iRATURE
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 -
 
 * 
 
 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 

 
 ? 
 
 
 
 LETTERS FROM 
 AN UITLANDER 
 
 1899 - 1902 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 
 
 MAJOR SIR BARTLE FRERE, BAET., D.S.O. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 
 1903

 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION ..... 
 LETTERS FROM THE TRANSVAAL . . . 14 
 LETTERS FROM CAPE TOWN . . . .19 
 THE RACE QUESTION ..... 44 
 
 QUESTION OF THE SUSPENSION OF THE CAPE CON- 
 STITUTION ...... 50 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE TRANSVAAL AGAIN . . 90 
 BRITISH TRADE ...... 103 
 
 IN RE NATIVE QUESTION . . . .108 
 
 SUSPENSION OF CAPE CONSTITUTION . . . 117 
 SHIPPING RING ...... 164 
 
 
 22002E

 
 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER* 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THERE seems no need to say very much in 
 introducing these letters to the public. They 
 were written to me, in regular succession, 
 from a date shortly before the war broke out. 
 
 They make, it is obvious, no pretension to 
 careful literary composition, and any attempt 
 by their writer, or others, to have " edited" 
 them with any completeness, would have 
 necessitated the whole thing being re - cast, 
 and would also have taken away from their 
 fresh colloquial style. 
 
 The writer is a man who has long been 
 resident in South Africa, and has held more 
 the position of onlooker than of participator, 
 in its political and commercial affairs. He 
 is not connected with gold mining, he has 
 carefully watched events, and he is an honest 
 English gentleman. More I am not at liberty 
 to divulge, but this I am willing to vouch for. 
 
 * Pronounce as in English word "Eight." 
 
 A
 
 2 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 Beyond this I will not attempt to add 
 much, nor enlarge at any length regarding 
 the South African question. There is indeed 
 much to be said, but Heaven has happily 
 provided us with plenty of people to say it ! 
 I might, however, add just one word or two. 
 
 What South Africa needs above all now is 
 Permanent Peace, to enable its inhabitants 
 to work out harmoniously what ought to be 
 their very great and important destinies. 
 
 Yet how strangely do these words " Perma- 
 nent Peace" and "South Africa" look in 
 juxtaposition. 
 
 Can any two groups of ideas seem more 
 remote from one another? For how many 
 years has this pot been seething, what precious 
 lives have been sacrificed, in divers ways, on 
 the hell-broth that has there been brewed ! 
 
 And what have we to show as a result of 
 our clumsy incantations ? 
 
 In truth the South African question is only 
 a part of a much larger scheme of ideas, which 
 if discord is ever to give place to harmony in 
 that and other regions of the Empire must 
 be considered in bulk, and, each and all, treated 
 on simple general principles.
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 It may be claimed at the outset that in 
 an Empire constituted as ours is, the man- 
 in-the-street in Great Britain cannot conduct 
 the politics of a remote portion of that Empire. 
 Indeed, to do that worthy justice, he rarely 
 wishes seriously to attempt it. All he says 
 is, " We have put the existing Cabinet in 
 power, and I look to its members to dis- 
 charge their duty." 
 
 On the other hand, there is no formula 
 by which such an Empire can be conducted. 
 Our peoples cannot, by laying down a string 
 of rules and regulations which are to be 
 followed, leave it to experts to draw up a 
 scheme for any portion of the community, 
 and then themselves go to sleep again. On 
 the contrary, they must always keep awake. 
 And by keeping awake I do not mean fuss- 
 ing ; but I mean, choosing in the first place 
 honest and reliable managers for the Empire's 
 affairs, and afterwards intelligently following 
 the action of these, to whom have been handed 
 the responsibilities of the concern, and keep- 
 ing them "up to the mark " ; realising that 
 eloquent speeches will less frequently save a 
 country than honest men. 
 
 To go for a moment, however, a little 

 
 4 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 more into detail, and regard the present 
 situation at the Cape. 
 
 "What," says the English citizen, "are 
 we to do with the Cape irreconcilables ? " I 
 would reply simply carry out your normal 
 course of action. If you hoist the political 
 white flag, and pamper rebellion now ; you 
 merely betray loyalty, without in the least 
 conciliating your enemies. And remember, 
 in this instance, you will be betraying it 
 for the last time. "Oh, but," says Mr Wise- 
 acre, "you forget that you have got to live 
 with these men." I would say rather put it 
 the other way they have to live with us. 
 
 Has treason, forsooth, ceased to be treason, 
 because Queen Elizabeth no longer holds a 
 sceptre, and orders people's heads off? Is 
 there no longer such a thing as High Treason, 
 now that a ruling Dynasty has wisely com- 
 mitted much of the details of its administra- 
 tion to the representatives of a Commonwealth ? 
 Is there no treason to the loyalists in all parts 
 of the Empire, in the action of those who 
 foment discord in one particular part of the 
 Empire ? 
 
 It is because leisured observers, such as 
 the writer of these letters, are especially rare
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 in South Africa, that I think these notes on 
 current South African topics may be of great 
 service to many of the public, in estimating 
 the nature of the problem with which we 
 are there confronted. 
 
 By his showing, and by all knowledge of 
 informed, and unsophisticated, men, these pro- 
 blems are perfectly capable of solution, but 
 towards that solution we English have "no 
 use " (as our American friends say) for the 
 rhetorician the place hunter the man who 
 is ignorant of his subject and yet attempts 
 to direct us. 
 
 Would it be too much to ask of such persons 
 when they aspire to lead our counsels by their 
 words, that they should travel in the regions 
 they propose to discourse upon, and saturate 
 themselves with the information which can 
 only be locally acquired ? 
 
 All who have watched the numbers of 
 honest English, and Foreign, men and women 
 who started out to the Cape fervent "pro- 
 Boers," and returned with completely modi- 
 fied views, must indeed realise how impossible 
 it is for the ordinary resident in Europe, 
 rightly to master the South African ques- 
 tion.
 
 6 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 There is no manner of doubt that the 
 Transvaal leaders, and the Bond leaders, had 
 elaborated an ideal which was quite incom- 
 patible with the existence of the British 
 Empire. Their ideal was, "Away with the 
 English view of life altogether ; let us, as 
 the Dutch race, dominate everybody ! " 
 
 On the other hand, the idea of the right 
 feeling Englishman, when he speaks of his 
 wish that our flag should fly from Cape Town 
 to the Zambesi, is founded upon what that 
 flag implies equal justice and freedom for 
 all and is not founded upon any wish that 
 " Rooineks," qua Rooineks, should put their 
 heel on every one else's head. It were better 
 that that honoured flag should be rolled up in 
 South Africa and buried there, than that so 
 foolish and shallow an idea as this last should 
 actuate us ; if only because the attempt would 
 certainly fail, and bring ruin in its track to 
 all that we most honour and revere. 
 
 Take, as a typical example of our best 
 methods, the admirably organised system which 
 has been inaugurated for the education of 
 Boer children, since many thousands of them 
 came into our keeping. The result of that 
 scheme, as regards the matters here referred
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 to, should be to make the children proud of 
 South Africa, as a part of the Empire, not of 
 being "Dutch" or " English." 
 
 Our object in these regards should surely be, 
 as in "composite photography," by keeping 
 the characteristics of the various component 
 races it contains, to produce an homogeneous 
 Empire, which is not solely English, Scotch, 
 Irish, Welsh, Boer, Canadian, or Australian, 
 but shall contain the most vigorous and 
 useful characteristics of each group. 
 
 One word more. Truism though it be, it 
 needs constant repetition Party government, 
 when carried to the length it has reached with 
 us is a national danger, for it diverts to trum- 
 pery local wrangles, attention and energy which 
 should be devoted to large and widespread 
 interests ; and the electors of Great Britain 
 should recognise, that disappointed politicians 
 of a certain, and, alas, not uncommon, type, 
 are frequently really desperate men, and will 
 stick at nothing to damage whatever party 
 may be in power. Many of them will even 
 intrigue with hostile Boers, or with discordant 
 Irishmen, with perfect impartiality and their 
 words should be valued accordingly. All down 
 the ranges of history we may note the "wire-
 
 8 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 puller" seeking his own ends by exploiting 
 honest human instincts. 
 
 On the Native question these letters contain 
 much that is of the greatest value. 
 
 And on this point I would ask any of my 
 countrymen in England who may come across 
 these pages, to remember one thing. The 
 Englishman, though he changes his skies 
 most readily, does not at all readily change 
 his nature : and that generous nature, which 
 inclines him to befriend the weak and the 
 oppressed in this country, does not desert him 
 when he migrates to the Cape. 
 
 Do not let us therefore suppose, because the 
 South African colonist sees the vital necessity 
 of (as he would put it) "keeping the native in 
 his place," that he has formed any dark 
 schemes for turning the Kaffirs into mine- 
 slaves, or victims of a tyrannical oppres- 
 sion. 
 
 Reverting to the main argument, I hope 
 that no reader of these letters will think 
 that the writer, or recipient, have any dislike 
 to the Dutch as Dutch, or to the Boers as 
 Boers. Passages constantly occur in these 
 letters, indeed, which directly controvert such 
 an idea.
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 And for my own part I would say, that no 
 one who remembers the Cape in the old days 
 with the delightful highly - bred Dutch 
 society, which had its focus in Cape Town and 
 the neighbourhood ; or who remembers the 
 simple unaffected hospitality, which all who 
 travelled in South Africa must have frequently 
 experienced, from the Cape Dutch, and from 
 the Boers all over the land, can fail to have 
 a cordial feeling in his heart for both of 
 these so different groups. 
 
 But let it be none the less remembered, that 
 a hastily patched up modus Vivendi between 
 Briton and Boer can have no enduring founda- 
 tion. All the Empire, and the rest of the 
 world too, are looking on at events which are 
 occurring in South Africa, brought about 
 and necessitated by the cumulative poison of 
 political folly. 
 
 The plain fact, which appears more clearly 
 now that the dust of the commotion is sett- 
 ling down, is this ; our colonies are full, not of 
 our scum, but of some of the best and most 
 vigorous blood of our race. They love the 
 Old Country (and its traditions and history, 
 and those ideals of justice and freedom-for- 
 all which the mention of " England," above
 
 10 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 that of all countries, raises to the imagina- 
 tion) with apparently a much firmer love 
 than many of its own inhabitants. They 
 love the Crown, the Ruling Family, and the 
 Dynasty generally. They hate and detest 
 " Downing Street," or rather all that that 
 sinister phrase formerly conveyed to the 
 Colonial mind, of inaction, interference, and 
 uncertainty. 
 
 We may scarce wonder if despair of any 
 timely action at home bade fair to convert 
 the Boer Republic of the Transvaal, governed 
 by Kruger and his Hollander clique, into an 
 " English-cum- Boer- Progressive " Republic, at 
 least so far as the Rand was concerned ; and 
 that (such tendency being countered by the 
 events culminating in " the Raid,"), the crisis 
 hastened on, which was to decide if Great 
 Britain meant to stand by her position in 
 South Africa, or to let the various conflicting 
 forces together "eliminate the Imperial factor." 
 
 Fortunate for us was the timely conjunction 
 of a Secretary of State and a High Commis- 
 sioner, who both realised the position ; and 
 now from the turmoil is emerging an Imperial 
 policy, which promises to make Downing 
 Street a name of wholly different omen.
 
 INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 The question arises, How are we now going 
 to conduct affairs ? 
 
 Not as of old, let us hope, by constant 
 change of experiment, nor as questions of 
 party politics, nor by the attempt to control 
 every detail from 6000 miles away. 
 
 It is evident that in Lord Milner we have 
 been so fortunate as to get much beyond 
 our deserts a man most richly endowed with 
 capacity and honesty of purpose, just the 
 man that we want. 
 
 And to him and his likes, in the future of 
 our Empire, we must entrust more and more 
 authority, and repose in them the greater con- 
 fidence, to enable them to assist those with 
 whose welfare they are charged, to govern 
 themselves well, and in harmony with the 
 general Empire scheme ; this, notwithstanding 
 that some in the Mother Country may still 
 share the dismay of the hen, who sees her 
 duckling charges gradually taking to the 
 water, and showing a capacity to shift for 
 themselves. And, if rightly perceived, it will 
 be noted that this should lead to no break 
 up of the Empire, but to a strengthening 
 thereof. 
 
 In conclusion the "case" of South Africa
 
 12 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 has at length been taken in hand by the 
 greatest specialists we have : two of whom, 
 Mr Chamberlain and Lord Milner, are on the 
 spot : health, we may hope, is being restored. 
 By all means let us watch the men in whom 
 we thus confide, but let us not, from far away, 
 foolishly or needlessly hamper their wise and 
 enlightened* ministrations. 
 
 BARTLE C. FRERE. 
 
 22nd December 1902.
 
 The Lord Chief Justice, in the course of his charge to the Grand 
 Jury, said, " . . . The crime of high treason was one of the highest, 
 if not the very highest, known to the law. As far back as the year 
 1351 the Statute . . . was passed, and that Statute had been the law 
 up to the present time. The language of that Statute was as apt for 
 the purpose of dealing with the offence of high treason to-day as it was 
 at the time it was passed. By the 2 5th of Edward III., c. 2, it was 
 recited : ' Whereas divers opinions have been before this time in what 
 case treason shall be said and in what not, the King, at the request of 
 the Lords and of the Commons, hath made a declaration in the manner 
 as hereafter followeth that is to say, when a man doth compass or 
 imagine the death of our Lord the King, or of our Lady the Queen, or 
 of their eldest son and heir, . . . or if a man do levy war against 
 our Lord the King in his realm, or be adherent to the King's enemies 
 in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm or elsewhere, 
 and thereof be provably attainted of open deed by the people of their 
 condition' then in that case such person should be attainted and 
 guilty of high treason." 
 
 The Times, December 20, 1902. 
 
 " Je serais content de la liberte qui inspire les genies anglais, si la 
 passion et 1'esprit de parti ne corrompaient pas tout ce que cette 
 pre"cieuse liberte a d'estimable." 
 
 VOLTAIRE (Candide).
 
 LETTERS FROM THE TRANSVAAL 
 
 z^th June 1899. 
 
 I employ Greek characters* because I find it 
 so impossible to disguise handwriting, and no 
 letter or telegram is safe from inspection ; so 
 common report says. 
 
 Is the British Government aware that in 
 South Africa it has to face the greatest con- 
 spiracy of our times ? 
 
 The position is grave beyond all precedent 
 to "let things slide" is fatal. 
 
 Thousands throughout the country are 
 utterly weary of nominal Imperialism and 
 openly discuss making common cause with 
 the Dutch Bond party, in utter despair of 
 England doing anything. 
 
 In this "grave of great reputations," men 
 say that Sir A. Milner is fated to be dis- 
 credited and dropped by the Government like 
 the few other able statesmen we have seen here. 
 
 * The first two of these letters, which were sent from 
 the Transvaal, were written in Greek characters.
 
 A WARNING 15 
 
 Secret meetings at Field Cornetcies are 
 being held all over South Africa, and no 
 doubt the plot is fast ripening. 
 
 The arch traitor ( ) in Cape Colony 
 would give the order for rebellion to-morrow, 
 but the more timid conspirators, some of 
 whom are in high place there, are halting ; 
 their ally, P. Kruger, feels that his crisis is 
 at hand. 
 
 By hesitation, England is fostering rebellion 
 at hot-house speed a show of power and 
 determination would prevent war at once. 
 
 But the idea has gained ground that she 
 will cave in at the last moment, and that a 
 moral Majuba is to be the sequel of the 
 military Majuba ! 
 
 A little more hesitation will lose South 
 Africa to the Empire. 
 
 Now things are settled on the Nile and 
 in China, the Bond see that one great chance 
 has slipped past. 
 
 Any European complication, should it arise, 
 would be immediately a signal for the con- 
 spirators in Cape Town to strike a blow 
 simultaneously with Pretoria. 
 
 Probably one-third of the whole population 
 may be classed as " neutrals " to-day a
 
 16 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 show of firmness would secure them to the 
 "loyals." 
 
 But if a little more open plotting treason 
 is p-eached, they will go over in a body to 
 the rebels. 
 
 Weeks, and even days, are precious. Before 
 the Indian Mutiny, Government had ample 
 warnings, but turned a deaf ear to all. For 
 God's sake do not let us have a repeti- 
 tion of that awful tragedy, through the 
 same policy of "letting slide" and hesitat- 
 ing. 
 
 Don't think this is wild writing. It is 
 mild rather than wild. It is time to call 
 a spade a spade ; treason and rebellion are 
 rampant, and a spark may any hour set the 
 land in a blaze. 
 
 A firm hand and a show of force makes 
 for peace, not for war. The franchise alone 
 will not settle all if a number of questions 
 are left open, the enemy will strike a blow 
 directly they think England is in any Euro- 
 pean difficulty. 
 
 Remember it is no new matter, though 
 England would not see it before ; it is a plot 
 of twenty years' growth, and not a passing 
 freak. Once for all England must show who
 
 THE SOUTH AFRICAN PLOT 17 
 
 is to be master the revolutionary Bond or 
 the Imperial Government. 
 
 Your Parliament appears not to have grasped 
 the fact, that the Transvaal matter is not an 
 isolated one, but merely the most fully 
 developed part of the great South African 
 plot. 
 
 England's hands are now free of this 
 fact Cape and Pretoria Bondsmen make 
 no disguise of their disgust. 
 
 Rome is already burning ; will Nero fiddle, 
 or will he " show his fists " ? 
 
 TRANSVAAL, 
 z^th July 1899. 
 
 I use Greek characters because tedious 
 and difficult to disguise my handwriting, and 
 the general belief is that letters are tampered 
 with. 
 
 The purpose of this letter is to state, that 
 it is understood in Pretoria that the present 
 time is not ripe for action, and that it is 
 desirable either to prolong negotiations, or 
 to make temporary settlement, till after the 
 
 close of the Paris Exhibition ! 
 
 c
 
 18 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 I think it is most important as showing 
 intention. 
 
 In London, the programme might be thought 
 preposterous. 
 
 There is not a doubt that during the 
 Fashoda incident, the belief of the Bond was 
 that the "time had come." 
 
 All England seems to recognise that it is 
 now no mere Transvaal matter. 
 
 But be assured that in the event of any Euro- 
 pean complication, the traitor would 
 
 raise the rebel flag in the Cape, as the last 
 and only chance. 
 
 All would go right did the British public 
 realise the magnitude of the conspiracy. 
 
 It is no sentimental matter, but the most wide- 
 spread, impudent conspiracy of this century. 
 
 Some of those in high place at the Cape, 
 are mere Dutch and renegade Africander 
 puppets, working to order of ! 
 
 Unless this is all stamped out once and for 
 ever, it means a terrible war in the near 
 future, when the Transvaal is more danger- 
 ously armed than now. Your honoured father 
 would have prevented all this. I hope you 
 will use your influence in the cause of right 
 for Africa.
 
 REASONS FOR TRANSVAAL DELAY 19 
 
 The " Edgar affair" forced on a crisis unex- 
 pected by this Government,* at a time incon- 
 venient to them or else probably matters 
 might not have altered till the period referred 
 to, i.e., after the Paris Exhibition. 
 
 LETTERS FROM CAPE TOWN 
 
 CAPE TOWN, 
 tfh October 1899. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, Some time back 
 I sent you from the Transvaal two letters in 
 Greek characters, because it is so difficult to 
 disguise handwriting. There is a common 
 belief, that many letters from the Transvaal 
 are steamed and opened, so that the precaution 
 was necessary. 
 
 English public opinion then seemed so 
 wavering, that I thought it the duty of every 
 one to do what little he could, towards putting 
 forward the truth. 
 
 Some of the Boer organs had long insisted, 
 that Pretoria would benefit by delay till some 
 possible European combination against Eng- 
 * Transvaal Government,
 
 20 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 land should arise ; but when I found that not 
 only editors, but men in close touch with 
 Government, were aware of the plan of merely 
 prolonging negotiations, till the "close of the 
 Paris Exhibition," I saw the mischief was 
 ripening fast. 
 
 By the English papers it appears, that the 
 widespread nature of the conspiracy is at last 
 realised, as also is the fact that the " U it- 
 lander" question is merely an incident in it, 
 which might have cropped up in any other 
 part of South Africa, in which an industry had 
 furnished sufficient revenue to accumulate war 
 materials, and to set on foot diplomatic agencies 
 hostile to British supremacy. 
 
 The matter in which the British public is 
 least well informed is this. 
 
 Papers write about the Boer Government, 
 Boer opinion, etc., making it appear too much 
 a national movement, which the Hollander press 
 is very anxious that it should seem to be. 
 
 Every day I see more clearly, that the whole 
 business has been engineered, from Cape Town 
 and Pretoria, by a group of men, who have for 
 years worked to produce disaffection among 
 the Boers. 
 
 The Dagblad, the loyal Dutch paper, was
 
 ANTI-BRITISH INFLUENCES 21 
 
 doing good in its short career, till and 
 
 the Dutch parsons threatened their ignorant 
 dupes with something little short of eternal 
 perdition, if they looked into this free paper ! 
 
 Some would reply that, whatever the means, 
 the end has been achieved, in the rousing of 
 anti- British feeling. 
 
 But this success is not nearly so complete as 
 it looks. There is a certain common-sense 
 among this primitive people, which tells them 
 they are being duped by their leaders. Once 
 let the spell be broken, and the falling away 
 will be very rapid. 
 
 In view of this it is sad to know, that nothing 
 but force will smash up this traitor crew that 
 leads them. Negotiation is folly and child's play. 
 Delay has added to their moral strength of 
 position, and all of us much dread the possibility 
 of a reverse while we are unprepared. 
 
 A visitor at my hotel was lately at the 
 Paarl,* and was surprised to find among the 
 Boers, Mauser rifles bearing the Transvaal 
 Government mark. 
 
 We did not suppose they had been issued 
 so far south as this. 
 
 Those who know the Dutch best, say that 
 * A town about 30 miles from Cape Town.
 
 22 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 a sharp, prompt stroke is the kindest policy, 
 and that they will no more remain seditious 
 after it, than they did after the Warren Expedi- 
 tion, before which they dealt in the wildest 
 threats of vengeance.* Further delay in action 
 will have many serious results. Not the 
 least is that so many neutrals are induced to 
 accept pay, and to throw in their lot with 
 the enemy ; while severe poverty is leading 
 numbers to indulge in very hostile talk, against 
 the power they should support and aid. 
 
 At the present moment this letter may seem 
 unnecessary, but I thought I ought to write 
 in explanation of the other two. 
 
 Nothing is more certain than that the only 
 road to peace is through war. Plenty of volun- 
 teer aid will come forward if needed, especially 
 when this anti- British Ministry is shorn of 
 its strength. 
 
 Trusting that you will understand what very 
 strong feeling prompted my previous letters and 
 led me to write, I remain, yours truly. 
 
 * Sir Charles Warren's Expedition to check Boer 
 encroachments on Bechuanaland, 1884-1885.
 
 CAPE TOWN INFLUENCE 23 
 
 \_The "Ultimatum" was despatched by the 
 Boer Government on the gtk October, and the 
 war began nth October, 1899.] 
 
 CAPE TOWN INFLUENCE 
 
 CAPE TOWN, 
 2 9 th November 1899. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, I have to acknow- 
 ledge your letter of 3Oth October, which only 
 reached me on the 27th, through my not 
 having given my present address. 
 
 The recent tone of the Paris press, seems 
 rather to verify what I said as to Pretoria 
 opinion, with regard to delaying hostilities 
 till the close of the Exhibition. There is 
 another matter which so much impresses me, 
 that I shall now do myself the pleasure of 
 writing about it : 
 
 Cape Town Influence. After three months' 
 residence here, I am more than ever struck 
 by the undue share of influence this town 
 possesses in all South African politics, and 
 by the evil purposes to which that influence 
 is devoted. While most of the English-born, 
 and many colonial-born of both races, are
 
 24 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 absolutely and often enthusiastically loyal, 
 there is a large section, probably a large 
 majority, which is utterly disloyal. 
 
 Many quite throw off the mask, and openly 
 triumph at any British reverses that occur. 
 Though Pretoria finds the money and the 
 arms, I firmly believe that a principal root 
 of the " festering sore " is in this town. If we 
 only look back, we find that every Cape 
 Governor who had high aims and a broad 
 policy, found himself thwarted at every step, 
 by the politicians more especially associated 
 with the capital. It has been customary to 
 describe them as Western Province men, but 
 that is a mere phrase. The Bond and the 
 anti-British party (which are identical) have 
 their headquarters here. Till some very new 
 order of things is initiated, it must always 
 prove an uphill task for any Governor or 
 High Commissioner, to rule South Africa 
 from Cape Town. When one difficulty is 
 got over, it is only to crop up in some 
 new form, in the campaign against all that 
 is British. I have patiently tried to get the 
 opinions I express endorsed by others, and 
 am often amused to find how many men will 
 go with me, step by step, to the same con-
 
 CAPE TOWN POLICY 25 
 
 elusion, though they have never put the issue 
 broadly to themselves, and are disinclined to 
 admit too much against a town in which their 
 interests lie. 
 
 I often meet men who have toured 
 Australia, and other colonies, and have spent 
 a time in this one. With a little variety of 
 wording, the impressions they chiefly express 
 are : " Can we really be in British territory, 
 " and is it possible that the Home Government 
 " granted responsible government to such a 
 " mixed population, a great portion of which 
 " is, in the first place, too ignorant to be trusted 
 " with the franchise at all, and is bound to 
 " fall into the hands of agitators ? " Through- 
 out the Eastern District, the scheme was viewed 
 with the greatest distrust, it being foreseen 
 that the power would be grasped by men at 
 the capital. 
 
 Under Sir Philip Wodehouse, things came 
 to a deadlock, which was only relieved by 
 summoning Parliament in the East for one 
 session. Cape Town policy is merely another 
 phase of the anti-Uitlander crusade, and the 
 extrusion of Imperial interference (of which 
 they talk so loudly) means nothing but the 
 monopoly of political power, by a local ring 
 
 D
 
 26 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 working with the Bond. I was much sur- 
 prised to find in how little respect, the 
 present ministry, as a body, was held by people 
 of any party. It seems to be regarded 
 merely as the best instrument to hand, by 
 those whose interests are being served by it. 
 The fear they appear to have in common, 
 is that of being ousted by men of larger 
 mental calibre, from the old country, whom 
 they do their best to boycott. Just as in 
 Pretoria, so with these men, whose malig- 
 nant jealousy of Rhodes is on the score 
 that one outside of the charmed African 
 circle, and an Uitlander, should have put 
 them into obscure shade. No liberal or broad 
 policy ever can or will be carried out, while 
 this unwholesome element retains the power 
 of veto that it does, whether in or out of 
 office. 
 
 Many men, while regretting this, despair 
 of changing it, in a community possessing 
 representative institutions more defective than 
 those of England previous to the year '32.
 
 THE SEPARATION QUESTION 27 
 
 SEPARATION OF EAST AND WEST PROVINCES 
 OF CAPE COLONY 
 
 Separation of the Provinces* Many years 
 ago, the Eastern Province fought desperately 
 to obtain separation, and had it been carried 
 in the House, the present position in Cape 
 Colony could never have arisen. We all 
 knew how power was being absorbed by 
 the capital. We also knew, that separation 
 of the East and West Provinces of Cape 
 Colony, would at once make an end of the 
 scandal of dear bread and cheap brandy. The 
 failure of the movement did much to check 
 British immigration, and to foster Africander 
 politics. 
 
 The great argument used in opposition 
 was, that neither province alone was large 
 enough for a colony. To-day either province, 
 if separate, would produce several times the 
 revenue that the whole colony did at that 
 period. The great majority of Eastern farmers 
 
 * The danger of such separation, to which the writer 
 constantly reverts in his letters, seems to be that it 
 might result in the Parliament of the Western half becom- 
 ing an undilutedly hostile centre of disaffection. B. C. F.
 
 28 LETTERS FROM AN UlTLANDER 
 
 have no interest in a duty on breadstuffs, but 
 would like it abolished ; while the low price 
 of Cape brandy is a perfect curse to them, 
 demoralising, as it does, their native labourers. 
 Separation would knock the bottom out of 
 Bond politics. 
 
 At present the Eastern Province is weighted 
 down by the Western, exactly as in the United 
 States, the progressive Northern States were 
 weighted down by the Southern States, before 
 the Civil War. Under present conditions, the 
 towns, excluding the capital, must always be 
 out-voted, not, as in England formerly, by a 
 squirearchy, but in many cases by ignorant 
 clowns, who in Europe would not be thought 
 fit to exercise the franchise at all. 
 
 It seems so useless to ignore facts and 
 "hope for the best." There can be no 
 harmony and no progress, in a community 
 whose political economy is a century behind 
 the times. It is as useless as discussions on 
 Kruger's franchise proposals, which were the 
 most impudent fraud ever seriously put for- 
 ward, and whose sole object was to gain time 
 for further arming against England. 
 
 I am intensely sorry to see, that there are
 
 A BRITISH OR A BOER CAPE COLONY? 29 
 
 men at home still questioning whether this 
 is a righteous war. 
 
 Are they blind to the fact, that the question 
 is whether the Cape shall remain British, or 
 become Boer territory, under despotic rule, 
 carried out by Continental officials ? Much 
 of the fighting to-day is done by Hollander 
 and German mercenaries, imported during the 
 last few years, nominally for the railway and 
 postal departments of the Transvaal. 
 
 I trust that a man of Sir A. Milner's con- 
 spicuous ability, may have become informed 
 of the various old colonial questions and con- 
 tests. I am often disappointed at our public 
 speakers and authors, who too frequently play 
 the part of a captain at the head of his own 
 troop, rather than that of a general, who 
 views the whole field, and knows what has 
 gone before. 
 
 Of all our able writers, I am not aware 
 of one who has taken up the subject of Cape 
 Town local politics, though they have proved 
 the bugbear of all reform, and a weapon for 
 the use of every renegade and professional 
 politician, who desired to hamper Imperial 
 policy, and to "make things hot" for the 
 Governor of the time being.
 
 30 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 In spite of all denials, it is an undoubted 
 fact that Pretoria money has been flowing 
 here like water. Even now that war is on, 
 there are numbers of secret-service agents 
 here. 
 
 You may safely doubt the bona- fides of 
 every pro- Boer pleader who reaches London. 
 
 Times have been hard with us all, and 
 such big cheques were to be had for playing 
 false, that many men have fallen before the 
 temptation. 
 
 I am thankful to be able to write now and 
 then on what I see going on, to one who 
 takes interest in South Africa, and knows its 
 past. 
 
 Hoping my letters are not too lengthy, I 
 am, yours sincerely.
 
 THE ANTI-MILNER CRUSADE 31 
 
 [Lord Roberts reached Pretoria, $th June 
 1900.] 
 
 THE ANTI-MILNER CRUSADE 
 
 CAPE TOWN, 
 yd January 1901. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, It is more than a 
 year since I have written to you on South 
 African affairs, because during that period the 
 press and public had at length fairly wakened 
 up to the gravity of the case. 
 
 I now write to make a few remarks, on the 
 anti-Milner crusade being carried on by the 
 Bond Africander party. It is a case of 
 history repeating itself. It is a repetition of 
 the most sordid, dastardly plot ever set on 
 foot in this land. There is no man living so 
 well able as yourself, to estimate the motives 
 and the methods of the men now at work, 
 more or less behind the scenes. Whatever 
 may or may not appear in the press, we on 
 the spot constantly see indications of a 
 tremendous effort being made, to discredit 
 Sir Alfred Milner at home. This for the 
 moment lies at the very base of all the other
 
 32 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 machinations of the Africander party. Pos- 
 sibly you are aware of it already, but the fact 
 is not so prominently brought forward as it 
 deserves to be. These men would give a 
 right hand or a right eye, to produce an un- 
 favourable impression of Sir Alfred Milner at 
 home. There are fellows going about here 
 (nominally loyal) who take opportunities for 
 casually raising the question : " Whether, after 
 all, this terrible war is not the fruit of his 
 policy ? " Every day I see more plainly, that 
 the conspirators' hands were forced just a year 
 before the plot was ripe. But for the murder 
 of Edgar, and the official sympathy with the 
 murderer, we should have drifted on till the 
 later months of 1900, when the invasion was 
 to have been entered on. I know that this 
 has not been stated in public, but I am certain 
 of the fact, as I wrote to you from the Trans- 
 vaal in 1899. Had it been carried out it 
 would have meant our utter overthrow, in spite 
 of any talked-of increases of garrisons. From 
 this we were only saved by Sir Alfred Milner. 
 
 With public opinion at home as it is now, 
 there may seem to be little cause for any fear. 
 But I feel it is just as well to state what I 
 see and hear as a private individual.
 
 THE SEARCHLIGHT ON BOND DESIGNS 33 
 
 Cape Town is now the headquarters of the 
 enemy, since the occupation of Pretoria by 
 Lord Roberts. . . . 
 
 I can quite imagine it possible, that the one 
 thing that might not appear in the despatches 
 of such a Governor as we have, might be this 
 very personal enmity and hatred shown to 
 himself. Of course, they feel that after plot- 
 ting in the greatest security for years, believing 
 him to be among their dupes, he suddenly 
 turned a searchlight on their doings without 
 caution or warning. Loyal Dutchmen in Cape 
 Town can't praise him enough, and well-to-do 
 Malays and other people of colour are delighted 
 at the overthrow of the anti- British conspiracy, 
 the success of which would have meant bond- 
 age for them. You see I have no startling 
 facts to relate. I merely wish to give promi- 
 nence to a powerful backstairs-influence for 
 evil, which is being worked to the utmost. 
 There is a great deal going on below the sur- 
 face that the public do not hear of, but which 
 must not be lost sight of. A Rand American, 
 lately returned from a visit to the United 
 States, tells me that while the English were 
 splitting hairs about the franchise question, 
 
 before the war, his friends saw that the over- 
 
 E
 
 34 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 throw of British supremacy was intended, 
 directly they heard the lectures of - - and 
 
 over there, and they wondered that 
 
 the English had not their eyes opened. I 
 am, etc., etc. 
 
 CAPE COLONY, 
 $th June 1901. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, By this post I 
 enclose eleven sheets headed " Boer and pro- 
 Boer." From the home papers it always 
 appears to me, that no distinction is recog- 
 nised by the public, between the great Boer 
 population on the land, and the rascally group 
 in Cape Town, which for years has led them 
 like sheep; now like "sheep to the slaughter." 
 It is the same old cloven hoof, a thorn in the 
 side of every Governor, and of every subject 
 loyal to the Crown. 
 
 There is much disappointment and dis- 
 content in the country as to the delay. This 
 one might expect. In addition to the general 
 question, people are troubling themselves about 
 the possible Chinese immigration to Rhodesia. 
 Another murmur is owing to a report that
 
 BOER AND PRO-BOER 35 
 
 has got about, as to a compound system in 
 Johannesburg, and a monopoly of native labour 
 agency to be granted by the new government 
 of the Transvaal. I know nothing of the 
 scope of the undertaking, and local papers, 
 after a brief reference to it, have been silent, 
 strange to say. I do hope we have not 
 another burning question in store for us, or 
 that, if it nmst come, it will be after a clean 
 finish has been made of the war. The Afri- 
 cander would rejoice in any differences among 
 the Uitlander population. On the remotest 
 off-chance of any, even small, differences with 
 the Continent, nothing could be more deplor- 
 able than any anti-capitalist cry being raised. 
 It was always a favourite weapon of Kruger- 
 ism. I hope there may be nothing in this 
 rumour. I remain, yours truly. 
 
 BOER AND PRO-BOER 
 (Enclosure in previous Letter.} 
 
 Seeing by the English press, that recent 
 visitors to St Helena have been surprised 
 at the ignorance shown by Boer prisoners 
 of war, on the South African question, the 
 following notes may be of use ; coming, as
 
 36 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 they do, from one on the spot, who has for 
 many years watched the course of events, 
 and who believes that the self -constituted 
 "pro- Boer" of press and platform notoriety, 
 has all along been the greatest enemy of the 
 misguided and cruelly deceived Boer race. 
 Thirty years ago the British and Boers 
 were friendly, and what little sparring occurred, 
 was nothing more than often takes place good- 
 humouredly between English and Scotch, 
 Welsh and Irish. The previous ten years 
 had nearly seen the last of the few white- 
 haired veterans, who assured you that, " South 
 Africa had been ruined by the emancipation 
 of the slaves, for which England could never 
 be quite forgiven." But the generation then 
 in its prime troubled little about the matter, 
 and had no grievances. While these happy 
 relations existed among the population gener- 
 ally, there was a limited Dutch circle in Cape 
 Town which cherished an hereditary jealousy 
 of British rule, sometimes verging on hatred ; 
 and associated with this party were a few 
 renegade English politicians. But their 
 opinions were not obtrusively put forward, 
 while the Cape retained its old form of 
 government. All was changed, however, on
 
 THE AFRICANDER BOND 37 
 
 the advent of responsible government, from 
 which time forward the Dutch party devoted 
 itself to opposing the " Imperial factor," and 
 to the weakening of British influence in every 
 direction. 
 
 Later on the " Africander Bond " was 
 started, with a programme suggestive of the 
 worthiest aims, such as the advance of agri- 
 culture and the bettering of the farmer all 
 round. This specious exterior, however, was 
 merely the cloak for a revolutionary propa- 
 ganda, and the easy-going Boer farmer, whose 
 indifference to politics had amounted almost to 
 apathy, learnt to enjoy the stimulant afforded 
 by farmers' meetings, held with closed doors 
 at the house of the field-cornet of his district. 
 It must not be supposed that the promoters 
 of the Bond were actuated by sentimental 
 politics alone. There were also substantial 
 monetary interests which guided their policy. 
 The districts round Cape Town, owing to the 
 nature of their soil and climate, had always 
 been the home of the brandy distiller, who 
 has up to the present day (with one or two 
 years excepted), successfully resisted every 
 attempt to place a small excise tax on his 
 spirits ; although for nine years out of ten his
 
 38 
 
 brandy has been retailed at a shilling a bottle, 
 while a heavy import duty was imposed on 
 foreign spirits. Brandy is the pivot round 
 which Cape politics revolved for many years, 
 and even the whisper of an Excise Act would 
 affect all other legislation in Parliament ; and, 
 the distillers being nearly all Dutch, a political 
 nucleus was thus in existence, which naturally 
 attracted to it a majority of the Dutch of 
 the Western Province. The founders of the 
 Bond, recognised in the brandy interest a 
 valuable auxiliary, and, last but not least, the 
 majority of the ministers of the Dutch Reformed 
 Church, not only made common cause with 
 the other two, but threw their whole weight 
 into the scale of the anti-British element in 
 South Africa. The composition of this 
 remarkable trio is probably without a parallel 
 in history. Thus a very solid and compact 
 party was formed, which at first was more 
 territorial than racial in its origin. It was 
 the work of the Bond to add to the defensive 
 armour of monopoly, the aggressive weapon of 
 racial antipathy. It is much to be regretted 
 that the Dutch press and pulpit have, in so 
 many instances, taken an active part in this 
 evil work throughout South Africa, forgetting
 
 BOND METHODS 39 
 
 the ominous warning : " Woe unto those that 
 call evil good and good evil, that put darkness 
 for light and light for darkness, that put 
 bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." 
 
 [I must not omit one malign villainous 
 weapon used to fan the flame of hatred against 
 the British. I refer to the " Slagters Nek" 
 incident. Years after this merciless execution 
 had been carried out, by Dutch officials 
 according to the sentence of a Dutch judge, 
 the impudent fiction was started, representing 
 it to be the work of Englishmen prompted 
 by racial animosity.] 
 
 This compact party now felt the want of 
 a name, and discovered that they were 
 Africanders, a clumsy word which was no 
 longer, as hitherto, to be the distinctive name 
 of the half-caste descendants of the Dutch, 
 and of the old slave population. 
 
 The Bond and the Africander party in the 
 colony, were on good terms with the Kruger- 
 Hollander politicians of Pretoria, and the 
 Hollander-German officials of Bloemfontein. 
 
 It may be asked here, " But where did 
 the bona-fide Boer come in ? " 
 
 The Boers, as a people, had no say in the 
 matter, and, in the earlier stage of the move-
 
 40 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 ment, not one in five hundred had any idea 
 of the inner counsels and intrigues. They 
 were regarded by the Africander agitator, 
 merely as so much food for powder in the 
 coming struggle. Those who wonder that 
 a treasonable association could obtain such 
 widespread influence, should consider what 
 might have been accomplished by Nihilists 
 and Anarchists in Europe, had they, like the 
 Bond, been backed by a neighbouring state 
 controlling millions of money, and by press 
 and pulpit. Our enemies, after years of 
 waiting, saw their chance when an arsenal 
 and a treasury was provided in Pretoria, out 
 of the enormous taxation extorted by P. 
 Kruger from the Uitlander. Writers and 
 speakers, now posing as pro- Boers in England, 
 are championing a group of mischievous 
 intriguers, very few of whom have risen above 
 mediocrity, while those few owe their status 
 to a certain quality recognised by themselves 
 as Africander slimness, which is simply an 
 indigenous variety of cunning, well known 
 on the spot, but as difficult to describe as 
 the difference between English and American 
 wit. It has produced many intriguers, but 
 not one statesman. The cry of " Africa for
 
 KRUGER AND THE UlTLANDERS 41 
 
 the Africander," meant nothing but, "keep- 
 ing a close preserve for a coterie of profes- 
 sional politicians." 
 
 Whilst speaking of statesmen, it may be 
 remarked that Paul Kruger's ability at 
 striking a bargain, and jockeying the other 
 side, was not more remarkable than his want 
 of foresight. During the first year or two of 
 the gold industry, the large colonial population 
 that arrived on the Rand, while not wanting 
 in respect for the mother country, had nothing 
 but anathemas for Downing Street. They 
 fraternised with the Boers, and regarded 
 with favour the Republic and its President. 
 Many wondered what this would tend to. 
 It was only the persistent and gratuitous 
 expressions of hostility to newcomers that 
 checked these sentiments, which had proved 
 catching even among new arrivals from the 
 old country. Had these friendly feelings 
 been fostered, at a period during which the 
 memories of 1881 were still sore points, 
 South African history might have shaped 
 itself very differently. It is not worth while 
 speculating in that direction. It is sufficient 
 <-o say, that no apprehension as to the 
 
 possible swamping effect of future immigra- 
 
 F
 
 42 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 tion, would have induced a man worth the 
 name of "statesman," to make enemies of a 
 whole population, on a large portion of which 
 the ties of a previous citizenship were not very 
 binding. Even with our present knowledge 
 of Kruger's secret designs against England, 
 his churlish attitude can only be regarded 
 as that of a clumsy Goth, attempting the 
 role of a Machiavelli. In 1887-1888 Kruger 
 had the ball at his feet and never saw it. 
 His one idea was brute force, tempered by 
 Kaffir cunning. A ludicrous blending of the 
 two qualities could be detected in speeches 
 made to the Uitlanders, when he presumably 
 wished to appear at his best. 
 
 The Africander detested the word "immi- 
 gration," and he regarded the newcomer from 
 France, Italy, or Germany, as only a little less 
 undesirable than one from the British Islands. 
 " Krugerism," " Bondism," and "Africander- 
 ism " are transposable terms, for an element 
 which has always opposed reforms, and has 
 hindered the advance of South Africa. 
 
 It is this influence which has stood in the 
 path of every governor, who has troubled to 
 have any policy of his own. It is this which 
 thwarted at every step, and finally overthrew,
 
 AFRICANDERISM 43 
 
 the work of Governor Sir Bartle Frere, to the 
 intense chagrin and disgust of all loyal British 
 subjects in South Africa, and in spite of their 
 earnest remonstrances. It is this influence 
 which emboldens the lawless bands now 
 pillaging farms, and looting village shops, in 
 the Colony. Much of the mischief arises 
 from the uncertainty of British policy in the 
 past. Even after the relief of Mafeking, most 
 Bondsmen thought "it did not matter"; and 
 that the Boers would hold out for a good 
 while, and that directly taxation was talked of, 
 the " stupid, ignorant British workman " would 
 begin to howl ; then the " Liberals " would 
 turn out the "Jingoes," and give back the 
 Transvaal as before. 
 
 The above delightfully simple process has 
 been an article of the Africander's faith, on 
 which he is only now becoming sceptical. 
 
 The sad thing is that the prime movers in 
 all this trouble are snug in their offices in 
 town, just out of reach of the law, hearing 
 their praises shouted by hysterical faddists 
 on pro- Boer platforms at home while 
 "Tommy Atkins" and the poor Boer are 
 suffering the hardships of a campaign. Much 
 as we must pity the Boer, he is simply paying
 
 44 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 the inevitable penalty of ignorance ; and of 
 ignorance fostered by those, who should have 
 been his teachers and safe guides. 
 
 une 1901. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, I enclose a few 
 more notes on the race question, in case any 
 of them may interest those who did not (like 
 me) know South Africa many years ago. 
 Yours sincerely. 
 
 THE RACE QUESTION 
 
 CAPE TOWN, 
 iqth June 1901. 
 
 There is one most important chapter in Cape 
 history, which has not received the attention 
 it deserves ; namely, the great effort made by 
 the people of the Eastern districts of Cape 
 Colony to obtain separation from the Western 
 districts, which continued with more or less 
 activity over a period of fifteen or twenty 
 years. The failure of this effort caused more 
 universally bitter disappointment in the East
 
 THE RACE QUESTION 45 
 
 than any other political event in our history, 
 with the one exception of having responsible 
 government forced on the country by the 
 irresistible influence acquired by the then 
 purely territorial party in the West. This, 
 as a matter of fact, meant the local politicians 
 at the capital, which, (in the absence of rail- 
 ways, and with the slow passenger and postal 
 communication between Cape Town and the 
 Eastern districts,) had practically half dis- 
 enfranchised the latter, and had given Cape 
 Town the same dominant position in the Cape 
 Colony, as (to compare small things with 
 great) Paris holds in France, with such dis- 
 astrous results. 
 
 Beside the disadvantages under which the 
 East laboured through distance from the capital, 
 and through its fixed and permanent minority 
 of members in the House of Assembly, there 
 was another evil not less serious. The man 
 elected by a frontier constituency, found life at 
 the capital more enjoyable than it was in the 
 up-country "dorp," and some few would settle 
 down there, and many became more or less 
 absorbed by, or incorporated with, their new 
 surroundings. Hence the remarkable and 
 not unfrequent spectacle, of a representative
 
 46 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 of an Eastern constituency opposing the very 
 measures he was sent to advocate, or else 
 playing such a neutral part that he might just 
 as well never have left his "dorp." 
 
 In all the long list of South African para- 
 doxes, not one is more incomprehensible than 
 the ignoring for half-a-century, by the Home 
 Government, of the rights of the British section 
 of the Cape population. This ignoring is 
 really only a chronic form of the same 
 disease, the acute form of which, in the case 
 of the Uitlander, helped to bring about this 
 war. 
 
 Among old colonists, it has for many years 
 been an axiom that in South Africa a man 
 of any nationality stands a better chance of 
 getting a hearing than a Britisher. 
 
 The late Mr Saul Solomon, who was not 
 only a very clever, but also an honest poli- 
 tician, was at the period referred to the most 
 powerful advocate of the Western party. He 
 considered the Colony to be too small for 
 division into two, and had grown up to 
 believe that Cape Town had earned a sort 
 of prescriptive right as the only seat of 
 Government, and he regarded Eastern district 
 towns as mere trading centres. At the end
 
 THE BRANDY INTEREST 47 
 
 of a long conversation I had with him, he 
 remarked, with evident satisfaction, that in 
 a year or two more, what with the public 
 debt and other matters which I forget, things 
 would be so inextricably mixed up that separa- 
 tion would be impossible. He was an 
 optimist as to the future of the united Cape 
 Colony under responsible government. All 
 his most cherished hopes and forecasts were 
 falsified to an extent past the expectations 
 and fears of his bitterest opponents. It was 
 non-separation, plus responsible government, 
 which alone brought the present state of 
 things within the range of possibility. A 
 glance at any old newspaper will show that 
 race questions were non-existent. The com- 
 plaint of the East was, that a territorial party 
 in the West had usurped all political power ; 
 the territory referred to being the very small 
 one in which brandy was produced. Brandy 
 at a shilling a bottle had long been the 
 curse of the Eastern province, which was, 
 as it still is, the home of tens of thousands 
 of uncivilised Kaffirs. Men dependent on 
 native labour often found themselves for days 
 together, in the middle of harvesting or at 
 shearing time, alone on their farms, while
 
 48 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 their Kaffirs were lying drunk in the bush 
 near some roadside canteen. The efforts of 
 philanthropist and missionary have all been 
 to a great extent neutralised by this same 
 curse. It hardly need be said that while 
 Kaffirs are the greatest sufferers, not a few 
 of the white population have fallen victims 
 to the temptation offered by brandy being 
 the "cheap national drink," as I have often 
 heard it described. The population of the 
 East would, almost to a man, vote for an 
 excise tax on brandy, but all effort is use- 
 less against the brandy interest in the Cape 
 Parliament. 
 
 The distillers are numerically an insignifi- 
 cant body, but they overshadow a great 
 many poorer neighbours, and were for many 
 years a most influential nucleus of party. 
 
 A ministry has only to suggest a small 
 excise tax, and it finds its adherents falling 
 away in all directions. The Africander Bond, 
 in its early stages and without the powerful 
 alliance of this interest, would have been 
 about as meaningless as the play of Hamlet 
 with Hamlet's part left out. Again, the 
 very small portion of the Dutch residents 
 at the Cape who nursed an hereditary hatred
 
 RISE OF THE RACE QUESTION 49 
 
 of England, scarcely made themselves felt 
 till Africander leaders saw the chances offered 
 by Responsible Government, for drawing 
 recruits from this quarter into their great 
 Cave of Adullam. 
 
 It is difficult to explain to strangers the 
 intimate connection of these forces, and how 
 naturally causes, apparently small, produced 
 great effects, under the trustful, all-confiding 
 rule of Britain, and by the aid of a press and 
 pulpit, to a great extent at the service of 
 the party. 
 
 It cannot be too strongly brought to the 
 notice of those who only know the South 
 Africa of to-day, that thirty or forty years 
 ago no one dreamed of any racial question, 
 which is a weapon carefully and laboriously 
 constructed, by the then utterly insignificant 
 anti- British party, the secret underground 
 working of which the great majority of con- 
 tented loyal colonists for many years refused 
 to believe in, until the mask was fairly 
 thrown off. 
 
 Then men learned, to their astonishment, 
 what a disloyal propaganda was abroad, and 
 how their sons, whether on the cricket-field 
 or in the office or shop, were approached by its
 
 50 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 supporters with, " You are a born Africander, 
 of course you are with us." 
 
 These things, so familiar to us on the 
 spot, may not be generally known in the old 
 country. 
 
 QUESTION OF THE SUSPENSION 
 " OF THE CAPE CONSTITUTION 
 
 1901. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, I sincerely hope 
 that I may not be the only correspondent 
 writing to you on this important subject. It 
 is just the one of all others, on which loyal 
 colonial opinion may not be quite fairly 
 represented. 
 
 It happens (perhaps inevitably) that at the 
 seat of Government, great influence is exerted 
 by official circles, directly such a subject comes 
 to the fore as " Suspension of the Constitu- 
 tion." Both captain and crew* hope against 
 hope that they can again take charge of the 
 ship, and steer her into some port or other ; 
 as no doubt they can, but it is just the 
 
 ' This refers, of course, solely to the ministry, not to 
 the High Commissioner or Governor. B. C. F.
 
 SUSPENSION OF THE CONSTITUTION 51 
 
 question of what port that troubles the minds 
 of nine out of ten non-official loyalists. Govern- 
 ment by climbing-down-half-way (made long 
 familiar to us here), may be tolerated in financial 
 and parochial matters, but against a seditious 
 and revolutionary caucus, it is weak, con- 
 temptible folly to entertain for a moment its 
 continuance. 
 
 A great many men who desire the suspen- 
 sion, are (when pressed by opponents) amen- 
 able to the argument of " but let us give the 
 Government a trial before acting." 
 
 But then half our present troubles are the 
 result of locking the stable door after, instead 
 of before, the horse was stolen, owing to the 
 pressure brought to bear by British patience 
 and constitutionalism-run-mad. 
 
 Never was there a greater delusion than 
 the idea, that in Cape Colony the Bond and 
 local rebel element are now more open to 
 reason than before, or that they will accept 
 the argument of facts. They are more bitter 
 than the Boers in the conquered states this day. 
 
 The public has long been reckoning on 
 the purging effect on the electorate, through 
 the disenfranchisement passed on convicted 
 rebels. The other side are now openly boast-
 
 52 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 ing, that this loss of Bond votes will be twice 
 over compensated for, by bringing down Boers 
 who have lost their all in the war, and Boers 
 who never had anything to lose. 
 
 Those who think this threat (as some do) 
 more theoretical than practical, forget the 
 Kruger money which most probably is still 
 available, as before, for intrigue and seditious 
 purposes in Cape Colony. The Bond pro- 
 gramme is simply, to regain possession of 
 its arsenal and treasury by reinstating the 
 Transvaal Republic, and to achieve that in 
 turn, by making Government in Cape Town 
 impossible, and by making Lord Milner's 
 position impossible. The English people who 
 imagine the present struggle to be simply 
 one between British and Dutch, would be 
 amazed to know how heartily thankful a large 
 section of the Dutch would be to hear that 
 the Cape Constitution was suspended, and that 
 they could follow their ordinary pursuits again, 
 uninterrupted by incessant Bond agitation, 
 and threat of boycott. 
 
 Many well able to judge believe the war 
 would have been over before now, had this 
 step of suspending the Constitution been taken 
 earlier,
 
 THE WIRE-PULLERS OF THE BOND 53 
 
 One great misfortune is, that the men who 
 pull the wires from Cape Town and Graaf 
 Reinet, and one or two other centres of 
 sedition, do not as a rule suffer much from 
 the war, and they might be prepared for 
 desperate play when it comes to the final 
 throw. 
 
 It is no figure of speech, but quite accurate 
 wording, to say that many of these men would 
 hail general anarchy in South Africa, as likely 
 to weary the British taxpayer, and tend to 
 bring about that foreign intervention, the non- 
 appearance of which hitherto has proved, to 
 their understandings, as unaccountable and 
 perplexing as w r ould some sudden suspension 
 of the law of gravitation. 
 
 From Paul Kruger down to his meanest 
 agent in Cape Town, this has proved the 
 great unlooked-for factor in the position, over 
 which each one can only scratch his head 
 and stare, when asked why foreign armies 
 have not landed yet ? 
 
 The robber bands now looting English and 
 Dutch farms in Cape Colony with wonderful 
 impartiality, are stimulated still with this hope 
 by their backers, who also further goad them 
 on in their criminal course, by supplying
 
 54 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 extracts from disloyal speeches and articles 
 
 by renegades of the , , and 
 
 type (mentioning three prominent English pro- 
 Boers). Oh, that England could only realise 
 that the racial, as such, was only an incidental 
 element in the case, and that element only raised 
 to its present proportions by Kruger and his 
 Bond partisans and agents throughout South 
 Africa. 
 
 While giving all honour to the pluck of 
 a ministry, willing to attempt the carrying 
 on of parliamentary institutions, the great 
 majority of us know well, that half the members 
 who would sit in Parliament if now assembled, 
 would only endeavour to do, on a large scale, 
 what a few sedition mongers and renegades 
 effected on a smaller scale, at some of the 
 recent local meetings in Cape Colony. 
 
 To maintain the Constitution in force at 
 present, is simply courting disaster and 
 anarchy and prolongation of the war, and 
 increasing infinitely the heavy burden on 
 Lord Milner's shoulders. I am, yours sin- 
 cerely.
 
 EASTERN PROVINCE GRIEVANCES 55 
 
 CAPE TOWN, 
 i6th October 1901. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, - - The political 
 question of the day which shares with the 
 war the attention of the public, is that of the 
 Suspension of the Cape Constitution. As 
 might be expected, the strongest advocates 
 of the measure are not to be found at the 
 capital and seat of Government. I enclose, 
 as an exponent of the Suspensionist view, a 
 newspaper cutting I have just had sent to 
 me. It is an article from an Eastern news- 
 paper. Were people in England informed, 
 that the Eastern province is no mere geo- 
 graphical division of territory, but a very 
 important factor in Imperial interests, more 
 attention would be paid to the opinions of 
 its press and leading men. The colonisation 
 of the Eastern districts, may fairly be described 
 as the work of the British settlers who came 
 out from England in 1820, to the number of 
 5000 men, women, and children. But for 
 this accession of population, the Cape Colony 
 would have been to-day almost as Dutch as 
 Java. Had the heroic work of these sturdy 
 pioneers been performed by Cretan or Servian
 
 56 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 refugees, a halo of romance would have been 
 thrown around the story ; but as they were 
 merely everyday Englishmen, they (through 
 a certain perversity of our race) failed to 
 obtain the sympathy they might have expected, 
 from the mother country. Their often repeated 
 attempts at obtaining a fair share of Parlia- 
 mentary representation, were viewed with 
 apathy and indifference, as was also the effort 
 to secure a separate government for the East. 
 The final blow was dealt, when responsible 
 government was forced upon them against 
 their strongest protests and remonstrances, 
 and they found themselves subjected to a 
 territorial party which was always able to 
 outvote them, and they were practically with- 
 out a voice in politics. Like the Uitlanders 
 under the Kruger regime, they were expected 
 to "work out their own salvation" against 
 impossible odds. The way in which the Home 
 Government recklessly rejected, and ignored, 
 the voice of the British section of population, 
 of course threw political power almost entirely 
 into the hands of the race which, if not at 
 the time hostile, had little sympathy with 
 British interests. 
 
 As to (a prominent Cape politician)
 
 BENEFITS OF SEPARATION 57 
 
 not a word is said against his rectitude, nor 
 does any one dispute his being clean-handed, 
 but the most loyal public men here suffer in 
 time by always having to meet the seditions 
 half way. 
 
 Again, the representatives of Eastern con- 
 stituencies after settling in Cape Town, are 
 but too often absorbed, and fall into the adop- 
 tion of all the local shibboleths. 
 
 CAPE TOWN, 
 $th December 1901. 
 
 I have merely skimmed over the question 
 of separation of East and West halves of Cape 
 Colony, on which reams might be written of 
 substantial fact and sound reasoning, to show 
 that separation, if promptly and early carried 
 out, would remove a crushing burden from our 
 ruler's shoulders. 
 
 Directly this became an accomplished fact, 
 the compact Cape party would fall to pieces, 
 instead of remaining to thwart and hamper 
 the action of every high-minded patriotic 
 governor. 
 
 The rule of the much abused capitalists is 
 
 H
 
 58 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 healthy and moral, compared with the anti- 
 British slimy manoeuvrings of a local coterie, 
 attracting to itself all the forces that oppose 
 progress and immigration, and whose fiscal 
 programme is simply the protection of a long- 
 privileged class, occupying a limited area 
 round the Peninsular. 
 
 It quite passes comprehension, how the 
 present Anglophobe mania should have seized 
 the men who, for years, have held the balance 
 of power in a British colony. Some years ago 
 a German literary man remarked to me, that 
 the power of the Anglo-Saxon communities to 
 rule themselves was a matter of heredity, in 
 which other races were not their equals. 
 
 The appointment of Sir A. Milner was made 
 only just in time to save South Africa to the 
 Empire.* The wealthy traitors at Cape Town 
 had, of course, quite reckoned on the up-country 
 Boer completing the business for them, and 
 are much disgusted at having to risk life or 
 property at this stage of affairs. 
 
 Immigration. I see an English newspaper 
 
 * A well-known pro-Boer member of the Cape 
 Assembly once said to a friend of mine, in so many words, 
 " The fact is, Sir Alfred Milner came here just two years 
 too soon (!)" B.C. F.
 
 IMMIGRATION 59 
 
 is advising people not to delay coming to 
 South Africa till all is quiet, for fear of 
 foreigners stepping in before them. 
 
 Even should peace come shortly, nothing 
 could be more disastrous than a rush here, 
 whether of British or foreigners. Influential 
 Englishmen could render us no better service 
 than by making this understood at home and 
 on the Continent. For a man with money, 
 who wants to gamble, it may be very well, but 
 for the great bulk of the emigrating classes as 
 known to Australia and Canada, it would be 
 the height of folly to rush this country, till 
 Government shall have had time to allot land 
 for the purpose. As to office clerks and skilled 
 mechanics, a few hundred would flood the 
 market, as thousands of the old hands have 
 remained here fighting, or else living in poverty. 
 
 In case of failure to get employment at their 
 regular occupation, and having to fall back on 
 rough labour (as they might in many countries), 
 they come into competition here with black 
 and half-caste labour. The authorities will 
 have enough on their hands for a year or two, 
 without having to deal with thousands of dis- 
 appointed immigrants. How this can be put 
 in its true light before the Continental, as well
 
 60 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 as the British, press, I can form no idea, but 
 it is a question of very great importance 
 indeed. 
 
 A rush of immigrants (especially foreigners) 
 would prove to be a case of "out of the 
 frying-pan into the fire" for South Africa, the 
 economic results of which (however bad) would 
 be only second to the political considerations. 
 I am not speaking off-hand on this matter. I 
 am alarmed to hear from many different 
 quarters, how many are preparing for a rush, 
 and I find that others are concerned at similar 
 news reaching them. 
 
 Many people dismiss such matters with 
 great levity, saying, " Let them all come," " It 
 is good for trade, and circulates money." I 
 hold this to be a most miserable and dangerous 
 fallacy in the present case.* 
 
 ^rd November 1901. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, Regrettable as 
 is the long duration of the war to us all, we 
 
 * A letter in the Daily Mail of 5th December says there 
 are now 3000 unemployed in Durban, and hundreds of 
 thousands of such in South Africa. Lodging, with 
 board, costs 7 to 10 per month per person in 
 Durban, and everything is very expensive. B. C. F.
 
 CHANCES OF PEACE 61 
 
 on this side often pick up information which 
 tends to show, that the process of wearing 
 out the enemy is rapidly going on, and is 
 not the fiction that some pro- Boers would 
 have us think. 
 
 It is undoubtedly telling on the disloyal, 
 and the waverers in the West, as to whom 
 there has, at times, been considerable anxiety, 
 but who for the most part now see that the 
 "game is up." The rabid irreconcilables are 
 more rabid than ever, and are always trying 
 to believe that the next ten million of war 
 debt will prove the proverbial back-breaking 
 last ounce. This is industriously circulated 
 throughout all anti- British circles. The work 
 
 of , , and (mentioning 
 
 three prominent English pro- Boers) would be 
 beneath contempt, were they not co-partners 
 with the Continental Anglophobes, whose 
 combined influence has caused the deaths of 
 thousands, and added many millions to the 
 national debt of England. What miserable 
 degradation those men and their following 
 have brought themselves down to ! I can 
 understand the fascination and intoxication 
 of party fighting, but can no claim of 
 patriotism induce those men to stop short in
 
 62 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 a course, which is regarded with hatred 
 and scorn by loyal South Africans. The 
 rebels who welcome their work scarcely try 
 to disguise their contempt for the workers ; 
 whom they (in their shallow knowledge of 
 English parties) suppose to be the repre- 
 sentatives of the "dirty, lazy, drunken, 
 working classes of England," as described 
 in the first letter of "P. S." to the home 
 press. 
 
 A recent Times cable spoke of an idea 
 just started, as to contradicting, in some 
 official way, the wholesale slanders of our 
 troops appearing in the Continental press, 
 and prompted by Leyds. 
 
 Why was not this done long ago ? The 
 evil resulting is no mere sentimental one, but 
 a very positive one. 
 
 In spite of the "censor" under martial law, 
 these iniquitous slanders are all known and 
 gloated over here by our enemies, who will 
 not give up the hope of foreign intervention. 
 Unfortunately, these arch scoundrels on the 
 coast are as a rule doing very well, whether 
 attorneys, doctors, shopkeepers, or what not, 
 and they don't care how the wretches in the 
 fighting line get killed. They, in safety
 
 THE LESSONS OF MAJUBA 63 
 
 and comfort, egg on their dupes with pre- 
 posterous fictions as to coming aid. 
 
 It is difficult to describe, or, indeed, even 
 to find out, how far-reaching is this bogey 
 of intervention. Nothing but complete con- 
 quest will wipe out the lesson taught by 
 Gladstone's cave-in after Majuba. 
 
 Three days ago a Dutchman called on a 
 friend of mine. After the usual long hot 
 argument, my friend said : " You must know 
 that the game is up ; why don't you all work 
 for peace and get the commandos called in, 
 and settle down quietly." 
 
 He replied : " No, Mr . I am not 
 
 such a fool. How can we rely on the British 
 Government ? Did not a British officer tell us 
 once that as sure as the morrow's sun would 
 rise, so surely would England retain the 
 Transvaal ? Soon after, a few soldiers were 
 beaten in a skirmish, and your Government 
 handed back the Transvaal ! 
 
 " If I now worked for peace, and England 
 in the meantime listens to any terms but 
 unconditional surrender then, when peace 
 comes, I might as well go and hang myself 
 as stay in this country and submit to the 
 inevitable boycott."
 
 64 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 That the war did not end a year ago, 
 we have to thank that cowardly surrender 
 after Majuba. This widespread feeling alone 
 is a sad hindrance in our way ; at the same 
 time it indicates that from the day war closes, 
 a large proportion will be only too thankful 
 to settle down again, while much of the 
 threatened "eternal race-hatred" will vent 
 itself, in rage against the handful of rascals 
 who instigated the ignorant Boer of the veldt 
 to defy the British Government, and to 
 invade British territory. Do not think that 
 this is too optimistic a view. The races will 
 pull together well enough after the war. 
 
 The curse of the whole position is, that 
 an entire generation of Africanders has grown 
 up in the fixed belief, that England will cave-in 
 sooner or later to pressure. 
 
 They are much perplexed that the Liberals 
 have not yet got into office, and have not 
 given back the Transvaal ! Their ideas 
 of English parties are of the crudest 
 possible. 
 
 Separation of East and West. I send 
 
 report of 's (mentioning a prominent 
 
 politician) speech. On this first occasion of 
 the sort, he speaks against separation of East
 
 THE BRANDY INTEREST 65 
 
 and West. This is simply the old game of 
 meeting the Bond half-way to say nothing 
 of the disinclination of every man, when once 
 in office, to curtail the sphere of his power. 
 The home press, I suppose, have not the 
 faintest idea of all that is involved in the 
 separation question. Till that step is carried 
 out, the brandy distiller of the Cape district, 
 with his ally the Dutch parson, will hold a 
 casting vote on all Cape Colony politics, and 
 will still have the whip-hand and be a 
 trouble to every Governor and High Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 The artificial union of East and West is 
 an absurdity. Why should the sheep farmer 
 of the East be tied against his will to the 
 brandy distiller of the West, always to be 
 just out-voted by him ? With the result that 
 bread-stiiffs, (which the East cannot produce 
 in quantity), are heavily taxed, while the brandy 
 of the West goes/ree of excise, and its cheap- 
 ness, (some years is. per bottle), is the curse 
 of the whole Kaffir race the labour market 
 of the Eastern provinces. 
 
 The need of " separation" was recognised 
 sixty years ago, and the struggle of the East 
 to obtain it grew hotter and hotter, till
 
 66 LETTERS FROM AN U1TLANDER 
 
 Responsible Government was forced on them 
 against their will, finally placing all power in 
 the hands of the territorial Western party, 
 which then broke the power of the East by 
 creating jealousy between Port Elizabeth, 
 Grahamstown, and East London, by alternate 
 "sops" to harbours and other public works. 
 The Eastern province, if separate, would 
 have proved as British as Natal, with its 
 seat of Government in a town as English as 
 Melbourne. This would have changed the 
 whole face of South Africa. The two central 
 colonies, British, would have cut the ground 
 from under the anti- British districts, and 
 have divided them from the Dutch states. 
 This fact (though not its future importance) 
 was felt at the time. But then, English 
 ministers did not care a straw about the 
 Cape, and quietly looked on, while all power 
 was being centralised in the most anti- 
 British town of the Colony although the 
 capital. 
 
 The whole thing would sound like fiction, 
 were we not so familiar with the absurdities 
 which for a century have marked British 
 rule in South Africa. The time for half 
 measures has passed. We shall be just as
 
 MEETING THE BOND HALF-WAY 67 
 
 much abused for the half as the whole 
 measure. 
 
 For twenty years, Cape ministers have met 
 the Bond half-way, with the result of the 
 biggest war since Waterloo. Suspension of 
 the Constitution would have been an immense 
 blessing, till new men and fresh blood came 
 to the surface. 
 
 Pandering to Dutch prejudice would be a 
 huge piece of folly. A firm, vigorous policy 
 would now make more friends than enemies. 
 Friendly Dutch and waverers fear vacillation 
 much more than firmness, which would be 
 heartily welcomed. 
 
 I believe that one cause of the doubt so 
 widely entertained of England's firmness, is 
 the frequency of cables of speeches of leading 
 politicians at home, in which the statement 
 is made that: '''England is determined to see 
 the thing through." 
 
 The so frequent reiteration of what should 
 be a matter of course, is most undesirable. 
 A frequent comment is: "Yes before the 
 war, one heard for months, by cables, that 
 so-many troops were ready to sail at a day's 
 notice." I remain, yours sincerely.
 
 68 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 CAPE TOWN, 
 2nd January 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, The ignoring by 
 the Africanders of the great anti- British plot 
 is a piece of stupendous effrontery, I should 
 say, without a parallel. 
 
 I enclose newspaper cutting deprecating 
 withdrawal of Constitution. Very few away 
 from the capital hold this view, and most 
 loyalists here, I believe, regard its suspension 
 as desirable, as they also do the division 
 of Eastern and Western Provinces of Cape 
 Colony. A great number of neutrals have 
 come over to us, including such as are merely 
 sitting on the fence ; but there is a small party 
 as irreconcilable as ever, and as determined to 
 obstruct and give trouble in future. Strange 
 to say, these men have felt the war less than 
 any of their friends, some having done very 
 well and become rich by it. 
 
 I am very sorry to hear from those return- 
 ing from Transvaal, that the Continentals are 
 more rabid than ever. On the quiet, though, 
 for under martial law they have to be cautious. 
 The Continental element has been a disturbing
 
 CROWN COLONY OFFICIALS 69 
 
 one for years. Next to the Hollander and 
 Dutch Reformed Church parson, the German 
 doctor (often holding the Government appoint- 
 ment of District Surgeon) has been a centre 
 of disaffection in the Colony. 
 
 With all these combustible elements, what 
 folly to attempt Responsible Government in 
 Cape Colony, where perhaps half the popula- 
 tion is avowedly, at this moment, hoping that 
 every month's protraction of war may give 
 rise to foreign intervention, and give strength 
 to openly disloyal English political parties. 
 
 Crown Colony rule would be an unmixed 
 blessing, if only judicious appointments (if 
 any) were made from Downing Street. 
 
 This may seem too self-evident to need 
 mention. I have seen some English officials 
 and military men with wonderful tact and 
 power of adapting themselves to their sur- 
 roundings, while another is all red tape and 
 dignity, and gives a man from the veldt the 
 idea that he has dropped across a being from 
 another planet. This may seem a mere social 
 triviality, but it often proves to be much more, 
 
 though not many men would (like ) send 
 
 a patriarchal Boer farmer into his kitchen for 
 a feed, to the latter's immense disgust. Many,
 
 70 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 on coming in contact with colonists, who 
 perhaps are not overburdened with deference 
 to official position, adopt a certain wooden 
 stand-off style to start with, which just makes 
 their duties arduous, where they might have 
 been pleasant. 
 
 There is a difficult task before many officials 
 at a time like the present. Not mere talent 
 will do they must be considerate men towards 
 all patriotic, and above all partisan feeling, 
 and must not talk on the racecourse or cricket 
 field about " these Colonials " and " these 
 Africanders." 
 
 Many think that if party government must 
 continue, Rhodes is the only strong man here ; 
 and yet many, while admitting this, affect to 
 entertain some lurking fear of De Beers Com- 
 pany and the Chartered Company. I merely 
 quote an opinion which I don't myself see the 
 force of, and of which I doubt the sincerity. 
 I remain, yours truly.
 
 EVIDENCES OF BOER AIMS 71 
 
 (Letter from a friend to the writer of these 
 letter s> enclosed in the last.) 
 
 $th December 1901. 
 
 Dear Mr . . . There is no moral 
 
 doubt of the intention of the South African 
 Dutch to create a Republic from Cape Town 
 to the Zambesi ; but the Transvaal and the Free 
 State Governments were so "slim" that legal 
 proof is scanty. Their intention dated from 
 the Retrocession of 1880. The establishment 
 of the Africander Bond and its foundation 
 principles ; the confession of Mr Reitz (then 
 a judge in the late Orange Free State) to 
 
 Mr , that the unification of South Africa 
 
 under its own flag was the objective of the 
 Bond ; the published report of conferences 
 between the late Sir John Brand and Mr 
 Kruger on the subject of "closer union," 
 (where Mr Kruger bluntly refers to Great 
 Britain as "our enemy"); the attempt to 
 commandeer British subjects to fight the 
 Transvaal's battles in 1894; the construction 
 of the Delagoa Bay railway ; the matter of 
 closing of the Drifts at Vereeniging ; the
 
 72 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 clauses in the Netherland Railway Concession, 
 referring to the mutual relations of Govern- 
 ment and the Company " in the event of 
 war " ; all these, and many other actions as 
 well known to you as to me, prove the ineradi- 
 cable hatred of and contempt for our country, 
 which (joined with the open boasting indulged 
 in by the " young Africander " party in Pretoria 
 long before the Raid) pointed surely to war, in 
 the event of Great Britain resolving at least to 
 hold her own in South Africa. With regard 
 to pre-Raid preparations in the Cape Colony, 
 they must have been conducted with extra- 
 ordinary secrecy. 
 
 I am convinced, that if the Raid was not 
 encouraged by the admirable Secret Service 
 of the Pretoria Government, the plans and 
 intentions of Dr Jameson and his colleagues 
 were perfectly understood at Pretoria, and 
 that thus the Pretoria Government was an 
 accessory before the fact. This is no mere 
 conjecture. I knew of Dr Jameson's mobilisa- 
 tion plans at Pitsani long befor^ they were 
 generally known, and of the fact that Pretoria 
 "was keeping an eye on him." Mr Kruger's 
 parable of the tortoise and his head was the 
 expression of a literal truth, except that the
 
 KRUGER AWARE OF JAMESON'S PLANS? 73 
 
 "head" meant not only Johannesburg, but the 
 forces of the British South African Company 
 as well. 
 
 The communications between " Doctor Jim " 
 and the Reform Committee were known ; and 
 the widespread belief that Dr Jim's force came 
 in when they did, on account of his receipt of 
 a " bogus " telegram, is certainly more likely to 
 be true than untrue. The withdrawal of the 
 Government police from Johannesburg days 
 before the Raid, and the sudden and efficient 
 way in which the burghers were armed in 
 Pretoria in enormous numbers, prove Mr 
 Kruger's parable to have been no empty boast : 
 whilst his ludicrous attempt to get up another 
 " Conspiracy by British Officers at Johannes- 
 burg," during the negotiations on the Franchise 
 which followed the Bloemfontein Conference, 
 proves how well the " Conspiracy " of 1895-1896 
 paid him, not only financially, but in the moral 
 support and sympathy of the outside world, 
 and in the excuse it supplied him with for 
 arming to the teeth. 
 
 K
 
 74 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 CAPE TOWN, 
 I5//Z January 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, I send Cape Times 
 of I4th January 1902, with Lord Milner's 
 speech, in case English papers do not give it 
 in extenso. In analysing such speeches, the 
 home press does not always seize just the 
 points that tell most here. 
 
 In the present case there are two points in 
 which Lord M., with his happy knack, has 
 clothed truisms in new colours, and made many 
 men think on the subject. 
 
 i st. One is, that the pro- Boer has no interest 
 in any Boer unless he happens to be fighting 
 against the British, and counts for nought the 
 
 thousands of loyal Boers like , who for 
 
 years have been trying to oppose the anti- 
 British propaganda. 
 
 2nd. Another point brought out, on which 
 the average speaker or writer rarely comments, 
 is, that there is not now, and never has been, 
 an anti-Dutch party in South Africa. The 
 hostility has been solely on one side. This 
 simple, well-known truth has never been so 
 concisely put before. It is a pity that Lord
 
 NO ANTI-DUTCH PARTY IN SOUTH AFRICA 75 
 
 M. did not add that it was not a popular 
 movement, forced by the Boer people on their 
 rulers, but a propaganda sedulously and in- 
 cessantly cultivated by politicians, and instilled 
 into the rural population by officials and 
 certain Dutch parsons. 
 
 The second item is one of the highest 
 importance. It is fortunate it was not a 
 national movement, or race feeling would be 
 terrible, whereas everything tends to show 
 that the Boer of the veldt, when his eyes are 
 opened in captivity, is often more bitter against 
 the agitators who misled him, than against us. 
 
 I wish that and (mentioning 
 
 two prominent English pro- Boers) would realise 
 the contempt in which they are held by all loyal 
 colonists. The thousands of colonists who 
 only know England by report cannot under- 
 stand the position, and suppose either that there 
 is a "bee in the bonnet," or that Leyds' secret 
 fund accounts for it : two things equally wide 
 of the truth. What they cannot understand 
 is, how a man, for party purposes, can so 
 deceive himself and betray his country. 
 
 To recall Milner would be like cashiering 
 Wellington after Waterloo. 
 
 When the loyal Dutch and others feel safe
 
 76 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 in speaking out, without risk of boycott, some 
 startling facts must come out, and I imagine 
 that it will be made clear that the English 
 pro- Boer has added many millions to the 
 national debt, and has caused sad loss of life. 
 
 That such men as these two ENGLISH pro- 
 Boers have any following at all, causes a very 
 undesirable impression among all colonial-born 
 loyalists, who cannot rightly estimate the 
 smallness of their minority, when their sayings 
 constantly figure in cables. 
 
 Men ask, " How can we hang our rebels, 
 when traitors sit in the House of Commons ? " 
 
 The inconsistencies and factiousness of 
 English parties show up very unpleasantly. 
 
 An everyday question is " How is it that 
 Exeter Hall and its following in the House, 
 all abused the Dutch as 'nigger-drivers,' and 
 then, directly the Dutch become our enemies, 
 the charge is withdrawn and laid against 
 British colonists ? " 
 
 One cannot help seeing that there are 
 serious doubts growing in the minds of 
 colonists as to the genuineness of home politics. 
 The rabid Africander, of course, heartily 
 
 chuckles at 's * neurotic talk, and sup- 
 
 * An English politician. B. C. F.
 
 BOERS' MORAL SUPPORT FROM LONDON 77 
 
 poses that at the last minute of the eleventh 
 hour, England may again be bamboozled, and 
 commit some monstrous absurdity. Hence 
 the word goes forth from the headquarters to 
 the Boer in the field, to wreck and plunder to 
 the very last. 
 
 The Boers' moral support comes from 
 London as well as from Brussels* 
 
 In healthier days, when there was less 
 spurious sentiment and sham political morality, 
 the little-Englander leader would have been 
 tarred and feathered, a healthy demonstration 
 which would do good now, and which requires 
 no explanation to make it understood. I 
 remain, Dear Sir Bartle Frere, yours truly. 
 
 P.S. After closing my letter, I thought I 
 would add that I have always feared, that the 
 home press has never had presented to it the 
 fact, that the loyal Dutch form a very im- 
 portant section of our population. The corre- 
 spondent from home, a stranger to the country, 
 neither sees nor hears anything of them. 
 From the nature of the case they have to lie 
 low, and very low at present, till all is settled. 
 
 * Boer leaders have actually stated as much to English 
 officers. B. C. F.
 
 78 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 The anti- British Boer party never understood 
 freedom of speech or even of thought. If you 
 are suspected of differing from them, you must 
 be boycotted and slighted on every occasion. 
 I know Dutchmen in this town who were 
 prepared to clear out of the country of their 
 birth for good, had the Boers got the best of 
 it, or had we made another bungling settle- 
 ment ; and these men say they represent 
 thousands of their race. 
 
 The intelligent class know that the war 
 was not for independence, but to establish 
 Krugerism throughout South Africa, and to 
 restore in the twentieth century all the evils of 
 privilege and class legislation, which in the 
 sixteenth century Englishmen fought to over- 
 throw. Is there anything more comic in history 
 than to find men in England, whose forefathers 
 stood side by side with Pym and Hampden, 
 attempting in this century to perpetuate or to 
 restore all that was vilest in the system of the 
 Stuarts or the Bourbons ! 
 
 Loyalists of both races all see it in the same 
 light, and wonder that such fantastic cranks 
 should get any following at all, or have any 
 power in national affairs at home. V would 
 be a step in the right direction, if one of your
 
 THE LOYAL DUTCH 79 
 
 papers would call public attention to the fact, 
 that the pro- Boer is only the special pleader 
 for our enemies, while large and increasing 
 parties of loyal Dutch find him as great a 
 nuisance as we do. 
 
 The matter only needs to be clearly stated 
 for the public to realise the absurdity of the 
 pro- Boer position, which hitherto scarcely 
 seems to have been attacked from this point. 
 
 2$>th January 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, The more vigorous 
 tone adopted by politicians at home is doing 
 good ; I mean morally. Waverers begin to 
 think it will be safe to be loyal! this time. Of 
 course, a generation or two of Africanders have 
 grown up in the belief, that England never 
 quite knew what she meant to do, and that if 
 she did, she was bound to fly off at a tangent 
 as a result of local party fights at home, or be 
 bamboozled by spurious philanthropists and 
 humbugs of every description. The town 
 Africanders used to give deliciously graphic 
 accounts to admiring bucolic friends, of how 
 Liberals and "Jingos" would always pull 
 different ways, and enable the slim Africander
 
 80 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 to come out top. Their enormous armaments 
 hardly gave them more confidence than their 
 firm conviction that what Gladstone did after 
 Majuba would be repeated whenever they next 
 came to blows. 
 
 GUERILLA WARFARE 
 
 In one of the Reviews there is an article 
 in which the writer attributes the recrudes- 
 cence of German Anglophobia to their dis- 
 covery that the war which they thought was 
 ending is still in an active stage. Again, 
 we find some Englishmen still talk about 
 making terms with the enemy, and we hear 
 reference made to the necessity of treating 
 with "properly accredited" representatives of 
 the enemy. On the other hand, I cannot learn 
 (with my limited opportunities) whether or not 
 any papers take the stand that no accredited 
 Boer representatives exist, at any rate in the 
 field. And they do not. General Botha is 
 personally a decent man, one of their best 
 specimens, and among his commando are said 
 to be many fair samples of Boers. But a 
 scratch troop of farmers, many of whom are
 
 GUERILLA WARFARE 81 
 
 only in the field by compulsion, can't speak for 
 a people. Some of the other commandos, I 
 hear from those (some of them prisoners of war 
 on parole) who have come in contact with them, 
 are to a great extent made up of wasters and 
 blackguards of all nations who would have 
 no vote in time of peace. They enjoy the life 
 in the veldt and the plundering of farm-houses, 
 Dutch as well as English. The foreign 
 element is not a shade better than Greek 
 brigands, though raised to the rank of heroes 
 by seditious Africanders and their allies, the 
 little Englanders. 
 
 This disreputable rabble English pro- Boer 
 politicians and their friends are abetting, in 
 the slaughter of lonely outposts, the murder of 
 Kaffirs, and the plunder of farm-houses. Many 
 of the enemy, still in the field of their own free- 
 will, dorit want peace. They have nothing to 
 lose ; and to them peace would mean giving up 
 their horse and returning to day labourers' 
 work, or becoming the "mean white" or 
 hanger-on about a homestead, a specimen of 
 which you generally find with a farmer. This 
 nondescript gets his food and bed, and does 
 any odd work that turns up, and in the 
 
 intervals lounges about smoking. These men 
 
 L
 
 82 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 are now posing as liberators and free 
 lances. 
 
 Such, with the addition of the Continental 
 mercenaries, constitute a most objectionable 
 element ; and, should Government be so weak 
 as to make any terms with Botha (putting this 
 case by way of illustration), these roving com- 
 mandos would have to be wiped out all the 
 same by our troops just as the mounted 
 robbers in Algeria had to be by the French. 
 It is a police matter, though on a lamentably 
 large scale. The majority of the respectable 
 portion of the race are prisoners in our hands, 
 many of whom are now perfectly aware of how 
 they have been led astray and duped by their 
 leaders. With many fine qualities, they com- 
 bine a certain cunning, and disregard for the 
 obligations of an oath. But for certain defects 
 and failings, these would now be invaluable allies 
 in ending the war, and many thousands would 
 willingly join us. They are sick of the deten- 
 tion, and know well the objects of the thieving 
 rabble now so numerous in the field. Among 
 the Boers there is some of the fine raw 
 material of the old Batavian stock, and they 
 will yet live comfortably beside us, when the 
 Dutch parson and the German doctor of the
 
 BOER STOLIDITY 83 
 
 up-country dorp find, that fomenting and 
 cultivating sedition is not to be a paying game 
 any longer. 
 
 There are strange compensations in nature. 
 These stolid, bucolic folk, if they have not 
 the highest enjoyments of life, do not feel 
 its pains acutely. Kruger's system brought 
 many Boers in from living on their broad 
 acres, to menial life in town. But the come- 
 down did not seem to trouble them, if they 
 only got enough bread and meat and coffee. 
 I think I told you that a friend of mine saw 
 some Dutch women busy making money by 
 selling (I think) ginger beer, to the troops. 
 A Boer came along and said, " Well, Mrs 
 
 , and where is the old baas ? " The 
 
 reply was, in an unconcerned manner, " Well, 
 I don't know, but I expect if he is not shot 
 he is at St Helena." 
 
 Among the more regrettable conditions, thus 
 far, is the fact that the greatest sufferers have 
 been the Free Staters, the most enlightened 
 Boers of South Africa, and, generally speaking, 
 fairly friendly to the English. 
 
 The most rabidly anti- British set in South 
 Africa, who live in Cape Town and district, 
 have done well by the war. They have been
 
 84 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 getting double rentals and high prices for 
 produce. 
 
 As I have said before, the irreconcilables are 
 not our vanquished enemies, but must be looked 
 for among the smart Africander attorneys, 
 parsons, doctors, and more doubtful town 
 residents, who are, many of them, as much 
 bent on mischief as before the relief of Lady- 
 smith. As I said, the general crowd of neutral 
 and disloyal, are, as a rule, toning down con- 
 siderably, and many are now convinced that 
 the loyal side is the safe and prudent one. 
 The best informed cannot estimate the rela- 
 tive proportions. But the old virulent, 
 rancorous anti- British coterie is still extant, 
 and looks forward to making things hot by 
 parliamentary tactics, though their mouths 
 are closed under martial law, fortunately. 
 It is these men that we have to guard 
 against. It is they who to-day try to 
 foster discord and anarchy. Picture to 
 yourself a leader of the Dutch Reformed 
 Church saying that he was "loyal by com- 
 pulsion ! " 
 
 The one way to stamp out this century-old 
 nucleus of disaffection is to show its utter 
 futility by a steady course of action. And of
 
 THE IRRECONCILABLES 85 
 
 course judicious immigration at a proper date 
 is bound to swamp it. 
 
 In the prison camps we have an opportunity 
 that will never recur, of giving wholesome 
 instruction ; and I should have thought that 
 useful expressions of opinion might have been 
 obtained from representative prisoners of 
 war. 
 
 If at St Helena there is no classification, and 
 the Continental agitator associates through all 
 the idle day with the simple ignorant Boer, it 
 is a great misfortune. 
 
 The small amount of talk about the increas- 
 ing debt in England is wonderful. They 
 will, of course, be able to recoup themselves to 
 a very great extent more, I suppose, than the 
 average Englishman guesses. 
 
 I think I mentioned that men from the new 
 states have told me, that there was intense 
 bitterness against us on the part of many 
 Continental residents, though they have for 
 the present to repress themselves. I remain, 
 yours truly.
 
 86 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 $th February 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, I write chiefly to 
 enclose leading newspaper articles. 
 
 The writer of the articles, though speaking 
 strongly on separation of East and West halves 
 of Cape Colony, might have gone further. 
 There is no doubt that had separation been 
 carried through thirty years ago, it would 
 utterly have broken the power for ever of the 
 anti- British party, or, as we called it in old 
 days, the Cape Town party, which was not 
 then a racial one. Responsible Government 
 was grudgingly accepted by some in the East 
 of Cape Colony, on the grossly false representa- 
 tion that it was to be the prelude to separation ; 
 whereas, in truth, the very central idea and aim 
 of its supporters was to prevent the dreaded 
 separation, by a redistribution of electoral 
 districts, so arranged as to neutralise and 
 swamp the vote of the districts chiefly 
 British. This was at the bottom of the 
 whole business." 
 
 The active politicians of those days have for 
 the most part disappeared, and the crowd are 
 apathetic. Even now, late as it is, were
 
 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 87 
 
 separation effected, it would do more than 
 aught else to break the power of the 
 Bond. 
 
 In those days, Boer as well as British 
 farmers in the Eastern province, cursed the 
 Cape Town party as the ruin of their native 
 labour through untaxed brandy. 
 
 " Responsible Government," when it did 
 go through, was carried desperately. . . . 
 
 But South Africa was then a Cinderella to 
 the British people, which was deaf to all 
 warning, and whose eyes were closed to the 
 threatening signs which should have been 
 visible to any schoolboy. 
 
 We became heart-sick, and then got accus- 
 tomed to a state of things which we were 
 powerless to work against and (as 99 out 
 of 100 did in the Transvaal) men began to 
 argue: "We may magnify evils ahead, as the 
 British Government is no new hand at 
 diplomacy, and must know more than we do." 
 Lady Anne Barnard's letters show, that 
 much of the same foolery was going on even a 
 century ago. 
 
 I jot down a few salient points, but a man 
 whose time was his own might spend it all, in 
 showing up matters which the uninitiated
 
 88 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 would think were flights into the realms of 
 fancy. I am, yours truly. 
 
 12th February 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, Crown Colony rule 
 is merely one of several alternatives. But the 
 separation of East and West is very different. 
 
 By a separate East you create one addi- 
 tional loyal state in South Africa, and one 
 whose fiscal policy would at once be in favour 
 of a tax on Cape brandy, though several 
 generations tried in vain (except for a brief 
 interval) to get an Excise Act passed.* 
 
 All brandy is made within 100 miles of 
 Cape Town, and probably the bulk of it is 
 drunk by Kaffirs in the Eastern frontier. 
 It is like the Indian opium trade with 
 China in old days. 
 
 No one now arriving here can appreciate 
 how large a part the Cape brandy interest has 
 played in Colonial history to the injury of 
 both East and West. As long as it pays to 
 drench Eastern Province Kaffirs with cheap 
 brandy, we shall never turn out wine fit for 
 export. 
 
 * Such an Act was passed by Sir Gordon Sprigg's 
 first Ministry in 1878, and again by his Ministry of 1884.
 
 EASTERN PROVINCE VIEWS 89 
 
 Once dissolve the enforced partnership, 
 between the Western brandy distiller and the 
 Eastern sheep farmer, and each will make 
 more progress than ever before. 
 
 This is an amusing place to be a capital of 
 a country, for there is no other place, the 
 people of which know or care so little about 
 every other town in the country, while certainly 
 the balance of its influence is not, and never 
 has been, thrown into the British scale. Its 
 traditions are all the other way. With an 
 Eastern capital at Grahamstown or Queens- 
 town, you would have a new centre as 
 distinctly British as the old one is anti- 
 British. 
 
 Things may go through all right ; but then, 
 take the case of an always possible European 
 war occurring, we should then be thankful for 
 all the loyal elements we could count on. 
 
 The "anti-calumny meeting" was a great 
 success, as you will have seen. 
 
 Some prophesied that Rudyard Kipling 
 would be received with groans, after the 
 " flannelled fools " poem. But, amusing to tell, 
 the loudest demonstration of the evening was 
 the call on Rudyard Kipling for a speech ! 
 
 The chairman had to admit with reluctance 
 
 M
 
 90 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 that he was not present. The next greatest 
 enthusiasm was a similar call on Mr Rhodes, 
 with a similar result, both being absent. 
 
 I have not forgotten those queries. But 
 down here I am out of touch, and can't hear 
 the whereabouts or get answers from the men 
 I most look to. I remain, yours truly. 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE TRANSVAAL 
 AGAIN 
 
 7//& March 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, That refusal, a 
 few weeks back, on the part of the Home 
 Government, to have any negotiations with the 
 Hague has had a good effect here. It looked 
 (the Dutch offer) so promising and plausible 
 for a "thin end of the wedge," that many 
 English feared the bait would be caught 
 at. 
 
 Another matter for congratulation, is the 
 late dropping of the stereotyped phrase about 
 " determined to see the war through," of which 
 I spoke before. I noticed that Mr Chamber- 
 lain in his speech spoke of the independence of 
 the two republics, as a " thing of the past."
 
 "YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT MAY TURN UP" 91 
 
 The latter way of putting the matter sounds 
 quite another thing, and does not suggest 
 some necessity for asserting determination. I 
 remain, yours truly. 
 
 March 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, The course of the 
 guerilla war is necessarily very depressing to all. 
 
 Perhaps the most hopeful, as well as the most 
 exasperating, fact, is the smallness of the force 
 against which our great army is engaged ; and 
 of that small force probably half would be 
 heartily thankful to have done with the busi- 
 ness ; but Boers suspected of an intention to 
 surrender are severely dealt with, and lynx- 
 eyed spies are ready to give information to 
 their commandants of any word uttered on 
 the subject. 
 
 From men who have chatted with Boers on 
 their prospects and hopes, the cfne idea seems to 
 be, " You never know what may turn up" They 
 are still duped into believing that foreign 
 intervention is quite a possibility, while their 
 extraordinary notions of home political parties 
 are such, that argument is useless. It would 
 scarcely be flattering to the Liberals in general, 
 or to -- or - in particular, to learn
 
 92 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 that, not only at the Boer camp fires, but among 
 Africanders who should know better, they are 
 located on about the same plane as the Anglo- 
 phobic French and German writers. 
 
 It is a curious fact, that among the Boers 
 who know anything at all, I have never heard 
 of any of them praising the men who are now 
 slandering our soldiers. Some time back, in 
 Cape Town, a few young Englishmen and 
 Dutchmen were carrying on a half serious, half 
 jocular argument, in which the Dutch were 
 told that they had to import Leyds and other 
 men, and had never produced a Salisbury or a 
 Chamberlain ; and a Dutchman drily remarked, 
 
 " No, and we never produced a ' 
 
 (mentioning a prominent English pro- Boer 
 politician). All joined in the laugh which 
 followed, and the Dutchman was allowed to 
 have scored a point. 
 
 Though the numbers of the enemy are small, 
 the class of men is most unfortunate to deal 
 with. Though we see a few "slim" cunning 
 
 leaders like , and a few violent, and too 
 
 often ignorant, men undoubtedly possessing 
 personal bravery, yet under them many of the 
 rank and file are a mere Jack Cade rabble, who 
 have nothing to lose (and never had), and have
 
 SOCIAL STATUS OF THE GUERILLAS 93 
 
 learnt to enjoy the life of plunder and lying in 
 ambush, and who would have to take up 
 menial work on war ending. 
 
 They are useful material in the hands of 
 plotters, who stay on the coast at ease, and of 
 pro- Boers at home and on the Continent. But 
 they don't represent the respectable Boer or 
 any other people. And yet an attempt is 
 made to represent them as patriot peasants, 
 fighting for their native land, as did the Swiss. 
 Never was there a greater burlesque of a 
 romantic historical incident. 
 
 Men who enjoy the life of savages, and have 
 no respect for white flags, oaths, or anything else 
 that is sacred, and yet quote Mosaic books by 
 the yard, possess all the worst qualities of both 
 savage and civilised life, and are very hard to 
 fight or to make friends of. I remain, yours 
 sincerely. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 2$th April 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, At last (a week ago) 
 I got a letter from one of the two men I spoke 
 of. I believe him to be as genuine a man as 
 there is in the country. I know you will
 
 94 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 understand the "brutal candour." You may 
 say the letter contains little that is new but 
 I think he puts the matter so well, that I send 
 
 a copy. ... I hoped to hear from , but 
 
 he is too busy in the field. Though the writer 
 of enclosure does not say so, I quite expect that 
 when war is really over, any amount of infor- 
 mation will be obtainable from the Boers 
 themselves. I have long believed this. Even 
 the Boer youths knew a great deal that was 
 going on long before the war, but they kept 
 
 very "close." A and H met them as 
 
 competitors at athletic sports ; and though 
 they were somewhat imprudently Jingo, the 
 Boer youths were particularly friendly to 
 them, some of the poor fellows begging them 
 to go to their farms for refuge, before what 
 they believed would be our hopeless overthrow ! 
 What the writer of enclosure says is true, to 
 the letter, about the temper of old Uitlanders. 
 
 I think Providence decreed this war, perhaps 
 for the saving of the Empire, in some crisis 
 yet to come. 
 
 The stupid, unsuspecting confidence or 
 " greenness " of the home authorities, is a 
 source of disappointment and rage to 
 Britishers here. You will see before long
 
 THE VOICE OF THE COLONIES 95 
 
 that a great awakening will come to a certain 
 idiotic school of home politicians, of the com- 
 placent, self-satisfied order, from the action of 
 the Colonies. 
 
 The meeting of volunteers here, from all 
 the Colonies, has sown some good seed that will 
 yield a hundred-fold. These "young fellows" 
 will influence their seniors on returning. Ten 
 or twelve weeks ago down in the Cape, I heard 
 a most interesting informal discussion in a 
 soldiers' recreation room. Some one remarked, 
 that most little Englanders belonged to certain 
 religious denominations which he named. 
 After some hot disputing, one man remarked, 
 "We care nothing about the politics of this or 
 that creed, but it is high time that the Colonies 
 had a voice at home, and that their great 
 interest should no longer be at the mercy of 
 fighters over some petty local question in an 
 English county." This had the approval of 
 all, and you often hear similar opinions 
 expressed, among Colonial volunteers, intelli- 
 gent enough to have any opinions. It will be 
 a happy day for the old country when one of 
 her own statesmen takes the initiative in this 
 matter, without waiting for pressure from 
 without. Colonial representation at West-
 
 96 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 minster would stamp out that unique absurdity 
 of our race and of this century the little 
 Englander. That monstrosity has been at the 
 same time the mainstay and the laughing stock 
 of the "Africander" and the rebel. 
 
 SEPARATION OF EAST AND WEST OF CAPE 
 COLONY 
 
 I was sorry to hear what I did as to opinion 
 at home. Separation is our trump card in the 
 Cape Colony. It would for ever break the 
 power of the Cape Town Africander party, 
 which has been a thorn in the side to every 
 Governor for eighty years past. Nor is this 
 all. You would enfranchise the, at present, 
 always outvoted British minority in the East, 
 and raise up an almost ultra- British state. 
 This would have been carried out thirty years 
 ago, but for the profound apathy of the Home 
 Government in South African affairs, and we 
 should have reaped all the fruits we hope to 
 gain from this terrible war, without that war. 
 Happy-go-lucky men tell you, "It is all right 
 now." For all that, we can't afford to throw
 
 RECONSTRUCTION IN THE TRANSVAAL 97 
 
 away a shot. Lord Milner has lost his great 
 lieutenant, to whom loyalists of both races were 
 looking for a special work. Six years ago I 
 barely escaped insult for holding that Rhodes 
 was the one great South African, and it is 
 but small consolation to note the revulsion of 
 feeling, which, after our great loss, sets most 
 men wondering who is to take his place. None 
 of his subordinates seem to inspire the public 
 mind with any enthusiasm, but we must hope 
 that some one will rise above the dead level, 
 and convince the man in the street that there 
 are other objects with men in high place, 
 beside mere personal or party ends. 
 
 The orderly reconstruction in this state 
 seems to me wonderful, but the work to be 
 done is gigantic, and the state of things is 
 not "all butter and honey." I came up here 
 expecting to find rampant John Bullism, but, 
 to my surprise, I found a strange suspicious 
 attitude and misgiving among the rank and 
 file, and an idea that the rich man was going 
 to have it all his own way, to the disadvantage 
 of the smaller man. Many blamed Khaki and 
 Martial law as the bte noir. As far as I have 
 seen, martial law is exercised in a most 
 
 courteous, lenient manner. I thought the 
 
 N
 
 98 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 apprehensions were mere excitement, when 
 an incident, not military, but merely civil, 
 occurred, which created a very unpleasant 
 impression. ... I mention this to show how 
 many possible sources of unrest there are. 
 
 But South Africans, whether patriots or 
 traitors, are not hasty to move, and we must 
 hope peace will come, and then the people will 
 have a voice again. But Lord Milner's post is 
 no sinecure, although the great danger is past. 
 I take it he is too prudent a man to allow 
 heavy burdens to be placed on the general 
 public, before they have time to turn round 
 and recover themselves. The apprehension on 
 this score is by no means small. Any want of 
 leniency would have a most disastrous effect 
 financially and politically, and, with the average 
 man, the payment of a pound would be easier 
 when good times come round than the pay- 
 ment of half-a-crown to-day. I hope this is 
 realised at home, by the men who naturally are 
 looking to the Transvaal to share cost of war. 
 Nine men out of ten are now more or less 
 pushed for money, but when peace conditions 
 again return, that is, when the population and 
 the native mine labour gets back, the running 
 will be very rapid indeed, if no undue burden
 
 PUBLIC FEELING ON THE RAND 99 
 
 is put on the people in this period of con- 
 valescence after emaciation financial and 
 commercial, etc. 
 
 The wealthy few look on complacently, but 
 to the many it is a question of life or death. 
 There is always the fear that the best of 
 rulers, in the natural course of things, hear 
 the voice of the latter but little, and an opinion 
 coming from one of the former is always under 
 suspicion of self-interest. 
 
 The knowledge that such a man as Lord 
 Milner is at the helm, is a wonderful sedative 
 among men who, rightly or wrongly, fear 
 grievances and doubt the probity of others. 
 I should like to see the old buoyant spirit of 
 the Rand men return. 
 
 The healthiest symptom is, that even the 
 less hopeful class are all dead against accepting 
 anything but unconditional surrender, and, to 
 a man, oppose making terms for rebels ; of 
 which I suppose there is no fear. 
 
 Since leaving Cape Town, I have seen and 
 heard next to nothing of the Rebel element, 
 which here has to observe a discreet silence. 
 I am, yours.
 
 100 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 (Enclosure in preceding letter?) 
 
 i6th April 1902. 
 
 Dear Mr , I have to crave your 
 
 indulgence for my long delay in replying to 
 your letter. There is no excuse ; but perhaps 
 you will understand the feeling of one who has 
 borne a pretty heavy " Uitlander" burden for 
 the past five very strenuous years that, for a 
 space at least, the dead past may bury its 
 dead, whilst we, who have sacrificed so much, 
 take the opportunity of preparation for the 
 coming revival of business. 
 
 Nothing has ever satisfied me, as evidence of 
 the Boers having actually "engineered" the 
 Raid, though the presumption is very strong. 
 Kruger assuredly knew the Raid was being 
 hatched of that the strongest presumptive 
 evidence can, later on, be produced ; how far 
 the councils of the conspirators were known to 
 him has not been revealed, and only when we 
 know who was the "secret informer," can we 
 guess as to how great a part Kruger played 
 in spoiling the Raid. The forts were arranged 
 for before the Raid.
 
 UITLANDERS AND BRITISH POLITICIANS 101 
 
 [At the time the Great Treason was brewing, 
 there were scores of men with their fingers on 
 the pulse of underground Krugerism, and only 
 too keen to do splendid work for our cause ; a 
 little encouragement, and the knowledge that 
 the importance of their labours was recognised, 
 would have ensured the accumulation of most 
 vital facts. At this stage, and in the temper 
 prevalent among the most strenuously patriotic 
 of the old Uitlanders, it would be difficult to 
 induce one man to move an eyelash for the 
 sake of British politicians or for the Military, 
 unless there was substantial pay in the busi- 
 ness. Pray forgive the brutality of my can- 
 dour.] The common proverb, "The proof of 
 the pudding is in the eating," seems to me to 
 apply here with irresistible force ; the condi- 
 tion of Africanderdom just before and at the 
 outbreak of the war, and the resistance which a 
 "handful of poor farmers" has put up against 
 the might of Great Britain, is all the evidence 
 a sane man needs, to convince him of the 
 incessant and lengthy organisation that must 
 have been devoted, to the great conspiracy for 
 turning the British out of South Africa. 
 British politicians may go to the deuce for 
 all the trouble we will take on their account.
 
 102 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 If the good folks at home, who are so fond of 
 making for themselves a Fool's Paradise, and 
 who so resent its being demolished by the 
 inexorable logic of facts, will really waken to 
 the disagreeable truth, that it is the BRITISH 
 OUTSIDE BRITAIN who are making an Empire, 
 whilst the self-satisfied STAY-AT-HOMES delude 
 themselves they are ruling an Empire, they 
 will recognise that the men who have been for 
 years Empire-building, are the best fitted to 
 give advice about the ruling. I don't think it 
 likely the authorities will get much valuable 
 help in their inquiries, till we on the spot have 
 proof that our opinions are to be listened to in 
 regard to peace-terms and other details, that 
 are of painfully vital moment to us (who with 
 our children have to live cheek by jowl with 
 the Boers), and that are of merely vicarious 
 importance to the wiseacres of Westminster, 
 and the politicians whose "be-all and end-all" 
 are the winning of a vote or two in ignorant 
 constituencies. Yours very faithfully.
 
 TRADE AND POLITICS 103 
 
 BRITISH TRADE 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 2$th May 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, You may think I 
 am going into a new subject, but trade and 
 politics are now interlaced in every direction. 
 
 We all tremble when we think of the 
 terrible 6th January, when for hours the 
 fate of the Empire hung in the balance on 
 Wagon Hill. But the less tragic fact of the 
 decay of trade, or rather the decline of increase 
 as compared with other nations, does not rouse 
 Englishmen as it ought to. The Home Press 
 tries to explain these matters away, but to 
 every one outside England it is only too evident, 
 that the United States are walking past her, 
 just as for sixty years in last century England's 
 manufacturers walked past those of the 
 Continent. She has been worshipping the 
 fetish of Free-trade, which Americans and 
 Colonists all saw to be a played-out game 
 twenty years ago. Nor is that all. Her 
 manufacturers seem to be accepting defeat 
 and resting on past laurels, like a retiring
 
 104 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 member of an old firm, who says, "We will 
 give the young fellows a chance." With the 
 thousands of Colonists at home now, my letter 
 may seem superfluous, but among august 
 surroundings they may not speak so freely as 
 abroad. German competition is for the most 
 part "cheap and nasty," but the American is 
 too often cheap and superior. All right is fast 
 collapsing before Go a-head, although the older 
 motto served very well in 1851, when the half 
 occupied space applied for by the United 
 States at the Exhibition, contained little beyond 
 monster blocks of soap, timber trophies, and 
 Ojibaway curios. 
 
 Do you know that in the last ten years, 
 American agricultural implements have almost 
 completely ousted the English here? More 
 recently still, much of the large trade in 
 cooking utensils has gone the same road. 
 Many places still keep both, because there are 
 conservatives even in the choice of a saucepan, 
 but the majority will only have American ; 
 besides which, the English imports are 
 suggestive of the Spanish Armada, or Noah's 
 Ark. 
 
 For half a century English makers have 
 been insisting, that their axes will last out two
 
 OUR TRADE RIVALS 105 
 
 American but Colonists say, " We don't want 
 a mediaeval battle-axe, but the polished slippery 
 little implement of the Yankee make." The 
 produce of Sheffield and Birmingham, is fast 
 being ousted by that of the United States. 
 A large Cape house lately asked an English 
 manufacturer for a quotation for one hundred 
 bee-hives, of a pattern of which a drawing was 
 sent. The reply came that the pattern was 
 unknown but the price would be , which 
 was more than they would sell for to the Cape 
 Farmer ! 
 
 The order was then sent to the United 
 States, and was executed promptly and cheaply. 
 On arrival, the importer could not understand 
 the small compass of the package, but found 
 that the bee-hives all took to pieces and lay 
 flat, and could be put together in a few minutes 
 without nails or glue ; were exactly to order, 
 and far more natty than was suggested. An 
 American traveller will take an order for any- 
 thing, but an English one fears to send home 
 an order deviating in any trumpery detail from 
 patterns starting a century ago. During the 
 next few years, the Rand will order mining 
 machinery of a value of many millions, but of 
 late years mining machinery has nearly all
 
 106 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 come from America. How is it that 
 
 and other English makers can't compete in 
 stamping mills, with American makers ? But 
 these are everyday matters. The Rand 
 swarms with American engineers, who naturally 
 try to send orders to their countrymen. Again, 
 there is the boot and shoe trade, a large pro- 
 portion of which is now going to America and 
 to Austria. 
 
 British statesmen and people seem possessed 
 by a sublime altruism, making markets for 
 other countries by whom their own manu- 
 factures are boycotted. As Rhodes said, " The 
 fools don't see that Empire is fast slipping 
 from them." It is useless quoting the hundred 
 examples. The pictures in shop windows are 
 from Germany, and so are the razors. Half 
 the Atlases and Bibles sold here are sold by 
 American travelling agents. The percentage 
 of English manufacturers as compared with 
 foreign lessens yearly, and yet commercial 
 statistics explain it all away ! Colonists say 
 you can never tell a home Englishman 
 anything ! 
 
 Mark my words, if Englishmen do not 
 " wake up " soon, their merchants will receive 
 as great a shock as their soldiers did in
 
 "WAKE UP!" 107 
 
 the Boer campaign, and will then discover 
 that American and German manufacturers, 
 spent so much more on their " Intelligence 
 Department." 
 
 You know that scores of loyal men freely 
 express the opinion, that, in spite of the late 
 heroic action of the nation, the country is in 
 its decadence already ; and I strongly suspect 
 it will prove so, unless new and vigorous Colonial 
 blood is infused into the imperial councils. 
 
 The Empire has come to the "parting of the 
 ways," and there is no blinking the fact. You 
 hear the opinion among leading merchants, 
 shop-keepers, labourers, in the soldiers' recrea- 
 tion rooms, where all Colonial volunteers laugh 
 at the timid policy, which trembles to hear the 
 musty shibboleths of Bright and Cobden 
 questioned. 
 
 England must trust more to Greater Britain, 
 or else decline. There is no third course open. 
 
 Apart from Continental boycotts and 
 American shipping trusts, England is face 
 to face with a great danger, which she has to 
 tackle and cannot longer "let slide." I am, 
 yours truly.
 
 108 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 IN RE NATIVE QUESTION. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 i^th June 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, For two days, of 
 course, all political and other matters have 
 been lost sight of, in the absorbing anxiety as 
 to the King's illness, though the latest cable 
 expresses hopefulness. 
 
 As to South African affairs, while the crowd 
 are regarding Lord Milner's work as accom- 
 plished, few, I fear, on either side realise what 
 is involved in reorganising a country, say of 
 the size of Russia. 
 
 Not the least of the difficulties will probably 
 come from the uninformed, or dishonest, negro- 
 phile societies at home. 
 
 The native question is now but as "a little 
 cloud like a man's hand." Whether it rises up 
 and covers the whole land or not, depends on 
 the prompt adoption of some humane but firm 
 and rational policy towards the native, never 
 yet formulated, as far as I know. There is no 
 time to be lost. Will Downing Street deign 
 to notice the little cloud, or will it wait for the
 
 THE NATIVE QUESTION 109 
 
 first mutterings of the storm ? The difference 
 between "now" and "then" for legislation, 
 will prove just as great as the difference 
 between '95 and '99, for enforcing our claims 
 on the Transvaal. 
 
 Unlike many other subjects on which I have 
 written, I do not in this case pretend to know 
 what should be done, as it is a matter of 
 legislation quite outside my experience or 
 study. But there are plenty of civil servants 
 in the Cape and Natal, who could give 
 good advice if asked ; though they would not 
 volunteer it, for fear of a snubbing. I noticed 
 a paragraph in a paper the other day, to the 
 effect that - , M. L.A., had already been 
 snubbed from home (I think by a Cabinet 
 Minister), for some suggestions he made as to 
 native administration. Very few missionaries 
 would speak their minds or admit what they 
 know, simply because their lives would ever 
 after be dogged by maniacs at Exeter Hall. 
 
 However grand the work of Sharpe, Clarkson, 
 and Wilberforce undoubtedly was, the modern 
 negrophilist has for over half a century been 
 very often a curse to the native races. He 
 is responsible for the death or degradation, not 
 of tens, but of hundreds of thousands, through
 
 110 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 drunkenness. Every sane man in South 
 Africa, and every newcomer from home, 
 within a few weeks of his arrival, sees that to 
 place the black man on absolute equality with 
 the white man, confers on the former not 
 liberty but license. It is not a year ago that 
 I first heard a few men express the fear, that 
 this was to be the next burning question after 
 the war ; but the opinion is fast growing 
 throughout the country, that action cannot be 
 too prompt. I suppose any ministry would 
 dread dealing with a matter which would at 
 once rouse a hornet's nest about their ears, or, 
 in other words, all the pseudo-philanthropists, 
 ignorant cranks, and faddists. Perhaps, if 
 they leave Lord Milner to use his own judg- 
 ment, he Would carry it through quietly and 
 successfully. We want some medium course 
 between Dutch oppression and English liberty- 
 gone-mad. When I was last in England, some 
 twenty years ago, I was utterly disgusted at 
 the self-satisfied ignorance of politicians of a 
 certain school on native affairs and could see 
 that their virtuous negrophilism was simply a 
 platform cry among many other cries. The 
 close of the war and the cropping up of the 
 native question are not mere coincidences, but
 
 SOLDIERS AND NATIVES 111 
 
 to a great extent are in the relation of cause 
 and effect. During the war the native has 
 seen more than was desirable in many ways. 
 Even the good-nature of Tommy Atkins has 
 acted for evil. He saw in the Kaffir the 
 " Sambo " of the Music Halls, and fraternised 
 with him in a way that never is for the good 
 of either party. 
 
 An Exeter Hall magnate would be shocked 
 at this opinion, and would quote Scripture as 
 to our all being of one blood. But we must 
 never abdicate the status of the superior race 
 in dealing with the inferior one. The sight of 
 soldiers and blacks drinking out of the same 
 pewter and carousing together, utterly destroys 
 that moral power by which, after all, we keep 
 in order the teeming black population ; and 
 tends most distinctly to insubordination. 
 
 I suppose it is impossible for the untravelled 
 Englishman to grasp the situation, and to 
 realise the fact that this freedom is as 
 disastrous for black as for white. The above 
 is only one phase of the matter. The evil 
 results will prove less objectionable to us than 
 to our late enemies the Boers. The other day 
 a black servant said to a friend of mine, 
 without the least sense of impropriety : " The
 
 112 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 Boers always called me ' you Kaffir ' ; 
 
 now I call them ' you Boers ! ' ! 
 
 Another Kaffir, on hearing that peace was 
 signed, at once remarked to his employer : 
 " Now we Kaffirs are as good as you white 
 men." This maxim might be applauded at 
 Exeter Hall ; but there they don't understand 
 the spirit in which it is said. The new recruit 
 is "as good" as his colonel, and the child "as 
 good " as his father in one sense, but the 
 removal of subordination will result in chaos. 
 The following was a most amusing and highly 
 suggestive indication. The first Sunday after 
 peace was signed, a party of Kaffirs in brand 
 new slop clothes, instead of going to their own 
 church, went early and took up one of the 
 most prominent pews in St Mary's ! Again, 
 a huge timber platform was built, the whole 
 length of Market Square, at great cost, for the 
 public to view the decorations from. At 9 
 A.M., it is true that the procession of four 
 thousand or five thousand children occupied it, 
 but for the rest of the day it was held by 
 Kaffirs ! and no white man could get a footing. 
 Under Dutch rule not one Kaffir would have 
 dared step on it ! 
 
 These may be unimportant matters in them-
 
 OUR NATIVE POLICY 113 
 
 selves, but they are the premonitory symptoms 
 of very grave questions indeed. We have just 
 decided not to give up South Africa to the 
 Boers now we must decide whether we are to 
 give it up to the blacks, which is a more 
 important question still. How to hit the 
 happy medium will tax all the resources of 
 Lord Milner, able as he is. 
 
 Should the little- England and Irish rabble 
 manufacture political capital out of it, and the 
 ignorant bigots of Exeter Hall join in, we 
 may have a pretty mess. Thus far, Dutch 
 and English are coming together wonderfully, 
 but no more lamentable marplot could arise to 
 prevent the growing harmony, than a failure in 
 our native policy or, rather, than a more 
 pronounced failure than the past can show 
 for no doubt we have never scored a success. 
 There is no use in burking a fact patent to 
 every one, and one partly attributable to the 
 opposite extreme visible in Dutch native policy 
 (which is vile), for a century past. 
 
 Events have moved very rapidly lately. 
 Last month the question in all mouths was, 
 " How many months or years will the Boers 
 hold out ? " To-day you may bracket together 
 "South African Reorganisation" and "The
 
 114 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 Native Question." I don't think the papers 
 have begun to talk about it, but they soon will. 
 The general temper of the Boers surrendering 
 is most satisfactory, and in many cases even 
 chivalrous. An officer just in from witness- 
 ing the surrender of some commandos, told 
 me that the scene was deeply interesting. 
 He said the Boers were evidently greatly 
 surprised at the cordiality of their reception by 
 the soldiers, who at once offered them a share 
 of their rations and tobacco friendly to the 
 point of camaraderie. 
 
 One of my friends was at the theatre, and 
 
 who should come in but Commandant 
 
 with some Boers off commando. When their 
 eyes met, he held out his hand and said, 
 " Hulloa, Jack, I am glad to see you back. I 
 am glad it's all over. We have had quite 
 enough of it." 
 
 My friend replied, " Yes ; we have all had 
 quite enough of it," and they chatted in a 
 friendly manner, 
 
 My friend, being good at sports, is as well 
 known to Dutch as English sportsmen, and 
 was never discourteous to the Dutch, but 
 friendly. Those Boers all knew he had 
 been fighting against them. . . .
 
 RELATIONS WITH THE LATE ENEMY 115 
 
 Few optimists ventured to hope for such 
 good feeling and absence of vindictiveness, on 
 the part of our late enemy. It entirely rests 
 with us to maintain these happy relations. 
 
 If we, by our folly, let the Kaffir get out of 
 hand and insolent, and an idle loafer, it will 
 cause most unfavourable comparisons to be 
 drawn between English and Dutch rule. I 
 much regret to say that many of our own 
 people are already drawing such comparisons ! 
 Not on account of the platform and the church 
 incident mentioned above, but because of a 
 host of minor everyday household incidents, 
 indicating restlessness and impatience of the 
 control that the employer must exercise over 
 the employe, let his colour be what it may. 
 
 I can only hope Lord Milner's advisers bring 
 these things before him. Necessary as martial 
 law has been, I can better appreciate than ever 
 what a grand thing representation of the 
 people is. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 2'jthjune 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, I have just closed 
 a letter on native affairs, but must send the
 
 116 LETTERS FROM AN UlTLANDEll 
 
 following on the way the news of peace was 
 accepted. 
 
 The local Boers seemed pleased all round, 
 but the foreigners quite otherwise, though I 
 see the Continentals in Europe expressed 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Here Hollanders and other " Continentals " 
 did not care to enter on the subject, while 
 the Germans as a rule were positively sulky 
 and morose. And these very men have for 
 the most part been doing business here 
 through the war ! 
 
 Till the news was finally verified they affected 
 not to believe it, and evidently did not wish it 
 to be true. 
 
 The wife of one German, when the news 
 was told her, said bitterly, " Oh, no, you need 
 not think that. It will cost England many a 
 million yet to finish this war." She no doubt 
 expressed in words what the more reticent 
 men thought. 
 
 They did not attempt to disguise their 
 disappointment at the news of peace. This is 
 very disgusting, and though other nationalities 
 were less bitter, it was only a question of degree 
 with all of them. I sincerely hope that the 
 differential tariff question will get a fair hearing.
 
 BOERS AND CONTINENTALS ON PEACE 117 
 
 It is odious that these people, who enjoy more 
 freedom than they did in their own land, should 
 be so hostile ; and should certainly be noted 
 down. 
 
 I see crowds of Continentals are starting 
 for this. I sincerely hope that permits will be 
 refused, till all English wishing to come have 
 done so. There are endless reasons for keep- 
 ing out all anti- British classes. We already 
 have a turbulent population of discharged 
 fighting men of our own, to shake down into 
 their places and become contented, and don't 
 want foreign agitators to complicate the already 
 difficult problem. I will send Lord Milner's 
 speech at the German entertainment. I am, 
 yours truly. 
 
 SUSPENSION OF CAPE 
 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 Zthjuly 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, We have just 
 learned that the Home Government has 
 decided not to suspend the Cape Constitution,
 
 118 LETTERS FROM AN U1TLANDER 
 
 in spite of suspension being desired by 
 practically the whole of the loyal population. 
 We are accustomed to hear this country 
 described as the "land of paradoxes." But, 
 from the day when our barbarous ancestors 
 first held a council, and ceased to act as units, 
 was there anything to equal the sheer in- 
 credible " cussedness " of the present posi- 
 tion? 
 
 The parties are grouped as follows : 
 
 On the side of suspension, are the loyal 
 Dutch and English population of South 
 Africa. 
 
 Against suspension, are the British Govern- 
 ment, the Bond, the disloyal of all races, and 
 a great bulk of the resident Continentals ! * 
 
 The ink on the peace articles is hardly dry, 
 and the Africanders have already scored a 
 victory. This is no figure of speech. It is 
 regarded as a substantial Bond triumph ! 
 Putting out of the question what the conse- 
 quences will be, this phase of the matter is 
 very unfortunate in itself, i.e., the mere fact of 
 disregarding loyal opinion and meeting the 
 wishes of the anti- British section. 
 
 * Except such as see their interests would be best 
 served by suspension.
 
 DECISION AGAINST SUSPENSION 119 
 
 Had the question never been discussed, it 
 would have mattered less. 
 
 The moral influence is most unfortunate and 
 inopportune. 
 
 Under the circumstances, were suspension 
 even a doubtful policy it would have been well 
 to carry it out, however soon it were reversed. 
 
 Men here, who have been gloomy or sulky 
 on other matters, are distinctly in a rage about 
 this. 
 
 For some years before war, all the en- 
 couragement the Uitlanders got from home 
 was the imbecile, unmeaning cry, " You must 
 work out your own salvation," of course under 
 impossible circumstances. Men say the present 
 policy is simply a return to the old game. 
 
 I am not now speaking as a partisan, I am 
 telling you simply the opinions of others, which 
 I have taken some trouble to gather from old 
 Colonists, and all sorts and conditions of men. 
 
 It is true there is a small party (a mere 
 fraction) of loyalists who are against sus- 
 pension, but, as far as I am able to form an 
 opinion, I think they are actuated solely by 
 one consideration out of many. They are in 
 mortal dread, that, with suspension, the Home 
 Government under pressure of philanthropists,
 
 120 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 would play the fool with the native question, 
 and turn the country upside down. Till I 
 read the speeches of some sound Colonial 
 farmers, I could not understand their attitude. 
 This, of course, does not apply to the one or 
 two defaulting constituencies, under personal 
 
 influence of and his friends. These 
 
 cases need no comment, the exceptions proving 
 the rule. 
 
 Rhodes might perhaps have "worked the 
 oracle," but he has left no one behind him. 
 Cape Colonists are as sheep without a shepherd. 
 The plausible figure-heads that do very well 
 on a platform, are no match for intriguers 
 whose cunning and duplicity would have 
 passed muster in mediaeval Italy. 
 
 Some predict early trouble. I should be 
 inclined to doubt this. How any redistribution 
 bill that is anything but a sham can be 
 carried, passes my comprehension. Outside 
 this question, I should think the Africanders 
 will play a "forbearing" part, and gain golden 
 opinions from the unsuspecting, guileless 
 Englishmen at home. 
 
 They, the Africanders, are antipodal to the 
 French, and can play a waiting game to 
 perfection.
 
 REDISTRIBUTION OF SEATS 121 
 
 The insidious wearing-down action would be 
 a trump card, with the Little Englander and 
 the uninformed masses at home, and would 
 neutralise much that has been achieved by this 
 great war. 
 
 Any redistribution of seats that Sprigg 
 could carry, would be a farce. We should 
 have merely a distinction without a difference. 
 A sham redistribution bill means simply, con- 
 firming Cape Town in its leadership of the 
 anti-British propaganda throughout South 
 Africa. 
 
 Till I stayed in Cape Town, I had no idea 
 how completely that contribution to the Navy * 
 was adopted by the Bond. And the device 
 thoroughly answered the end in view. Not 
 only was it quoted at home as an indication of 
 friendly feeling, but it is quoted here to this 
 day, by men who ought to know better. Of 
 course the Bond are masters of the art of 
 throwing dust in the eyes of the British people, 
 and the British people appear to enjoy the 
 process. 
 
 Some are hopeful that the disfranchisement 
 of rebels will have good results, but I think 
 
 * Many of us at the time agreed with the words Dona 
 ferentes timeo. 
 
 Q
 
 122 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 that without redistribution, the calling of 
 Parliament is a very unwise step. The cousins 
 of the men who so completely overreached 
 and jockeyed us in turn, will do the same with 
 thousands of Colonists, whose advocates in 
 England will stir up a hornet's nest around 
 Mr Chamberlain's ears. I hope I may be 
 wrong but I should think this a very likely 
 plan of campaign. The Africanders will pose 
 as injured innocents in no time, and a re- 
 vulsion of feeling will set in at home, aided by 
 a deluge of political and religious claptrap from 
 liberal press and pulpit. 
 
 A short suspension and redistribution of 
 seats would avert all this. I think the calling 
 of Parliament is a piece of infatuation. It is 
 no exaggeration to define suspensionists as the 
 King's friends, and anti-suspensionists as his 
 enemies. The line is sharp and well-defined, 
 though, of course, it has only been in the heat 
 of the final controversy, that this has become 
 so glaringly apparent to us all. I remain, 
 yours truly. 
 
 PS. 'There is no disguising the fact, that 
 both Briton and anti-Briton see in the decision 
 of the Home Government the old policy of 
 FUNK AND LET SLIDE, just as the goal is
 
 MORAL EFFECTS OF NON-SUSPENSION 123 
 
 nearly reached, but not quite reached after 
 an outlay of ^200,000,000 ! 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 zftthjuly 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, I sent a few hurried 
 lines with cuttings on 26th, but as I can post 
 till midday, I send a few more. 
 
 The more non-suspension is considered, the 
 uglier it looks. I have sent so many press 
 articles on its demerits, that I will confine 
 myself now to the moral effects not pro- 
 spective, but present. As I said on the 26th, 
 every man in this country knows that the 
 Home Government would be only too thankful 
 to carry out a policy desired by the loyal 
 section of the population and yet that, once 
 more, loyal opinion is disregarded, and that our 
 enemies are to have their way in the matter. 
 This alone is most unfortunate ! There are 
 all sorts of guesses at the truth on both sides. 
 What is the prevailing guess at explanation ? 
 I am unable to say at present. 
 
 Some say a morbid desire to conciliate ; 
 others, that Home Government acts under
 
 124 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 threat of party obstruction, etc., etc. Every 
 one, however, sees the matter in a much graver 
 light than the English press appears to. A 
 friend of mine was discussing it with a 
 Hollander, whom I know and respect. He 
 remarked, "If you English don't mind what 
 you are about, Bismarck's prophecy will come 
 true, and South Africa will be \hegrave of the 
 British Empire." I don't remember the pro- 
 phecy myself. 
 
 In South Africa, when two courses are open 
 a bold and a weak one the bold one is (cceteris 
 paribus) always the safest by many degrees. 
 Nay, further a bold, rash course is safer than 
 a weak, more prudent one. Thackeray says 
 that what women most admire in men is 
 strength. Had he known this country he 
 would have included Dutchmen. The Kaffirs 
 are still more impressed with this quality. I 
 have heard it was quite as much Rhodes' strong 
 vigorous character as his sympathy with the 
 race, which, latterly, made him popular with so 
 many of the Dutch. We so sadly overlook 
 these moral influences in dealing with these 
 people. 
 
 I don't at all like the look of things here, 
 though I don't wish to be an alarmist. Every-
 
 ATTITUDE OF BOER WOMEN 125 
 
 thing seems out of gear. There is a great 
 undercurrent of discontent. A little, a very 
 little, commercial prosperity, involving work and 
 wages for the people would, no doubt, clear the 
 air to some extent ; but the prospect is all the 
 other way. 
 
 A few months normally good business, would 
 help Lord Milner more than a multitude of 
 councillors. 
 
 News from Dutch districts is not reassuring. 
 Men from the North and North-East districts 
 of Cape Colony say the Dutch generally adopt 
 a defiant attitude, and not at all what was 
 hoped. Only a few weeks ago, I described 
 circumstantially the fraternising of Britain and 
 Boer fresh from the field, and correctly. I 
 much regret to find that the women are far 
 more bitter than the men in fact, many of 
 them irreconcilable. 
 
 The great fear is that, whatever the man 
 thinks, he will sooner or later have to give in 
 to the woman, when she is assisted by the 
 parson. 
 
 The men would soon fall into line, but the 
 women and the parsons are not in a forgiving 
 mood at all. 
 
 For years British doings have suggested the
 
 126 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 bird hovering over "the snare of the fowler" 
 rather than the work of the "strong man 
 armed " and one dreads a return to the old 
 condition. I am, yours sincerely. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 4fth August 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, I have just been 
 told, that the Chamber of Mines has decided 
 to offer black labourers 655., instead of 305. 
 per month. If this is true it will bring in 
 labour, and immensely relieve the situation. 
 
 Suspension. I have posted duplicate news- 
 paper cuttings articles from the Leader on 
 refusal to suspend Cape Constitution. If 
 explanation is correct, it shows us how great 
 Imperial questions may be decided by rule 
 of thumb. Were the policy less inherently 
 bad than it actually is, the moral effect here 
 is unfortunate, and is outrageously provoking, 
 coming at the time it does. Till this letter 
 appeared, people supposed it to be the result 
 of fear, on the part of Mr Chamberlain, that 
 an outcry would be raised by Liberals about 
 "infringement on British liberty," etc., etc. It 
 now seems that worked the oracle with
 
 BOND OBSTRUCTION 127 
 
 help of a few premiers of other Colonies, who 
 know as much about this matter as the Lord 
 Mayor does. 
 
 As I said before, I don't anticipate open Bond 
 obstruction as an immediate result in the 
 house there lies the whole danger. They 
 are too crafty. They will shock nobody. 
 The unthinking British people will say, " How 
 the Bond has been maligned, they mean no 
 harm after all." They will quietly impede and 
 postpone all real reform, and in a year we shall 
 find the Cape in the statu quo ante bellum. 
 
 Separation of provinces would take the sting 
 out of this false step. Still the pitching away 
 of a prize so laboriously won is more than 
 mortifying. 
 
 Many tell you, in cool moments, the Govern- 
 ment from home is becoming an absurdity, and 
 that home people are all at sea as to who are 
 their friends and who their enemies in South 
 Africa.* 
 
 * There are many who do not hesitate to hint to us 
 more plainly than the writer, that, if future Imperial 
 legislation for South Africa be dictated by home party con- 
 siderations^ many there who have now been fighting for 
 us, might be found in the, I hope most unlikely, event 
 of fresh disturbances, to be in antagonism to the Mother 
 Country. B. C. F.
 
 128 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 I only wish business would look up just to 
 divert attention (as it always does) from politics. 
 People are anxious as to taxation in the future, 
 and the majority are by no means in a contented 
 mood. You would be much amused at the 
 contemptuous tone adopted as to the lionising 
 of the Boer visitors to England as England's 
 latest craze. 
 
 Of course, to the South African, the path 
 looks so straight and so well-defined, that he 
 can't understand the constant tendency of the 
 home authorities to strike off to the right or 
 left when apparently heading for the goal. 
 
 It seems all relegated to a toss-up how matters 
 go in South Africa, in spite of our ruler being 
 one of the cleverest men in the Empire. I am, 
 yours sincerely. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 4/A August 1902. 
 
 I missed posting this last week. 
 
 Kruger as Statesman. The deification of 
 Paul Kruger has done much harm. His 
 religion was of a certain Calvinistic variety, 
 which imposed the very slightest of moral
 
 THE DUTCH CLERGY 129 
 
 restraint on its advocate, and therefore was 
 very easy to follow and to harangue his fellows 
 about. He has shown glaring want of 
 common foresight again and again. Apart from 
 his determination, his was a most common- 
 place character, in which avarice and cunning 
 were always visible. 
 
 Note on previous remarks regarding Hol- 
 landers, D.R* parsons, etc. : 
 
 A stranger to the South African question 
 might think, on reading some of my letters, 
 that I was prejudiced against certain races and 
 classes of men, such, for instance, as Hollanders, 
 Dutch parsons, Boers, etc. Though I know 
 that you understand my remarks apply only 
 to the objectionable portion of those named, 
 yet I may as well state that we have Hollanders 
 here whom any man may well be pleased to 
 reckon among his friends. So with the Dutch 
 clergy again, we find men who are faithfully 
 doing their duty, and who endeavour to allay 
 rather than to excite racial or other unrest. 
 Such men suffer at times for the acts and 
 words of their less discreet brothers. The 
 political Dutch parson is not a pleasing type of 
 his order. He is generally the best housed, 
 * Dutch Reformed Church. B. C. F.
 
 130 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 best fed, best groomed man in the neighbour- 
 hood, and when he and his family move about 
 among the tents and waggons at the quarterly 
 " naachtmaal " service, among the homely 
 Boers, the contrast is as great as if a prize pen 
 of "south downs" from a show, were let loose 
 among a flock of mountain sheep. 
 
 As to the Boer race, though no one can 
 shut his eyes to the blunders and follies they 
 have committed during the last few years, it 
 would, to me, be much more congenial work 
 to write of their good qualities, such as their 
 hospitality to strangers. After a hot ride of 
 fifty miles, I have come on a lonely homestead 
 among the kopjes, and have been invited to 
 off-saddle and stay for the night, and have 
 been looked after as kindly as if I had been 
 a long absent son, instead of an unknown 
 stranger. 
 
 Nothing stirs up more bitter feeling against 
 the plotting Bondsmen, than the memories of 
 those good old days, and of the scenes among 
 those peaceful homes, now desolate. Boers 
 are a fine race physically, as a result of several 
 generations being brought up to outdoor life. 
 The wealthy Cape Dutchman, urban as well 
 as rural, shares this advantage, and his
 
 THE CAPE DUTCHMAN 131 
 
 patriarchal instincts save him from certain 
 vulgarisms. As a rule, his relations with 
 poorer members of his family are pleasing, and 
 he is not much given to aping a "society" 
 exterior. Probably the greatest drawback to 
 the entire race has been the maintenance of 
 the Taal, which has kept it (with the exception 
 of a few wealthy town residents) shut out from 
 literature and modern thought ; just as the 
 humbler classes of Belgium are excluded, by 
 their patois, from good French literature a 
 civilising influence which keeps the well-to-do 
 classes abreast of the age. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 nth August 1902. 
 
 We seem to be going through an anxious 
 time, and I must own I feel less able to gauge 
 the position than at any time during the last 
 ten years. Lord Milner can't split himself into 
 ten, and his task seems almost superhuman. 
 
 Well-to-do people take a patient view of the 
 case, but a large mass of men appear to be 
 very discontented. Were it mainly French 
 instead of British populations, I should think
 
 132 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 we were on the eve of revolution, but of course 
 there is more smoke than fire. A few weeks 
 of the " better times " looked for, would effect 
 more than the aid of all the statesmen in the 
 Empire. Some papers say the root-cause 
 of depression is the struggle to reduce black 
 miners' pay to 305. per month, (the rumour I 
 mentioned in my last as to an advance offer 
 was incorrect, as I supposed it must be). I 
 shall be amazed if the Kaffirs accept 303. 
 
 War Taxation. The uncertainties on this 
 head, and the fear of Transvaal being saddled 
 with a heavy debt, is another serious cause of 
 anxiety, which is no doubt preventing money 
 coming into the country to relieve the pres- 
 sure. 
 
 These considerations, combined, are causing 
 a deadlock, but for which the bulk of the 
 population would not trouble very much about 
 politics. As it is, politics are very unpleasantly 
 to the fore, and I hear Englishmen express 
 opinions which I much regret hearing from 
 them. 
 
 Rumours. Beside all this there are mis- 
 chievous rumours in the air, as to the real 
 terms of peace being still a secret. All the 
 Boers assert this with confidence. The
 
 CAUSES OF UNREST 133 
 
 foreigners also affect to expect some sur- 
 prise. 
 
 These rumours, and the uncertainties as to 
 some heavy claim on the part of England, the 
 non-suspension of Cape Constitution, and the 
 way in which Boers are being "petted" here, 
 and lionised at home, are altogether causing 
 a great deal of unrest. I fear that the 
 heaviest work of Lord Milner has yet to 
 come. I told you that on my arrival here 
 I was much surprised at the suspicion ex- 
 pressed, and this has rapidly grown. Can't 
 Government recoup itself out of Crown lands 
 to a great extent ? 
 
 They are between two difficulties. Any 
 heavy taxation announced now, in the depres- 
 sion, would retard recovery ; while, on the other 
 hand, the knowledge that something is kept 
 back from them is a serious source of unrest 
 with our people. 
 
 With a less able man than Lord Milner at 
 the helm, I should be very uneasy indeed. 
 What an awful loss to him Rhodes must be ! 
 
 One argument used here is, that the Rand 
 should not be heavily burdened, because the 
 people here have already suffered such loss, 
 while the Cape, which aided the rebels, escape
 
 134 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 paying any war tribute, though enriched by the 
 expenditure ; and also because they were the 
 victims, not the cause, of war, which might 
 have been averted had their years of warnings 
 been listened to. Among other canards the 
 foreigners have is, that the new Vice-Adminis- 
 trator's appointment is only the prelude to the 
 recall of Lord Milner! However wild any 
 report may be, it all adds fuel to the fire. 
 
 As I said in my last, the Boer women are 
 dreadfully bitter. That the Kaffir Labour 
 Pay Question should have cropped up now is 
 deplorable beyond all words and it is un- 
 fortunate that the mines are so largely kept 
 going by Continental capital, or, rather, that 
 Continental holdings are so large. 
 
 It will be sad, indeed, if, after spending two 
 hundred millions, the settling down should be 
 hindered by the comparative trifle required to 
 keep local interests going. Were the Chamber 
 of Mines to notify to-morrow that they would 
 give Kaffirs the old pay, it would greatly 
 relieve the position all round but under 
 present circumstances, I really fear hearing of 
 any taxing measures from England. 
 
 The common saying of the Dutch, " We told 
 you that you would wish Kruger back," is
 
 THE MINES AND TAXATION 135 
 
 becoming as frequent as it is offensive, and of 
 course all such things tend to evil. 
 
 Had I Lord Milner's ability, I would not 
 take his present burden on my shoulders, and 
 without him South Africa would lapse into 
 hopeless anarchy. 
 
 Unless the Home Government and the 
 Mines can come to terms, it is thought by 
 many that the drifting backwards will be more 
 and more serious. 
 
 We little expected all this difficulty at the 
 close of the war. I am, yours sincerely. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 i8/// August 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, Native affairs. 
 Grave enough, but I cannot see the men 
 I want. White missionaries all give Bible 
 teaching on the momentous social and 
 political questions, all are pulling in different 
 directions. 
 
 Newspaper cuttings enclosed of much in- 
 terest. See appreciation of your father's work, 
 twenty years late ! 
 
 The writing of Jeremiads is unpleasant work,
 
 136 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 if only because an improvement in business, 
 by relieving the bread-and-butter question, 
 may for the time throw discredit on the prophet 
 
 of evil. But I must write to Mr to 
 
 send you some letters of '96, my forecasts in 
 which have been so dismally verified. If 
 certain of the Home Press can take a hint, 
 those ignorant, self-satisfied scribblers may 
 cease from the abusive rubbish they are now 
 pouring on the men of the Rand the one 
 place from which British influence must radiate 
 if South Africa is ever to be British except in 
 name. 
 
 I have for some weeks made notes which I 
 have delayed putting on paper to you. But 
 the other evening at dinner a young friend 
 repeated such a striking conversation that I 
 use it as a text. He was sent on business to 
 
 a Dutchman in D , an educated man of 
 
 about 33 or 35. 
 
 After finishing his business, the following 
 was said : 
 
 Englishman. Were you long on commando? 
 
 Dutchman. Yes, from the outbreak of war 
 till the great "drives" showed the game was 
 up when I surrendered. 
 
 Englishman. We all knew it would be a
 
 A DUTCHMAN ON THE SITUATION 137 
 
 terrible war, and were in great fear of it, and 
 did not want it to come. 
 
 Dutchman. I did not know that before the 
 war. It was only when our commandos 
 found how utterly unprepared you were, that 
 I saw that Paul Kruger had made the war ! 
 You have beaten, but what have you gained ? 
 The Rand is more discontented than under 
 Kruger. You will be more heavily taxed, and 
 you have even less voice in government, if 
 possible. Everything stands still with the 
 mines out of work. The companies could get 
 thousands of boys, native miners, to-morrow, 
 but they want first to see what Chamberlain 
 is going to do. If things go on as they are, 
 it means only one thing Revolution. 
 
 It was our generals' delay that saved you ; 
 had the Boers rushed for the ports (as they 
 wanted to) the country would have risen and 
 you would have been crushed ! 
 
 I believe this political diagnosis is as accurate 
 as the strategic. 
 
 The separate items are familiar to my ears 
 but the condensed summary and the quarter 
 from which it came, set me thinking far into 
 the small hours. 
 
 My own belief is that South Africa is
 
 138 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 " drifting " as fast as before the war, though 
 perhaps not exactly in the same direction. 
 Only Lord Milners personality keeps the 
 public voice as quiet as it is. There is an idea 
 abroad that he is not as heartily backed at 
 home as he was. His task is superhuman. 
 Important departments in a state of chaos ! with 
 ten times as much circumlocution and red tape 
 as under Paul Kruger enough, in fact, for the 
 "Sublime Porte"! At first I thought the 
 "Leader"* was a disturbing element, but on 
 further inquiry, I think it is a safety-valve. 
 
 Any elective body (however purely advisory] 
 would form a buffer between people and 
 Government. . . . 
 
 Mr Chamberlain said the other day that 
 there was no need for hurry in the Transvaal. 
 There is every need. But for public confidence 
 in Lord Milner there would be some ugly 
 complajnts made. All classes are disgusted at 
 the abusive, ignorant clap-trap of some London 
 papers, and think that home politicians and 
 writers are as profoundly in the dark about the 
 Transvaal as before the war. 
 
 It is not the sluggards and fossils who find 
 their way here, but the enterprising son of the 
 * The Transvaal Leader newspaper.
 
 THE TAXATION QUESTION 139 
 
 family, and the ambitious man of the village. 
 The rumours of heavy taxation have a most 
 disturbing effect. Men ask why we should pay 
 for a war for which Cape Colony is quite as 
 responsible. 
 
 Our sacrifice of life and money is far larger 
 than that of any part of the Empire already, 
 and had we been listened to years ago there 
 would have been no war. . . . I am, yours 
 sincerely. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 2^th August 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, There is little or no 
 change here. Of course, every one is very 
 anxious as to the debt to be apportioned 
 to us, as it is a life and death matter. 
 
 The only bright feature in our surroundings 
 is the confidence placed in Lord Milner by all 
 people. There is such gloomy foreboding as 
 to debt to be apportioned to this state. The 
 element of uncertainty is as bad as the evil 
 itself, stopping, as it does, all enterprise, and 
 causing widespread discontent. But for the 
 universal confidence in Lord Milner, I should 
 consider the outlook very black.
 
 140 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 I do not refer only to Transvaal, but to all 
 South Africa. In the Cape it looks as if all 
 the predictions of the " Suspensionists " were 
 going to be fulfilled, at an earlier period than I 
 personally expected. 
 
 There are so many different views taken. 
 Stock Exchange magnates and Club men 
 are most easy, and often tell you that all is 
 going on right. Commercial men are very 
 gloomy, and tell you that the country is in a 
 worse hole than ever, and labouring men and 
 mechanics too often draw very ugly com- 
 parisons, between the old regime and the new. 
 The most wealthy, of course, can make as 
 much money out of a great slump and depres- 
 sion as out of a boom ; they have got hold of 
 both ends of the stick, and are all right either 
 way. 
 
 To commercial men it means steady im- 
 poverishment. As to the poorer classes, we 
 have not merely their suffering to consider, but 
 the discontent so sedulously fostered by all 
 who are not firm to the English cause. The 
 Africanders from here to Cape Town are all 
 intently watching what is done here. 
 
 I think the Home Government would have 
 its eyes wonderfully opened, if the following
 
 INDEPENDENT OPINIONS 141 
 
 small experiment were tried i.e., Send out 
 two or three travelled men (men who know the 
 Colonies, and not West-end exquisites.) Give 
 them no introductions. (If they are passed on 
 from official to official, and from club to club, 
 they will return home as wise as the editor of 
 
 the " .") Let them smoke their pipes 
 
 in the common room at country inns, from 
 Cape Town to Graaf Reinet, and in Johannes- 
 burg hotels and bars, and mix with all sorts 
 and conditions of men. They could then tell 
 Mr Chamberlain a great deal more than he 
 now knows. In England there is so much 
 mere academic knowledge that is not prac- 
 tical. We have given the Africander back 
 the spoils of victory. I could fill a ream 
 with the remarks that come to my ears. To 
 simmer it down, perhaps the following gives 
 the pith : 
 
 " In a few years' time we shall be as strong 
 as ever, and then we shall not be alone, but 
 shall have two-thirds of you Uitlanders fight- 
 ing on our side ! " 
 
 These, to me, are odious words, but they are 
 commonly spoken, among the poorer of both 
 races, and the tendency is known and realised 
 throughout South Africa.
 
 142 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 The Uitlander feels that he has fallen 
 between two stools. He sees our late enemies 
 started in life afresh, while he has spent all his 
 savings during the war, and finds that the 
 community he belongs to is the only one in 
 South Africa to be taxed in South Africa, 
 though it is the most loyal one, and the one 
 that gave advice which, had it been taken 
 seven or eight years ago, would have pre- 
 vented war. 
 
 As I said in my last, anything that revived 
 trade and gave employment to all, would 
 silence the local unrest ; but it is no use 
 disregarding it. Were " things brisk," less 
 would be said about some of the appointments 
 that have been made. . . . 
 
 I see the Home Press says that, as some 
 of the men sent out are not a success, they 
 should try Indian Civil Servants. Is their 
 object to insult South Africans ? There 
 are hundreds of young men in South 
 Africa, who have won their spurs in the 
 class-room and the battle-field. Had I sons 
 who were open to compete for these posts, I 
 should be most indignant at the tone ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 The effect of this has been altogether out
 
 WANTED THE ENGLISH FARMER 143 
 
 of proportion to the money interest involved, 
 which is trifling. 
 
 I am sure you will understand my meaning. 
 I speak impartially, as neither I nor any of 
 my family are interested. The upper posts 
 have caused less ill - feeling than the lower 
 ones, to which larger numbers are aspiring. 
 
 I asked Mr to send you some typed 
 
 copies of letters of '96. There is too much 
 of the Old Moore's almanac prediction about 
 them, though correct in the main. 
 
 I shall be most thankful when we can see 
 our way before us. Our lives are being spent 
 at fever heat at present. What are our 
 anxieties to Lord Milner's ! 
 
 Anxious days and sleepless nights are the 
 rule with the great majority. I am, yours 
 sincerely. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 1st September 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, What we want in 
 this country is an influx of intelligent, active 
 young English farmers, whom I remember in 
 my youth as a splendid type of manhood. 
 Have they migrated into towns, or are they
 
 144 LETTERS FftOM AN UITLANDER 
 
 all too well off to move ? * I thought it was 
 quite otherwise, and that their labour barely 
 found them necessaries of life. They are the 
 men to do here, and the men to make South 
 Africa British. . . . 
 
 There is, of course, much uneasiness as to 
 the situation from the Cape upwards. But 
 opinions vary strangely. Officials and new- 
 comers see nothing the matter, and describe it 
 all as "grousing." It is amusing how new- 
 comers think the place highly prosperous ! 
 Were trade to improve, and full demand for 
 labour arise, it would at once greatly relieve 
 the position. Lord Milner's presence does 
 much to keep men patient and rational. The 
 fear of the debt to be imposed on Transvaal 
 is greatly responsible for things not settling 
 down. The idea is, that the long oppressed 
 Uitlander is (as a matter of expediency) to be 
 made the scapegoat for the sins of rebellion of 
 all other parts of South Africa, which he, the 
 Uitlander, fought to put down and punish. 
 The element of uncertainty is such a disturbing 
 one, and half paralyses business in many 
 directions. 
 
 * Compare, alas, Rider Haggard's Rural England to 
 answer this question. B. C. F.
 
 A FOOL'S PARADISE H5 
 
 It looks as if non-suspension was very early 
 about to prove the great blunder we all here 
 saw it to be from the first. We are as much 
 under Bond rule as ever. By what wonderful 
 stretch of imagination, could the Home Govern- 
 ment have expected to see any effective re-dis- 
 tribution bill carried, after giving a new lease 
 of life to the Bond. It was as intensely 
 disheartening to the English populations of 
 South Africa as anything could be, and puts 
 it in the power of the disaffected to point to 
 the hopelessness of Downing Street rule 
 which they do not fail to do. 
 
 In the matter of appointments, South African 
 opinion seems to be ignored in a most re- 
 markable way. Boers, new-comers, and even 
 foreigners come before the Uitlander in 
 various ways. This is, I believe, all the work of 
 a lot of subordinates and nobodies. It is all 
 a matter of opinion how things will shape in 
 Cape Colony. But I sometimes have a dread 
 that England will need one more downright 
 frightening to bring her to her senses. They 
 seem to suppose that the signing of peace 
 finished the business, and that they can 
 afford again to play the fool. An old Colonist 
 
 in khaki, and with stars on his shoulder, stopped 
 
 T
 
 146 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 me in the street and said, " When I went back 
 to Pretoria one of the first things I heard was, 
 1 You had better get out of khaki as quick as 
 possible, or your professional interests will 
 suffer." He added, " And that in our newest 
 colony ! " I am no alarmist, and am not now 
 suggesting any danger, but, at the same time, 
 I and crowds of others think that Englishmen 
 are still in a fool's paradise, and are in the dark 
 as to the position. 
 
 The suggestion in my last was good, i.e., to 
 let a few travelled men knock about South 
 Africa incog, and without introductions to 
 officials (which would make the whole thing 
 useless). Then let them send home the results 
 of their journey weekly. 
 
 Some of the officials see and hear very little, 
 and move in only one groove. ... I refer to 
 the necessity of their travelling in Cape Colony, 
 quite as much as here. 
 
 Yours sincerely.
 
 MISSIONS AND THE NATIVE QUESTION 147 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 September 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, Native Question. 
 ... I think that the mission phase of the native 
 question needs revision and reconsideration as 
 much as any other. The rival sects are the 
 nuisance that complicate things, ten times as 
 much as they do in any other church work. 
 Our Archbishop pointed out the great trouble 
 when I was in Cape Town. It appears to 
 me that the only missions conducted on really 
 rational lines, are those of the Moravians and 
 the Trappist Monasteries rather different 
 creeds. 
 
 These are under no compulsion to "play up 
 to the gallery," or, rather, to the London plat- 
 form. The misfortune is, that the mission- 
 ary steam is so largely dependent on the 
 fuel annually supplied at Exeter Hall. I 
 should like to write a short article for 
 publication on the native question, only it 
 would shock too many worthy excellent 
 people, who can't distinguish between reform 
 and profanity. 
 
 The movements of a people are sometimes
 
 148 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 strangely simultaneous. When I wrote at 
 about the time of peace proclamation, I heard 
 from various parts, as well as here, of an 
 apparent expectation of a " new order of 
 things " among the natives ; but the wave 
 subsided. The best we can hope is that our 
 own settlement will be accomplished before the 
 native question assumes its active stage. 
 
 Martial Law. I have just heard that a 
 further extension of the period of Martial Law 
 has been gazetted. It will be very unpopular 
 here, but it is a wise step. I only hope it 
 is true. 
 
 Separation of Provinces. Whichever way 
 Suspension goes, separation is a trump 
 card if England would only see it. It 
 would knock the bottom out of Cape Town 
 politics. In Eastern Province, British feeling 
 (now neutralised) would at once tell, and 
 though, in the North, the Boers, and also the 
 German shopkeepers in up-country " dorps," 
 may be indifferent, still, were separation once 
 adopted, the improved fiscal position resulting 
 from severance from West would be appre- 
 ciated at once. They would re-arrange 
 customs tariffs, and no longer see the lion's 
 share absorbed by the West as they do now t
 
 THE HOME PRESS 149 
 
 As * admitted, " Cape Town is our 
 
 objective" Breaking the extended influence of 
 that hereditary anti - British centre, would 
 relieve the tension over all South Africa, just 
 as the relief of Kimberley did in the war. 
 
 An outrageous effort at centralisation is at 
 this time in contemplation, namely, the aboli- 
 tion of the Eastern Districts Court, which is 
 one more important step towards centralising 
 everything at foot of Table Mountain. 
 
 Some English papers are very depressing. 
 
 The " " sees a necessity that South 
 
 Africa should in future be ruled from England 
 the very cause of all the blunders of the 
 century past ! 
 
 The Home Press is far from infallible. I 
 know a correspondent of a home paper, whose 
 knowledge of South Africa is nearly confined 
 to the Rand. The other day I mentioned an 
 abuse to him. Next day he told me he had 
 interviewed all the "heads of departments," 
 who told him that what I said was all a mistake 
 (of course), and that he meant to stand by Lord 
 Milner ! We had different horizons in view. 
 
 I asked Mr to send some letters of 
 
 mine of '96 for you to read. When I spoke of 
 * One of the Boer leaders. B. C. F.
 
 150 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 them as so much like almanac predictions, I 
 did not refer to the matter, but to the style, 
 which suggested a condition which some of 
 us felt that we were under as men with the 
 sword of Damocles hanging over us. . . . 
 Yours, etc. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 i$th September 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, I enclose some 
 newspaper cuttings. It is sheer nonsense to 
 talk about the discontent as the result of a 
 slump in the share-market. This denotes an 
 acquaintance with Johannesburg, not of this 
 day but of several years ago, when every shop- 
 keeper, clerk, and mechanic had a few pounds 
 invested in shares. Now, not one man in fifty, 
 perhaps in a hundred, deals in scrip. 
 
 The statement is a misinformed exaggera- 
 tion of the fact I have stated, namely, that any 
 financial improvement in the position would 
 make the discontent less audible. 
 
 For fear of playing the alarmist, I have kept 
 within limits in speaking of the discontent, 
 which is considerable. Some is unavoidable 
 in the reconstruction, but very much is from
 
 THE SITUATION AT JOHANNESBURG 151 
 
 causes that should not exist, but do 
 exist. 
 
 There is still that uneasy suspicion I men- 
 tioned some time ago, that Lord Milner is not 
 heartily backed from home, and that the 
 disastrous policy of over-ruling the man on the 
 spot, is again, as twenty years ago, beginning 
 to show itself. Men fear that for English 
 party purposes, Transvaal is to be loaded with 
 taxation in which all South Africa should 
 share, but which Home Government is afraid 
 to levy. Already taxation is heavier than 
 under Kruger. They took something off 
 stamps (postage), but laid a vastly heavier 
 burden on all sorts of other things. Instead 
 of going on quietly with the old gold-law, a 
 new one is framed, on the merits of which I 
 am unable to form an opinion, but great 
 dissatisfaction is caused. Then, Government 
 departments, which by now should be in 
 fair working order, are in confusion. Busi- 
 ness men, who don't trouble about politics, 
 complain that transactions they could put 
 through in days under the Boers, now take 
 weeks ! involving loss of time and interest of 
 money. You hear it at every turn. Some of 
 the appointments made by the nobodies above
 
 152 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 alluded to are certainly very curious. Fancy 
 the annoyance of men, after long, needless 
 delay, and loss of interest of money, seeing 
 an official unable to reckon 5 per cent, on 
 ,10,000! and a group of men waiting at the 
 Customs' Office, while another official is trying 
 to find out the third of eleven shillings and 
 threepence, who, though told, stopped to work 
 it out in several school-book methods before he 
 was certain ! and another man counting every 
 individual stamp on a ten-shilling sheet ! Mr 
 told me cases of these "patronised" 
 new arrivals being given appointments on 
 the "repatriation" staff of all things in the 
 world ! When they got among the Boers, 
 neither could understand a word the other 
 said. You may fancy the deadlock. Many 
 men say to these things, " There is more 
 corruption in the new regime than in the old." 
 These may seem small matters to you, but 
 they create much friction, and add to Lord 
 Milner's enormous burden. The salaries paid 
 are a bagatelle, to which the results are out of 
 all proportion. 
 
 I think the Home Government much under- 
 rates the magnitude of the task still to be 
 done, and the amount of combustible elements
 
 THE BOER GENERALS 153 
 
 in South Africa. The Bond is as determined 
 as ever to hamper British Rule. . . . 
 
 I suspect that no one in the place is more 
 aware of the grievances, and regrets them 
 more, than Lord Milner. 
 
 If the Home Government are trifling with 
 him, it means ruin for us, and nothing need 
 surprise you in this chosen land of paradoxes 
 and absurdities. I am, yours sincerely. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 $th October 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, Boer Generals. I 
 hope the eyes of the public are really and 
 permanently opened by the manifesto, though 
 some papers appeared to be inviting them to 
 say smooth things, and explain away the 
 
 mischievous tone which they adopted. 
 
 is no doubt aware now, that the manifesto was 
 too plain-spoken, and that in an unguarded 
 moment the mask had been cast aside. 
 
 Nothing is more certain than that the Boers 
 (that is, the political section and wire-pullers) 
 regard the end of the war in the light of a 
 mere check, which, though very serious, is 
 
 only a check. Successful emigration would, 
 
 u
 
 154 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 of course, finally set the matter at rest. 
 Whatever newspapers say, or omit to mention, 
 or y perhaps do not hear of, I am sorry to learn 
 through private individuals that the boycott 
 of English is no mere canard, but a most 
 substantial fact. The Cape Attorney-General 
 ordered that every case of boycott should be 
 reported to Government. But men (young 
 and old) from all parts of South Africa, are 
 coming here, and complain of boycott, and say, 
 " We have nothing tangible that we can report 
 to Government." The attorney says, " Men 
 no longer care to employ us," and the trader 
 says, " Farmers no longer come to buy of us, 
 but go to a Dutch or German store." 
 
 It is well that our rulers should see behind 
 the scenes, and not be deceived by Boer 
 journals, who, to gain their ends, may profess 
 friendliness. I used to set down the boycott to 
 mere talk, till I found that long-established 
 middle-aged men had to look about for fresh 
 pastures. This has disappointed many on this 
 side, and should undeceive over-optimism at 
 home. Apart from the generally defiant tone 
 in the more purely Boer districts, many little 
 facts crop up which suggest that watchfulness 
 is needed. For instance, a very clever Trans-
 
 BOYCOTTING 155 
 
 vaal Dutchman, who often outwitted English 
 commanders, has, since his return from banish- 
 ment, been travelling to and fro between 
 
 , , , and other anti- British 
 
 towns, instead of following the business for 
 which he threw up farming, before the war. 
 There are few more able, sharp-witted men in 
 the country. 
 
 Lord Milner wants such a lieutenant as 
 Jameson was to Rhodes, with a dash of the 
 Cromwell in him, and ability to take short cuts 
 and brush aside precedent and officialism. 
 
 I send the Leader, with report of meeting 
 for formation of Political Association.* I 
 believe the movers in the matter are sound, 
 loyal men, and of moderate views. As in all 
 such cases, many leading lights stand aside for 
 the time being, and a number of men whom 
 Lord Milner has consulted at times, or 
 nominated to the Town Council, naturally 
 hesitate to join an association, the action of 
 which experience only can prove, though the 
 motives of its leaders are correct. I think it 
 will prove a healthy safety-valve. Men feel 
 
 * The danger in this movement is from the demagogue 
 element, which at once showed itself, and may cause 
 it to be dropped.
 
 156 LETTERS FROM AN U1TLANDER 
 
 sore at the fact that, while a Parliament with 
 an openly disloyal majority sits at the Cape, 
 they here should have no voice at all, though 
 they have been chief sufferers by the war, and 
 are to be taxed to defray its expenses expenses 
 to a large extent resulting from rebellion in 
 Cape Colony. 
 
 The Transvaal has a strong case as against 
 the neighbouring Colonies. I can't understand 
 why no advocate has yet stood forward in its 
 cause. With a less powerful man than Lord 
 Milner, our case would be hopeless. 
 
 He probably knows as well as we do, the 
 labyrinth of muddle in which some of his 
 subordinates are groping about, and the public 
 duly appreciates his manly rectitude, in at 
 once cancelling proclamations issued, when the 
 stupidities which escaped his legal advisers 
 were pointed out. This does not refer to the 
 judges, who are among the fortunate appoint- 
 ments, and in whom all have confidence. I am, 
 yours very truly.
 
 TRANSVAAL TAX ON CAPE BRANDY 157 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 
 yth November 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, One of the most 
 useful pieces of legislation that we have seen, 
 has just been carried through by Lord Milner's 
 Government, by its imposing a duty of fourteen 
 shillings a gallon on Cape brandy. Whether 
 such an item of news is likely to find its way 
 into the Home Press, I am not aware. The 
 fiscal advantage is but trifling compared with 
 the political effect. Sprigg has already made 
 the discovery, that a Customs union may be 
 very desirable. 
 
 This duty is the most disconcerting fact 
 that the Cape Town party has had to face for 
 a long time, and their only consolation is in 
 the fact that, owing to the war, there is so 
 much money among the native population of 
 the Eastern Province, and that they have 
 plenty of money still left with which to buy 
 brandy ! 
 
 The voting power of beer in the Imperial 
 Parliament, is nothing to that of brandy in the 
 Cape Parliament. 
 
 I cannot understand why the authorities 
 refuse to see the important bearings of this, on
 
 158 
 
 the question of Separation of the Provinces. 
 This is no mere hobby of mine. Separation 
 is the trump card of the Home Government, 
 an instantaneous remedy for a long-standing 
 disease. Our Transvaal consumption of 
 brandy is smaller than that of the Eastern 
 Province, whose population is only too anxious 
 to tax it, as a check to native drunkenness, 
 and, at the same time, as a means of lowering 
 the tariff on necessaries. 
 
 Of course separation would bring the chief 
 anti- British population to its knees, and give 
 to a new and friendly state, the dominant 
 position at present held by a practically hostile 
 one. 
 
 If Mr Chamberlain grants separation, the 
 South African problem will be finally solved.* 
 
 Hopelessness is not a British trait, but I fear 
 that a certain degree of it has settled down on 
 Eastern Colonists. 
 
 * While the writer takes this strong view of the 
 necessity of cutting off the Western half of Cape 
 Colony from the Eastern, others, as I have mentioned 
 in a previous footnote (Western men, but equally loyal), 
 consider that possibly there might thus be produced a 
 Colony in which loyalty got no voice. 
 
 Yet surely the strongest, and therefore safest, course 
 might be to separate the two, and, if necessary, 
 have special political arrangements for the West, as
 
 VIEWS OF OLD COLONISTS 159 
 
 I heard the other day from an able writer 
 on politics, and he told me that he would not 
 attend the Press Congress at Cape Town this 
 year, and subject himself to coming in contact 
 
 with and - , whose defection had 
 
 been too odious and contemptible for the men 
 to be met as honourable opponents. 
 
 Even hopelessness is excusable in a fight 
 against impossible odds ! and this is the 
 position of the British half of Cape Colony. 
 I believe, and I find most old Colonists believe, 
 that Mr Chamberlain will find his most serious 
 business, not in the Transvaal, but in Cape 
 Town. Whatever optimistic liberals may say, 
 the Africander Bond has not budged one inch 
 from its old programme. 
 
 I mention old Colonists for this reason. I 
 often seriously doubt whether the British public 
 is as well informed of South African questions 
 as it might be. Johannesburg has become the 
 "hub" of South Africa, and perhaps contains 
 its most able professional writers. But not a 
 
 long as it continues untrustworthy if needed, even 
 Martial Law tactfully administered. Indeed, we may 
 make up our minds that unless we can clearly perceive, 
 and firmly deal with questions of this sort, we really 
 may as well give up trying to retain the control of an 
 Empire at all. B. C. F.
 
 160 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 few of them know nothing of South Africa 
 outside the hub, and they too often come out 
 to write up preconceived ideas, and do not 
 want to hear facts which do not back up 
 those ideas. 
 
 The most intricate task of Lord Milner is 
 in front of him. It is an immense misfortune 
 that there is no Rhodes to relieve the pressure 
 at the circumference of the circle, and to keep 
 
 men like and in their places. 
 
 New men, though clever, have much to learn, 
 and, when told so, are apt to hint that you are 
 not sound on the British side ! * 
 
 When peace was declared, I told you that 
 there were signs of native restlessness. This 
 
 * A crying need, not only in South Africa, but in all 
 our Colonies, is the growth of a leisured class of fairly 
 well-to-do men a sufficiency of whom could pursue a 
 political career, untrammelled by business cares, and 
 free to devote their time solely to the interests of the 
 public. 
 
 So many of our successful Colonists, appear to regard 
 the land in which they have spent their active and 
 useful lives, as a mere counting-house, which they quit 
 the moment they can, to hurry back to England, buy 
 a " place " and " found a family." 
 
 Why cannot they, so to speak, do both keep up 
 their interest in the Colony, and constitute themselves 
 pillars of that State, as well as supports to the Old 
 Country during part of every year ? B. C. F.
 
 AN IMPROVED SITUATION 161 
 
 strangely subsided, and they are much as 
 before, at present. But this does not alter the 
 fact, that the native question looms very large 
 and certain in the future.* 
 
 Another matter has changed for the better. 
 Some months back there was much angry 
 discontent expressed by the white population, 
 and a very unpleasant tone adopted. Times 
 are still as hard, perhaps worse in some 
 respects, and there is still discontent, but the 
 more general tone now is (as I heard a man 
 say yesterday), "We can't help it, but must 
 grin and bear it." 
 
 We are all very anxious as to the results of 
 Mr Chamberlain's mission. If they allay the 
 fears which are now keeping capital out of the 
 country, and thus set things going and give 
 employment to all, men of both races will 
 soon settle down quietly. I take it that no 
 class of men are so dangerous as the 
 unemployed in any country ; and just now 
 there is much irritation, on account of railway 
 
 * For a good political essay on this and many kindred 
 topics, that bear on the general question of our dealings 
 with the fringes of the Empire, see Roosevelt's Stren- 
 uous Life, chapter " Expansion and Peace," a chapter 
 which one would like to see the whole House of Commons 
 forced to learn by heart ! B. C. F, 
 
 X
 
 162 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 clerks and men in a variety of subordinate 
 positions being imported men. 
 
 loth. The cable summary of the Spec- 
 tators article on Germany is very unpleasant 
 reading, but I trust that the subject (like our 
 native question) is not one of the immediate 
 future. 
 
 I have lived in a state of chronic anxiety as 
 to the possibility of European trouble. 
 
 Whatever the papers may say, there is still 
 an abundant supply of Boer small arms and 
 ammunition about the country, and the 
 occasional captures made do not materially 
 affect the gross amount.* Boers in friendly 
 conversation not only admit this, but treat it 
 as a matter of course, and Colonial volunteers 
 believe it. Probably the authorities know how 
 the matter stands, but military men do not 
 encourage civilians to ask questions, or suggest 
 anything on matters concerning their profession 
 but are decidedly stand-off, if questioned. 
 
 Only last week I heard, on undoubted 
 authority, of a great danger we escaped early 
 
 * I hear that quantities of arms and ammunition are 
 even now being imported, and that the Cape Colony 
 authorities say they are powerless to prevent this, as it 
 is a "free country."
 
 THE GERMAN SETTLERS 163 
 
 in the war. That fine old veteran, Colonel 
 Schermbrucker, M.L.A., addressed a meeting 
 of the German settlers in Kaffraria ; the 
 sedative effects we recognised at the time, but 
 we did not then know how imminent had been 
 the danger. Costly mausers were seen in the 
 cottages of many of these very poor and 
 penurious people, and I am assured that they 
 were on the point of rising, when Colonel 
 Schermbrucker, their old friend, went round 
 and won them over to loyalty. Had they risen, 
 much of the large German substratum in East 
 London and Port Elizabeth must inevitably 
 have joined, and thus the enemy would have had 
 an enormous accession of strength, and in a 
 district which, as things turned out, rendered 
 us much aid. 
 
 I am greatly surprised at the Boers being 
 brought back in such numbers at this stage. 
 
 People talk calmly about "all coming right 
 with patience." Were we merely going 
 through a commercial crisis this would be 
 quite true. But I am sure that there are 
 many risks in allowing the present stagnation 
 to continue too long. It has just been decided, 
 by a test case, that all rents and interest on 
 bonds for the period of the war must be paid
 
 164 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 up, a decision which has caused dismay to 
 hundreds. It was on a technical point that 
 is, that Kruger's proclamation had not been 
 " confirmed by the Raad" 
 
 This, and many other troubles, would lose 
 their keen edge if the general business of the 
 Rand was set going. 
 
 The suspense as to Mr Chamberlain's 
 taxation schemes, hangs like a cloud over, not 
 only the Rand, but all South Africa. 
 
 Once restore a feeling of security, and the 
 disaffected part of the population will find 
 themselves in a hopeless minority. I remain, 
 dear Sir Bartle Frere, yours sincerely. 
 
 SHIPPING RING 
 
 JOHANNESBURG, 
 2\th November 1902. 
 
 Dear Sir Bartle Frere, I enclose some 
 newspaper cuttings ; possibly the subject of 
 that on the Shipping Ring is already well 
 known at home, but I doubt if the commercial 
 community realises how grave the situation 
 is, or how immediate the danger to British
 
 THE SHIPPING RING 165 
 
 interests. It has been so long talked of, 
 that it has become too familiar to rouse men 
 to the action demanded, and the old fiction 
 is repeated that competition must set these 
 things right. Endless debates on 2^- per cent, 
 preferential duties, in favour of British goods, 
 are simply waste of time, when a grasping 
 shipping ring is driving thousands of tons 
 of shipping, from British to Continental ports. 
 A remedy by fiscal means, is merely a case 
 of " in at the spigot and out at the bung-hole." 
 
 Individual merchants can do nothing, how- 
 ever patriotic. They say, that for them to 
 act against the ring, is not only to lose their 
 own trade, but to hand it over to those who 
 work with the ring. 
 
 As far as South Africa is concerned, those 
 optimistic reports and plausible statistics, pub- 
 lished from time to time on British trade, are 
 mere delusion of course every nation can 
 show an advance. 
 
 The fact that remains in the background is, 
 that Continentals and Americans are strength- 
 ening their foothold here, and England is not. 
 An importer remarked to me that, as far as he 
 could see, everything pointed to the decline of 
 our trade as compared with the trade of the 

 
 166 LETTERS FROM AN UITLANDER 
 
 foreigners, with South Africa. The latter are 
 increasing their manufacturing plant faster 
 than we are, in all directions, and can take 
 orders for quantities and for quick delivery, 
 that the English are obliged to refuse. This, 
 plus our conservative ideas on makes and 
 patterns, etc., is bad enough of itself, without 
 the curse of a shipping ring. England, like 
 the Rand, suffers from too much gold in too few 
 hands. 
 
 The men who built up her trade in the first 
 half of the century got rich, and their sons and 
 grandsons look on the factory and office as 
 necessary evils, encroaching on athletics, golf, 
 and grouse shooting. If our neighbours throw 
 their whole energy into trade, they will find 
 that the "survival of the fittest "is an im- 
 mutable law, and so shall we. 
 
 There is great depression here, and the 
 uncertainty, and long delay in declaration of 
 taxation measures, is working much mischief, 
 and checking enterprise. And as all South 
 Africa looks, directly or indirectly, to share 
 Rand prosperity, the recovery of the whole 
 country is retarded. There is far less angry 
 talk ; but the contrast is striking, between the 
 buoyant population of five or six years ago,
 
 ANXIOUS WAITING 167 
 
 and the waiting, anxious crowd of to-day. 
 The tone of English papers and reviews adds 
 not a little to the unrest. With all the 
 thousands travelling to and from England, 
 I cannot understand the utterly unreal edi- 
 torial pictures drawn of the Rand and its men. 
 When they do grasp some fact, it is generally 
 neutralised by assumptions and guesses. 
 Everything is presented out of perspective ; 
 as in pre- Raphael work, in which the dead 
 leaf or the bird is as prominent as the 
 mountain. 
 
 Taxing the Rand population is like imposing 
 a tax on a man for having been burnt out 
 of his house. Beside the Boers, we are the 
 only people who have lost by the war. Cape 
 Town, Port Elizabeth, and Durban have had 
 a splendid harvest, and in this the districts 
 adjacent to them have shared. Again, there 
 is the bitter remembrance, that the Cape 
 Bond party shares equally with the Pretoria 
 oligarchy, the responsibility for the war. I 
 remain, Sir Bartle Frere, yours sincerely.
 
 Printed by 
 Oliver & Boyd 
 
 Edinburgh.
 
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