, desirous only of +reciprocity, which indeed could be expected in willing return, seeing +that England took upon her own shoulders to provide for the protection +and welfare of the entire area of South Africa by sea and land, whilst +both Republics freely participated in all the great benefits so derived. +These considerations should substantially disprove the wicked aspersion +lately made that British policy aimed at the subversion of republican +autonomy in those two States. All that Great Britain needed and +confidently expected in return for her goodwill was friendly adhesion, +and a willing recognition of her paramountcy in matters affecting the +common weal of South Africa as a whole, and also such reciprocity and +mutual concern in the welfare of all as consistently comport with common +interests. How fell and malignant the "influence" which operated a +treacherous ingratitude and hostility instead! + + + + +TRANSVAAL HISTORY--SUZERAINTY + + +The references made to the history of the Transvaal so far reach up to +the rehabilitation of its independence and the convention of 1881. Some +of the conditions of that treaty, especially the subordinate position +imposed by the suzerainty clause, were found to be repugnant to the +burghers. Delegates were therefore commissioned to proceed to England in +order to get the treaty so altered as to place the State into the status +provided by the Sand River convention, which conceded absolute +independence. Mr. Jorrison, a violent anti-English Hollander, was the +chief adviser of the members of that delegation. + +To that the English Ministry could not assent, but sought to meet the +wishes of the people by agreeing to certain modifications of the +convention of 1881. This was effected with the treaty of 1884. The +delegates had specially urged the renunciation of the suzerainty claim, +but that claim appears not to have been abandoned, to judge from the +absence of such mention in the novated treaty. Had its renunciation been +agreed to, as has been since averred, it is quite certain that the +delegates would not have been content without the mention in most +distinct terms of that, to them, so important point. It may therefore be +assumed as a fact that the negotiations did not result in an active +suspension of the relations as set forth in the convention of 1881, and +that the Transvaal continued in a status of subordinacy to England, but +only with a wider range in regard to conditions of autonomy. To most lay +minds it therefore appears perfectly clear that the Transvaal delegates +had well understood and accepted, and so had also their Government, that +the convention of 1884 was _de facto_ a renewal of that of 1881, with +the only difference that it provided an enlarged exercise of autonomy, +but without in the least abrogating the principles of respective +relations, which were left intact, or at least latent. + +It has been averred and a strong point made in the theory of repudiating +suzerainty or over-lordship that Lord Kimberley had given the assurance +that the right of Transvaal autonomy and independence was meant to equal +that of the Orange Free State. This need not be contested, as that +Minister obviously relied upon a similar observance of staunch adhesion +towards England which that State had shown during a period of thirty +years previous; the fact that the Transvaal was quite differently +situated as to adjoining territory imposed the necessity, if only as a +matter of form, to preserve the written conditions of Transvaal +vassalage. + +Lord Kimberley, in 1889, intimated the readiness of his Government to +afford advisory and other co-operation with the Transvaal Government in +order to cope with the new element of foreign immigration, resulting +from the discovery of the rich gold-fields, and to provide appropriate +relations with a new floating population, without materially altering +the status of Transvaal authority, or the methods of government then in +practice. + +The Transvaal Government, however, preferred to ignore that loyal offer, +and to be guided by Bond principles instead. That circumstance affords +another proof that England did not then see the necessity, as has +subsequently been the case, of strengthening her position against Bond +aggression by imposing a demand of general franchise for Uitlanders. + +One aspect of the prolonged controversy _re_ suzerainty forced upon +England would be to denote a lack of honour, which is not of unfrequent +occurrence when one party to a contract seeks by cavil and legal quibble +to evade compliance with some of its conditions, simply because the +written terms appear to afford scope for doing so. But the principal +reason of the Transvaal contention proceeded from the project of gaining +over some strong foreign ally who would see an obstacle, if not +scruples, in joining common cause whilst England's claim of +over-lordship remained unshaken. But for that consideration the +Transvaal Government inwardly viewed the whole of the treaties as waste +paper, since it was not only intended to violate them all, but also to +bring about, at an opportune moment, a hostile severance from England. +In the meantime, the academic squabble was to serve as a decoy to hide +Transvaal identification with any such sinister objects, and to divert +attention and suspicion. + + + + +TRANSVAAL HISTORY--TREATMENT OF UITLANDERS--FRANCHISE + + +To resume the cursory history of the Transvaal. Mr. Burger, during his +Presidency in the early seventies, went to Europe with the mission of +attracting capital to the development and exploitation of gold, etc., +then already authentically discovered; also, to provide for the building +of a railway connecting with Delagoa Bay. The Transvaal Boers were at +that time exceedingly poor, and without a sufficient revenue for +properly maintaining the administration. Beyond creating a lively +interest, his success was confined to an agreement with a company in +Holland for building a section of that railroad, which, however, fell +through, because the Transvaal proved ultimately unable to furnish its +quota of the necessary funds. The present President fared better. A +Dutch company styled "The Nederlandsch Zuid Afrikaansche Spoorweg +Maatschappy," abbreviated "Z.A.S.M.," undertook the work and completed +it in 1887, from the Portuguese border to Pretoria. The line from +Pretoria to the Natal border was soon after built, as also several +extensions around the Wit-waters Rand, and that from Pretoria to +Pietersburg. The section connecting Delagoa Bay as far as the Transvaal +border had previously been completed by McMurdo, and is the subject of +the present Berne arbitration.[2] + +The contract conferred to the Dutch Company a monopoly, and most +advantageous financial terms as well. By that time great strides had +been made in the development of the Transvaal gold-fields, especially at +the Wit-waters Rand (Johannesburg); and immigration on a large scale +from all parts of the world had set in, and was constantly increasing +with vast amounts of investments in mercantile and other enterprises, as +well as in mining industries. At first, equitable laws governed burghers +and Uitlanders alike, administered by an independent judiciary. All +desirable security was afforded for person and property, with confidence +in the safety of investments, and great general prosperity kept pace +with ever-increasing activities and enterprise. + +It was a great satisfaction to Uitlanders that the peace of 1881, and +the reinstatement of Transvaal independence, had restored harmony +between Boer and English, and that a policy was being followed to +preclude friction between the respective Governments. Those facts +largely stimulated investments and enhanced confidence. By 1887 the +alien population had already exceeded 100,000, and the capital +investments L200,000,000 sterling, and the desire so ardently +entertained by the people of the land, for twenty years back, was +gratified at last. The burghers shared in the prosperity to a very large +degree, and in lieu of former poverty, competence and wealth became the +rule, and many of them became exceedingly rich. It was not unusual to +hear Boers expressing undisguised gratitude, not merely for the natural +gold deposits, but specially also that people had come to prospect and +to invest capital, without which the wealth of the land would have +remained unexploited and lain fallow. Harmony and cordiality were the +proper outcome between foreigners and Boers. The influx of capital and +of immigrants continued to increase, but not so the happy conditions. +These were gradually getting marred by a spirit of variance, no one +seemed to know how. The study of this paper will reveal it. The variance +between Boers and Uitlanders began to be specially discernible from 1887 +and had been increasing like a blight ever since. This was noticeably +coincident with the numerous arrivals of educated Hollanders employed +for the railways and the Government administration. + +In the earlier period of the Transvaal Republic, one year's residence +was first held sufficient for acquiring full franchise or burgher rights +and voting qualifications. The condition was successively raised to two, +three, and five years; but in 1890 laws were passed which required +fourteen years' probation, with conditions which virtually brought the +term to twenty-one years, and even then left the acquisition of full +franchise to the caprice of field-cornets and higher officials. +Englishmen and their descendants were at one time totally and for ever +excluded and disqualified just merely because of their nationality +whilst Hollanders were admitted in very large numbers without having to +pass any probation at all or only comparatively short terms. The English +language became a target for hostility and as good as proscribed; +impracticable and ludicrous attempts even were made to exclude its use +in Johannesburg, where hardly any Uitlander understood Dutch, whilst +every Boer official was well versed in English: market and auction sales +were to be conducted only in Dutch; bills of fare at hotels and +restaurants were also to be in full-fledged Dutch only--and all this, it +must be remembered, some years before the Jameson incursion took place. + +The judiciary, which, according to the "Grondwet" (Constitution), was +the highest legal authority, was by one stroke of enactment rendered +subservient and subordinate to the First Volksraad. The then Chief +Justice (Kotzee) was ignominiously deposed for honourably contending +against the grave departure from right and justice in subverting the +sacred prerogative due to the highest tribunal, which Boer and Uitlander +alike relied upon for independent justice. + +A new system of education was next introduced which admitted only High +Dutch as the medium of instruction in public schools. As only Hollander +children could benefit by such tuition, and whereas those of other +immigrants could not understand that language, the effect was that +parents of English and other nationalities had to combine in +establishing private schools or else to employ private teachers at their +own expense--whilst paying, in the way of taxation, for Hollander public +schools as well. That oppressive system was subsequently somewhat +modified in a manner which admitted the English language as a medium for +a portion of the school hours, the proportion so accorded being larger +in Johannesburg and other such wholly English-speaking centres than in +other parts of the State; but the amelioration did not take place until +after much irritation and expense had been occasioned, nor did it meet +the case of hardship more than half-way. I may here place the remark +that the public educational department is conducted without stint of +expenditure in providing from Holland the amplest and best school +equipments and highly salaried Dutch professors and teachers. + +Irritating class legislation began to be systematically resorted to, to +the prejudice of Uitlanders (the majority of whom, it will be borne in +mind, were English), which painfully pointed to a fixed determination on +the part of the Boers to lord it over them as a totally inferior class, +allowing them no representation, and to treat them, in fact, just as a +conquered people placed under tribute and proper only to be dominated +and exploited. + +Boers could walk or ride about armed to the teeth, whilst Uitlanders +were forbidden to possess arms under penalty of confiscation and other +punishments (except sporting-guns under special permit). The like +irritations became rampant by 1890 already. + +The alien population were at first too much occupied with their +prosperous vocations to combine in the way of protesting against such +prevailing usage. The Press was, however, eventually employed, and the +Government was approached with respectful petitions praying for redress +of the most glaring causes of discontent; but those were invariably +either disdainfully rejected or ignored, or, if some matter was +relieved, other more exasperating enactments were defiantly substituted. +They were cynically told that they had come to their (the Boer's) +country unasked, and were at liberty, and in fact invited, to leave it +if the laws did not please them. This was said, well knowing that to +leave would involve too great sacrifices of homes and investments. The +Uitlanders could not, however, be brought to the belief that the +Government of a conscientious people could persist in dealing with them +as if a previous design had existed--first to inveigle them and their +capital into their midst, with the object of goading and despoiling them +afterwards. The course of petitioning and respectful remonstrances was +therefore persevered in, but all to no purpose. Indignation and +resentment were the natural result of those failures. There appeared no +alternative but to submit or else to abandon all and leave the country. + +It is true that numerous Uitlanders acquired competences, and some were +amassing fortunes, but such prizes were comparatively few. The majority +just managed, with varying success, to reap a reasonable return for +their outlays and energies, or only to live more or less comfortably. +The fashion of luxurious and unthrifty living, so prevalent among the +"_nouveaux riches_" and the section who vied with them, impressed the +Boers with the notion that all were getting rich, and that soon there +would be nothing left for them in the race. In their Hollander Press +they were reminded that the gold, in reality belonging to them, was +rapidly being exhausted, and the wealth appropriated by aliens, whose +hewers of wood and drawers of water they would finally become. All this +galled them to the heart, and the Government readily lent itself to +proceedings intended to balance conditions in favour of their burghers, +as the process was described. I will adduce a few instances. As is well +known, it is only burghers and some privileged Hollanders who are +employed in Government service, from President down to policeman. There +are very few exceptions to this rule, which also applies to the +nominations of jurymen, who are well paid too. The salaries of all, +especially in the higher grades, had been largely augmented; the +President receiving L8,000 per year, and so on downwards. + +For Government supplies and public works the tenders of burghers only, +and perhaps of some privileged persons, are accepted. In many instances +the tenderers are without any pretence of ability for the performance of +the contract, but are nevertheless accepted, performing only a _sub rosa +role_. One such instance occurred some years ago when a burgher who did +not possess L100--a simple farmer and a kind of "slim" +speculator--received by Volksraad vote the contract for building a +certain railway.[3] The price included a very large margin to be +distributed in places of interest--as douceurs of L1,000 to L5,000 each, +and L10,000 for the _pro forma_ contractor and his Volksraad +confederates; all those sums were paid out by the firm for whom the +contract was actually taken up. + +Similarly in contracts for road making, repairing, and making streets, +etc., etc. On one occasion a rather highly placed official obtained a +contract for repairing certain streets in Pretoria for L60,000. The work +being worth L20,000 at most, the difference went to be shared by the +several official participants. + +One of the first instances of glaring peculation occurred about fifteen +years ago in relation with the Selati railway contract obtained by Baron +Oppenheim.[4] The procedure was publicly stigmatized as bribery. It had +transpired that nearly all the Volksraad's members had received gifts in +cash and values ranging each from L50 to L1,000 prior to voting the +contract, but what was paid after voting did not become public at the +time of exposure. + +The acceptance of those gifts was ultimately admitted, in the face of +evidence adduced in a certain law case; denial became, in fact, +impossible. The plea of exoneration was that those gifts had been freely +accepted without pledging the vote. The President publicly exculpated +the honourable members, expressing his conviction that none of them +could have meant to prejudice the State in their votes for the contract; +and as there had been no pledge on their part, the donor had actually +incurred the risk of missing his object. From that time the practice of +obtaining and selling concessions or of sinecures and other lucrative +advantages grew quite into a trade; and receiving douceurs became a +hankering passion from highest to lowest, but happily with not a few +exceptions where the official's honour was above being priced. + +There was nothing shocking in all this venality to the bulk of the +Johannesburg speculator class and others of that category. The rest +assessed official morality at a depreciated value, but hoped the +blemishes might be purged out with other and graver causes for +discontent, if Uitlanders, were only granted some effective +representation in public matters. That appeared to be the only +constitutional remedy. But this continued to be resentfully refused, +even in matters which partook of purely domestic interest, such as +education, municipal privileges, etc. The latter were opposed upon the +specious argument that such extended rights would constitute an +_imperium in imperio,_ and thus a condition incompatible with the safety +and the conservation of complete control. + +In the usual intercourse with burghers and officials a great deal of +exasperating and even humiliating experiences had often to be endured, +Uitlanders being treated as an inferior class, with scarcely veiled and +often with arrogant assumption of superiority. + +I witnessed a field cornet enjoying free and courteous hospitality at a +Uitlander's house, while being entertained by his host and others in the +vernacular Dutch, peremptorily object to the conversation in English in +which the lady of the house happened to be engaged with another guest at +the further end of the table. His remark was to the effect "that he +could not tolerate English being spoken within his hearing"; this was in +about 1888. + +No wonder that under such conditions and ungenial usage Englishmen and +other Uitlanders were put in a resentful mood, and many of them +bethought themselves of methods other than constitutional to improve +their position. + +Identification was resorted to with the Imperial League, a political +organization called into being in the Cape Colony to stem Boer +assertiveness there and to restrain Bond aspirations. It was also +seriously mooted to obtain the good offices of Great Britain as an +influence for intervention and remonstrance. + +It was not that the Transvaal Government was unaware of its duty and +responsibility to remove causes which produced discontent and resentment +among by far the larger section of the people under its rule. It seemed +rather that the Uitlanders were provoked with systematic intention. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: The Berne award has, as is well known, since been given.] + +[Footnote 3: The Ermelo-Machadodorp branch.] + +[Footnote 4: These very details were since made public in the Belgian +Law courts in the recent _cause celebre_ of "The Government of the South +African Republic _versus_ Baron Oppenheim."] + + + + +MONSTER PETITION--JAMESON INCURSION--ARMAMENTS + +It was at this stage in May, 1894, that a monster petition with some +25,000 signatures was presented to the Volksraad, setting forth the +entire position, and praying for a commission to be appointed to examine +the merits of the Uitlander complaints, and to frame a programme of +reforms, the interests of the mining community needing such in a most +urgent degree, not only for the sake of its own prosperity, but for the +welfare of the entire State. A commission was indeed appointed, who +reported in favour of the petitioners, and suggested a series of +reforms; but the final Volksraad vote resulted in an angry rejection of +the petition and denunciation of its organizers. + +As on the occasion of previous memorials, some few abuses were +redressed, but those benefits were made worse than nugatory by +enactments in other directions of a still more galling nature. The +petitioners found themselves snubbed and in the position of humiliating +defeat. + + +Treatment of Coloured British Subjects + +A glaring instance of oppression practised by the Transvaal Government +was its cruel treatment of coloured British subjects who had been +admitted into the State. Among these figured some thousands of educated +Asiatic traders, including numerous cultured Indian and Parsee merchants +with large stakes in the State and well-appointed residences, people +whose very religion exacted the most scrupulous cleanliness and who had +all proved themselves obedient and law-abiding. These were classed under +one rubric with the vastly inferior coolie labourer, with Kaffirs and +Hottentots, and actually compelled to abandon their stores and +residences to reside in one common ghetto upon the outskirts of the +towns, a measure which entailed great losses apart from the gratuitous +humiliation--to many it involved ruin and in fact meant their expulsion. + +It will be remembered that some years before already the English +Government had felt it incumbent to advocate the cause of coloured +British subjects and to remonstrate against their ill-usage. The matter +was ultimately submitted to arbitration at Bloemfontein, under the +umpireship of Sir Henry de Villiers, whose award, contrary to +expectation, was adverse to the coloured people. Here was indeed a +unique occasion for the Transvaal Government to exercise geniality upon +a point sorely felt by the British Government; but the very contrary +course was adopted under the aegis of that notorious award, and upon the +untenable plea that sanitation and regard to public health necessitated +that measure of segregation. + +Despite the fact that no royalty was yet exacted upon the gold output, +probably to please French, American, and German investors, there seemed +to exist a veiled hostility against the representatives of mining +capitalists, as if the Government regretted to have allowed the +exploitation of the mines to fall into private hands and would welcome +an opportunity to take them under State control altogether. + +The Uitlander Press vented public sentiment and denounced the Government +attitude in unmistakable terms; there were besides some angry public +demonstrations. It was an alarming time of impending crisis, rife with +signs of open revolt; the Government looking calmly on awaiting +developments. It was then that the President's since famous saying was +pronounced, viz., "that the tortoise must first be allowed to put out +its head before it could be struck off, and that he was ready for any +emergency." + +The situation had a truly anomalous aspect. More discoveries of gold and +even of diamonds followed apace, and the scope for mining, commercial +and industrial enterprises expanded to an incalculable magnitude. All +that was needed was a stable and good Government to encourage the +needful investments. A most tantalizing picture indeed, based upon +undeniably well-grounded facts. + +As it was, the situation was one of alarm for capital already +invested--a stake then of over 300 millions sterling in a country where +more than half of the population were in almost open revolt against a +Government commanding very large repressive forces, and resolved to +maintain its stand. + +British intervention appeared to be the only means of salvation to +restore security, and to give a fillip to the brilliant prospects of the +country, for the good of the burgher estate as well as for the sake of +Uitlanders. + +As the Government continued deaf and obdurate to representations, other +means were sought for. No wonder the Uitlanders longed for a change, +not by any means with the object of altering the style of Republican +status, but to get the Augean stable of misgovernment cleansed, to +escape oppressive and rapacious Boer domination. + +The farcical failure of Dr. Jameson was the outcome of those endeavours. +The unspeakable cowardice of his Johannesburg confederates was the chief +feature of that puny attempt. Laurels, like those gained by Lord +Peterborough, Warren Hastings, or Lord Clive, were not decreed to that +ill-advised emulator. + +Nothing could have been more propitious than that very Jameson incursion +to fan race hatred and to advance the projects of the Afrikaner +Bond--"Afrika voor de Afrikaners," for, whilst no one acquainted with +the facts can for a moment doubt the guilt of the Transvaal Government +for having systematically provoked that attempt at revolution, "Bond" +propaganda and paid journalism had a rare chance to set up the theory +that annexation on behalf of Great Britain had been foully planned--the +Prince of Wales even being an abettor of the attempted _coup d'etat_ +purely to gratify the lust of greed for the gold and diamonds of the +poor innocent Boers. No terms were too vituperative to denounce the +enormity. Millions of honest persons all over the world were +deluded--there was a bitter cry of almost universal indignation. The +Boer Government posed as innocent; the designs of the Afrikaner Bond +were not even suspected--its ranks, in sympathy with those delusions +sped on filling up faster than ever, and the father of lies was scoring +another very sensible triumph. + +In lieu of reforms, Bond projects and armaments were secretly pursued +with redoubled vigour towards the climax which should install +Afrikanerdom supreme in South Africa, financially as well as +politically. + + + + +BLOEMFONTEIN FRANCHISE CONFERENCE--BOER ULTIMATUM + +Capitalists had already begun to feel nervous about the final security +of their investments; operations and credit became restricted, fresh +projects were abandoned and a persistent withdrawal of capital set in. +Trade and prosperity were progressively waning, accompanied with still +more ominous portents for the Uitlanders' future. It all meant a very +extensive weeding out of investments under enormous losses, except such +as stood in relation with dividend-paying mines. England, though +apparently apathetic and inactive, was not inattentive to the situation. +Whoever had a stake, whether in South Africa or abroad, looked to Great +Britain as the Power upon whom the duty devolved to provide a peaceable +remedy. The suzerainty controversy was then followed by other questions +of diplomatic difference, among which that of the franchise reform. +Upon this matter English intervention took an insistent form. It clearly +turned all upon that--and once it were satisfactorily arranged, the +amicable solution of other questions might in turn be expected to +follow. As to suzerainty, that claim appeared relegated to remain in +abeyance. A conference was convened at Bloemfontein early in June, 1899, +for the discussion of those topics between the Colonial Governor, Sir +Alfred Milner, and the Presidents of the two Republics. The outcome was +a final demand for the right of representation of the Uitlander +interests in the legislative bodies of the Transvaal, amounting to +one-fifth of the total aggregate of members, the voting qualifications +to consist in the usual reasonable conditions and a residence in the +State of five years, operating retrospectively. + +We may here consider whether such a demand contained any real feature of +unfairness to warrant refusal. + +Three-fifths of the entire white Transvaal population were Uitlanders, +the majority of them English. They own four-fifths of the total wealth +invested in the State. About half of them have been domiciled, with +house and other fixed property, for periods of from five to ten years +and more. + +The preponderance is not only in numbers and wealth, but also in +intelligence and in contributing at least four-fifths of the total State +revenues. + +Is it right or prudent to exclude such interests and such a majority +from legislative representation? + +Could a minority of one-fifth, that is to say, twelve Uitlander members +against forty-eight Boer members, be said to constitute a menace to the +status or to the conservative interests of State? + +Do Uitlanders not deserve equal recognition with the burghers in respect +to intrinsic interest in the land, seeing that the former supplied all +the skill and the capital to explore and exploit the mine wealth, all at +their risk, and without which it would all have remained hidden and the +country continued fallow and poor? + +Though one-fifth would be so small a minority, it would at least have +afforded the constitutional method of declaring the wishes of +Uitlanders, and have done away with the disquieting and less effective +practices of Press agitations, public demonstrations, and petitions. The +measure could also have been expected to open up the way towards +reconciling relations between the English and Boer races, beginning in +the Transvaal, where it was hoped that the burghers would be gained over +as friends, and so to stand aloof from the Afrikaner Bond. These were +the supreme objects for peaceful progress and not for annexation. Solemn +assurances from highest quarters were repeatedly given that no designs +existed against the integrity of the Republic, that nothing unfriendly +lurked behind the franchise demand, but that necessity dictated it for +general good and the preservation of peace. Nor were other diplomatic +means left unemployed to ensure the acceptance of the franchise reform. +In addition to firmness of attitude and a display of actual force, most +of the other Powers, including the United States of America, were +induced to add their weight of persuasion in urging upon the Transvaal +the adoption of the measures demanded by England for correcting the +existing trouble. It may be urged that the display of force in sending +the first batches of troops would have afforded grounds for +exasperation, and be construed by the Transvaal as a menace and actual +hostility, tending to precipitate a conflict which it was so earnestly +intended to avoid. To this may be replied that the 20,000 men sent in +August were readily viewed as placing the hitherto undermanned Colonial +garrisons upon an appropriate peace effective only; but not so with +respect to the army corps of 50,000 men despatched in September--this +was felt as an intended restraint against "Bond" projects, to enforce +the observance of any agreement which the Transvaal might for the nonce +assent to, and above all it was tending, unless at once opposed by the +Bond, to weaken its ranks by producing hesitation and ultimate defection +from that body; the die was thus to be cast, duplicity appeared to be +played out--the ultimatum of 9th October was the outcome; and England, +though unprepared, could not possibly accept it otherwise than as a +wilful challenge to war. + +As the pursuit of our study will show, the success of Mr. Chamberlain's +diplomacy to avert war depended upon the very slender prospects that the +Transvaal Government might have been induced to waver, and finally to +break with the Afrikaner Bond--a forlorn hope indeed, considering the +perfection which that formidable organization had reached. Its cherished +objects were not meant to be abandoned. The advice of "Bond" leaders +prevailed. War was declared and the Rubicon crossed in enthusiastic +expectations of soon realizing the long-deferred Bond motto: "The +expulsion of the hateful English." + +It is true the Transvaal had made a show of acquiescence to British and +foreign pressure. This first took the shape of an offer of a seven +years' franchise, and then one of five years, exceeding even Mr. +Milner's demands as to the number of Uitlander representation. That of +seven years was so fenced in with nugatory trammels and conditions that +it had for those reasons to be rejected; whilst that at five years was +coupled with the equally unacceptable conditions that the claim of +suzerainty should be renounced, and that in all other respects the +Transvaal should be recognised as absolutely independent in terms of the +Sand River Convention of 1852. + +Those offers could hardly have been made in sincerity, but rather as a +temporary device and to meet the susceptibilities of the advising +Powers, for all the time preparations for war were never relaxed for a +moment, but were pushed on with extreme vigour. On the other hand, the +British programme seeking to ensure peace by the franchise expedient had +been strictly followed without deviation. When the Transvaal Government +professed irritation over the disposition of some British troops too +near the Transvaal border, they were promptly removed to more remote and +less strategic positions, rather than incur the risk of rupture. During +the month preceding the outbreak of the war, some large continental +consignments of war munitions were, as usual, permitted to reach the +Republics unhindered through several Colonial ports, portions being +actually smuggled over the Colonial railways as merchandise addressed to +a well-known Pretoria firm, but on arrival were secretly delivered, +under cover of night, at the various forts and arsenals. These +proceedings were carried out with the connivance of the Colonial Bond +authorities, and though known to the British Governor, it was all winked +at rather than hazard the momentous objects of peace by the introduction +of another knotty subject. To sum up the situation, it was a diplomatic +contest on the part of Great Britain aiming at peace and to safeguard +her possessions and prestige, while the Afrikaner Bond, on the other +part, continued active in the work of sedition and preparing for a war +of usurpation. Every one must admit that the demand of the British +Ministry for an immediate and adequate representation proceeded from the +necessity and the desire to overcome the South African crisis in a just +and pacific way. The measure was counted upon to effect conciliation +between the Uitlander and burgher elements, and as a further result was +earnestly hoped to bring about the secession of the Transvaal from the +Afrikaner Bond, and so reduce that dangerous confederacy to a somewhat +negligible impotence. To discover other objects of a sinister sort +lurking behind needs a more than inventive genius. A united Afrikaner +Bond, persistent to carry out its fell project, definitely meant war +sooner or later. Its first step in launching out to it was that +notorious ultimatum, which was tantamount to snatching back the feigned +offers of the seven and five years' franchise. According to original +programme, the very next step to accomplish the _coup d'etat_ was the +immediate seizure of all Colonial ports, and to complete a general and +irrevocable Boer rising all over the Colonies. + +All the while the old device had been put into practice of hiding Bond +guilt by accusing England of designs against the integrity of the Boer +Republics. But directly after, in the exultation of victorious +invasions, the mask was shamelessly dropped, and Boerdom stands out +defiantly and nakedly self-confessed, aiming at conquest and supremacy +over all South Africa. Will the ensuing century have in store an +instance to match that record plot of artifice and dissimulation, and +see half the world duped into partisanship with it--by journalistic +craft? + +It may well be imagined that Mr. Chamberlain and his noble colleagues +had anything but beds of roses whilst pursuing the diplomacy adopted to +checkmate the Bond. They had to gain national support without divulging +their own proceeding, and were at the same time reduced to a situation +which imposed a spartan fortitude in concealing and repressing +involuntary perturbation in the presence of an impending national +crisis, and also the stoical endurance of bitter recriminations on the +part of an opposition comprising a large and honourable but poorly +informed section of the English nation. + + + + +BOER LANGUAGE + + +We come now to the topic of language, which will be found relevant, +showing Hollander and Bond influence in using that also as a hostile +weapon. What the Boers still speak is a vernacular or dialect so far +removed from High Dutch as to be unintelligible to the uninitiated +Hollander. It took its form from the dialects brought to the Cape of +Good Hope by unlettered Dutch colonists and a large admixture of locally +produced idioms, with a slight trace of the structure of the French +language in expressing negations. In the two Republics High Dutch rules +for official purposes, but in common intercourse the vernacular Dutch is +still about the same as it had been a hundred years ago. For an +English-Dutch interpreter the thorough knowledge of the vernacular is +essential. Preachers and teachers have to adapt their speech by +combining High Dutch with the dialect, the one or the other +predominating according to the capacity of the hearers. Hollanders +follow the same method when learning the vernacular Dutch. + +In towns and villages, not only in the Colonies, but also in both +Republics, English is almost exclusively used. The Boers, and especially +the younger generation, have a much greater aptitude and penchant for +learning English than for High Dutch; and generally it has been held +more important by the parents that their children should become +proficient in English, that language being more easily acquired and of +vastly greater use than Dutch. The latter, it was truly averred, would +be learnt as they grew up quite sufficiently for all purposes. + +The feeling thus existed some twenty years ago that English would become +general, and ultimately oust both Dutch and the vernacular. Numerous +Boer patriots then devised the remedy of preserving the vernacular by +raising it to the standard of a written and printed language for +official as well as common use. The Rev. du Toit, later appointed +Minister (or Superintendent) of Education in the Transvaal, worked +tenaciously towards making that movement a national success. He had the +co-operation of many other educated patriots likewise. The _Paarl +Patriot_, a journal published in the vernacular, is one of the +surviving efforts. Vocabularies, school books, etc., etc., were printed +in that dialect, and the translation of the Bible had also been brought +to an advanced stage, when the project had to be abandoned, principally +through Hollander influence, aided by some of the Republican leaders and +Bond men. Dr. Mansfeld, the present Superintendent of Education in the +Transvaal, was subsequently appointed--a very able Hollander, but also a +very strong advocate in the general Hollander Bond movement for +proscribing the use of the English language, and making High Dutch the +compulsory medium of instruction. Since then, and during the past ten +years, considerable progress has been made by the average Boer children, +and even the grown-up people, in approaching a better knowledge of High +Dutch. Before 1880 hardly any Boer cared to read a newspaper except, +perhaps, the _Paarl Patriot_, the vernacular journal referred to. High +Dutch and English papers were equally beyond his ready knowledge, but +since then the interest in politics gave an impulse to a reading +tendency, and at this moment the majority of the Boers manage to read +and understand fairly well what is presented in simply written High +Dutch by the local Press. They also are fond of simply written books of +travels, and especially of narratives of a religious trend. With the +Bible they are most familiar from childhood, but literature in High +Dutch is beyond them as yet. Greater pains have of late years been taken +to qualify Boer sons for the administrative service of the Republics, +where imperfect knowledge of High Dutch is an obvious bar to +advancement, and Hollanders would otherwise continue to monopolize the +better positions. + +Taking the fairly educated Free State and Transvaal youth, the average +proficiency in English compared to that in High Dutch is as two to one, +whilst many possess even a literary mastery in English whilst quite poor +in the other language. + +In the Cape Colony the above comparison among the Boer section is still +more in favour of English. + +It may be judged what an important _role_ the educated Hollander group +can take in those Republics, and are yet aiming at in the Colonies. + +It is also worthy of reflection why and how the Dutch language has been +raised to equality with English in the Cape Colony, seeing English was +more generally understood by the Boers there than High Dutch, and none +of the Boer legislators or members of Parliament even now know more +than the Dutch vernacular, the High Dutch language having actually yet +to be learnt by the Boer population--an important step thus gained by +Afrikanerdom under the indulgent aegis of self-government, the thin end +of another wedge to nurse sedition and treason introduced by that odious +Bond under pretence and veil of Boer patriotism and loyalty. + +As one of the world's languages, Dutch figures under a very sorry _role_ +indeed. It had been ignored everywhere outside of Holland and her +distant Colonies. The consequence to Hollanders is that they are of +necessity subjected to the ordeal of learning several other continental +languages for commercial intercourse, and in order to keep at all +abreast with the progress of science, literature, and culture. Dutch is +in the moribund stage; its salvation from imminent extinction consists +in the expansion of its sphere. Boer successes in South Africa would +just accomplish that. + + + + +THE DUTCH COTERIE: ITS SEAT IN HOLLAND + + +As has been shown, the conditions of the two Boer Republics, with High +Dutch as the official language, lent themselves to favour the +immigration into those States of educated Dutchmen (Hollanders, as they +are styled, to distinguish them from the old-established Boer Dutchmen). +These were indeed indispensable, as none of the Boers possessed the +competence in High Dutch requisite for the conduct of the more important +portion of the clerical work in the administration. The professional +branches were recruited from Holland likewise, in natural sequence. They +were men of high attainments and possessed of energy and astuteness and +of various qualifications--doctors, lawyers, editors, clergymen, +teachers. Those who did not receive Government appointments quickly +found lucrative positions in their vocations. The scope increased as +time went by and as those States developed with the growth of the +populations and the establishment of numerous towns and villages, +especially after the discovery of the diamond-fields in 1870. Every year +brought fresh contingents from Holland, including also the commercial +class, artisans, and even servants of both sexes, and agriculturists. +Preserving a constant intercourse with their native country, those +Hollanders also maintained cohesion and clanship among themselves in +their newly-adopted homes. Nor did Holland fail to realize the great +advantages accruing to that country and its people from the new South +African outlets--regular preserves with almost unlimited scope for +further extension and for increasing permanent, profitable connections. +A formidable barrier presented itself in the gradually ascendant +tendencies of the English language and English trade, with corresponding +neglect of the Dutch factors. Regretful forebodings aroused energetic +efforts to check rival interests. The prize was too valuable, and +increasing each year in importance. A dyke needed to be erected to stem +the English encroachments and to preserve and consolidate the Hollander +position of vantage. The ablest men in Holland and South Africa +exercised themselves with that task with an ardour impelled by jealous +hatred against the English and intensified by successive revelations of +more startling discoveries of gold and other mineral wealth in the +Transvaal. It was then, about thirty years ago, that a well-informed, +influential and unscrupulous coterie in Holland devised the fell +projects which developed into that potential association since known as +the Afrikaner Bond. + +The building of the Transvaal railway lines brought other large +accessions of educated Hollanders, and as they were completed some +thousands more were added to serve as permanent staff. Dutch influence +was thus attaining strength to assert and consolidate its interests with +an expanding impulse. The monopolized railway company promoted +immigration from Holland by largely increasing the salaries to such of +the staff who were married. The Transvaal Government, under the advice +of their educational chief, Dr. Mansfeld, provided similar premiums to +secure married teachers from Holland and by raising the salaries of +married Hollander officials already placed. The Hollander population +attracted to the Transvaal since 1850, and which did not number above +500 in 1870, had increased by 1898 to fully 12,000, representing, as +ranged with the Boers, by far the largest factor of educated +intelligence, attached to and dependent upon the Government and its +staunch allies. The men received full burghership as a rule soon after +arrival, exempt from the formalities and probation prescribed by law. + +Holland being the locality of the inception, I may say the ingestion, of +the Afrikaner Bond, one's thoughts are apt to retrace, by way of +contrast, that little nation's creditable past. The view presents those +dykes, monuments of labour's heroism; then that glorious resistance +against the mighty persecutor of religion, those unsurpassed +performances in the arena of culture, arts, and sciences, and that long +epoch of success in exploits of colonization, finance, and commerce. + + "But view them closer, craft and fraud appear; + Even liberty itself is bartered here."--_Goldsmith_.[5] + +One notes the placid landscapes intersected by those still but +deep-flowing rivers and canals, scenes so conducive to mental +exercise--the Dutch patriot mourning over the transition of former +national prestige to present condition of decadence presaging complete +national submersion, but at the same time courageously employing his +fertile brain in devising far-reaching projects of remedy over distant +perspectives so as to stem that tide of decadence and declension and to +erect a firm barrier against that menace--to gain (by inspiration from +the titular genius of commerce and craft so conspicuous in that famed +art representation[6] exhibited in his Bourse) a dazzling prize for his +nation by one fell swoop and, so to say, with folded arms, just by +pitting against the English his almost forgotten and long-neglected +clan, the Boer nation, inciting them to usurp Great Britain in South +Africa, Holland sharing the spoils. See here the master mind exulting in +the conception, gestation, and birth of the Afrikaner Bond conspiracy; +note the Hollander patriot's glitter of satisfaction at the vista of +realizing the restoration of Holland to a position excelling its former +glory, of a moribund language revived to significance, and of witnessing +besides a sweet vendetta operated upon England, the old enemy and +despoiler of his nation, to compass the humiliation and disintegration +of the British Empire. Patience, dear reader; preserve judicial +composure. Evidence is following on the heels of the charge. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 5: This is of course not directed against the nation as a +whole. See also notice, page vi.] + +[Footnote 6: Oil painting in the Amsterdam Exchange building +representing Mercurius.] + + + + +AFRIKANER BOND--OUTLINES AND PROGRAMME + + +The late Mr. Jan Brand, that noble President who was succeeded by Reitz +and now by Steyn in the presidency of the Orange Free State, appeared to +have had early intimations, or at least presages, as to the true nature +of the Afrikaner Bond, for during the early eighties that association +had yet posed as a harmless body, intended to preserve old Boer +traditions upon perfectly constitutional lines. President Brand and some +others then already suspected more, as the following incident will show. +In 1883 President Brand officially opened the new wagon-road bridge over +the Caledon River at Commissie drift, near Smithfield, Orange Free +State. Towards the conclusion of the ceremony, one of the other +speakers, Mr. Advocate Peeters, member of the Volksraad for Smithfield +district, in the course of his speech formally suggested that President +Brand should accept the leadership of the Orange Free State section of +the Afrikaner Bond. The President, addressing the burghers and all +present, replied in about the following terms: The proposal just then +made by Advocate Peeters had pained and offended him; the festive event +would be marred by that incident were it not that it afforded him the +opportunity, which he otherwise would have missed, of telling them all +what he thought of the Afrikaner Bond--that it was an evil thing; he +could not find terms strong enough to warn the people against its subtle +seductions. The Afrikaner Bond professed its objects to be peace and +harmony, but it really contained the pernicious seeds of division and +strife, to set up enmity between English Afrikaners and Boer Afrikaners. +He pointed out the sincerity of friendly relations on the part of +England towards both the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republics. +The peace which restored to the Transvaal its independence a few years +before was one big proof; his Government had many proofs of England's +good will, too. It suited both parties to maintain harmony--it behoved +every Afrikaner to be one-minded in friendly reciprocation. Through a +gracious Providence both Republics were prosperous and enjoyed +independence. All over the world the prosperity of States depended upon +good relations with their neighbours--this was especially so as regards +the Orange Free State. They knew what kind of bond the Bible enjoined. +It was the bond of peace and concord; and he concluded by declaring his +well-grounded fears that the Afrikaner Bond was a device of the devil +directed against the well-being of the entire Afrikaner nation. Instead +of being encouraged, it should, like the "Boete Bosch"[7] (_Xanthium +spinosum_, burr weed), be extirpated from the soil of South Africa. + + +MEMORANDA OF BOND PROGRAMME, EMANATING FROM HOLLAND (TRANSLATION FROM +GLEANINGS). + +The Afrikaner Bond has as final object what is summed up in its motto of +"Afrika voor de Afrikaners."[8] The whole of South Africa belongs by +just right to the Afrikaner nation. It is the privilege and duty of +every Afrikaner to contribute all in his power towards the expulsion of +the English usurper. The States of South Africa to be federated in one +independent Republic. + +The Afrikaner Bond prepares for this consummation. + +Argument in justification:-- + +(_a_) The transfer of the Cape Colony to the British Government took +place by circumstances of _force majeure_ and without the consent of the +Dutch nation, who renounce all claim in favour of the Afrikaner or Boer +nation. + +(_b_) Natal is territory which accrued to a contingent of the Boer +nation by purchase from the Zulu King, who received the consideration +agreed for. + +(_c_) The British authorities expelled the rightful owners from Natal by +force of arms without just cause. + +The task of the Afrikaner Bond consists in:-- + +(_a_) Procuring the staunch adhesion and co-operation of every Afrikaner +and other real friend of the cause. + +(_b_) To obtain the sympathy, the moral and effective aid of one or more +of the world's Powers. + +The means to accomplish those tasks are:-- + +Personal persuasion, Press propaganda, legislation and diplomacy. + +The direction of the application of those means is entrusted to a select +body of members eligible for their loyalty to the cause and their +abilities and position. That body will conduct such measures as need the +observance of special secrecy. Upon the rest of the members will +devolve activities of a general character under the direction of the +selected chiefs. + +One of the indispensable requisites is the proper organization of an +effective fund, which is to be regularly sustained. Bond members will +aid each other in all relations of public life in preference to +non-members. + +In the efforts of gaining adherents to the cause it is of importance to +distinguish three categories of persons-- + +(1) The class of Afrikaners who are to some extent deteriorated by +assimilative influences with the English race, whose restoration to +patriotism will need great efforts, discretion, and patience. + +(2)The apparently unthinking and apathetic class, who prefer to relegate +all initiative to leaders whom they will loyally follow. This class is +the most numerous by far. + +(3) The warmly patriotic class, including men gifted with intelligence, +energy, and speech, qualified as leaders and apt to exercise influence +over the rest. + +Among those three classes many exist whose views and religious scruples +need to be corrected. Scripture abounds in proofs and salient analogies +applying to the situation and justifying our cause. In this, as well as +in other directions, the members who work in circulating written +propaganda will supply the correct and conclusive arguments accessible +to all. + +Upon the basis of our just rights, the British Government, if not the +entire nation, is the usurping enemy of the Boer nation. + +In dealing with an enemy it is justifiable to employ, besides force, +also means of a less open character, such as diplomacy and stratagem. + +The greatest danger to Afrikanerdom is the English policy of Anglicizing +the Boer nation--to submerge it by the process of assimilation. + +A distinct attitude of holding aloof from English influences is the only +remedy against that peril and for thwarting that insidious policy. + +It is only such an attitude that will preserve the nation in its simple +faith and habits of morality, and provide safety against the dangers of +contamination and pernicious examples, with all their fateful +consequences to body and soul. + +Let the Dutch language have the place of honour in schools and homes. + +Let alliances of marriage with the English be stamped as unpatriotic.[9] + +Let every Afrikaner see that he is at all times well armed with the +best possible weapons, and maintains the expert use of the rifle among +young and old, so as to be ready when duty calls and the time is ripe +for asserting the nation's rights and be rid of English thraldom. + +Employ teachers only who are animated with truly patriotic sentiments. + +Let it be well understood that English domination will also bring +religious intolerance and servitude, for it is only a very frail link +which separates the English State Church from actual Romanism, and its +proselytism _en bloc_ is only a matter of short time. + +Equally repugnant and dangerous is England's policy towards the coloured +races, whom she aims, for the sake of industrial profit, at elevating to +equal rank with whites, in direct conflict with scriptural authority--a +policy which incites coloured people to rivalry with their superiors, +and can only end in common disaster. + +Whilst remaining absolutely independent, the ties of blood relationship +and language point to Holland for a domestic base. + +As to commerce, Germany, America, and other industrial nations could +more than fill the gap left by England, and such connections should be +cultivated as a potent means towards obtaining foreign support to our +cause and identification with it. + +If the mineral wealth of the Transvaal and Orange Free State becomes +established--as appears certain from discoveries already made--England +will not rest until those are also hers. + +The leopard will retain its spots. The independence of both Republics is +at stake on that account alone, with the risk that the rightful owners +of the land will become the hewers of wood and drawers of water for the +usurpers. + +There is no alternative hope for the peace and progress of South Africa +except by the total excision of the British ulcer. + +Reliable signs are not wanting to show that our nation is designed by +Providence as the instrument for the recovery of its rights, and for the +chastisement of proud, perfidious Albion. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 7: Literally "bush of fines" (fines imposed on landowners +where the burr weed was not eradicated).] + +[Footnote 8: Africa for the African citizen or African-born whites.] + +[Footnote 9: It is notorious that from about 1890 such marriages were +denounced from the Boer pulpits and on the occasions of the Independence +day anniversaries (16th December).] + + + + +PACIFIC POLICY OF GREAT BRITAIN + + +During the period of, say, twenty-five years after the inception of the +Afrikaner Bond, and while its organization and development were secretly +kept at full pace with occurring events, the British Government +consistently and openly pursued the policy of bringing about the +unification of South Africa. Mr. Froude, a speaker of rare gifts, was +sent to lecture upon the topic: this was in about 1873. The Colonial +Governor, Sir Bartle Frere, strenuously advocated that union. The lines +suggested were a general federation under one protective flag, +self-government in the Colonies, and the continuance of uncurtailed +autonomic independence in the two Republics. The benefits which such a +coalition promised to all concerned in South Africa are obvious. It +would guarantee harmony between the two white races without involving +the least sacrifice of liberty with any party--it simply meant +coincident peace, prosperity and security, and would relieve England of +a considerable burden of anxiety. The scheme promised to find all-round +acceptance, but, unaccountably, except to Bond men, its greatest +opponents were the Cape Colonial Boers. It was, however, confidently +hoped that, with patience, opposition and indifference would be +overcome, and in view of this no opportunity was lost to prove England's +loyal sincerity by genial treatment, by conciliating the various +interests, and gratifying the wishes of the Boer communities, and so to +ensure the desideratum of complete _rapprochement_ between the white +races. + +Conferences were convened with the objects of coming to agreements for +the establishment of a general South African Customs Union, and for +adjusting railway tariffs upon fair bases and a more reliable permanency +of rates suggesting reciprocal terms advantageous to the Republics. +These efforts also proved fruitless through similar opposition. + +The Afrikaner Bond party, as the reader will understand, had ranged +itself against all such attempts, whilst successfully masking its own +object all the time. + +Other differences, which, with a friendly and united spirit, were +capable of easy adjustment, were welcomed by that party as grist to its +mill in order to widen the gulf and to increase the tension. + +Besides the chagrin over the failure of its peace policy, the British +Cabinet had finally to admit itself confronted with a very real and +ominous national peril, face to face with the South African Medusa, +Afrikanerdom, defying Great Britain in preconcerted aggression and +revolt. That apparition was all the more startlingly disquieting because +of the suddenness with which the magnitude of the menace and its wide +perspectives had begun to expand into clearer view. It was interesting +to note how the English ministry responded to the call upon its +fortitude; the terrifying apparition did not seem to petrify that body +of men, despite the galling handicapping consequences through the +opposition of part of the nation, which was indeed tantamount to +encouraging South African rebels and usurpers. + + + + +BOND PRESS PROPAGANDA--SECRET SERVICE--TRADE RIVALRIES + + +The Bond leaders in Holland and South Africa had at an early stage acted +upon Stuart Mill's recognised saying, "that conviction in a cause is of +more potent avail than mere interest in it." Among those leaders there +was no lack of men of erudition and of psychological science, than whom +no one knew better the prime importance of ensuring uniformity of +convictions among the Boers and their partisans, and that the public +mind needs to be framed and trained so as to view the Boer cause as just +and that of the English as odiously wicked. They knew how indispensable +the Press is for attaining those objects, how journalism is capable of +plausibly representing black as white and to convince people so--that, +in fact, it is on occasion an agency of persuasion more potent than +armies are. Its needs are unscrupulous pens and ample payments. For +money is the sinews of journalism as well as of war, whether the +projectiles be charged with lyddite or with lies, whether it is bullets +or throwing dust into people's eyes. + +We have seen how a few articles (for which a leading French paper +received L100,000) were instrumental in enabling the Panama Canal Co. to +swindle the French public of forty million pounds sterling, and more +recently, where through Press agency it became feasible to a combination +of Jesuitism and militarism to seduce by far the greater portion of the +noble French nation into frenzied agitation and anti-Semitic excesses, +and load the entire people with almost ineffaceable guilt in the matter +of that unfortunate Dreyfus. In its Press campaign the Afrikaner Bond +employed several leading Colonial organs--the Bloemfontein _Express_, +the Pretoria _Volksstem_, the _Standard and Diggers' News_ of +Johannesburg, and numerous papers of note abroad as well. These were +coached, in the usual masterly manner, sophisticating and perverting +truth. Whenever a lull occurred in treating one or other of the more +salient questions, those South African papers would invariably +contain--especially in their Dutch columns--aspersive articles, coupled +with invective comments to prejudice the Boer mind and to reawaken +anti-English sentiments. It is notable as a proof that the Bond party +lacked all occasions for recriminations, so that those papers had to +resort for material for their vituperation to distorted incidents of +Transvaal history prior to the peace of 1881. There would, for example, +be dished up falsely rendered and dramatically coloured and perverted +selections, such as the treacherous massacre of Retief's party in 1838, +averring that the Zulu king, Dingaan, had been incited thereto by the +British authorities; tragic descriptions of events, coupled with the +massacres by Zulu impis soon after at Weenen and Blaauwkrantz, averred +also to have taken place at the instance of the English Government, and +ever and anon references and full tragic descriptions of the +Slachtersnek execution in 1816, omitting to state that the Boer culprits +were hanged after fair and open trial and conviction by a "Boer" jury +for high treason in conspiring with Kaffirs against the Government, +which crime had led to bloodshed, and that their relatives had been +ordered to witness the execution because they had been abettors and +privy to the crime. + +Books teaching the history of South Africa were adapted for school use +wherein denunciations against the English appear in almost every +chapter. Poetry in the vernacular Dutch and pamphlets teeming with like +burdens and calumnies also did their share in inspiring race hatred. + +Pro-Boer journalism in England and elsewhere abroad had assumed such +dimensions, especially during the past decade, as to bring the Secret +Service expenditure on that head during recent years to over L100,000 +per annum. Dr. Leyds, the Transvaal ambassador, now (December, 1899) in +Europe, is known to some to have with him some L250,000 to defray Press +expenditure, etc., apart from the millions to which he is authorized to +engage his Government in diplomatic projects, such as procuring allies, +or to create embroilments and diversions to the prejudice of England. + +To sum up the success achieved by anti-English propaganda, we find the +Boer nation, from the Zambesi to the Cape, unanimous in convictions as +to their fancied claims, their own absolute innocence, and the +immeasurable guilt of the British Government, abetted by +capitalism--guilt which cries to heaven for retribution; and those +convictions take with each man the form of a resolute patriotism wherein +mingled fanaticism and religious fervour in their cause form a +powerfully sustaining part. + +Partisanship outside of Africa counts by millions of individuals and +entire peoples; with these it is not so much conviction, but rather +persuasion induced by political hatred and the souring effects of +jealousy and unsuccessful rivalry. This feature is, of course, most +accentuated in Holland, where, with the eyes set upon the loaves and +fishes in South Africa, that nation has for some time been "publicly +praying" for Boer victory over England. These are instances of mere +interest in lieu of genuine convictions. In England the spectacle is +more varied. There we see interest where there are paid agencies, and +persuasion more or less pronounced induced by political party spirit and +also by real convictions. It is in regard to the latter category where +perverted journalism triumphs most and stabs deepest, where men of +honour and patriotism have adopted views which clash against public +interest, and convictions which torture their own minds with grief and +shame under the supposed idea of England's unjust attitude towards the +Boer people, assuming that a Government majority allows itself to be +actuated by base motives. + +Is it not attributable in a large proportion to misguided as well as to +venal journalism that the Boer cause has so heavily scored? + +Was all this not manifest in the divisions of England's counsels, in the +hampered progress of her diplomacy, her fateful hesitancy and delay in +providing appropriate preventive and protective measures in South +Africa? + +And as regards the tenacity of those convictions, it is with them as it +is in plant life. The longer a tree is in maturing, the harder is it to +uproot it. + +The activities of Bond propaganda have been in continuance for many +years, and the prejudices fostered so long are correspondingly +deep-rooted. + +Bond patriotism was not long subjected to the strain of individual +contributions and unpaid performances. When the Transvaal revenues +advanced with such giant strides the Afrikaner Bond leaders in that +State contrived arrangements by which the financial requirements were +supplied from State receipts. Nor was the least compunction felt in +doing so. Was the revenue of the State not chiefly derived from the +Uitlander element--from Uitlander investments, which all throve from the +nation's own buried gold wealth? No scruples existed to provide from +those sources the armaments and all else needed for the common cause of +conquest. + +A secret service fund of some L40,000 per year only was placed upon the +budget list. But this amount was vastly exceeded by the growing +requirements of the Afrikaner Bond for expenditure in South Africa +alone. It was easily contrived to divert, _sub rosa_, large State +receipts to supply the remaining financial needs. Among these figured, +besides the heavy outlays in journalism abroad, gratuities, etc., a +large bill also for secret agencies, spies, and the like. + +The entire expenditure was under the direction of a few only of the +trusted leaders and audited by the chiefs, all being kept otherwise +undivulged. + +The Transvaal thus became the treasury as well as the arsenal of the +entire Afrikaner Bond. + +Hundreds of agents were in constant employ in the Cape Colonies and +Natal suborning the Boer colonists; many of them occupied positions in +various branches of the Colonial Government, and were able to supply +information upon any subject and even to influence elections. + +There were numerous permanent agents drawing large emoluments in Europe +also, and emissaries to different places abroad, some touring in +America, England, and the Continent, as the Rev. Mr. Bosman did +recently, and also the P.M.G., Isaac van Alphen. + +Much energy and money were also devoted to electioneering campaigns, as +had notoriously been done in the Cape Colony towards bringing in a Bond +majority. Large sums are spent in the diplomatic arena in Holland to +propitiate foreign statesmen, soliciting sympathy, and in coquettings +for Transvaal allies. One of these attempts that failed had been with +Germany. It would appear that some progress had been feasible some years +ago in temporarily luring Emperor William to favour a Holland-Transvaal +combination, but when that sovereign had at last penetrated the infamous +business that lay behind it all, he, as a true "_Bayard_" promptly +washed his hands clean of it, preferring to forego obvious brilliant +advantages for his people than to sully Germany's fair fame in a +connection amounting to no less than abetting a foul conspiracy. + +The readers of the Johannesburg _Standard and Diggers' News_ will +remember among the staple attacks upon capitalism quite a series of +articles intended to decoy mining artisans and operatives to Boer views. +Secret agents were also employed for that purpose, and to induce the +belief that the Government was the enemy of capitalism, and would +champion its victims (the mining operatives) in the State. It would +support miners and the working class generally against attempts to +curtail the just rights of labour, and to parade its sincerity actually +passed a law constituting eight tours a legal day's labour. With such +coquettings it was hoped to gain the miners' confidence and adhesion. +Those men were, however, not to be taught by quasi-socialistic +professions of concern, and when, some months later, the exodus prior +to the war occurred, they nearly all left, much to the disgust and +discomfiture of the Government, which had counted upon them to stay to +work the mines for its own account when the moment should arrive. + +The appropriation of gold mines and their exploitation for Government +benefit bring about a singular anomaly for a nation engaged in war, +viz., that of a plethora of gold and a scarcity of paper currency, the +Transvaal mint coining the sinews of war at the expense of its victims, +but the plundered gold after all not equalling commercial paper values. + +In connection with the foregoing remarks the following may also be said. +States professing neutrality still permit themselves to trade with the +Transvaal to a large extent. It is notorious that that State possesses +no funds available for payments except the gold derived from the +misappropriated mines. The output is seized in its entirety, and not +limited to the extent accruing to British scrip holders only. The +hustling rivalry of doing business with the Transvaal thus involves +receiving stolen money in payment of trade accounts. We see the +receivers eager to stand upon the same platform as the thief, thus not +only as his political partisans, but also as his accomplices. + + + + +DISLOYALTY OF COLONIAL BOERS + + +The Boer section in the Cape Colonies represents nearly one-half of the +white population there. Their representatives in the administration were +ever profuse and assertive in professions of loyalty to the Queen and to +the English Government, and any aspersions to the contrary were always +indignantly and stoutly repelled. The Afrikaner Bond was averred to +include nothing to clash with loyal sentiments, no severance from +England, but, on the contrary, that its principal objects were to +strengthen the lines of amity and joint solidarity in view of a general +federation of South Africa upon Imperial bases. In support of such +sentiments one of the first acts of the Bond party when recently come +into power was a vote of L30,000 per year towards British naval outlays, +and in grateful recognition of naval protection; it was at the same time +mooted, in fact almost pledged, that the Transvaal would similarly offer +L12,000 as well. + +The sequel has proven these to be Athenian gifts, for no sooner had the +Republican commandoes invaded the Cape Colonies in November last than +those identical men enthusiastically welcomed the Queen's enemies as +their friends and deliverers from hateful English dominion. There they +stood--self-avowed and unmasked traitors. Members of the Legislative +Assembly met those Boer invaders with addresses and speeches, assuring +them of their own and of every other true Afrikaner's aid and fidelity +in their common cause. "The star of liberty," they said, "had arisen at +last--it had been the nation's desire and prayers during the past +fifteen years." "He could thank God with tears of joy for having granted +those prayers." Such were the words of Mr. van der Walt, M.L.A., uttered +at Colesberg. Mr. de Wet, M.L.A., Mr. van den Heever, M.L.A., and other +colonial notables were spokesmen in similar terms of enthusiasm on other +occasions as the invasion advanced. All this is sadly notorious, but +still it seems a hard task to convince people who prefer to remain blind +or only see a presumptuous adversary in any one who seeks to enlighten +them upon this glaring and premeditated treachery. + +October and November were months of unrestrained exultation to the Boer +party, to judge from letters and articles which appeared in the +_Standard and Diggers' News_, Johannesburg, dated 22nd November, 1899, +and in the Pretoria _Volksstem_, dated 20th November, 1899.[10] There +one sees the mask off, in language of defiant insult and of scurrilous +mendacity against all that is English, avowing that the present +Anglo-Boer War has been the outcome of preparations during the past +thirty years. That letter is not all suitable reading for the tender +sex, but should serve as evidence to the still unconvinced sceptic that +the Boers are fighting for something more than their mere independence +and liberty, viz., for conquest and the domination of Afrikanerdom. His +Excellency Dr. Leyds may deny all those too previous intentions with +his placid effrontery of assumed innocent calm. He may denounce Mr. +Chamberlain, Rhodes, Jameson, and even the Prince of Wales, and he may +use the old device of posing as innocent by accusing others. The +detected robber, however, does not always escape with his booty by +running off himself, whilst shouting "Stop, thief!" + +Something refreshingly analogous to such attempts of screening and +exculpation has been extemporized in Cape journals of late. There, in an +ingeniously pretended dissertation, it is invented how ill founded the +aspersions are against Mr. Premier Schreiner, and that the acts, upon +which he was so wrongly suspected as an amphibious helmsman, are really +attributable to another person--by the way, to one at a safe distance, +viz., to Mr. F.W. Reitz, the Transvaal State Secretary; whilst this +gentleman again, when lecturing at Johannesburg in July last, naively +deplored the confusion of people's ideas who see anything wrong in the +Afrikaner Bond, adding: "Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they +do or talk about." + +"The peace of South Africa is only possible under Boer supremacy," is +the Bond shibboleth. The end justifies the means, even to sedition, to a +war of conquest and the wholesale plunder of investors. + +Many of the younger Boers in the Cape Colony and Natal had shown a +singular ardour in joining the several volunteer corps. They were +equipped with uniforms and best weapons, were drilled into efficiency, +received pay, and all went on well until the oath of allegiance was to +be tendered. This they refused, preferring to resign and to provide arms +from other sources--Mauser rifles by preference. This happened some +considerable time before the outbreak of the war. + + +Boer Arguments Denying Uitlanders' Complaints + +Many plausible arguments are proffered to prove that Uitlanders' +grievances and irritations are purely fictitious, but few, I venture to +say, will bear examination. Taxation, for example, is stoutly averred to +fall alike upon burgher and Uitlander, but a glance at the long rubric +of articles specially taxed will show that the selection is contrived to +hit the latter and to spare, or even to protect and benefit, the burgher +section. + +The gold industry is not charged with a royalty as is customary in other +gold-producing countries, but with 5 per cent. only upon the net +profits; but here an intolerant and corrupt domination proves much more +prejudicial than a heavy royalty would be. + +Proper representation would be the remedy and afford contentment, even +with higher taxation, but that is refused upon Bond principles. + +The Anglo-Boer War is attributed to base motives on the part of the +British Government, operating in collusion with capitalism--to England's +passion for annexation, her rapacious greed for the Transvaal gold, her +inordinate ambition to universal commercial supremacy, etc. What a +confusion of assertions and of self-refuting contradictions! + +Would England really acquire the Transvaal gold by the annexation of +that State, seeing that its mines are already capitalized and as good as +expropriated in favour of the host of shareholders, some of whom are +English, but the greater portion German, French, and of other nations? + +What advantage would accrue to shareholders? Would England, in case of +forcible annexation, not be under the necessity of incurring a heavy +charge in the increase of her South African garrisons, and so be +justified in levying a considerable royalty upon the output, which would +materially reduce the dividends? What advantage would arise to England +by substituting an unproductive and costly war in South Africa for +conditions of peace and prosperity, which alone can yield her commerce +profit? England can only derive profit from wars waged between other +peoples. And as to the incentive of commercial supremacy, England, while +possessing that to a large extent already, freely and voluntarily allows +all comers from other nationalities to share the benefits with her by +her principle of free trade. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 10: Extract from Pretoria _Volksstem_, 20th November, 1899, +from a long letter averred to have appeared in the London _Times_, dated +12th October, 1899, said to have been signed by a well-known Cape Boer, +then in England:-- + +"We have desired delay, and we have had it, and we are now practically +masters of South Africa from the Zambesi to the Cape. All the Afrikaners +in the Cape Colony have been working for years past for this end. + +"For thirty years the Cape Dutch have been waiting their chance, and now +their day has come; they will throw off their mask and their yoke at the +same instant, and 200,000 Dutch heroes will trample you tinder foot. We +can afford to tell you the truth now, and in this letter you have got +it."] + + + + +PORTUGUESE TERRITORY--TRANSVAAL LOW VELDT--MALARIA--HORSE SICKNESS + + +Between the north-eastern borders of the Transvaal and the coast lies +the Portuguese colony Mozambique. Its frontier railway station, Ressario +Garcia, is near that of the Transvaal, viz., Komati poort, which is 53 +miles from Delagoa Bay. A low-lying country extends from the coast about +100 to 200 miles inland, and is tropical. Except some elevated spots, +the whole of it is almost uninhabitable in summer by whites on account +of malaria. During some specially bad seasons natives even succumb to +that malady. The only comparatively safe months are from June to +November. Marshy localities, and wherever there is shaded rank +vegetation in low-lying parts, are dangerous all the year round; in such +places the water is deadly at all times unless first boiled. + +This malarial poison is distinct from that which produces yellow fever +in America, and is so far unlike it as it is not contagious. The theory +is that the poison is produced below the surface by decaying vegetable +matter in low and dank parts during the more inactive but still warm and +sunny winter season and during the hot months preceding the summer +rainfall. Upon the first rains the malarial poison escapes through the +then softened crust in the shape of vapoury miasms. This happens during +the night, after the surface of the earth has been cooled off. Those +miasms are dissipated or neutralised by the action of the sun. The dewy +grass retains the poison until it is thoroughly dried to the root. All +surface water is liable to that poisonous impregnation. Malarial +manifestations occur all over South Africa, but in progressive degrees +of virulence with the advance to warmer latitudes, and with the descent +from the high table-lands to the coast levels. On the Transvaal high +veldt, for example, a mild form is developed which, in midsummer, to a +small extent, affects and kills sheep. It is called _blaauwtong_, and +does not affect horses. Descending further, this danger to sheep +increases and begins earlier. Below 5,000 feet altitude in the Transvaal +the summer season is dangerous to sheep, and horses and mules are +subject to horse sickness; whilst lower still the same malaria attains +sufficient virulence to attack human beings, and becomes very deadly +upon levels nearing the coast. Komati poort, the frontier railway +station already mentioned, is dreaded as a still worse death-trap than +even Delagoa Bay, where it is very unsafe, say, from December to end of +April. The season of horse sickness terminates upon the appearance of +the first sharp frost in May. The safeguards for human beings consist in +avoidance at night and early morning of low-lying localities, or such +elevated places even which are subject to be invaded by miasmatic +emanations produced on and wafted from dangerous lower levels. Drink no +unboiled water except that from deep wells or rain-water; maintain +careful and moderate diet, active habits, but avoiding extreme exertions +and excitements; a very sparing use of alcoholic drinks, preferably +taken with the regular meals, is admissible. + +Donkeys, horned cattle, and goats are exempt from malarial risks. + +For horses and mules no certain remedy appears as yet to be known. The +best research, on behalf of the Transvaal Government, by specially +requisitioned French bacteriologists, assisted by that famous +microbe-hunter, Dr. Theiler (Dr. Theiler is the Transvaal veterinary +surgeon and chief of the Medical Laboratory, Pretoria, a noted Swiss +savant, who, with the aid of the said French experts, discovered the +rinderpest inoculation remedy), has failed to find the bacillus of horse +sickness. Barely five per cent, of the horses attacked recover, and +about ten per cent, of mules. These are then called salted, and are +immune from horse sickness; they can after that be safely used in the +worst localities, and are correspondingly more valuable. They are, +however, liable periodically to light after-attacks, when it is safer to +exempt them from work for a day, or for a few hours at least. + +Some proprietors of mail coaches are in the habit of administering doses +of arsenic to their horses and mules, which are said to operate in +lessening the death rate and to favour the salting process. + +As safeguards for horses and mules, the following rules have been found +to minimise losses in dangerous tracts where the low clinging miasmatic +vapours are so deadly during the night and earlier parts of the morning. +(During rainfall there is hardly any danger, nor is there after a +night's rain for the day following):-- + +Do not traverse low suspicious tracts during the hours between 9 p.m. +and, say, two hours after sunrise, lest poisonous vapours be +encountered and inhaled by man or horse. + +Choose the most elevated spots for camping out at night. No grazing to +be allowed from 10 p.m. to about 10 or 11 a.m., unless it is raining. +Dewy grass is fatally poisoned; the heavy moist air close to the surface +is also suspected. Grazing is only safe after the soil and grass are +dried of all dewy moisture. + +Avoid all water of at all a stagnant nature; rather let the animals +remain thirsty. + +If the animals have been fed with dry fodder during the night, let the +first morning stage be moderate and not exhausting. With empty stomachs +the task might be somewhat increased, but even then it should be less +than any other succeeding stage. When the first symptoms of sickness are +noticed they may pass over if the animal is at once freed from work and +allowed to rest, or is at most led when marching. Among the most +dangerous places for horse sickness and for fever to human beings are +the luxurious dongas, ravines, and valleys which abound along the long +stretches of mountains and broken country immediately below the high +plateaux. + +The passes leading up to the high veldt are few in number, and so +precipitous as to be almost impracticable for vehicles. Of late years +those roads have been allowed to fall into disrepair, in order, it may +be supposed, to check wagon traffic and to promote that by railway; +apart from the railway, communication with Delagoa Bay would now be +impossible. What with the fever climate in summer, and the formidable +mountain barriers, the Transvaal high veldt is well protected from +aggression from the direction of Delagoa Bay. A few thousand men +distributed at the few mountain passes, blocking the tunnel at one of +these (at Waterval Boven), and breaking up some few bridges, would +effectually arrest the progress of any invading force. + + + + +CLIMATE AND TOPOGRAPHY + + +From the tropical Zambesi regions and the torrid Kalahari plains, down +to the 34th parallel at Cape point, a great diversity of climatic +conditions is met with. To the north and north-east are the steaming, +death-breeding low lands, abounding with dank virgin forests and scrubby +stretches; and to the north-west extend the arid, sandy, and stony +levels. There are the temperate and fruitful inland reaches along the +southern and south-eastern littoral, and again further inward the vast +plateaux at 2,000 to 6,500 feet elevation, which represent nearly +one-half of the sub-continent with quite other climatic aspects. In the +southern and western provinces of the Cape Colony the rainy season +occurs during the winter months, probably because of the proximity to +the trade wind influences prevailing over the South Atlantic; over the +rest of South Africa the winters are dry and sunny, the rains falling in +summer, most copiously in December and January, the effect being that +there are hardly any winter rigours, and the heat of summer is +minimised. The most agreeable climate is that on the higher plateau +levels: never hot nor altogether cold, and yet virile and bracing; +something like the climate on sunny days found in the higher Alpine +regions in summer and in the mild Algerine winters. This climate is +found from the Queenstown district at about 3,000 feet elevation, +extending north and westwards over the Stormberg, the Orange Free State, +and along the lordly Drakensberg range and its spurs some 200 to 300 +miles into the Transvaal, where the highest plateau levels occur between +Ermelo and to near Lydenburg, viz., 6,500 feet. The Harrismith district +near that mountain range is at a similar altitude with an identical +climate. + +These high tracts are called _hoogeveldt_ or highlands. Their altitude +rises steadily with the advance northwards towards warmer latitudes, and +with the compensating effect that the climate in the Queenstown +district, Bontebok Flats for example, at 3,000 feet elevation, is +exactly similar to that in the eastern portions of the Orange Free State +at 5,500 feet, right up to near Lydenburg at 6,500 feet altitude, and +being some six degrees further north than Queenstown. The northern half +of Natal also partakes of that character, though there, as well as over +the rest of the eastern slopes of the Drakensberg mountains, the country +is more broken and hilly than on the western side. The Cape Colonial +high veldt near the Drakensberg range is intersected by high +continuations or spurs, but north and westwards those plateaux assume +more the real aspect of continuous high plains. There is a gradual +descent to the west; from occasional hilly ranges those dwindle to +kopjes, and to still less elevated "randjes" occurring in clusters more +and more apart, until yet further westwards one gets to the merely +undulating sterile approaches of the Karoo and the plains around and +beyond Kimberley, which merge at last in the still lower Kalahara +desert. + +Within 200 or 300 miles from the Drakensberg slopes the country is +well-watered, and the rainfall ample and generally regular, but +westwards this abundance progressively decreases with a more tardy and +precarious rainy season, occasioning at times severe droughts +accompanied with correspondingly protracted and very hot weather. + +Those high plains make up one vast green sward from the time of the +spring rains in September to April. From May the absence of rain, +together with the night frosts, shrivel up the herbage, giving the +country a pale-brown aspect. This continues until the return of spring, +varied with large expanses of black, caused by accidental or intentional +grass fires, and here and there a few green spots in specially sheltered +and moist localities. + +Those burnt spaces may extend for miles, and are for the time veritable +deserts. The landscape being quite black and the atmosphere generally +very clear, it is obvious that objects of any lighter colour would be +conspicuous at very long distances: an ideal background for khaki +targets. + +Most of the land is well suited for agriculture, but by far the largest +proportion is as yet used only for raising sheep, horses and cattle. +Angora goats also thrive in the hillier parts. About forty years ago the +Karoo plains, the Orange Free State, and Transvaal were, so to say, +monopolised by milliards of game. Standing upon an eminence or a swell +one could see in all directions, as far as the eye could reach, +innumerable herds of all sorts of game grazing, resting or gambolling; +the different kinds would be ranged in separate groups and could be +distinguished by their special colours--the black-looking wildebeest +(gnu) next to the striped quag-gas, the white-flanked springbocks, +blesbocks with a blaze on their foreheads, the larger elands and other +kinds of the antelope species. Almost all those vast herds have +disappeared since, having been killed off by natives and Boers for their +hides and for food, or else scared away farther north, where rinderpest +extirpated nearly all the rest in 1895-1897. + +In the earlier days, and even not so long ago in some parts, the +farmers' crops required guarding during the night against the +depredations of game. This is still so in the north-western plains of +the Cape Colony, as already remarked. In May most of the Harrismith +district farmers and those of the Transvaal high veldt move their sheep, +horses and cattle to winter in Natal, Swaziland, and to the other +extensive low lands most adjacent, to return after the spring rains in +September or October. Sheep and horses could not with safety remain +longer in those warm regions, as then the fatal malarial _blaauwtong_ +begins there to attack sheep, and horse sickness becomes virulent as +well. The high veldt, as said before, is exempt from that danger. + +Some of the wealthier farmers can arrange it so that they and their +families can winter at their comfortable high-veldt homes and send +attendants with their cattle to the low veldt, while others, not so +well favoured, must close up their houses and accompany their flocks to +winter in the warm tracts, where they live in their wagons and tents and +escape the outlay for winter clothing. + +Owing to the scarcity of wood on the high veldt, kraal fuel used +formerly to be the staple substitute. This would be obtained by penning +up sheep over-night. The deposits were after a month or two dug out in +thick flags, which, after being stacked and dried over the kraal wall, +would burn nearly as well and as brightly as wood. The discovery of coal +beds in so many accessible places in the Cape Colony, Natal, and in the +two Republics has since superseded that sort of fuel to a great extent. + +The small divergence between summer and winter temperature upon the high +table lands will be seen from the following table taken from +observations at 5,500 to 6,000 feet altitude in the Transvaal:-- + + Fahr. Fahr. + +In winter--28 deg. to 40 deg. at night; 35 deg. to 70 deg. by day in the shade. +In summer--40 deg. to 60 deg. at night; 50 deg. to 90 deg. by day in the shade. + +It is not often that 85 deg. is reached, and rarely above. This applies +equally to the more southern and thus colder latitudes of Queenstown, at +3,000 feet elevation, and to the eastern half of the Orange Free State, +at 4,000 to 5,000 feet, the warmth increasing, as said before, +proportionately with the descent in altitude, and on occasions of tardy +summer rains. + +The winter is the most enjoyable of the seasons, being an almost +uninterrupted continuation of fine sunny weather. On occasions there +would be spells of boisterous weather with a rather sudden and inclement +decrease of temperature, brought on by cold south-east winds; if these +are accompanied with rain in winter, which, however, rarely happens, it +would sometimes turn to sleet or even snow, or else to hard freezing at +night. The snow would, however, thaw with the warmth of the sun, and so +restore the temperature as before. The bracing quality of the climate +mostly consists just in those variations of cool nights and warm days, +and the occasional days of comparatively cold, boisterous weather. The +latter must indeed be provided against, for even in December--that is to +say, in the middle of summer--it would be imprudent to travel without +great-coats as well as waterproofs, so as to be protected against +unexpected changes, from say, 100 deg. in the sun, almost suddenly to 40 deg. +with a driving wind, accompanied perhaps with rain. Such transitions are +trying in the open, even if one is well clad, and the blustering weather +is sometimes so severe, if it happens in winter or early spring, as to +approach the character of a blizzard. One such lasted about thirty hours +in the early spring of 1881. It swept over the entire South African +plateaux and destroyed great numbers of sheep and cattle. These fell +exhausted in their flight before they could reach some sheltering hills +or ravines. In situations where such protections from the cold +south-east wind were far apart the veldt was on the following day found +strewn with their carcases, and upon the still more extensive and +unbroken plains antelopes even perished in enormous numbers simply from +exhaustion in trying to escape and find shelter from the cold wind. + +I will just describe one of those occurrences, the severest in my +experience and well remembered by the Free State and the Transvaal +Boers--it was, I think, in 1881. One sunny day, early in August (spring +time), at a place about twenty miles east of Reddersburg, in the Orange +Free State, the wind veered to the south-east, and by afternoon had +begun to blow fairly hard and cold, about 35 deg. Fahrenheit--that is to +say, about 35 deg. below the temperature of a few hours previously. I had +managed to get some milch cows driven near to the kraal, where there +would have been very fair shelter for them, but luckily, as the sequel +proved, they refused to enter, and rushed past in a scared way, just +snatching up one mouthful of forage which had been thrown down to entice +them to stay, and making off as hard as they could. The wind did not +abate till the day after, when tales kept pouring in of terrible losses +of sheep and cattle killed by the cold wind; sheep in open plains had +suffered most, and cattle which had been kraaled were nearly all dead, +whilst the herds of cattle and horses which had been left grazing out +had been driven away and were also believed to have died. At the farm of +a certain Andries Bester, near by, some seventy head of cattle in very +good condition were found dead, piled up to the level of one of the +kraal walls, showing the struggle which some thirty others had in +escaping over the mound of dead cattle to the outside of the kraal. + +The next day all those thirty head were found grazing some fifteen miles +westwards under the lee of hills near Reddersburg, where they had found +safe shelter. Everybody's cattle were recovered which had not been +kraaled, including mine. This was the case as well with cattle which had +been tethered to their transport wagons and which succeeded in breaking +loose, whilst the rest were found dead where they had been tied. + +There was no possibility of restraining cattle or horses from +stampeding--they did it from the instinct of self-preservation, for, +whilst running with the wind, its force of driving cold was +proportionately lessened, and some loss of heat was made good by the +exertion of running, which they had to keep up till in safe shelter of +hills or ravines. + +Had such a cold storm overtaken an army or patrol, the situation would +have been exactly similar, and would have been an ordeal even to +experienced Boers or Colonial farmers, and if an enemy had been located +near Reddersburg, all the cattle and horses would simply have fallen +into his lap. + +The obvious safeguard would be a rug for each horse and mule, and for +oxen the erection of a shelter against the wind, consisting of all +available wagons and stores, or else, if practicable, to move at once to +a sheltered locality and always provide a good reserve supply of forage +or other provender. That sort of boisterous, cold weather continues +sometimes, with more or less severity, two or three days. The want of +food and inclemency besides would result in killing the weak cattle and +weaken the rest so as to be incapable of work for some days after. The +difficulty consists in that such inclement changes occur so suddenly, +and that their severity and duration cannot be forecasted. + +Upon other much less severe occasions entire gangs of 20-50 Kaffirs, +travelling from the warm north to the diamond-fields or gold-mines, and +not sufficiently provided with blankets, would be found at their camping +places huddled together, nearly all numbed to death. The months when +such surprise weather is most liable to occur are from "July to +October," before and during the earlier spring rains. It is then, and +even up to December at times, that the Drakensberg and other mountains +resume their snow-capped winter decorations for some days. There is a +saying which fairly well applies to the high-veldt climate, _i.e._, that +cold and inclement weather is not met with until well in towards summer, +especially about the time of spring rains, and that hot weather of any +considerable continuance mostly occurs in spring. This will be +understood upon considering that the midsummer months, December to +February, are cooled by very frequent and copious rains, whilst the heat +accumulates more during the preceding sunny spring months, which are +interrupted at rarer intervals by short showers only. + +Upon the whole, and despite the few eccentricities mentioned, the high +veldt is favoured with a climate which, for genial comfort all the year +round, exempt from prolonged winter rigours and excessive summer heat, +is not found anywhere else in the world, or only in rare privileged +spots. It is withal most healthy, promoting the highest possible +physical development and even longevity. + +Under such favoured conditions the hand of man only is needed in +providing good habitations, planting trees, in the culture of the soil, +and some irrigation labour, to transform nearly every little farm within +five to ten years from a bare pastoral monotony to a really idyllic +spot. There are many such already in Basutoland, the Orange Free State, +and the Transvaal, as well as in the Cape Colonies and Natal--veritable +Eden-like places, as it were bits dropped from heaven. With a +continuance of peace these could be multiplied to any extent each year, +thus rendering those sparsely inhabited tracts the most beautiful areas +in the world, with a prosperous self-sustaining population, quite apart +from considerations of mineral wealth. + +The foregoing description of the high-veldt climate points to clothing +composed of woollen fabrics as the only _rational and safe_ attire for +men travelling or taking the field. No constitution could be expected to +hold out against the ever-changing temperature and weather if depending +upon being clad, for example, in a cotton suit; this would only do on +warm days for men who are certain of being safely housed at night and +sheltered during rainy weather. Horses and mules in the open should be +provided with woollen rugs during winter and spring. + + + + +BOER PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR + + +The ultimatum cabled to England had no sooner expired at 5 p.m. on the +11th October last than the same evening and on the very next and +succeeding days appeared, published all over the Orange Free State and +the Transvaal, "Government Gazettes extraordinary," filling scores of +pages, comprising proclamations of martial law, and the hundred and one +enactments and provisions regulating that new condition. Their preambles +stated: Whereas in secret session on such and such dates (that is to +say, months previous) the honourable First Volksraad had passed this or +that law--or whereas the two Volksraads, assembled in secret session, +had authorized the Government to frame such and such laws, to come into +force immediately after publication. This shows at least a studious +purpose months beforehand to be in complete readiness, for it obviously +took no little time to prepare all those laws, and have them ready in +type for despatch and publication as had been done. It accords with the +assumption that war had been predetermined, and this is further +confirmed by numerous statements, publicly made by Volksraad members, +and also by President Steyn's famous and now historic message to +President Krueger some short time before, in the laconic and oracular +words, "We are ready." + +That the Afrikaner Bond had been for years past preparing for its _coup +d'etat_ is further shown by the following incidents which can be +substantiated by the writer:-- + +During the days of the Jameson raid a very prominent Transvaal Boer, +holding office and who had two sons at the scene of the disturbance, +remarked at a public place in conversation with other burghers:-- + +"England just wants to annex the Transvaal, and no doubt the Orange Free +State too. This we know; but what she does not know is, that we can at +this moment reverse the tale--we can seize in one day Cape Town, Port +Elizabeth, East London, and Durban, and within a very short time turn +every Englishman out of the Colonies, out of the land which England has +robbed us of." + +Those words were spoken by a Bond man who is known to rarely speak in +public. When asked by a Uitlander how it could be done, he relapsed into +his usual prudent reticence, and merely remarked grimly, "We can do it." + +But for subsequent revelations and the present sequel those words would +have been forgotten, and were at the time attributed by some to mere +boastful exuberance. + +In July last the topic was discussed by some Boers at the house of a +highly placed military official, about the five per cent. tax upon the +profits of the gold industry. One said it should be raised to +twenty-five per cent. for the benefit of the burgher estate. That +official, who, by the way, had just returned from a gathering of country +officials at Pretoria, sententiously replied "that it was no more a +question of any tribute, but of taking the mines altogether out of the +capitalists' hands"; and when another burgher interposed a doubt as to +the fairness of such a proceeding, that official continued by saying, +"Fairness indeed! it is we who have submitted to unfairness only too +long--_ons wil nou Engelse schiet_ (we want now to go on the battue of +Englishmen)." + +When the Transvaal Government had secured the assent of both Volksraads +to the seven years' franchise measure it was thought desirable, as a +matter of form and to gain time, to defer the formal passing of the law +until after it had been referred to the burghers. This was not done till +August last. A large section of the people were known to be against +extending the franchise, but the Government had no misgivings about the +result, counting upon the persuasive influence of the Volksraad members +who were to preside at the plebiscite meetings, and had before been +drilled up to their task. Their success was as desired, and the measure +became law in due course. Those meetings in the different districts and +wards of the State were characterised by almost uniform proceedings, so +that the description of one of them can serve for all. + +The burghers assembled on the appointed day at the local Government +Office. The Landdrost, or chief official of the ward, took the chair. +There were four Volksraad members, who each in turn recommended the +adoption of the seven years' franchise measure. The burghers were +invited to express their views. The majority appeared dead against it, +but were gradually appeased, and they finally assented to a motion of +approval presented by the chairman, which also conveyed full confidence +in the Government and their representatives to deal with the enactment +and to modify it as they might consider appropriate. + +One of the burghers had in his speech stated in passionate terms that no +dictation on the part of Uitlanders could be tolerated; they must either +obey the laws or leave the State. The function and prerogative of making +laws belonged to the burghers. They had been ill-used enough by the +English; it would be still worse, he said, if they were invested with +legislative rights. "On the contrary, it is the Boer nation which is +entitled to supremacy, not only in the Transvaal but right to the sea. +The Cape Colonies," he continued, "are ours by divine right, and so is +Natal, and no Afrikaner may rest until we are reinstated." General +approbation and stamping of feet followed that passionately rendered +speech. Not a word of restraint or censure from any of the four +Volksraad members. Some of these had addressed the meeting already, and +the others in turn followed. Their speeches had one import, viz., +"Burghers! The Government and the two Volksraads have carefully and +prayerfully weighed this seven years' franchise measure. You may safely +approve of it; it can result in no harm; it will strengthen our cause. +We know that England wants our land because of the gold in it; but this +law will contribute to thwart her, though it will not avert war. We were +a small nation when our fathers trekked to this side of the Orange +River; we have become united and strong since. It will be soon seen that +our people have to be reckoned with among the other nations of the +earth; we have right on our side, and, with God's help, we are certain +to prevail. Burghers, you may trust us as your representatives; we are +all of one mind with you; you may safely approve of the proposed +franchise law, and leave possible modifications in the hands of the +Government." Then followed tumultuous approval from the great majority, +motions of confidence and of thanks. Those burgher meetings were +convened during July and August. + + * * * * * + +President Krueger is famous for employing clever and original similes in +order to illustrate a policy as he wants his people to understand it. + +It has already been noted that the Franchise Law of 1890 excluded +Uitlanders from full burgher rights until after twenty-one years' +probation. The reduction to seven years was proclaimed to be a +concession to meet Mr. Chamberlain's demand. The simile, as addressed to +the Volksraad and published in the journals, ran as follows:-- + +"First my coat was demanded of me, which I gave; next were asked my +boots, vest, and trousers. I surrendered these as well; and now, as I +stand in my bare shirt, my limbs are wanted besides." + +The people were thus led to be unanimous in the resolve to oppose any +further concession, and to view Sir Alfred Milner's unconditional +insistence for a five years' franchise as a conclusive proof that +England in reality wanted no less than the country itself. In this way +the Boer mind was designedly fashioned into the conviction that war was +inevitable, and that both President and people were absolved from all +responsibility in it. Had the offered franchise of seven years and the +subsequent one of five years been honestly meant, there should, indeed, +have been little difficulty for adjusting in the one case the difference +of two years; but it being so surrounded by impossible trammels that +what purported to be an egg proved more like a stone, and even that was +not intended to be given, it was a mere subterfuge to gain time for +carrying out Bond designs. + + + + +ALLIANCE OF ORANGE FREE STATE WITH TRANSVAAL--SUZERAINTY +SQUABBLE--ARMAMENTS BEFORE JAMESON RAID + + +The project of alliance between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State +had been mooted before 1890. After that came conferences between the +respective Presidents and delegates for closer union as it was then +styled. Mr. John G. Fraser, one of the noblest and most distinguished +Orange Free State statesmen, was conspicuous among the few opponents. +His arguments against federation were so logical and conclusive that it +seemed for a while that the idea would have to be renounced. Among other +grounds adduced against that alliance was the fact that England +possessed claims of suzerainty over the Transvaal, and, the Orange Free +State itself being entirely independent, the incongruity and +incompatibility were obvious of joining a vassal State. There was +trouble if not danger lurking behind it, if such two States were to join +in an actual federation. Whatever was desirable for mutual advantage +might be attained without offensive and defensive alliance. The two +Governments, however, knew how to manipulate matters. The closer union +scheme was carried through before the Jameson incursion, and soon after +that event an offensive and defensive alliance completed the federation. +The Afrikaner Bond then had advanced another important stage. + +Mr. John G. Fraser's persistent objections to federation, upon the +ground that the Transvaal stood under British suzerainty, had given that +question a prominence operating against the Afrikaner Bond project, +viz., that of gaining a strong Power as ally to its cause. It was felt +that no Power could, with decency, enter into a connection with that +State while such a claim was maintained. To overcome that obstacle the +Transvaal Government proceeded to raise a controversy with England, +taking up the position of repudiating the claim of suzerainty, and +averring the complete independence of the State, subject only to the one +clause _re_ treaties with foreign nations. Another object would be +gained, viz., of diverting England from Bond aims by that and similar +controversies. To make a show of sincerity about it all, the opinions +(foregathered, of course) of certain eminent jurists in England and +Holland were obtained, who refuted the claim in elaborate disquisitions +and with that readiness of apparent conviction so peculiar to some +advocates' affected faith in their clients' cause. Thus England was +decoyed into a protracted tournament of words and phrases without any +practical result, but gratifying and inspiring no doubt to certain +well-paid _soi-disant_ champions of the principle defined as the +"_perfection of justice_," who revel in a display of forensic erudition, +which, however, only illustrates to the unedified lay mind how speech is +adaptable to veil inward conviction, and how a mass of rhetoric can be +employed to justify the breach of simple and well-understood +engagements. + +It continues to be clumsily insisted upon in official and paid Press +organs how the need of providing Transvaal armaments became realized +only with that Anglo-capitalistic plot of 1895-96 against Boer +independence, and that, in fact, Dr. Jameson was worthy of the Boer +nation's lasting gratitude for opening their eyes to their helplessly +unarmed and unprepared condition up to that time. In those papers it is +declared with unblushing inexactness how the Transvaal at that epoch +possessed only two hundred and fifty inefficient and ill-equipped +artillerists, with only a few cannons of various antiquated types, and +how the burgher element had, up to that time, continued unarmed and in +unsuspecting insecurity. To stamp these misstatements as false, it needs +only to be considered that from the time of the Boer trek in 1835-38 +every Boer had been a hunter and guerilla soldier possessed of the best +firearms then extant, ready at any sacrifice to provide still more +effective weapons as inventions in arms of precision in turn progressed. +His passion to be well armed only equalled that of his love for land. +From 1881 every Transvaal and Orange Free State Boer without exception +had, and was obliged to have, his Martini-Henry rifle. The Government +arsenals were supplied with reserves of that up to recently unsurpassed +weapon and with large stores of ammunition. The authorities supplied +that rifle at L4 each, and even gratis in the case of indigent burghers. +At the frequent reviews (_wapenschouwingen_) each burgher had to appear +mounted, with his Martini-Henry rifle and thirty rounds ammunition. To +maintain proficiency in rifle practice, prizes and honours were +distributed at Government expense in each ward, whilst there was plenty +of private emulation encouraged among young and old in the science of +sharp-shooting, the Governments of both Republics contributing +ammunition at below cost price. + +In about 1893 the Transvaal Government introduced about 10,000 new +rifles of the Guede pattern, firing a steel-pointed bullet, but the +issue did not become general, as the Martini-Henry rifle continued to be +held more effective for game and for war. The Mauser rifle was only +provided, after long hesitation and much diffidence, for its +rapid-firing quality in war, whereas for game it is still considered +inferior to the larger bored Martini-Henry. + +On the occasion of the Jameson incursion, the Transvaal had in readiness +extensive parks of the most modern quick-firing Maxims and Nordenfeldts +of various calibres, and breech-loading field artillery of the Krupp +make. The Orange Free State hurried to their assistance with similar +artillery, each burgher armed with a Martini-Henry rifle. Besides all +that, there was the dynamite and explosives factory equipped to +manufacture all sorts of modern ammunition as it does now, and this is +why President Krueger described that factory as one of the corner-stones +of Boer independence. In the face of these facts it is a most singular +departure to say that the Transvaal only thought of arming when becoming +alarmed for the future by the Jameson attempt, and that statement could +only have been intended to mislead the uninformed at a distance. "_Qui +s'excuse s'accuse_" is applicable in this as well as in other ruses for +hiding those sinister Bond aims and to pose as the guileless and +victimized Boer nation. It was just the other way about--it was England +who was unprepared and exposed to imminent risk of aggression on the +part of the Boer combination. + +What had amazed and actually exasperated many Boers was the ludicrously +puny attempt made by Jameson and the Johannesburg revolutionary concert. +It was at the time thought that the invasion of some 700 men was only a +first installment, and that much larger developments were in preparation +to attack the State. It was for that reason that only a few batteries of +artillery were despatched at a late moment to Doornkop under Commandant +Trichaart to operate against Jameson's party, while the bulk was held in +reserve with an extensive mobilization of burghers to resist other +supposed opposition of an altogether more formidable but yet undefined +character. When nothing further transpired, the feeling uppermost with +the people was unbounded derision at that impotent fiasco, and a +loathing contempt for the cowering Johannesburg rabble who betrayed and +sacrificed the insensate doctor. It was loudly asserted that the +combined forces of the two Republics were competent to resist an +invasion a hundred times stronger than the one so foolishly attempted; +but, with cooler counsels, it was resolved to adopt the appealing +attitude of the deeply injured party who miraculously and providentially +escaped a great national peril. Upon these lines the raid incident +afforded an immense advantage to Afrikaner Bond tactics, and an impulse +to Bond propaganda which enormously increased Boer partisanship, +inflicting at the same time a fatal check upon the diplomacy of England +and upon the essential peace-preserving measures for safeguarding her +South African interests. The circumstances, however, served to embolden +many hitherto undecided sympathisers into openly declared and vehement +Boer partisans, revealing the singular spectacle, among English people +even, of a morbid cult apparently ready to sacrifice their nation just +to vindicate their judicial dicta about Boer innocence and to parade +their own darling sense of shocked and violated national honour. + +Quite other and more emphatic terms apply to the revolting sewerage such +as the socialistic platform and other purulent nurseries for breeding +wilful and hypocritical abettors, at so much a score, of misguided and +treason-hatching Afrikanerdom. + + + + +THE TRANSVAAL DYNAMITE AND EXPLOSIVES MONOPOLY + + +The factory pertaining to this enterprise, situated near Pretoria, is +recognised to be the most extensive and best equipped of its kind in +existence. It is capable of turning out all the dynamite and similar +blasting material needed for the gold and other mines of the State, also +every description of explosive needed for modern ammunition. + +Its equipments include ateliers and laboratories under the conduct of +eminent scientists and men of most advanced technical proficiency. The +site is a farm named Modderfontein of about 8,000 acres near Pretoria. +The industry provides employment for over 5,000 persons. In connection +with this factory is a foundry at Pretoria for casting shells, etc. The +various ingredients, such as sulphur, guhr, saltpetre, etc., are +believed to be plentiful in the State, but their exploitation is found +to be more costly than it is to import the pure articles from Europe. + +The investment is represented mostly by French and German shareholders, +the Transvaal Government also possessing a portion of the shares. The +contract with the State conveys a complete monopoly for the manufacture +and importation of all descriptions of explosives, and is so framed as +to base its subsistence upon international rights. One of the conditions +is that the issue of ammunition is relegated to State control. In this +manner burghers only get supplies, whilst Uitlanders are limited to very +small quantities for sporting purposes by special permits. + + + + +BOND FIGHTING STRENGTH IN BEGINNING OF 1899 + +Efficiently _Mounted Infantry._ At least about 142,000 +trained. + + 15,000 Orange Free State, between 18-50 + years . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000 + + 25,000 Transvaal, between 18-50 years . . 30,000 + + 40,000 Cape Colonies, between 18-50 + years . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,000 + + 2,000 Natal and elsewhere, between 18-50 + years . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000 + + 18,000 Of above, aged 16-18 and 50-60 . . 30,000 +------- ------ +100,000 _Artillery_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000 + + 600 Orange Free State, including + trained reserves . . . . . . . . 600 + + 1,400 Transvaal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,400 +------- ----- ------- +102,000 . . . . . . . . . . . Total at least about 144,000 + +102,000 highly efficient, and 42,000 partly trained. + +The mounts are docile, hardy and nimble, with large reserves available. +The above includes 500 Johannesburg Mounted Police, a picked body of men +armed with carbine, revolver, and sabre. + + _Small Arms_ . . . . . . . . . About 250,000 + +Martini-Henry rifles in Orange Free State } + } 100,000 + " " " in Transvaal } + +Guede rifles in Transvaal . . . . . . . . 10,000 +Mauser rifles in Transvaal . . . . . . . . 120,000 +Revolvers in both States . . . . . . . . . 20,000 + ------ + + _Artillery, both Republics_ . . . . . . . . 140 + +Maxims and Nordenfeldts, modern . . . . . 50 +Field cannon and Howitzers " . . . . . 70 +Siege and heavy guns " . . . . . 20 + + + + +BOER CONSERVATISM + + +Rudyard Kipling truly said "the Boers are the most conservative people +on earth." Habits and views which had prevailed two hundred years ago +with their forefathers are still tenaciously preserved by them. We see +this in matters of language, religion, in certain antipathies, and even +in attire. They are justly famed for hospitality, not only amongst +themselves, but also towards strangers, and a very pleasing trait, no +doubt handed down from the seigneurial Huguenots, is the genial +politeness which a stranger will receive in an otherwise wholly +uncultured Boer family. + +On his farm the Boer is chief and supreme after the patriarchal +fashion--no thought of tolerating an equal or a rival in authority. +Collectively also, as in governmental representation, he is extremely +averse to the introduction of any foreign element; such a factor would +meet with his undisguised suspicion and jealousy. It must be Boer +supremacy, and to this strangers must submit; the Boers to figure as +the only caste or military aristocracy privileged to carry arms, very +much like the Samouris nobles of Japan, who from of old until recently +had represented the feudal estate, and had made quite a famous cult of +personal bravery, chivalry and devotion to their Mikado and for their +independent caste. Long intercourse and inter-marriage with a Boer +family would ultimately remove the barrier. With such rooted +exclusiveness it is only in accord with Boer nature to be reluctant in +admitting Uitlanders to burgher franchise, and the greater their numbers +and influence of wealth the more would they be viewed as an innovating +menace and their admittance to political equality be resisted. + +Upon newly occupied farms a Boer will always seek to locate one or more +squatters of his own nation upon allotments ultimately intended for the +occupation of some of his own children as soon as they are grown up. The +usual conditions for privileges of residence, grazing, and cultivation +are that the squatter builds a dwelling and does all the other permanent +improvements at his own cost, that he accounts to the owner for half or +one-third of all products raised, and that he and his family should +render services whenever required. When the squatter acquires land of +his own he will in turn adopt similar feudal methods to get it improved +and to obtain services without expense. Should the conditions accorded +to the squatter result in advantages which prove any way lucrative to +him, the owner would in nine cases out of ten immediately impose more +exacting conditions, upon the plea of making provision for his own +children. Such dependants are otherwise treated with familiar equality, +as are also other white employees, and are admitted at the common table +like any of the family, but below the salt. + +To acquire farms is a Boer's greatest ambition. The love of land is his +special passion, so that his children also may be independent owners of +farms. Formerly such land acquisitions were made by encroachments upon +the possessions of natives or by purchases from them and by barter, and +failing those means, by conquest. Since 1885, however, the stipulations +in connection with the Anglo-Swaziland settlement effectually barred +expansion and encroachments in any direction. The Boers resent this +check as an exceedingly sore point. There is not enough land for the +sons who have since grown up. These cannot possibly compete with the +educated Hollanders in quest of good positions, nor are they taught any +handicrafts, and the galling prospect is inevitable that they will have +to content themselves with very humble stations in life, dependent even +upon the more prosperous Uitlanders. No wonder these Boers fell an easy +prey to the seductions and deceptive fallacies of the Afrikaner Bond +doctrine of conquest, for dispossessing England of her Colonies, and to +resume a free hand for expansion northwards as well. + +In connection with the stated inadequacy of spare land it is well to +note that, of the two Republics, the Transvaal only possesses +undeveloped Government reserve land. This is all situated in more or +less low-lying and fever-stricken parts, large tracts being absolutely +uninhabitable for that reason, especially in summer. Some of the rest is +occupied on terms of lease by burghers, and has up to the present +afforded scope for some of the less aspiring class. About one-quarter of +the aggregate Transvaal farms are owned by Uitlander individuals or by +companies who are mostly English. But the bulk of the land owned by +burghers in both States has gradually become cut up by the process of +succession into holdings so small as to admit of hardly any further +division. There are, of course, numerous exceptions of wealthy farmers +who can still bequeath to each of their sons a whole farm of 6,000 +acres, or half a farm. In the face of these restrictive circumstances a +scheme has been in preparation during the past years, promoted by the +Bond coterie in Holland and the Governments of the two Republics, to +effect a large emigration from Holland to those States. A company has +thus been formed, called "Nederlandsche Emigratie Maatschappy voor +Transvaal en Oranje Vry Staat." The prospectus describes the objects as +agricultural, pastoral, and industrial, but, as "members," only such are +invited as are disposed to join hands with the Boer cause. That scheme +came into operation before the outbreak of the war. What else does it +reveal but a thinly veiled recruiting device for auxiliaries against +England? + + +Education + +What has been said about the ignorance and illiteracy of the Boers may +be admitted to apply to the great majority of the grown-up and of the +more maturely aged population; those of youthful age have of late years +had the benefit of a better education than had before been possible to +provide. But the great drawback consists in the still very imperfect +knowledge of High Dutch, and it will take many years yet before a more +general proficiency in that language will qualify the youth for more +than purely elementary studies. There are numerous exceptions, however, +of very creditably educated Boers, whose parents have been able to get +them taught at Colonial schools, such as the Stellenbosch seminary, and +even in Holland. Besides this, there are the children and grandchildren +of the many educated Hollanders who have continued to stream into the +Republics since 1854, and who had the advantage of learning High Dutch +from their parents. Those, as a rule, bestowed great attention to their +children's education, and in many cases sent them to Holland to complete +their studies. The greatest factor of the educated Dutch element in +South Africa consists of the mass of Hollanders itself, who have made +their way to the Republics, and especially to the Transvaal, during the +past eighteen years, among whom are many of highest European +attainments, so that altogether a big muster is made up of +well-instructed people, comparing well enough with other nations, and +ample to meet all the exigencies of the two rapidly developing +Republics. This educated contingent is being continuously supplemented +by like arrivals from Holland, including eminent technical experts and +scientists. It is a well-known feature that many chief posts of the +administration are filled by aged, uneducated burghers who are +altogether without the qualification required for the exercise of their +function, but this drawback is effectually remedied by the expedient of +providing proficient Hollanders as working adjuncts and secretaries, in +which manner all the branches of the administration are nevertheless +efficiently and most creditably served. Hundreds of young Boers are +admitted as supernumeraries into the various offices to prepare them for +responsible positions later on. + + +Dundee Secret Dossier + +The greatest stir was made upon the discovery of secret documents left +behind by the British military at the hurried evacuation of Dundee +(Natal). + +It was made public that those documents contained all the details of a +plan of invading the Orange Free State, and that it furnished most +incontestable proofs of British designs as early as 1896 against the +independence of both Republics. It was promised to publish those +details, but this has not yet been done. It appears, however, that no +incriminating details exist. Nevertheless, the matter has been made to +serve calumniating reports on a considerable scale in the pro-Boer Press +abroad, declaring that those documents conveyed absolute proofs of +England's perfidious intentions of attacking the Orange Free State +unawares, whilst all the time professing friendly relations and +undertaking to respect the complete integrity of the Republican status +of both States. What actually has transpired is that the whole thing was +a mare's nest, simply and nothing more than military information under +cover marked "secret," giving topographical and other details upon the +Orange Free State--a proceeding which is carried out by all military +authorities of any pretensions to prudent activity in the information +department, and no more construable into actual hostile intentions than +are other geographical surveys for general instructions or for school +use. + +The incident again shows the absence of tangible grounds for accusations +against England when a foolish invention as the one cited must do duty +for such, and to rekindle race hatred. + +The interest and the manipulation devoted to that fabrication by the +pro-Boer Press have, however, scored another success to Bond propaganda +in fixing the belief with Boer partisans, of England's really +predetermined designs to annex both Republics. Every Boer has since been +more than ever so persuaded, the conviction fanning the fervour of +patriotism and stimulating his eagerness to resist the would-be +ravishers of his country. + +Considering, on the other hand, that the English Government had known +much about the Afrikaner Bond menace, it is singular that precautionary +measures had halted with that bare effort of making military +observations. The only way to account for this apparent lethargic +inaction is the assumption that a persevering patience and friendly +attitude was expected in time to effectually dissipate all trouble in +South Africa, and that a display of anxiety or of force would have +frustrated such peaceable tactics. In refutation of the aspersion +against England, it may be sufficient to point to the fact that during +those very years (1896-7) both Republics were in a condition of complete +helplessness through the rinderpest scourge which was then raging. If +any hostile designs had in reality existed they could have been carried +out with utmost ease then, as that scourge presented no obstacle to +England. But it was the programme of peace which was pursued as +undeviatingly then as since, with a constancy which refused to be +foiled. + + +Pamphlet entitled _A Hundred Years of Injustice_ + +A mass of so-called proof against England of her guilt in provoking the +present war and justifying the Boer attitude was presented to the public +in South Africa and abroad in November last in the shape of a voluminous +pamphlet entitled _A Hundred Years of Injustice_ (published both in +English and Dutch, and later even translated into French). That +production covers Boer history and its troubles with England up to 1881. +It then travels over the diplomatic appeals of the Transvaal delegation, +which resulted in the renewed convention of 1884. Then it wades through +all the mire of academic squabble _re_ suzerainty, etc. After exhausting +the Jameson episode with bitter invective, and seeking applause for the +Transvaal Government for its professed desire to conciliate and to +propitiate England by the offer of a seven years' franchise, the reader +is, in conclusion, 'treated to a literary display of pyrotechnic +denunciations and prophetic burdens against wicked Albion, with appeals +to divine justice for righting the cause of an innocent nation so foully +driven to a war of pure self-defence. + +Lest he be taken unawares the reader of that pamphlet would do well to +note the significant fact in connection with those preferred accusations +and aspersions that not a single act construable to the prejudice of +England is adduced dating after the Anglo-Transvaal peace of 1881, that +peace which had been mutually understood to close up all by-gones. But +the recriminations all revert to previous history, nothing having +occurred since 1881 to form real grounds for accusations. There had, on +the contrary, been an exhibition of unwearied friendly endeavours on the +part of Great Britain to maintain loyal peace with an ever-shifty and +truculent Government, and to induce it to desist from scandalous +intrigue against imperial interests in South Africa, and to adopt a more +rational attitude towards Uitlanders, which in itself would have +precluded troubles like that of the Johannesburg revolt and the Jameson +raid. + + + + +AN OLD FREE STATER'S ADMONITION + + +The doctrines of the Afrikaner Bond coterie have been so assiduously and +deeply instilled into the Boer mind that demonstrations are utterly +futile in shaking the national conviction of the divinely approved +justice of his cause. The first occasion when I saw this illustrated, +and also the people's unreasoning adherence to their leaders' opinions, +happened about ten years ago at burgher meetings which had been convened +to discuss the then projected law for restraining Uitlanders from +admission to Transvaal franchise and other political topics. + +An old Free State burgher was led then and subsequently to express his +views upon the subject in about the following strain: "It is our duty to +guard our nation against being swamped out or supplanted by strangers; +they are in great force already, and their number will constantly +increase, yet what attracts them, as you know, is our gold. That will +give out eventually, when the majority will again depart. Those +strangers, who then elect to remain with us, might be admitted to full +burgher rights. In the meantime it behoves us to reserve the full +franchise, nor will many aspire to it if they are only treated well as +strangers should be, as we should wish to be treated if we were in their +place. This is what they expect from us, and it can well be done without +giving full franchise, which they indeed do not need and will then not +claim. They will be content if their own interests are not hampered or +interfered with, and will be satisfied with such rights and privileges +as are reasonably due to guests, and we may say welcome guests (for it +is plain that the land is also largely benefited by their presence). In +other respects let us support law and order to suppress evil, which they +desire as well as we do. + +"Does the Bible not say, 'The Lord loveth the stranger?' so also then +must we; and again, 'Thou shalt not devise mischief against the stranger +who dwelleth in peace with thee.' We are reputed as a God-fearing +people. Is it not well that we should take great care to act in +accordance? But I have observed with shame that instead of love and +peace a spirit of hatred and strife has been allowed to gain upon us. +Let us strive to expel that evil, lest we fall under God's displeasure +and forfeit His favour. We cannot afford to lose that." + +At this stage the speaker was interrupted by violent remarks about +England's incurable perfidy and the like, when he added, prolonging his +speech more than he had probably intended: "Yes, we may not trust +England, but what we must do is to trust in God. Did God not pull us +through all along? was it not He who provided the peace of 1881 which +restored our independence? And can that gracious Lord, if we only let +Him act, not also protect us against any wiles and dangers if such +should occur in the future? As yet none such have arisen. The Lord was +with us in our battles for liberty; He was equally present and prompted +the sense and conditions of that very convention of 1881, which the +people were subsequently dissatisfied with and in their own wisdom +sacrificed for that of 1884. It is just possible that that presumptuous +act of wanting to improve upon the Lord's work will result in trouble +and prove to our sorrow that we have simply tampered and tinkered with a +good thing and spoilt it to our hurt. + +"'Thou shalt not provoke thy children to wrath lest they be discouraged +and be tempted to do evil,' applies specially also to the duties of +Governments. Our rulers need wisdom in this direction, and will be +responsible if our strangers are subjected to unfair laws. The older +people here will call to mind, when the old voortrekkers were obliged to +go hundreds of miles, as far as Pietermaritzburg, for their supplies, +that we prayed for shopkeepers in our land so that we might be spared +those long journeys. What was done soon after we had attracted strangers +to establish businesses with us? We were seduced to deliberately attempt +their ruin by starting those _nationale Boerenwinkels_ (national Boer +stores), supported by our own capital, but governed by Hollanders who +eventually squandered our money. Was that dealing fairly by confiding +strangers? Later on, again in response to our prayers, we got railways; +skilled men and much capital from foreign countries, first to prospect +for gold and then to develop and exploit the mines. Their labour and +hard-earned money were risked when the return was still problematic. +Shall we begrudge them their successes now, seeing that our whole land +is equally enriched at the same time, and but for them and their +enterprise the gold would still be lying uselessly hidden in the depths +of the ground? There are now, in 1890, over 100,000 such strangers in +the land, and probably over 200 millions capital invested. Shall they be +treated in a manner to justify the accusation that they were inveigled +into our land with the object of despoiling them afterwards after the +style of 'Come into my parlour, says the spider to the fly'? These +people count upon our honest friendship, especially the many English +among them who ground that confidence upon the honourable peace accorded +us in 1881. Shall we deceive them? May we hate them for old questions +which that peace was intended to bury for ever? Think of the Lord's +dealings with our people--poor, wandering, and despised at first. He had +blessings in store for the tried voortrekkers and their children. 'The +beggar was raised from the dunghill [_asch-hoop, i.e._, ash-heap, was +the word he used] to sit with princes'--'a table laid for us in the +sight of our enemies.' All this is literally fulfilled. Our President +and others representing us have been to Europe and sat with princes, and +we have a country full of riches enough to make any enemy to rage with +jealousy at the sight. Who else but the devil is that enemy? It is he +who persecuted our Dutch and Huguenot ancestors for their faith, and is +pursuing us since. It is he and his army that rage the most at our +unexampled blessings. It is he who wants us to forfeit them all and the +Lord's favour as well. It emanates from the evil one that so many among +us are seduced into wicked political plans to subvert authority +installed by God, to incite our brethren to sedition in the Colonies, +wanting to dispossess the English. For the Queen's Government there is +as much from God as are the authorities over us here and in the Orange +Free State. + +"God saith by Solomon (Prov. xxiv. 21-22): 'My son, fear thou the Lord +and the king; and meddle not with them that are given to change: for +their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the destruction of +them both?'" and he finally warned them of the risk they incurred, after +having been advanced and blessed in an unexampled way, of being flung +back to their previous ignoble position upon the ash heap. There are +plenty of respectable Boers in whose ears those expressions still +tingle. + +The man, who is no speaker, was, nevertheless, apt to grow warm and +impressive, drawn out probably by interruptions and opposing views. The +speeches terminated on one occasion by one of the party saying in +violent Bond fashion: "The English hired the Zulus to massacre our +people. They robbed us of Natal, and drove us from the Colonies. There +can be no peace with them until we have our own. God helps them who help +themselves. Whoever takes their part is against us and against every +true Afrikaner." + + + + +_MODUS VIVENDI_ SUGGESTED BY OLD FREE STATER + + +As is known, the conference between Sir Alfred Milner and President +Krueger, assisted by President Steyn, took place at Bloemfontein during +the first days of June last (1899), and resulted in the refusal to a +demand of a five years' franchise made on behalf of the Transvaal +Uitlanders, which refusal was some time later modified by enacting a law +admitting them to full burgher rights after a probation of seven years, +but coupled with restrictive forms and conditions which made that +measure unacceptable. Some time before that conference the old Free +Stater already mentioned obtained several prolonged interviews with the +hon. State Secretary Reitz, at Pretoria, with the object of dissuading +the Transvaal Government from conferring with Sir Alfred Milner while as +yet no sufficient friendly _rapprochement_ had been reached and no +advance had been made as to mutually approved bases upon which to +confer. He strongly deprecated the idea of granting "full" burgher +rights to Uitlanders, but held that their needs and wishes could be met +by allowing their interests to be amply represented without impinging +upon the special privileges which should be reserved for the burgher +status proper. He was finally invited by Mr. Reitz to submit his scheme +in writing, with the promise that it should receive careful +consideration. That old Free Stater complied, and supplied President +Krueger with a duplicate separately as well. The scheme ran in substance +as follows: + + +"_Modus vivendi_" + +The population of the Transvaal to be divided into two classes, pending +the continued presence of the large floating portion consisting of +Uitlanders who derive their subsistence from the mining industries, +viz.:-- + +1st Class.--The fixed or burgher estate. + +2nd Class.--The floating or alien estate or Guests. + +The 1st Volksraad to be elected by burghers only, and to represent the +highest legislative and administrative powers. + +The 2nd Volksraad to be elected by Uitlanders and burghers, and to be +vested with all such reasonable legislative powers as will cover the +domestic, industrial, and vocative interests of both burghers and +guests. + +The Uitlander franchise shall be limited to representation in the 2nd +Volksraad, and be extended under usual fair conditions of eligibility to +all white persons after two years' residence, retrospectively reckoned. + +Aliens may be admitted to full burgher rights and vote for 1st +Volksraad, President, and Commandant-General, after five years' +residence, if approved of by two-thirds of the burghers of his ward, +possesses landed property to the value of L1,000, and has not been +convicted here or elsewhere of any degrading crime. + +Members of both Volksraads and for public service shall be eligible +without respect of creed. + +The exploitation of mines shall be subject to a tax of 25 per cent., +reckoned upon the yearly net profits, such revenue to be applied at the +discretion of the 1st Volksraad solely for the benefit of the burgher +estate--schools, hospitals, universities, pensions, by means of +permanent endowments. + +The Government of the Transvaal undertakes:-- + +1. There shall be no identification or co-operation permitted, on the +part of any of the Transvaal people, with the association known as the +Afrikaner Bond, or any such-like political complot. + +2. The recognition of British paramountcy over South Africa, including +the Transvaal, in so far as it does not clash with the intentions and +provisions set forth in the conventions of 1881 and 1884, and does not +extend to interference with or curtailment of complete internal +autonomy. + +3. Renunciation of indemnity claim _re_ Jameson incursion. + +4. To regulate the question of coloured British subjects resident in the +Transvaal upon a genial basis, irrespective of the Bloemfontein +arbitration award upon that subject. + +5. Poll and war taxes shall be abolished. + +6. Dual rights equal with the Dutch language shall be accorded to the +English language, similarly as is done in the Cape Colony for Dutch. + +7. The railways and dynamite factory to be expropriated as soon as +possible--the loans required thereto to be amortized within twenty +years, and pending those expropriations the freights upon coal and +oversea goods shall be reduced 10 per cent, and the price of explosives +20s. per case, these reductions to be met from the revenue accruing to +the burgher estate from the tax upon mining profits. + +8. To join a general Customs union upon equitable conditions. + +9. Restore the High Court to independent power in terms of constitution. + +The sequel has shown that Bond counsels prevailed over the suggestions +of that old Free Stater. As to the seven years' franchise offered under +the pretence and colour of meeting Sir Alfred Milner's demand, it had +clearly been intended to serve as a decoy and stop-gap pending the +contemplated war of conquest, and to mask Bond duplicity while further +preparations were to be completed in diplomacy abroad and in the +seditious conspiracy in the Colonies. Natal was at that time swarming +with Boer emissaries, and Transvaal artillery officers with Hollander +engineers in disguise were seen inspecting Laing's Nek tunnel and other +strategic points in that colony. + +Not knowing at the time that State Secretary Reitz was an inveterate +Bondman, that old Free State patriot had roundly denounced to him the +wickedness of Bond aims, and added the remark that the establishment of +a united Boer Republic apart from British supremacy in South Africa was +a deceptive dream. England has a mission in Africa--that of the Boers +can only be subordinate to it. It would need the aid of a powerful +maritime combination to supplant England. The case of America does not +present an analogy; there England only was actually interested, but here +various other nations were concerned in their respective huge +investments. They would have a voice in the business. Armed intervention +would lead to a big European war and extreme misery to entire +Africa--just what the devil wants, but not the investor. Indiscriminate +franchise will cause the loss of national independence, and so might +ultimately cosmopolize and obliterate their distinctive nationality, but +so would also a war with England, with the total sacrifice of their +independence into the bargain. Let the Government rather prove to +England its sincere friendship and agree to deal well by the Uitlanders, +treating them as privileged guests, then the unhappy strain in relations +will cease. Above all, renounce that wicked Afrikaner Bond with its +motto of conquest. The demand for franchise is England's device of +self-protection against Bond designs. England will desist from that +demand if we renounce the Bond and prove our friendship. + +That old Free Stater had moreover expressed his most earnest conviction +that a _modus vivendi_ upon the lines suggested would find ready +consideration as an alternative to the five years' franchise demand, +and that the British Government would hail with the utmost satisfaction +and relief any tentative towards a sound _rapprochement_ based upon the +contentment of the Boer people within the areas of their Republics and +which would terminate Bond aspirations for Boer supremacy in South +Africa. Had he been permitted, the old Free Stater would gladly have +called upon the British agent at Pretoria, Mr. Conyngham Greene, and +felt confident that the _modus vivendi_ would lead finally to a complete +cessation of British interference and to best relations and prosperous +conditions for all instead. He also cautioned the Government at +Pretoria, giving chapter and verse, against counting upon "the arm of +man." They would find they had trusted on reeds--it would be so in +regard to any foreign help, and even in regard to men of their own +nation in the Cape Colony. + +During one of the interviews Mr. Reitz had remarked that he had a +special theory in regard to the situation; but it varied from that of +the President, who, in reality, was King, and whose will overcame all +opposition. + + + + +MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S POLICY TO AVERT WAR + + +Seeing that twenty years of patient, loyal endeavours and friendly +conciliatory proceedings following upon the rehabilitation of the +Transvaal independence had utterly failed in advancing the object of +uniting the English and Boer races, and that instead the existing gulf +was ever widening through the spread of those fell Afrikaner Bond +doctrines, it had become imperative, on the part of British statesmen, +to employ special efforts to overcome the serious menace hanging over +South Africa. The critical situation designedly brought about by the +action of the Transvaal Government and by the influence of the Bond +party indicated the remedy. A liberal franchise in favour of the +Uitlanders would at one stroke correct that evil, and counteract the +other impending danger as well. With a large accession of legitimized +voters working in accord with England's desire for peace and progress, +that good influence would be potent, first to shackle Bond action and +ultimately to reduce it to Colonial limits. The Transvaal would then no +longer be the giant ally, the arsenal, and the treasury of the Afrikaner +Bond, and that organisation would then be checkmated into impotence for +evil. + +The success of such a remedial and defensive measure would naturally +depend upon the adequacy of the franchise aimed at. Mr. Chamberlain and +his colleagues were not a little sanguine in expecting that a five +years' qualification for voting and a representation equal to one-fifth +of the total number of seats in the Legislature would be effective for +all that which was needed; nor could it be averred that the Transvaal +burghers would be swamped out thereby. + +The Bond chiefs did not fail to at once penetrate the object when the +demand for a five years' franchise was made, and in vain did Sir Alfred +display that firm attitude and exhaust his arguments at the historic +Bloemfontein conference. He had pointed out to President Krueger in a +rudimentary fashion which was no doubt convincing enough--that it was +incompatible with professions of concord and desire for peace while +persisting in excluding from representation a large majority of the +population accustomed to and expecting liberal treatment, and which, +moreover, held four-fifths of the wealth invested in the State. There +could be no other result than a dangerous tension and alienation from +the Government, instead of the peaceful co-operation so essential to +security and progress. In these days of advanced ideas of personal and +political liberty people will resist domination by a minority. They want +to be consulted, and to have at least the opportunity of making their +wishes known by means of representation. The right of petitioning could +not meet that need, and in fact implied the recognition of an inferior +status so repugnant to any one's sensibility. When people are ignored +they resent even light impositions and taxes, but if allowed a voice +will cheerfully submit to heavy burdens, because they then become, in a +manner, self-imposed. Representation is the panacea against popular +disaffection and for assuring governmental stability. To concede to +Uitlanders one-fifth of the seats in the Legislature could not operate +to the prejudice of burgher interests, but less would not meet the case. + +It was, however, not President Krueger alone who had to decide--it +affected the Bond as a whole. The diplomatic contest so far proved just +the thing to ripen conditions for the meditated Bond _coup d'etat_. An +alternative offer of a seven years' franchise was interposed as a mere +ruse. Never for a moment did the Afrikaner Bond leaders waver or quail +in the face of resolute firmness, display of force, or even of moral +pressure and notes of advice from imposing quarters, as Mr. Chamberlain +had at first still fondly hoped. To the Bond it had all resolved itself +to a mere question of time, of choosing the most opportune moment when +to assume the aggressive. British attitude had only hastened the issue. +Mr. Jan Hofmeyer had indeed been sent for from the Cape so as to assure +that section of the Bond of Transvaal firmness, but he found no sign of +flinching or of renouncing the common object laboured for so long and +then so near fruition. The only difficulty was that British action had +hastened the issue somewhat too fast. Hence the repeated hurried visits +of the Bond leaders--Jan Hofmeyer, Abraham Fisher, and others--the +frequent caucus meetings of the Executive in consultation with those +delegates, the secret midnight sessions of the combined Volksraads and +Executive, the prolonged telegraphic conferences between the two +Presidents, and the final resulting word of "ready" which preceded the +fatal war ultimatum. The Gordian knot had been in evidence many years +ago; it is now recognised with regret that England had deferred action +for cutting it much too long. + +But why not agree to arbitration, it will be asked, that peaceable +method so strenuously appealed for by the Transvaal Government and +advocated by her partisans, to adjust all differences, of which the +suzerainty claim and the Uitlander question appeared to be the principal +ones? The reply is not that England was unwilling, but because the +Transvaal was insincere, and the request was a cover for shameless +duplicity, for, while it had been declared by the former that the claim +to suzerainty would be left in abeyance and that infractions of +convention which had been committed by the latter would be overlooked in +consideration of future friendly relations and co-operation, the +Transvaal Government in reality never for a moment meant to be content +with less than British overthrow and complete Boer supremacy in South +Africa, and efforts and intrigues were never relaxed, in concert with +the Bond, to compass those objects. + + + + +AFRIKANER BOND GUILT IN GRADATIONS + + +The promiscuous details and incidents, together with the circumstantial +and _prima facie_ evidence thus far adduced in arraigning the Afrikaner +Bond combination, point mostly to conditions existent before the war +broke out. We had the smoke before the conflagration--it is a wonder how +people could manage to ignore the menace. Now the war torch is over us +in its full luridness. + +Ordinary fires, if not kindled, originate either from accident, +spontaneous combustion, or incendiarism. With war the origin may be +traced to similar causes either singly or in combination, or, when we +cannot hit the exact diagnosis, we explain it with a handy word and call +it evolution, as we may do in the case of the present Anglo-Boer +conflict. + +We may for a moment review the material and then also the agencies and +incentives which operated that evolution against harmony and peace, and +to which the conflagration is due. We have noted the legal acquisition +of the Cape Colonies by Great Britain, the equally recognised occupation +under treaties with England of the two Boer Republics, the English and +Boer races in progress of friendly assimilation and in happy prosperity +all over South Africa. This was essentially the position in 1881, until +it became gradually marred by an invidious element. We have further +noted the declining condition of Holland, its moribund language, and +finally the prospects which South Africa presented for that nation's +restoration to powerful significance, the English factor only standing +in the way. + +The next aspect brings out the marring manifestations: greed of land and +of conquest with the Pretoria-Bloemfontein combination; malignant +sedition in the Cape Colonies, urged by lust to participate more +directly in the wealth of gold and diamonds in the north and to share +general plunder--both categories of covetousness merged into one +purulent fester by men of conceited ambition, all cemented with +collusion, but the whole of it devised, engineered, and operated by the +most malignant agencies from Holland under the coaching of the evil one +himself. + +The reader may be able to assess the degrees of guilt of each +category--of the Republican Boer aspirant for land, the Colonial Boer +rebel seeking his particular profit, the accomplices who for ambitious +ends lead the first two, and the insidious Hollander intriguers who +seduced and actuated all in order to seize the lion's share of the +spoliation. + +To sum up, the respective rewards which lured them all are: Plunder for +the Boers and rebels, laurels and "fat" places for the Bond leaders, and +a substantial harvest for entire Holland, with paeans of praise for the +coterie and Dr. Leyds from a grateful people for successfully restoring +the good fortunes of the Dutch nation, and for effecting a retributive +vendetta upon England, all under world-wide, gloating acclaims of +gratified and vindictive jealousy. + +The Hollander coterie may plead patriotism which pointed to the duty of +using the tempting opportunity presented in South Africa in saving +Holland from national submersion and political extinction by means of +the Boer nation, but against this stands the unparalleled vileness of +expedients and the treacherous deceptions employed to attain that +object. It involved the wholesale seduction of one section of that +nation into sedition and rebellion against a most beneficent and just +Government under which they prospered and enjoyed the highest +conceivable degree of liberty and even special privileges, and of +pitting the other section into hostility and war against a Power which +meant nothing else than peace and amity towards them, thus placing both +into a position of risk to forfeit all their prosperity, apart from the +inevitable horrors of a war evoked by their rapacious and murderous +Hollander malice. + +The Bond scientists in Holland had fully persevered in their craftily +laid programme. After having succeeded in producing race hatred between +Boer and English, the next step had been to convince the Boer leaders +and the people of the inevitableness of a contest for ensuring the +supremacy of the Afrikaners, coupled with the absolute necessity of the +complete expulsion of the entire British element. As arguments were +adduced that the British element had proved itself unassimilable and +irreconcilable, its retention in South Africa would necessitate +continuous provisions to keep it in a state of subjection. The existence +of such conditions would be inconsistent and incompatible with the true +ideal liberty as intended for the whole of South Africa, and which must +be linked with all-round equality and fraternity. The presence of a +British factor would be an unsurmountable bar to that consummation, +hence the necessity of its total removal. + +The Bond leaders are the next in guilt; with these the incentive is +principally ambition, which, by degrees, became mis-shaped into a +specious patriotism. It is known how an ardently desired object pursued +for a long period is apt to so monopolize and infatuate the mind as to +totally vitiate and pervert the sense of discernment between right and +wrong, both as to the legitimacy of the object and the means to be +employed for its attainment. As the realization remains deferred and the +efforts are increased, the object from being considered legitimate is by +degrees invested with merit, a halo of virtue is added to the aspect, +its pursuit is viewed as a duty by fair or by questionable means, the +end justifying the latter. All, it is said, is fair in love and warfare. +This diagnosis appears particularly applicable to President Krueger and +State Secretary F.W. Reitz, both men of sincere piety (perhaps also to +Mr. Schreiner), who would have abandoned their project and renounced and +repudiated the Afrikaner Bond if ever they had doubted its legitimacy of +principle. So also with most of the other Boer leaders and their clergy +too. The agencies must have been exceedingly subtle, and the jugglery +and artifice superhuman, to operate such processes of reasoning, such +deception and aberration in honest-minded and even godly persons. + +As to the bulk of the Boer people, they are simply led by their chiefs +and superiors, in whom they repose unquestioning confidence. They go +unreasoningly with the stream of opinion under the firm belief that all +is divinely sanctioned, including rebellion and violence, and blindly +obey their call, considering their cause analogous to that of the Jews +of old, who were enjoined to spoil the Egyptians and then to pass over +and conquer their land of promise. No papal bull of indulgence ever +freed people's consciences more than the Boer people now feel in regard +to the warfare in which they are engaged. + + + + +RESUME + + +The Boers in the Cape Colonies have been prospering in a marked degree +since the British accession in 1814, enjoying ideal liberty and good +government upon perfect equality with the English colonists. + +The people of the Orange Free State fared equally well under best +relations with the British Government up to the outbreak of the present +war. + +In the Transvaal the Boers were more handicapped, being furthest removed +from profitable Cape connections, and having to cope with powerful +hostile tribes within their border. The most redoubtable, under +Secoecoenie, was subdued during the British occupation in 1878. Then +followed the short war of 1880, with the voluntary retrocession and +peace of January, 1881. All appeared to progress remarkably well for +about ten years after, until the irrational treatment by the Boers of +British subjects in the Transvaal furnished the first cause of +friction, and engendered at last the Johannesburg crisis with the +Jameson incursion, followed by four years' vain attempts on the part of +England to bring about satisfactory and peaceful relations. + +The Afrikaner Bond had been inaugurated some thirty years ago, under the +mask of a constitutional organization, professing loyalty to England; +that body had succeeded in hiding its object, which was no less than the +expulsion from South Africa of all that is English, and which object was +brutally avowed since the outbreak of the war by declarations in the +Press and by incendiary speeches of Colonial Bond leaders and members of +the Cape Parliament. + +The British Government did not view very seriously the information it +received regarding the Bond menace until the definite action of the +Transvaal Government partially opened its eyes prior to the Johannesburg +revolt. The hope was, however, still clung to in an undefined way that +patience and forbearance would yet overcome Boer prejudice and disperse +racial antipathies, and with characteristic self-confidence as well, +things were allowed to drift rather out of hand. + +The two Republics had been _de facto_ allied some time before the +Johannesburg crisis in 1895. Both were then already provided with very +abundant armaments of up-to-date types, with equipments and preparations +far and away above any conceivable needs except indeed for a _coup +d'etat_ against British supremacy and to sustain a Colonial revolt. + +On the occasion of the Jameson incursion the Orange Free State promptly +appeared near the scene with best equipped mounted Boer commandoes and +artillery to assist the Transvaal if needed. + +Before 1881 and some time subsequently there had been continued progress +towards the assimilation of the English and Boer races in South Africa. +This was marred by Afrikaner Bond doctrines and intrigues proceeding +from a Hollander coterie, the formula being "Afrika voor de +Afrikaners"--the aims including the usurpation of British authority in +the Colonies, supremacy of the Boer nation under one great Republican +federation, and an affiliated status with Holland which should restore +that people, all to the prejudice of England, to a political and +economic significance and power surpassing its former epoch of European +and Colonial eminence. As to the incentives to the Boer nation, these +were principally the plunder of capital investments and land conquests, +which the people had learnt to consider legitimate and in fact +incumbent as a duty to themselves and descendants. + +The means employed in that conspiracy were a subtle, so to say, occult +propaganda to seduce a simple people to false convictions, to induce the +creation of gigantic armaments, a secret service employing at a vast +cost journalism, emissaries, and agencies, to gain partisans and allies +outside South Africa, the Transvaal mint to coin the sinews of war from +the appropriation of the mines and their output, the dynamite factory +(that Bond corner-stone for manufacturing ammunition[11]), a system of +immigration from Holland towards supplanting the English factor and to +introduce auxiliaries. Other such means were: laws for admitting +auxiliaries to immediate full burgher rights and privilege to carry +arms, from which Uitlanders were rigorously excluded, the rabid campaign +proscribing the English language and fostering High Dutch instead (which +was much less understood by the entire Boer people, and much harder for +them to learn than English). To the above list of devices came the +exhaustive efforts to obtain an independent seaport for the Transvaal, +first at St. Lucia Bay, then at Delagoa Bay (ostensibly with a German +syndicate, and since by subsidizing Portugal or suborning Portuguese +notables and officials). + +The climax of duplicity is reached when it is averred that the pursuit +of such an organized programme during the past twenty years and more had +meant peace only, never a thought of conquest, as Ambassador Leyds so +innocently declared after failing to gain abroad the hoped-for support +for the monstrous Bond enormity. + +The Afrikaner Bond leaders would have preferred the war to have been +deferred a little longer--preferably to a moment when England might be +embroiled elsewhere. It was also thought of importance that the +Transvaal should first realize the auriferous "underground rights" +situated around the Johannesburg mines, which Government asset was +expected to net at least fifty million pounds sterling. The sales had +already been advertised, and were in preparation when the outbreak of +the war intervened. Upon the word "ready," flashed from Bloemfontein, +followed at once the fateful Pretoria ultimatum. The proceeds of those +underground rights must now come in afterwards to defray the war bill. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 11: President Krueger's reference to that factory is well +known, styling it as one of the corner-stones of Boer independence.] + + + + +THE BOERS' NATIVE POLICY + + +Boer views regarding coloured peoples are those retained from Dutch +practices of a hundred and more years ago, when the Cape of Good Hope +still belonged to that nation. Servitude, if not absolute slavery, was +then generally recognised as the proper status for coloured aborigines, +and that principle of differentiation continues to be upheld and applied +in a modified form, it must be admitted, in all the Colonial possessions +of Holland. The authority for this stand is sought from ancient biblical +history, where the descendants of Ham appear marked out for servitude, +and from that basis it is interpreted that people so marked are not +designed for tuition or evangelization until after they have been +subjugated. According to such a doctrine the injunction to preach the +Gospel to every creature would be limited to civilized whites, and might +only be extended to such coloured peoples who have been fitted, as is +said, for the reception of the Christian faith by being placed under +the subserviency of whites, as their sponsors if not their actual +masters, and requiring mundane tuition and education as essential bases +to precede conversion. + +For the refutation of such monstrous doctrines it may be urged that, +according to Scripture, savage as well as cultured peoples have a +consciousness of guilt towards the Divine Judge. The object of the +Gospel is to end the history of the culprit as such and to place him +upon a new standing--"the wind bloweth as it listeth": a new birth +operated by the acceptance of the Gospel proclamation addressed to every +creature, black as well as white. Growth and moral amendment properly +"follow" that spiritual birth; neither is conceivable before, except +purely human education, which is incapable of effecting a change, and in +fact tends only to fortify the natural man in his implacable hostility +against the newly implanted element, each lusting against the other.[12] + +History records how the Spanish and other early explorers operated with +the aborigines in the regions discovered by them. The territories with +their inhabitants were declared possessions accruing to their respective +sovereigns, whose main policy was the exploitation of all the wealth +possible. The aborigines were dispossessed, treated as conquered +peoples, and forced to do the exploiting labour. No other results could +follow than the gradual diminution and final exhaustion of all the +wealth and the partial, if not total, extinction of the aboriginal +races. + +What retribution overtook those nations is also on record. Those +enslaved peoples were forced to accept the religion of their conquerors. +Can true converts be made to order by constraint, motives of +self-interest, or by baptizing them _en bloc_? What else but deepest +aversion and mistrust could a religion inspire which is professed and +taught by a people who practise spoliation, murder, and other +descriptions of wickedness abhorrent even to a savage mind? The +aborigines would daily behold their own land and possessions enjoyed by +usurpers and "would be teachers," who subjected them besides to slavery +and abject misery. Could the religion of such teachers ever find favour +with their victims? How could doctrines of righteousness and love be +understood when so glaringly violated by their preceptors? + +It presents a sad paradox to see that the Boers, who are in many +respects consistently religious and even exemplary, could uphold +principles which place coloured people out of caste, not only in regard +to political rights but also as to the common religious standing before +the Creator. It would be unjust to charge the Boers with actually +barbarous practices towards the natives--what they do enforce is their +submission to the condition of servants. + +The Boer people ever chafed against the restraining action of the +British Government as to their practice of slavery, and they have not +hesitated either to exhibit their hostility to missionary enterprise. +The confiscation of Protestant mission sites in the Orange Free State is +one of the instances; another was exemplified in a raid perpetrated +about forty years ago by the Transvaal Boers upon the inoffensive +Bechuana tribe, whose chief and many of his people had accepted the +Christian faith through the teaching of Moffat, David Livingstone, and +other evangelists. The pretext for that raid was a lying report that +that Bechuana chief had bartered some 400 guns from traders to fight the +Boers with. The Boers sent an ultimatum requiring the surrender of +those weapons. Despite the protestation of the chief and his people that +not more than eight guns had been bartered for hunting, which had later +proved true, a commando was sent against them under Commandant Paul +Krueger, now President Krueger. Many of the natives were slain, their +villages burnt, their cattle seized, and great numbers of the tribe +taken captive for distribution as servants among the Boer farmers in the +Transvaal. That raid was further signalized by the total destruction of +Moffat's mission station--church, school buildings, and industrial +shops. These, after being looted, were all consigned to the flames, as +also the missionary dwellings, among which was that of David +Livingstone, with his furniture, books, and belongings. There are +abundant records, besides that of the Bechuana nation, that barbarous +and idolatrous peoples are amenable to Christianity without the prior +influences of civilization or individual education, or that they should +be subjugated first, as the Boers would have it. What indeed is of +immense aid for moral and economic advancement is the operation of +civilized and liberal governmental authority, repressing slavery, under +which proprietary rights and justice are equally afforded to black and +white, and where the Gospel might have a free course without constraint +and without inducements of material advantages. + +It seemed that such conditions were on the eve of eventuating for the +rescue and disenthralment of darkest Africa. This is what Moffat, +Livingstone, Coillard, and many other devoted servants of the Gospel had +prayed for all their lives, what has been and still is the burden of the +prayers (no doubt all inspired) of millions of Christians. The interior +is no more a blank on the map. Much is done for the suppression of +slavery. The whole continent is parcelled out among different nations, +who have assumed the task of civilizing their respective spheres. The +world's energy and capital stand available for the object, and it +appeared that many souls were being seriously aroused to the +responsibility of obeying the charge pronounced in Ezekiel xxxiii. 1-11. +But sinister influences have not failed in attempts to bar beneficent +dispensations. We have seen fanaticism resulting in the fierce revolt of +Mahdism in the north, and are now awaiting the issue of the war brought +on by Afrikaner Bondism in the south. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 12: Another has aptly illustrated the change by comparing such +a man's new condition to a hotel that has come under totally different +and perfectly new management and controlling proprietorship.] + + + + +ENGLAND'S NATIVE AND COLONIAL POLICY + + +Until the earlier parts of this nineteenth century England has been +conspicuous among other nations in tolerating slavery in some of her +possessions, and in permitting her people to engage in systematic +man-hunts, with the accompanying atrocities and horrors of a regular +slave trade. Manifestations of national abhorrence and condemnation of +that inhuman traffic and of slavery in general appeared during the first +quarter of this century. The nation hid its shame and contrition in acts +towards remedying its share of the evil committed. These took the shape +of expending some twenty million pounds sterling towards the +emancipation of slaves and various other costly measures to repress the +trade in human beings, and in proclaiming personal freedom for all +slaves in her dominions. The desire to do justice to coloured races was +further exemplified in the adoption, dating some fifty years back, of a +totally altered colonial and native policy. Up to then the practice +with all colonizing Powers had been to utilize their foreign dominions +as preserves for financial exploitation, involving the most crying +injustice to aborigines. The departure then effected consisted in a +policy of just laws instead, directed to ensure to those people +equitable treatment and a recognition of their rights to fixed property +and to a position before the law equal with that of white inhabitants. +The revenues produced by the Colonies were thenceforward all to be +devoted to the advancement of their own local prosperity. Free trade +followed that _regime_ of liberty and equity, and, as intended, such +Colonial dominions began to partake of the character and were +constituted off-shoots of the mother country, with a like status of +liberty and enjoying the benefit of British protection at the same time. +Many were the auguries that the experiment would result in political and +economic failure, but the good results to all concerned proved to be so +far-reaching as to startle even its most sanguine advocates. The +extension of privileges and rights operated upon the natives as a +magical incentive to labour and emulation for the improvement of their +economic condition; people who had before preferred an indolent, +semi-nomadic existence betook themselves more to agricultural and +sedentary habits, living in much greater comfort and steadily increasing +in wealth. + +Civilization went on apace, and with it the moral improvement of the +aborigines, paving the way as well for the spread of Christianity. All +this was accompanied with an immense and ever-advancing expansion of +trade with England and the recognition of British prestige as a +successful colonizing power. + +Numerous other principalities courted the privilege of coming under the +aegis of the English flag, their potentates and people readily submitting +to the abolition of practices which were not in accord with humane and +civilized usages and eager to share the benefits and advancement of +civilization which were enjoyed under British rule. In not a few +instances it was, however, not feasible to extend the protectorate so +coveted. + +While other nations were engaged in wars during the past half-century, +England had opportunities to largely expand and consolidate her Colonial +dominions. At the same time British trade, industries and shipping +advanced with gigantic strides, and that nation has since gained the +foremost rank as a commercial and Colonial empire, governing over the +choicest portions of the globe some four hundred millions of loyal and +contented subjects, who enjoy liberty and a degree of prosperity +unequalled elsewhere as yet, the whole being protected by a navy which +constitutes England as champion on sea as well. + +All this national success and example of liberal government have had a +salutary influence upon the rest of the world in evoking wholesome +competition and emulation. But another and very untoward effect is that +widespread and deep-rooted envy and jealousy have also been aroused, +which on occasion are apt to develop into pretexts for actual hostility, +or hostile partisanship as is now the case. + +What signalises the beneficent reign of Queen Victoria more than +anything else is the peculiarly devoted manner in which that august lady +has personally acquitted herself of her duty and responsibility in +regard to the elevation and rehabilitation of the hitherto socially +enslaved condition of womanhood in her Indian empire; for it is well +known how the philosophic religions of the East have been subtly adapted +for establishing the political and social pre-eminence of certain +classes of a population over its majority, at the same time dooming +womanhood generally to the lowest rank of drudges, perpetual contempt +and ignorance, refusing them education (as had been done in the case of +the Roman slaves)--specially despised if without a husband, and if a +widow, immolated at last upon her husband's funeral pyre. + +Step by step, by means of strenuous and disinterested exertions, +employing prestige and encouragements, by legislation and otherwise, a +breach was effected which bids fair to break down that caste-fenced and +chained thraldom, and to raise over a hundred millions of her humble +subject sisters from unnatural degradation to occupy the honourable and +responsible rank assigned by the Creator to woman as man's social help, +meet for him, and to whom honour is due as to the weaker vessel. +Millions of women have already found emancipation and recognition of +their right position, to man's reciprocal joy and to the felicity of +their families. Their sons and daughters in turn now form armies to +complete the mission of liberty so zealously inaugurated by their +beloved Empress, their own peculiar star of India. + +Maybe this and similar earnests evinced during that noble Queen's reign, +among which the shelter afforded to the Jewish people, will come into +remembrance in mitigation of visitations deserved by the nation for its +previous complicity in the hideous traffic in African souls of men. + +It throws a light upon the credulity and simplicity of the bulk of the +poor deluded peasant Boers when, in the face of most genial rule and +almost an excess of liberty and privileges, Bond artifice could succeed +in conjuring up contrary notions, and to poison them into the monstrous +belief that they, the Boers, were an oppressed people, whose downfall +was designed by rapacious England, and that no other remedy existed for +preserving independence, religion and homes than to expel that wicked +English people from African soil. This is, then, what Bond artifice +effected in the absence of actual cause and in order to dissimulate its +own nefarious objects. It was the work of twenty years' sedulously +applied deception and calumnious machinations. + +The Hollander coterie has at last succeeded in its ardently desired +purpose of pitting the Boer nation against England, and to bring about +the present war. What is even more astounding is the success of those +villainous artificers upon intelligent partisans of the Boer cause +outside of Africa and in England even. + + + + +OCCULT OPERATIONS AND AGENCIES + + +Will it be considered the mere fancy of enthusiasts, which admits the +thought of occult forces of a sinister kind set in array to overturn +beneficent dispensations, that the evil one, the father of lies, has +been active in all this marring of peace? Had that personage or evil +principle, if this term is more acceptable, not scored with his +malignant skill of deception 6,000 years ago, and been walking up and +down his domain ever since, intent upon undoing redemptive provisions +and counteracting all endeavours to ameliorate the miseries of humanity? +His malice would seem discernible against the Boer nation, the people +who continued in the simple faith which had been kept by their ancestors +despite the persecutions heaped upon them in France and by the oppressor +of Holland; he must have viewed with growing rage the designs of a +gracious Providence surrounding that very people with the blessings of +security and peace and accumulations of unparalleled riches, all +construable as in compensation for the sacrifices so willingly submitted +to by their forefathers and for their own fidelity to the faith. Would +he tamely brook that--and not bend on all his artifices to reverse those +provisions and to divert those rich dispensations in favour of his own +devotees instead, or else rather cause them to be devoured by wasting +war? He has so far succeeded in instigating the Boer nation to acts +which involve the forfeiture of their special heirlooms. He would also +thwart the programme of the world's nations for the civilization of +Central Africa, and would gratify his malice against the people to whom +is largely attributable the spread of governmental principles of equity +and liberty. He would seek to stamp with failure those hitherto +successful and self-rewarding methods, and so strike an effective blow +against their further adoption as being goody-goody, weak and +inefficient. + +We see civilized humanity congested with over-population, excess of +energy and of production and suffering from a plethora of capital, the +entire condition rife on the one hand with prodigal waste and on the +other fraught with the cruel want of toiling and jostling millions +vainly fighting for space and the most modest means of +existence--conditions which presage an inevitable and universal crash +unless checked by a Malthusian or else by a beneficent and humane +remedy. We know the right remedy for at least staving off the impending +universal crisis lies in the manifold opportunities of creating outlets. +These exist to the full in the vast fallow regions of Africa, and in the +scope for industries and commerce in Asia and elsewhere. Each +well-devised colonizing scheme, every railway built, and every other new +investment would afford improved employment and relieve the general +strain; every true convert gained by the spread of Christianity would +become an obedient and reliable unit towards the menaced stability of +authorized Governments. We see capital impelled to vast enterprises, as +it were by secret forces;[13] we are aware of the activity of nations +singly and in co-operation in promoting and sustaining such projects. +All those efforts and outlets would serve as safety-valves for the +discontent of the ill-provided masses, and their success would render +them governable at a lesser cost, and even admit the reduction of +standing armies and other objects treated by the recent Peace Conference +at the Hague. The essential thing, indeed, is peace, and that in turn +would consolidate security and progress. But the enemy is interested +exactly the other way. His ascendancy is coincident, not with the +mitigation of the conditions of human existence, but in accentuating the +misery of the masses, driving them to desperation and to embrace illogic +and deceptive maxims of socialism and violent anarchy. It is with those +forces that he intends to uproot and usurp divinely instituted authority +expressly set up to repress evil and to protect person and property. He +wants by licence and not liberty to hasten the advent of that murderous +political power prophetically depicted with the statue standing upon +feet of clay and iron: supreme authority vested in the world's +proletariat in unstable and uncohesive union with militarism, Satan +himself the actual lawless animator.[14] As to the scope for outlets in +the East, it is more restricted to industries and commerce, but those +enterprises, however brilliantly promising, are fraught with the risks +incidental to hostile rivalries and political complications, while in +Africa the openings are at least as vast and inviting immigration on a +huge scale as well, but all with much greater security, inasmuch as the +spheres of operation are definitely apportioned to various nations, and +where in the nature of things the success of each would be promoted by +joint-solidarity, and thus afford a guarantee for the peaceable and +prosperous development of the whole continent. Our common enemy would +fain frustrate it all with his Afrikaner Bond device, and then finally +gloat over the accomplished ruin of his deluded Boer victims. + +Africa has for some thousands of years been the enemy's favourite and +undisturbed haunt for his gory orgies, for the hecatombs of millions of +immolated victims each year, the teeming recruiting preserve for his +contingents. + +Is he likely to surrender it all to an invading beneficent operation? +Will he not rather continue a most determined and desperate resistance +and oppose the most advanced of his subtle devices? The malignant power +of his agencies is ever and anon manifest--if restrained in one +direction his sway is doubly asserted in another. While the Boer war is +proceeding a diversion upon a large scale is being effected in Asia +which may result in deferring progress in Africa, or history may be +brought to repeat itself by the production of some African Attila or +Grenseric or a Saladin or another Moselikatse or Mahdi, whose +overrunning hordes will efface all the good work thus far done and +restore conditions in accord with his murderous sway, whilst at the same +time revelling over the ominous developments looming in Europe and +America for the production of giant strikes and other imminent +socialistic outbursts which could all be prevented, or at least staved +off for a long time, if the existing immense spheres for civilizing +outlets could only be peaceably utilized. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 13: One of those enterprises is the railway which is to +connect the Cape with Cairo.] + +[Footnote 14: Pro-Boer Propaganda is persisting in designating England +as answering to that prophetic image destined to signal destruction.] + + + + +RELIGION + + +The old voortrekkers who emigrated from the Cape Colony all belonged to +the Dutch Reformed Protestant persuasion. With very little learning, the +Bible, catechism, and the orthodox "psalm and hymn-book" constituted +their sole means for building up their faith. The scope of their +education was likewise limited to these simple aids during their +chequered wanderings for nearly twenty years, proving ample, however, in +preserving themselves and children from the tendencies of receding into +barbarism. The Bible was the recognised reference and guide in private +and public affairs, and it is so still. It is, indeed, notable with what +wisdom and prudence those simple people managed to frame their treaties +with native potentates, their conventions with the Portuguese and the +British Governments, and, finally, in compiling their own constitutions. +Their experiences teem with incidents of extreme sufferings, dangers, +and reverses, and also with many signal deliverances, which all +operated in deepening religious fervour and dependence upon the +Almighty. + +Their vicissitudes led them to make analogous comparisons with ancient +Jewish history. This practice resulted in some erroneous conceptions, +notably in regard to their relations with aborigines and general native +policy, as referred to in previous chapters. It also imperceptibly +fostered sentiments confounding legality with grace, and the by-product +of that subtle corrupting leaven which is apt to see a splint in the eye +of another whilst unmindful of the beam in one's own. + +Upon the whole, the religious status of the Boers may be fairly compared +to that of the old American pilgrim fathers, only much less intolerant, +fairly strict sabbatarians, and jealous in maintaining national and +individual morality. About forty years ago a small group seceded from +the Dutch Reformed Church and formed a separate connection under the +name of "Enkel gereformende Kerk" (simply reformed Church), more +generally known under the sobriquet of "Doppers." This cult is identical +with the parent Church, and differs only in a somewhat stricter church +discipline and the rejection of the hymns from the common psalm and +hymn-book upon the ground that many of them are tainted with dangerously +anti-scriptural doctrine.[15] These Doppers are really very worthy +people, but noted for their strong conservatism and adherence to old +habits and customs, even in the matter of dress. President Krueger is one +of their prominent members and so is General Piet Cronje. + +The devotional habits of the Boers form one of their national +characteristics. The family collect at dawn for morning worship, led by +the parent or else by the tutor--it consists of a hymn, +Scripture-reading, and prayer--similarly before retiring at night, +devout grace before and after each meal. These practices are not relaxed +when travelling with their wagons or when in the field. On Sundays an +extra (forenoon) service is added. Strangers and travellers receiving +hospitality are always courteously and unostentatiously admitted to +those family devotions. One may thus meet with one or more wagons camped +in the wilderness and find a cluster of men, women, and children +engaged in happy devotions and singing psalms or hymns in the familiar +old "Herrenhut" melodies, or one may come upon a scene where men just +returned to camp, begrimed and still perspiring from a day's hunt or +battle, join with husky voices an already assembled group in the +customary service. + +Such practices of piety cannot fail to have a salutary effect upon the +young, nor can it be with justice said that the bulk of the people are +inconsistent in their conduct, though formality and insincerity are +sadly frequent enough, and in late years a decadence in seriousness and +an increase of frivolity instead have marked the present epoch, +especially among those who are exposed to the pernicious influences and +contaminations incidental to town life. The old Free Stater mentioned +before expressed the expectation that the present war and trials will +tend to check that declension, and in that way prove to have a +compensating character for good. During my frequent travels it had been +my privilege as a guest to make the acquaintance of numerous truly +Christian Boer families, both well-to-do and poor. On one occasion I had +to accept the hospitality at a farmhouse of one named Brits,[16] +nicknamed "vuil" or dirty Brits. This was an old blind widower; his +household was composed, besides himself, of an old brother, also a +widower, and the family of a son-in-law. After the evening meal the +service was led by the blind man, the daughter reading some chapters in +the Bible indicated by him. The two old men and I occupied separate cots +in one small side room. Happening to wake up at dawn the following +morning, I saw those old men sit up facing each other, with their feet +upon the floor, and begin their morning hymn of praise, after which the +house resounded with younger voices from the other end with a similar +song. I do not call to mind any special untidiness at that poor blind +man's house to warrant his sobriquet; my recollections are, on the +contrary, of the happiest, and I mentally called him clean Brits, clean +every whit. In another part of the country I was privileged to meet with +a family, which included a grown-up blind daughter,' who had St. John's +Gospel in raised letters. While reading with her fingers her upturned +face would shine with joy when repeating some of the salient, consoling, +and sustaining verses. And how common are the records among those simple +Boers of happy and triumphant death-bed scenes of old and young, +softening the grief of the bereaved believers. Frivolous education and +advanced surroundings are accountable for a certain waning of the +original habits of serious piety; this is to some extent more the case +among the Cape Colonial and Orange Free State Boers, the declension +appearing greatest with those residing in or in close proximity to +towns. Among the men of exemplary and consistent piety in the Transvaal +are conspicuous: President Krueger, State Secretary Reitz, +Commandant-General Joubert, General Piet Cronje, and others holding +highest positions, and also many of the Volksraad members, including the +late General Kock. + +Upon the occasion when the Transvaal Executive, with the assembled +Volksraads, finally determined upon war, and the momentous matter had +been considered of handing over the passports to Mr. Greene, the British +agent, just before signing them, President Krueger was observed occupied +in silent prayer for a few moments, while many of the others bowed their +heads similarly engaged, after which the documents were firmly +completed. When the first commandoes were about to depart for the field, +the President addressed a farewell to the burghers, assuring them that +God's aid could confidently be implored for their just cause; he also +quoted part of the Verse, "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall +lose it," intending it as an exhortation for the timorous, warning them +of the greater danger incurred by retreat or flight than when +maintaining a manful stand. (The reader will know that the above +quotation does not complete the verse, the rest being, "But whosoever +shall lose his life for my sake or for the Gospel shall preserve it.") + +It points to the operation of most persevering and subtle agencies and +potent illusions that could mislead and carry away the chief men and the +most intelligent of the Boer nation so far as to engender the erroneous +convictions which caused them to court the present war and to consider +it just. As to the bulk of the people, they are in turn led astray by +their leaders' example and opinions as victims of the general delusion. + +These convictions, together with the acceptance of Afrikaner Bond +doctrines, have developed into quite a national infatuation, a kind of +Boer Koran, invested with similar fanaticism. Analogies are assumed as +existing between the case of the Israelites brought by Moses through the +wilderness, and led by Joshua into the conquered possession of their +promised Canaan. Following those prototypes, Paul Krueger is held as +having guided the Boer nation thus far through the mazes of political +troubles, and so also is General Joubert,[17] now their leader in the +conquest, South Africa in its entirety being considered as rightfully +belonging to them. The Orange River stands for Jordan, dividing as yet +the possessions of the people, and the analogy only needs completion by +a Pisgah for President Krueger. That such hallucinations have taken deep +root appears from the fact that the wife of President Krueger dreamt of +the accomplishment of such a typical history, and that her husband had +died at an early stage of the conquest. Such complete faith is attached +to the prophetic import of that dream that the President was prevailed +upon to permit its publication in full detail some time in November +last. The President's death was anticipated within two months after. (I +am far from referring to those incidents in a mocking mood, but rather +to show the intense sincerity of Boer convictions, confounding the +Christian's exalted calling with one which is temporal; and I fancy that +those very Boers, if equally well instructed, might sadly eclipse some +of us who have the privilege and also the responsibility of enjoying +correct teaching.) + +The writer has endeavoured to represent in a true light both the +character of the Boer nation and its responsibility in regard to the +origin of the present deplorable war. The reader will be able to judge +whether that people is wilfully guilty, or whether the circumstances +admit of generous, mitigating condonement, always considered apart from +that horrible Hollander element which has been the root and instigating +cause of all the evil. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 15: Some readers will recognise the significance, the +protective competence, the keen and reliable instinct which enable +untutored believers to discern and detect doctrinal leaven insidiously +concealed in the garb of worship.] + +[Footnote 16: At Modder River, on the road between Bloemfontein and +Kimberley.] + +[Footnote 17: At the time, December, 1899, when this was intended for +publication.] + + + + +PHYSIQUE AND HABITS + + +We have noted in former pages that the Boers' ancestry some two +centuries ago was composed of about two-thirds of sturdy Dutch peasants, +artizans, etc., while the other third consisted mostly of French +Huguenots. + +It is known that the immigrant class, though generally somewhat poor, +are uniformly men and women endowed with an adventurous, self-reliant +spirit and with unimpaired health. Naturally none but robust persons +were permitted to join the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. + +We see in that combination the patient, resolute quality prevailing in +Holland and the more ardent, vivacious, and chivalrous character found +with the French people. The Huguenot refugees belonged undisputably to +the cream of that impulsive nation--intellectual, educated, and +fearless--whilst both portions were pervaded with deep-rooted religious +fervour and habituated to moral and temperate lives. + +Those combined qualities and habits would naturally be transmitted to +the progeny; prosperity and splendid climatic conditions tended still +further to develop a virile physique of first order. The moral and +physical standards were maintained by the practice of men and women +marrying early in life, and by occupations which required the people to +pass most of their time in the open. Educationally, there was +unavoidably some retrogression, but there is always plenty of scope in +the existence of colonists in a new country for the exercise of a +vigorous mind in the study of nature, in overcoming difficulties and in +cultivating the faculty of resourcefulness. + +Whilst missing the intellectual benefits of advanced civilization, the +people escaped the dangers of its vitiating tendencies, thus preserving +a healthy mental calibre as well as robust physical health. In addition +may be mentioned a very notable fecundal power, which accounts for the +phenomenally rapid increase of the people. All those conditions have +continued to be maintained with the successive generations up to now. + +Those who joined in the exodus north of the Orange River in 1835 and the +years following comprised the most indomitable and best endowed of that +stalwart race. Twenty years of a nomadic life after that and until they +got somewhat settled down served to weed out the weaklings among them; +since then their mode of life accorded well to keep up the highest +physical standard, not pampered with many comforts, inured to hardships +and to out-of-door exercise, with a diet consisting very largely of meat +and venison, coupled with energetic exercise of mind and body (the women +sharing in the less arduous duties). All this constituted a regimen and +training which did not fail to keep the people in a constant condition +of high efficiency and equipoise for the performance of tasks and for +surmounting difficulties needing more than usual strength, endurance, +and fortitude. + +The rough labour all over South Africa is done mostly by Kaffirs and +other coloured people. A Boer farmer will have from two to ten or more +Kaffirs (men and women) employed for out-of-door work and for domestic +drudgery. Often absent from home on hunting trips and sometimes on +commando, the men entrust their work on such occasions (as is now the +case during the present war) to the care of their wives and daughters, +assisted by some younger sons, if the family includes any, or else +simply with the aid of Kaffir servants. Sometimes they are without any +such help, when they take a pride in doing it alone. + +Girls as well as boys learn to ride on horseback when quite young. It is +quite a usual thing to see women riding astride fashion, collecting +sheep and cattle, or driving their horse carts and spiders (carriages), +unattended by males, over distances of over twenty and thirty +miles--women spanning in ox-teams to their travelling wagons, driving +them with long whips on journeys occupying one or more days. During the +Kaffir wars the Boers used to trek (travel) in bodies with their wagons, +which would serve to form a laager or fort, their families and +belongings being placed in the centre. During an attack the women would +attend to the men's wants, reload their rifles, and even take a more +active part in repelling the enemy, many of them being also crack shots. +The above-stated efficient and hardy habits with men and women apply +more to the people in the two Republics, and particularly so to those of +the Transvaal, while the Colonial Boers on the whole have had no such +experience, but instead have lived in uninterrupted peace and comfort +for generations, and may be classed with farmers of any other +well-governed and protected country or colony. The Boer farmers in the +northern portions of the Cape Colony, however, approximate to those of +the Orange Free State in hardy habits and ability to fend for themselves +when in difficulty. But with the Transvaal Boers the training incident +to wars, hunting, and nomadic movements has been more sustained, and +they are thus in best form and fitness of efficiency compared with all +the rest. + +In the Orange Free State nearly every man above fifty years of age has +had the experience of the three years' Basuto war in 1865-67, and almost +all above forty are very expert huntsmen and crack shots. Quite a good +number have also taken part in the Transvaal war against the English in +1880; the rest have been trained by the elder veterans, and, though not +so well seasoned, are good horsemen, expert with the rifle, and +competent in the field. As to the Transvaalers, the men have all had +plenty of field practice before the previous war with England and since, +in subduing formidable Kaffir rebellions, the last being the operations +against the Magato chief, which terminated just before the outbreak of +the present Anglo-Boer war. + +Besides this, game had continued longer in abundance in the Transvaal, +and is still hunted with success in the northern low veldt and in the +adjacent Portuguese territory. Added to this, the young Boers in the +Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal have been +encouraged to attain proficiency in rifle practice and competence in the +field, ostensibly for the gratification of keeping up old traditions, +but in reality to be prepared for the struggle against England meditated +by the Afrikaner Bond. + +About thirty odd years ago the Orange Free State and Transvaal were +still swarming with all sorts of game. Venison was the staple diet. +Lions and leopards also infested those States, but these and the game +have been pretty well extirpated since, except in some of the lower +parts of the Transvaal. In the earlier days ammunition was costly and +hard to procure, and the use had to be husbanded accordingly. It became +thus a practice never to pull a trigger unless with intense aim and the +certainty of an effective shot. A man would go out stalking for an hour +or so with perhaps but one or two charges, and would rarely fail in +bringing home the kind of game wanted--either a springbock, blesbock, or +wildebeest (gnu). In hunting lions, the lads would form part of the +company for the purpose of being taught. The boys would learn that if a +lion meant to attack he would approach to within twenty or thirty +yards, and then straighten himself up before making the final charge. It +was during that short halt that the disabling or killing shot would have +to be delivered. Father and son would then be standing ready--the son to +fire first; if unsuccessful, the animal would be brought down by the +father. If there were a larger party and the lions numerous, the lessons +would be learnt so much better by way of emulation. The boys soon +realized that a lion, means business only when he advances silently and +with smoothed gait, but that bristling up and roaring is a sure prelude +to his skulking off. What we read of the terror-inspiring roar is to the +Boer stripling pure romance and non-sense; but what he does realize is +that he must hit the animal in a vital spot at the right moment or else +run the risk of being clawed and bitten. The confidence, however, which +he has in his gun gives him all the requisite nerve, and mishaps are of +very rare occurrence. Those lion hunts used to be very profitable, not +only for the valuable skins, but especially when a number of young cubs +were also caught, which would realize considerably high prices from +menagerie purveyors. + +At the age of about eight years a boy would be taught to ride on +horseback; when twelve years old he would be an expert horseman and a +deadly rifle shot as well; at sixteen he would be able to perform all +farm duties and rank with pride and confidence as an efficient burgher +to take the field against any enemy. His brain is not addled with school +lore, but is thoroughly versed and taught from nature's book. Hardened +to the fatigue of long rides over unfamiliar country in search of stray +cattle, the Boer youth has often to subsist upon a bit of dried biltong +(junked beef or venison), endure at intervals scorching heat and +drenching rains, swim rivers, and pass the night with a stone for a +pillow and his saddle as the only shelter, while his horse, securely +hobbled, feeds upon the grass around. Never will he lose his way; if +landmarks fail him and clouds hide moon and stars, he is guided by wind, +the run of water or his horse's instincts. Accustomed to wide horizons, +he can promptly distinguish objects at a distance, which, to an +ordinarily good eyesight, would need careful scanning through a +field-glass. + +He is expert in finding and following any trail, and can promptly tell +the imprint from whatever animal it might be, or of whatever human +origin; an ideal scout and unsurpassed as a pioneer. When travelling +over roadless country the Boer's instinct will direct him in tracing +the most practicable route for his wagons, and with his experience he +can foretell what kind of topography he will in succession have to +traverse, avoiding unnegotiable spots and unnecessary detours, and when +about to halt, a surveying gaze will locate the safest and most suitable +position for his temporary camp. Such capacities serve with obvious +advantage in defensive and offensive war tactics. Prompt in seizing an +advantage and in avoiding danger, he has also learnt to be an adept in +ruses to decoy and mislead an enemy, and as for self-help and +resourcefulness, there is hardly a situation or difficulty conceivable +which will not be successfully surmounted. The usual Boer can also fend +for himself and cope with the minor perplexities of every-day life in +the field, which would strand a less initiated man. He can cook, bake +bread, mend clothes, make boots, repair saddles, harness, and vehicles, +and is full of expedients and able to make shift. Most of them know how +to shoe their horses, whilst many of them are expert also in working +wood and metals and similar handicrafts. In short, the Boers make ideal +scouts and are unique as colonizing pioneers. In their nomadic +wanderings and frequent wars, the Boers have gained much useful +experience in tactics, strategy, and in the wiles of diplomacy too. +They also learnt to adopt methods of organization, of cohesion, combined +action, and a certain amount of discipline among themselves. + +They elect as subordinate and chief leaders men whose abilities and +influence have commended them for such responsible appointments. Before +committing themselves to any very important step these leaders would +first confer with the people, who in turn would generally be easily +swayed to their opinions, and who found by experience that it was safest +to follow their judgment. It thus also became a habit to leave the main +thinking over to those leaders, which enhanced unanimity and led to a +self-imposed obedience and discipline recognised as necessary for the +common welfare and also indispensable for common safety. + +So prevalent had the practice become of deferring to the opinions of +their leaders that it engendered an apathy among the people against +considering political and public matters which were not altogether of +engrossing importance. Public meetings would be poorly attended, and at +elections not half the votes were recorded. "Let the elected heads see +to it; they are paid for doing the controlling and thinking work"--that +used to be the general feeling. But during the past twenty years public +interest has by degrees been successfully aroused by the activities of +the Afrikaner Bond; the former apathy and distaste to the consideration +of public concerns have given place to a more lively identification even +with politics, but the tendency of being swayed by men of influence of +their own kind remains unchanged. + +The Boers are great smokers--tobacco appears to have no hurtful effects +whatever upon them, but seems rather to serve as a grateful sedative. +The first thing offered on meeting a Boer is his tobacco pouch, and if +one is a guest at his house, this is followed by one or more cups of +coffee. This is drunk by men and women in large quantities, often +without sugar, but very weak. The people are justly famed for cordial +hospitality to strangers, and the pleasing tact and unostentatious +correct politeness met with from the most ordinary and uneducated Boer +are only accountable for on the theory that that particular culture of +manners has been transmitted from his noble French ancestry of a couple +of hundred years ago. + +In stature the men near the average of six feet (say five feet ten +inches)--full-bearded, brawny-limbed, and of stalwart build, suggesting +a homeric capacity for aggression and resistance. They present a +standard of sturdy and active manhood, which would have delighted the +critical eye of Frederick the Great for the formation of his very best +regiments. What is really singular is the infinitesimally small +proportion of ineffective and sickly men found left behind when all the +commandoes are called out, and also the considerable number of hale old +men above sixty who voluntarily join the field. And when the hardy +training and general high efficiency are considered down to the youth of +sixteen, one may estimate the formidableness of such a foe, all well +mounted on tough and nimble horses, well provisioned and provided with +the best weapons extant, guided by very competent chiefs and European +advisers--withal self-reliant and conscious of a superior aggressive and +defensive capability for repeating their splendid ancestral records of +prowess. Add to this inbred patriotism stimulated to an enthusiasm +approaching fanaticism by a mind fashioned to the belief that their war +is against an unjust usurper destined to be overthrown; it all sums up a +long way towards balancing numerical inferiority and inexperience in the +science of modern warfare. As to military science, they are apt to +become quickly tutored into proficiency by daily observation and +experience, and by the coaching of the numerous military officers who +have joined their ranks. + +Another advantage upon the Boer side consists in complete +acclimatization and perfect knowledge of the country. Lastly, but by no +means less important, is the rational practice of always going as light +and unencumbered as at all possible, preferably with stripped saddle, +and to subsist mostly upon meat when in the field, both serving to +enhance staying power and to provide a reserve of stamina and of energy +for occasions of supreme effort, which often decide the fate of battle +against combatants, however courageous, who are fagged out with marching +on foot, and through being overladen with accoutrements and pack and a +lumbersome diet as well. What can such panting, unsteadied men do in +conflict with Boers who are fresh and in well-preserved form, and whose +steady sharp-shooting simply results in Calvaries for their opponents, +however brave, disciplined and well equipped they may be? + +Yet to be noted is the small commissariat needed for Boer horses and +mules. These are accustomed to subsist altogether on grass, and when it +is plentiful, during summer and fall, to keep in good condition, working +six to ten hours daily, if only allowed to graze during the rest of the +time. They are then usually knee-haltered, _i.e._, one foreleg tied to +the halter, with about eighteen inches space between. A few feeds of dry +mealies (maize) will be amply supplementary when the pasture is +inferior, or if the animals have to be picketed much. + +As said before, alcoholism does not prevail among the Boers, and any +tendency to it is sedulously checked by legislation and public +reprobation. President Krueger is an absolute abstainer from intoxicants, +and even at banquets he will sip water only when joining in a toast. His +contention is that the effects generally go beyond a harmlessly +exhilarating point; the action of alcohol unbalances the nervous +equilibrium, producing in most cases an excitement above the normal +level, followed by a corresponding depressive reaction below it, +creating an appetite for repeating the potation, with exactly similar +and progressively aggravated results. Then man's moral standard and +general efficiency and dignity become impaired, to the serious damage of +his own welfare and involving the common weal as well. When at the +outbreak of the war the sale of intoxicants became totally prohibited +the measure was received with willing submission and hailed with general +approval, which speaks volumes for the burgher population and without +doubt also tends to preserve their efficiency and stamina. + + + + +PRESIDENT KRUeGER + + +Stephanus Johannes Paulus Krueger is about the most accessible President +on record. Every morning--except Sundays and holidays, after family +worship, that is to say, from 5.30 in summer and 6 in winter to 8 +o'clock--he gives audience to Boer and Uitlander, rich or poor alike, +and also on each afternoon, from 4 to 6 and even later. His residence in +the west end of Church Street, Pretoria, is quite an ordinary modest +building of the bungalow type. The only distinction observable is two +crouching lion figures, life size, on pedestals about three feet high, +at the balustrade entrance to the front verandah. A lawn of about thirty +feet across extends to the street limit, where at a very unpretentious +gate two armed burgher guards are constantly stationed. These will +receive an intending visitor's name, an unarmed domestic guard will then +come forward, who, after a short scrutiny, if the person is a stranger, +will report to the President and will immediately return to conduct you +to that dignitary, who may be sitting under the front verandah or in the +adjoining reception-room. There the President will readily shake hands +and point to a chair, rather near by because he is slightly hard of +hearing, the domestic guard standing or sitting between, but a good way +back. By his questions and final remarks one feels assured that the +topic introduced has been attentively listened to and fully grasped. +While conversing, other audience-seekers would drop in, and, while +waiting their turn, coffee would usually be served to all. The manners +observed are devoid of any stiffness of etiquette, but rather marked +with a cordial decorum approaching intimacy, most assuring to the +simplest and humblest visitor. + +The only leisure the President enjoys is the interval from 12 to 2, +between his official labours at the Government buildings, which are +about half a mile distant from his house. He drives there and back in a +modest carriage attended by a guard of mounted policemen. His Honour is +invariably dressed in black cloth, with the usual tall silk hat. Six +feet high, with a slight stoop, broad shouldered, deep-chested, with +well-developed limbs, arms rather long, the President presents a +stately, burly figure, portly without obesity. When younger he was +noted, as something like a Ulysses, for personal strength and prowess as +well as for sagacity. Although seventy-five years old now, Mr. Krueger +has still a remarkably hale bearing and an intellect of undiminished +quality. His eyesight, however, has been suffering of late, rendering +the attendance of an oculist necessary. His Honour is in his fifth term +of presidency, and has held the office twenty-two years. His salary is +L8,000 per annum, of which he probably does not expend L1,000, his +habits being exceedingly simple and frugal, Mrs. Krueger being equally +conservative and thrifty, preferring rather to expend money for her +children and in unostentatious benevolence than in superfluities. + +President Krueger is an exemplary Christian, an earnest student of the +Bible since his youth, ever ready to employ his gifts to strengthen the +faith of his people and to maintain their religious standard. He often +occupies the pulpit, and on other occasions gives exhorting discourses. +Upon the completion of the imposing Johannesburg synagogue his Honour +was requested to preside at its dedication. It was an impressive +function, and withal so anomalous and unrabbinical a departure--the head +of the State, a devout Christian, opening the edifice for Jewish +worship and addressing a discourse to the thousands of assembled +Israelites. In his zeal and concern Mr. Krueger could not refrain from +adverting to their blessed Messiah, the God-man of Jewish stock, +rejected through ignorance by their forefathers, exalted since, but who +loved His people nevertheless, as typified by Joseph's narrative when he +revealed himself to his brethren in Egypt. He adjured them to a +prayerful reading of their Old Testament, and he invoked God's mercy to +remove the veil which obscured from their eyes their own and also the +Gentiles' glorious Immanuel. The ceremony was concluded with perfect +decorum, despite the surprise that the address had drifted into an +impassioned Gospel sermon. + +This grand old Boer is the very personification of noble patriotism and +devoted concern for the welfare of his nation. While admiring and loving +the man, what sorrow on the one side and indignant execration on the +other do not overwhelm one, seeing that such a pattern and leader of men +should have become the victim of that heartless Hollander coterie! One +cannot but marvel at the same time at the alert skill and wily patience +which must have been employed during the many years past to hold +President Krueger with State Secretary Keitz and President Steyn in the +Afrikaner Bond leash ready to let loose with unshaken convictions upon +the supreme contest designed for them and their people by the +machinations intended for upraising Holland at the risk of immolating +the victimized Boer nation. + + + + +PEACE ADJUSTMENTS + + +Upon this topic a few remarks may be placed under the assumption that +the arch enemy's triumph in the present war will be circumscribed by the +havoc and the bereavements created by it, and by the forfeiture +inflicted upon the poor deluded Boers of their special heirlooms. One of +the considerations would be the war cost and its recoupment, and another +important one is the measures needful to prevent a repetition of a Bond +revolt. + +As to the war indemnity: it is well understood on all hands that the +supremacy of Great Britain, when once established as the result of the +war, will greatly enhance the value of all existing capital +investments--10 to 50 per cent., and many even 100 per cent. It is not +to be denied that capitalism has evinced decided eagerness that English +supremacy should be asserted, and it is in a manner amenable together +with the Afrikaner Bond, for secretly striving to bring about the +contest each independently in its own way, but without the least concert +with each other. It appears therefore equitable that capital should +become contributable to the cost of the war which will eventually result +in so largely enhancing its invested values. + +A tax of 2-1/2 per cent. upon the aggregate investment values and a +royalty upon the mining industries of 25 per cent. of the net profits +would appear reasonable. + +The 2-1/2 per cent. tax might bring a sum of ....... 15 millions + +The royalty could be reckoned at capitalized + value ............................................ 50 " + +The confiscations might reach ...................... 10 " + +And the underground rights around the Johannesburg + mines might realize .............................. 50 " + +Thus together 125 millions, possibly not sufficient to cover the entire +war cost if pensions are to be included. It is a sad reflection to note +that the entire wealth which constituted the national heirloom of the +Transvaal will have been wasted, and comes far short to cover the actual +war expenditure. In regard to preventive measures against another Bond +war, nothing appears clearer than the necessity of applying the _lex +talionis_ upon the Hollander element in South Africa (though not in that +inhuman fashion as was practised upon the English refugees before and at +the commencement of the war). + +Whilst not so guilty to the same extent of enormity as the coterie in +Holland, who devised all the Bond mischief at a safe distance, the +Hollanders in South Africa were nevertheless their eager abettors and +sedulous henchmen. It will be remembered that the Bond cry had been +"Drive the English into the sea, out of Africa," and that the first +earnest in carrying out that fiat was practised some months before the +outbreak of the war upon the unaggressive coloured British subjects, +traders, merchants, etc., whose removal from their residences and +businesses to ghettos outside the towns practically compassed their ruin +and expulsion from the Transvaal. This was followed, first by a +voluntary and afterwards by the forced exodus of Uitlanders at the rate +of thousands per day--men, women, and children packed in uncleansed coal +and cattle trucks, together with Coolies, Kaffirs, and Hottentots, and +hustled over the Portuguese border, dumped down at that death-trap +Komati Poort if unable to pay the railway fare for fifty-three miles +further to Delagoa Bay. Those refugees were obliged to abandon or +sacrifice their belongings--they had no time allowed to realize them; it +meant their financial ruin. + +That Hollander element comprises the most insidious menace, and, like a +cancer, must be unsparingly excised from South Africa, unless +encouragement is intended to be given for an attempt to go one better +next time, with a repetition, or rather an aggravation, of the horrors +of war and the cost in life and treasure, turning the sub-continent into +a second vast Algeria, with perhaps such another "Abd El Kadr" to +subdue, and without any reserve asset, as now, to fall back upon towards +reimbursing the expense. Their expulsion should, however, not be +effected without giving some fair notice affording them time for the +realization of their estates. As to the Dutch language, it will not +entail any excessive hardship if it is equally banished as an official +language, seeing that English is on the whole not more unfamiliar to the +bulk of the Boer people than pure High Dutch is, and seeing that the +dual right was accorded to Dutch as an official language under this +almost inconceivable feature, that it admittedly had yet to be learnt to +become of any practical use or utility other than as an instrument for +keeping the races apart and to facilitate the Bond objects of usurpation +and revolt. + + +FINIS + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed +(2nd ed.), by C. H. 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