HISTORY OF NATIONS. /'.///. KRcar.K The Story of the Boers NARRATED BY THEIR OWN LEADERS Prepared under the Authority of the South African Republics By C. W. VAN DER HOOGT ILLUSTRATED Preceded by The Policy of Mediation By MONTAGU WHITE Late Consul-General to the South African Kepullict THE BRADLEY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS NTTW YOT7TC COPYRIGHT igOO, BY C. W. VAN DER HOOGT SRLF URL "NOR HAVE I EVER QUESTIONED THAT, IN THE BE- GINNING OF THE TROUBLE, THE BOERS MET WITH "MUCH OF WHICH TO COMPLAIN AT THE HANDS OF "THE BRITISH GOVERNMENTS. THEIR MALTREAT- "MENT WAS NOT INTENTIONAL, INDEED, BUT RATH BR "A RESULT OF THE SYSTEMATIC NEGLECT-TO USE "A MILD WORD -OF COLONIES AND THEIR INHABI- TANTS." H. RIDER HAGGARD, IN THE DEDICATION OF "THE SWALLOW: A TALE OF THE GREAT TREK." PREFACE It is with some hesitation that I venture to un- dertake the rewriting and enlargement of the former issue of this work, which appeared in pamphlet form under the title of "A Century of Injustice," but complying with the wishes of our struggling breth- ren, my dear friends and kinsmen in far South Africa, I have endeavored to explain the real " griev- ances " of the Boer Governments against the wrong- doings of their oppressors. I had only one object in view — namely, to enlighten the American people, especially those in high authority. It is gratifying to state that the book has been favorably received, for many readers have assured me that, after the reading of the plain facts, they have become con- vinced that the cause of the Boers is right. The unexpectedly large demand from all over the country and from all classes of people, as well as the urgent requests of many sympathizers and socie- ties, has induced me to publish the work in a new and revised edition under the title of " The Story of the Boers." The new work has been prepared with great care and is much more complete. It contains, vi PREFACE. among other important official documents, the trea- ties of Sand River, of Pretoria, and of the London convention. The friendly attitude of the press toward our sis- ter republics, especially in my own city, has greatly encouraged me in undertaking this work. I am indebted to my friend, Mr. H. H. de Vos, of New York, ex- Vice -Consul of the Netherlands, for his valuable assistance. I express my renewed thanks to my friends in the East and West for their continued devotion to the good cause; and finally, I sincerely hope — it being my earnest desire to serve the Boers' cause — that the book in its new form may find its way into many homes, not for my own sake, but for that of the Boers. C. W. Van der Hoogt. P^ltimore, Md., March, 1900. CONTENTS. PAGE Preface V The Policy of Mediation, by Montaou White, Late Consul-General of the South African Republic at London, * The Struggle of the Boers to Maintain their In- dependence. A Communication to the American People, by C. W. van der Hoogt :: A Century of Injustice. A Message to the People cf South Africa, sent by the Government of the Sort v African Republic, 7- An Earnest Representation and Historical Reminder, by P. J. Joubert, Vice-President of the South African Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the Burghers' Army, -_' A Proclamation to the Orange Free State Burghers, by M. T. Steyn, President of the Orange Free State, 196 Official Despatches, Exchanged between President Steyn and High Commissioner 201 The Boer Government's Reply to Mr. Chamberlain, . 226 The Sand River Convention of 1852, .... 254 The Pretoria Convention of 18S1, .... 257 The London Convention of 1884, 271 "Het Volkslied," the National Hymn of the South African Republic, 2^5 The Story of the Boers. THE POLICY OF MEDIATION. It must at the outset be admitted that the pros- pects of ending this heartrending tragedy in South Africa by the honorable and satisfactory method of arbitration or mediation do not appear very promis- ing when one remembers the determined efforts of Great Britain during the spring and summer of 1899 to exclude all possibility of a pacific solution of the South African question. When arrangements were being made for the rep- resentation of foreign powers and states at the Peace Conference in Holland, it was felt that the differ- ences between England and the Transvaal were in danger of becoming acute, and an endeavor was made to invite the South African Republic, as well as the Orange Free State, to send delegates to the conference. This step was strenuously and success- fully opposed by Great Britain, because the latter claimed suzerainty over the Republic, a pretension in itself a violation of the convention of London. The Orange Free State at once refused the invita- tion on account of the slight upon its sister Repub- lic. It naturally regarded the proceedings of the conference as farcical if the burning question of the hour in South Africa were to be eliminated. 2 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. Undaunted by the failure to secure the representa- tion of the South African Republic, a further effort was made to introduce the Transvaal question in the conference with a view of its solution by pacific methods. This was as bitterly opposed as the first endeavor, and it is stated that Great Britain threat- ened to withdraw from the conference, and so wreck its international character, if any serious attempt were made in the direction of benevolent interven- tion or discussion in regard to the Transvaal. No better fate attended the efforts of the Peace Party in England and in South Africa. The advo- cates of arbitration in England were browbeaten, in- sulted, and ridiculed, some even being subjected to personal violence, while in South Africa the Pre- mier, Mr. Schreiner, Mr. Hofmeyer, and two-thirds of the Cape Colonists were treated as traitors and entirely ignored by the Imperial Government. The London Times even congratulated Mr. Chamber- lain on his narrow escape from a pacific solution. The negotiations between the two belligerents be- fore the outbreak of hostilities exhibit the strong desire of the Republic to refer all disputes to arbi- tration, a point only partially and ungraciously con- ceded by Great Britain after many efforts, and then emasculated by the declaration of the High Com- missioner that many of the questions at issue could not in any case be settled by that method. The Transvaal Government was finally convinced that only two courses were left open — viz. , an abject and dishonorable surrender on its part, or the arbit- rament of the sword. Turning from this brief review of the past to glance at present conditions, it would be idle to ignore the THE POLICY OF MEDIATION. 3 fact that the reverses of the British during- the past five months have inflicted so serious a blow upon the pride and prestige of Great Britain as to constitute for the time being a formidable obstacle in the path of those who are advocating conciliatory methods. The proceedings in Parliament and the recent reports from England all tend to reflect the present deter- mination of the British public to retrieve the disas- ters in South Africa, and practically to carry out the policy of "seeing it through " to the bitter end. The exultation called forth by the relief of Lady- smith and the surrender of Commandant Cronje and his burghers to an overwhelmingly superior force ap- pears so feverish and so unbridled as to awaken pain- ful misgivings about the ultimate settlement. But the end of the war is not yet within sight. The defensive campaign is likely to be less dramatic than the events of the last few months, but it will be protracted and wearisome even to the cosmopolitan financiers who are so largely responsible for the whole tragedy. Many things may happen before the British flag waves over the country on the north- ern bank of the Vaal, and the English people are fortunately endowed with a quality which has com- pelled the admiration of many foreigners, French- men in particular — and that is "political common setise." It is only natural for a great and proud nation to feel the bitterness of serious reverses at the hands of a " few undisciplined farmers." But events involving prompt action may easily happen in other quarters of the world where the interests of Great Britain are far more vulnerable and important than the issues in South Africa, while the shameful ineptitude which brought about this unnecessary war 4 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. must daily become clearer and clearer to Englishmen in spite of all the sophistry of adroit debaters. The courage, gallantry, and heroism of their foes must also in the end appeal to such admirers of pluck as Englishmen are credited to be. The arguments in favor of ending this war are indeed irresistible. It is an outrage upon civilization as well as an insult to both those who brought about the Peace Confer- ence and to those who took part in it. The century closes with a Peace Convention intended to avert the horror of war between nations, and lo and behold ! immediately afterward a Great Power, termed the mother of civilization, is locked in a deadly embrace with two little States, the aggregate population of which does not exceed 300,000 souls, for reasons which have been rejected as insufficient and immoral by the conscience of the civilized world. On this subject there is practically only one voice in Europe outside of Great Britain. In the United States this voice is strengthened by the sentiment of the over whelming majority of citizens. England will gain practically little in South Africa by victory. She is already mistress of the commercial and industrial developments ; and the vindictive and pitiless settle- ment after victory, foreshadowed by Mr. Chamber- lain, will add to and not diminish her embarrass- ment. A garrison of 50,000 soldiers will not prove a permanent guarantee of peace, because, though the Dutch may be defeated, they will never be con- quered. Passing from considerations of morality to ques- tions of interest, it is easy to note that the financial circles and stock exchanges which gleefully looked forward to a " walk-over " and a triumphant resulting THE POLICY OF MEDIATION. 5 boom are now becoming- uneasy and restive. Gen- eral transactions are restricted, and the holders of South African stocks are slowly grasping the fact that they may be saddled with the cost of this war when Great Britain possesses herself of the Wit- waters and gold mines. They may realize in bitter- ness the truth of the quotation, " My father chastised you with whips, but I shall chastise you with scor- pions. " How can the war then be stopped? Only by the friendly representation and disinterested mediation of a third Power, whose good offices would not be misunderstood by or unacceptable to either belliger- ent. No Continental Power can under the circum- stances be expected to mediate with success. Ger- many has a footing in Southwest Africa- France is in Madagascar; and Russia is regarded in too preju- diced a light by Great Britain to be of any value as a benevolent neutral. There is only one Power which might at a favorable opportunity successfully intervene, and that is the United States of America. It is so obvious, that it has occurred not only to the shrewdest statesman in Europe — I refer to His Holi- ness the Pope — but even to the humblest friends of peace in England and elsewhere. The stipulation of the American delegates to the conference embod- ied in The Hague convention, now formally ratified by the Senate, the Monroe Doctrine, and the car- dinal principle as to the avoidance of " entangling alliances," have all been urged as reasons which pre- clude the possibility of mediation or friendly inter- vention. Taking the last first, it is obvious that there is no question here of "entangling alliances," for neutrality is the very essence of successful inter- 6 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. vention. With regard to the Monroe Doctrine, as a stranger, I must confess to a sense of bewilderment as to its application. I read in one newspaper that the Philippine policy is a violation of that doctrine. In another I find it stated that the new Nicaraguan treaty drives a hole through the Monroe Doctrine as effectively as a canal would pierce the isthmus. I plead that my ignorance on this point is excusable, and I trust I shall be pardoned if in my enthusiasm for my cause I reject the argument as unworthy, and dismiss the Monroe Doctrine as an effective obstacle to the performance of a benevolent action. Nor ought any academic objections, as the stipula- tions made by the American delegates to the Peace Convention, stand in the way of carrying out the laudable ends which the conference aimed at accom- plishing. The United States is not debarred from offering mediation if there is a genuine desire to do so. The praiseworthy theories advocated last year at The Hague have unfortunately been sterilized by the savage instincts underlying civilization, but that fact ought not to arrest the hands of those who sincerely welcomed and took part in that great peace move- ment from putting its principles into practice. It is necessary to take higher ground and appeal to the altruistic interest of humanity in furthering the fundamental principles of Right and Liberty against Might and Tyranny. But it may be urged that the United States can- not force intervention upon either belligerent, or make urgent diplomatic representations to Great Britain as to the necessity of stopping this war. The first alternative is ridiculous and can be dismissed at once, and the second is nearly as absurd, because THE FOLIC i OF MEDIA! ION. 7 urgent representations would be undiplomatic and would produce friction, thus proving fatal to the suc- cess of the idea. But there is a third and better method, which it is unnecessary to indicate beyond stating that it would have to be followed in the true spirit of diplomacy, so that when the favorable op- portunity occurs the effort may be fruitfully made and crowned with success; as it undoubtedly would, for American friendship is just now a political necessity in England. Friendly intervention, if properly brought about, would not be misunderstood either by the government or the people of Great Britain, and would inevitably tend to strengthen good feeling between the two countries. An under- standing between the English-speaking people of the world has been strongly advocated as a beneficent factor in the spread of civilization. It would be a terrible calamity to the world and a gross scandal if such an understanding tended, cither by active co- operation or by a sterile attitude of correct and pas- sive neutrality, to further the cause of tyranny and oppression, or to crush the very principles of Liberty and Independence which constitute the foundation of this great Republic. If there are to be "hands across the sea," let them be stretched out for some better purpose than to seize gold fields and other unconsidered trifles on the hypocritical plea that the cause of civilization and humanity is enhanced by such international crimes. Do not let " the white man's burden " be the plunder and spoliation of the weaker man and the suppression of his liberty be- cause his ideas of franchise and naturalization do not square with your own. One of the first esse ntials in pursuing a policy of THE STORY OF THE BOERS. mediation is the education of the English people as to the depth and strength of American sentiment on the subject of this war. It would seem that English newspapers have issued " sealed orders " to their cor- respondents abroad to furnish only such news as will harmonize with the views and wishes of the editor, varied by occasional abuse of distinguished English politicians in the opposite camp. It is necessary for the English public to know — not the irreproachable sentiments of the exclusive " society " man who lays stress upon the English kinship, not the views of the Wall Street broker who voices the financial interests, but — the genuine American feeling as to the great fundamentals of Right, Freedom, and Independence which are involved in this struggle. The British public is being wofully misled about the trend of public opinion in America on the South African war. For instance, one reads with pain and dismay such communications as the following, tele- graphed by "our own Washington correspondent" to the London Times, and published in that journal on the 17th of January, 1900: " Opinions and feelings are divided here as else- where, but the best opinion and the best feeling is preponderantly Anglo-American. There is no mis- taking the opinion in official circles. The expres- sion of it is necessarily guarded because it is official, but it is overwhelmingly for England. ' When I am asked,' said one of the highest in position, 'what my sympathies are, I say they are American. ' He added reflectively : ' We do not think American in- terests will be advanced by Boer dominion in South Africa. ' " With regard to the contention that the United THE POLICY OF MEDIATION. 9 States, though willing to use its friendly offices, can- not intervene unless requested to do so by both bel- ligerents, it maybe urged that if the two combatants jointly desire peace they can dispense with the ser- vices of a mediator and settle the matter among them- selves. To remain passive until such a contingency arises, and then offer to mediate, would be a cheap and tawdry act of benevolence. The essence of mediation is that a friendly neutral should act spon- taneously and on its own initiative. The proceedings of Imperial rule in South Africa, going hand in hand with Force, Fraud, and Folly, offer a grim commen- tary upon the altruism which its doctrinaire advo- cates are continually predicating about the Pax Bri- tannica. The Pax Britannica indeed ! We in South Africa have seen but little of its beneficence. Hardly a decade passes but what bloodshed and plunder mark the track of this much-vaunted civili- zation. When the Boers were forced by the treach- ery of the natives to undertake punitive expedi- tions, after their wives and children had been cruelly massacred, they were vilified and slandered as being brutal and cruel oppressors of the natives. But when the Matabele were being mowed down by Maxim guns six years ago on the flimsiest of pre- texts, in order to enhance the share value of the Chartered Company's undertakings, it was charac- terized by a right honorable member of the British Cabinet as the " inevitable, though regretable, result of the contact between barbarism and civilization." As General Joubert once remarked : " I wonder if the English really believe that the natives enjoy the process of being killed when death is inflicted by an Englishman and not by a Boer." IO THE STORY OF THE BOERS. What we want in South Africa is Peace— perma- nent Peace; not a patched-up sham that will pass muster for twenty years. Let there be true, equal rights for the two races, with no battalions or flying squadrons to fortify the illegal pretensions of one section only. To insure permanent peace a benevo- lent neutral is indispensable. The ideal mediator which is only a synonym for the United States in re- gard to this war — is therefore urged to use its great and irresistible power to perform an act which will advance the cause of real and true civilization, not the "fin de stecle" sham civilization which is only savagery veneered with hypocrisy. Mediation would, in the first place, give expression to and satisfy the generous sentiments and impulses of the true American people ; it would, secondly, re- ceive the indorsement and approval of the civilized world ; thirdly, it would extricate Great Britain from a false and embarrassing situation; and lastly, it would provide an effective, though unfettered, guar- antee of their dearly bought Liberty and Indepen- dence to two brave little States in South Africa. Montagu White. THE STRUGGLE OF OUR BRETHREN IN SOUTH AFRICA TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. A COMMUNICATION TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. " O Lord, we thank Thee for Thy goodness and mercy Thou hast bestowed upon us to make our land and people free and independent." These simple words were spoken years ago by President Kruger from the pulpit of the Dutch Re- formed Church in Zaandam, Holland, as the guest of my brother, Rev. M. J. Van der Hoogt, to a great multitude, who came to see and to greet " the grand old man" from South Africa. This took place on the occasion of his visit to Holland, after the conven- tion made with the British Government at London, in 1SS4. He preached a sermon and at the same time he gave a little sketch of the struggle in which his people have been engaged for almost a century. His touching story, told in plain and simple lan- guage, compelled tears from the eyes of his audience. Those who were present will never lose the impres- sion his appearance made upon them. They will remember Oom Paul with sympathy, admiration, and respect. His people believe his words, because he is a Christian in the noble sense of the word ; and because he loves them and is beloved by them. 12 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. And yet, many stories about his barbarism have been told! How much injustice he has endured from the hands of his accusers! Those who have once met this noble figure, looked in his kind but resolute eyes, and grasped his firm hand, know why his people admire and love him. He deserves the confidence of his country, which he serves with a devotion perhaps unequalled in this world. He soon after left Holland and returned to his native land with great satisfaction, having accom- plised a good work in making his country Free and Independent. That hateful word " suzerainty " had disappeared from the articles of the new convention. As the head of a sovereign power, though humble and small in compass and population, he arrived in the capital of the South African Republic as the pre- server of his people. The country prospered. He now is serving his fourth term as President of that sturdy Dutch Republic, which has proven and is now proving to the world that it is in existence as a free and independent nation. Years have passed in peace under his administration, but circumstances always made it necessary to keep a watchful eye upon the movements of Great Britain. Many misleading and designedly false statements have been made relative to the Transvaal's Presi- dent and the Boers. The English press seem al- ways eager to attack the President personally, even in his private life, and they endeavor to have these stories widely circulated, especially on this side of the ocean. Many exaggerated statements have been pub- lished as to his accumulation of wealth; for instance, that the President by his economy and that of Mrs. Kruger has saved his annual salary and lived on his TO MAINTAIN THEIR [NDEPENDENCE. 13 coffee money — $1,500 per annum — which he receives in addition. No ignobler attack could have been made. Those who are acquainted with the way of life in South Africa know that it would be impossible to live on such a small sum, as the humblest state offi- cial gets almost that amount of salary. Life in South Africa, especially in Transvaal, is very ex- pensive, and it takes a large sum to live in the way the President does. The so-called coffee money is simply for audience expense. It is an old fashion of the Dutch, not only in South Africa, but all over the world, where they are located, to offer their guests coffee, and Presi- dent Kruger has his audiences early in the morning. Everybody is allowed to see him, and no one will leave before receiving a treat of coffee, with cake. I am sure that Mrs. Kruger needs all the money al- lowed for this audience expense, and probably more, for the army of guests daily visiting the President. At half-past five in the morning the President is to be found under his veranda to receive every burgher without any ceremony. Oom Paul and Tante Kru- ger are very hospitable and generous to the poor, and I know that they do much good without mak- ing it public. Both would be ready to give up at any time all they have to save their beloved country. The words "oom" and "tante" mean uncle and aunt, and from olden times the Dutch have given these names to popular and beloved persons. The people are devoted to them, and the President and Mrs. Kruger regard it as an honor to be called by these pet names. An African Boer could never become rich in 14 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. money, but only in land and cattle. Money was always scarce in the Transvaal, and especially be- fore gold was discovered. They have not profited by it. There has been from the English side much talk of filling the pockets of the Boers and accumu- lation of wealth. This is unjust. The Boers in general are to-day no better off than they were be- fore the gold discovery. They love their land and their cattle, and they are not anxious to become gold hunters or rich mine owners The continual assaults upon Mr. Kruger and the comments upon his private life show a sad lack of good arguments, and it may be asked with what right the English could resent like attacks upon the Queen, when they resort to the same contemptible methods in regard to the official head of a friendly state? But this mode of vilification and defamation is peculiar to the English people and their press. It has been aptly said that " those whom England would destroy with her bullets she first attempts to blacken with her printers' ink." When we call to mind how the English press vented upon the immortal Lincoln its vilest spleen and bitterest scoffs and jests during the whole four years of his efforts to save the Union, in order that " free government might not perish from the earth," Oom Paul may well feel proud of the British contumely and hate vented upon himself. ' The oppressor' s ivrong, the proud mans con- tumely" scathes no honest man whose cause is just. Here is an answer to English vilification, which every English writer would do well to read and pon- der. It carries its own lesson. It was published anonymously in London Punch on May 6, 1865. TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 15 Accompanying it was an engraving of Britannia mourning at Lincoln's bier and placing a wreath thereon. Columbia was represented as weeping at the head of the President, and at the foot of the bier was a slave with broken shackles. Underneath was the inscription, " Britannia Sympathizes with Colum- bia." You lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln's bier, You, who with mocking pencil wont to trace. Broad for the self-complacent British sneer, His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face, His gaunt, gnarled hands, his unkempt bristling hair, His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease, His lack of all we prize as debonair, Of power or will to shine, of art to please. You, whose smart pen backed up the pencil's laugh, Judging each step, as though the road were plain ; Reckless, so it could point its paragraph, Of chief's perplexity, or people's pain. Beside this corpse, that bears the winding sheet The Stars and Stripes he lived to rear anew, Between the mourners at his head and feet, Say, scurril-jester, is there room for you? Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, To lame my pencil, and confute my pen — To make me own this hind of princes peer, This rail-splitter a true-born king of men ! The Washington Mirror, from which I clip this humiliating recantation, says that " not until within a year or so ago did it become generally known that the author was the dramatist, Tom Taylor, author of the comedy, ' Our American Cousin,' a perform- ance of which President Lincoln was attending at the time when he was assassinated on April 14, 1865." 16 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. " The object of the publication of this book is to enlighten the American people and to demonstrate that it is not the Boers but England that is in the wrong. Our people have been wrongly informed on the South African question, because they have heard so many one-sided statements which came from English sources. " We owe it to the citizens of this great Republic to inform them about the plain facts, based upon official documents." — Transvaal Green Book. To those who have closely followed the history of the South African question it will be plain that one of the main causes of the present war was the dis- covery of gold in large quantities in different parts of the South African Republic in 1886, especially in the district of Witwatersrand. What to another country might have been a blessing has been in many respects a curse for the South African Repub- lic. The discovery of these immensely rich gold fields caused a total revolution in the economical and political situation of the Republic. From a state of comparative poverty the South African Republic developed in the course of a few years into a rich and prosperous country. But this increase of wealth was not to the special benefit of the farming popu- lation, but of adventurers who swarmed into their domain from all lands to hunt for gold. The gov- ernment made mining laws more liberal than those of any other country, and they were made in such a way as to prevent capitalists from obtaining monopolies. The object was to suit the mixed population, but the complaints of the English ad- venturers never ceased. The sudden change of conditions would certainly TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE, i" have puzzled any government, and no fair minded man could expect that the Bolt- government would be able to cope with all its requirements. In her brilliant essay, "The South African Ques- tion," the distinguished authoress, Olive Schreiner, sister of the Premier of Cape Colony, who is favor- ably known among the Afrikanders and admired by the English population, says: " We put it, not to the man in the street, who, for lack of time or interest, may have given no thought to such matters, but to all statesmen, of whatever nationality, who have gone deeply into the problems of social structure and the practical science of gov- ernment, and to all thinkers who have devoted time and study to the elucidation of social problems and the structure of societies and nations, whether the problem placed suddenly for solution before this lit- tle state does not exceed in complexity and diffi- culty that which it has almost ever been a necessity that the people of any country in the past or present should deal with? When we remember how gravely is discussed the arrival of a few hundred thousand Chinamen in America, who are soon lost in the vast bulk of the population, as a handful of chaff is lost in a bag of corn; when we recall the fact that the appearance in England of a few thoiisand laboring Polish and Russian Jews amidst a vast population, into which they will be absorbed in less than two generations, forming good and leal English sub- jects, has been solemnly adverted upon as a great national calamity, and measures have been weightily discussed for forcibly excluding them, it will assur- edly be clear, to all impartial and truth loving minds, that the problem which the Transvaal Republic has 2 1 8 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. suddenly had to deal with is one of transcendent complexity and difficulty. "We put it to all generous and just spirits, whether of statesmen or thinkers, whether the lit- tle Republic does not deserve our sympathy, the sympathy which wise minds give to all who have to deal with new and complex problems, where the past experience of humanity has not marked out a path — and whether, if we touch the subject at all, it is not necessary that it should be in that large, im- partial, truth-seeking spirit, in which humanity de- mands we should approach all great social difficul- ties and questions? " We put it further to such intelligent minds as have impartially watched the action and endeavors of the little Republic in dealing with its great prob- lems, whether, when all the many sides and complex conditions are considered, it has not manfully and wonderfully endeavored to solve them* " It is sometimes said that when one stands looking down from the edge of this hill at the great mining camp of Johannesburg stretching beneath, with its heaps of white sand and debris mountains high, its mining chimneys belching forth smoke, with its seventy thousand Kaffirs, and its eighty thousand men and women, white or colored, of all nationali- ties, gathered here in the space of a few years, on the spot where fifteen years ago the Boer's son guided his sheep to the water and the Boer's wife sat alone at evening at the house door to watch the sunset, we are looking upon one of the most won- derful spectacles on earth. And it is wonderful; but, as we look at it, the thought always arises within us of something more wonderful yet — the TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 19 marvellous manner in which a little nation of sim] folk, living in peace in the land they loved, far from the rush of cities and the concourse of men, have risen to the difficulties of their condition ; how they, without instruction in statecraft, or traditionary rules of policy, have risen to face their great diffi- culties, and have sincerely endeavored to meet them in a large spirit, and have largely succeeded. Noth- ing but that curious and wonderful instinct for state- craft and the organization and arrangement of new social conditions which seem inherent as a gift of the blood to all those people who took their rise in the little deltas on the northeast of the continent of Europe, where the English and Dutch peoples alike took their rise, could have made it possible. We do not say that the Transvaal Republic has among its guides and rulers a Solon or a Lycurgus; but it has to-day among the men guiding its destiny men of brave and earnest spirit, who are seeking manfully and profoundly to deal with the great problems be- fore them in a wide spirit of humanity and justice. And we do again repeat, that the strong sympathy of all earnest and thoughtful minds, not only in Africa, but in England, should be with them." Has the South African Republic received this gen- eral sympathy, especially from England, from tli> mother of civilization ? The facts speak for them- selves and need no comment. Ever since the discovery of the gold fields the British Colonial Office has aided and abetted those who sought to dcstro) T the little Republic. It w with that object in view that the Chartered Com- pany of South Africa was established by Mr, Ce Rhodes, the man who some sixteen years ago de- 20 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. clared that within twenty years he would change the map of South Africa. The constant desire of the Colonial Office was to see the Republic become a part of the British Em- pire. The first demonstration to that end took place when in 1890 President Kruger visited Johannes- burg. The flag of the Republic was pulled down from the government building by these English aliens, and the President was insulted by them. The intrigues of Mr. Rhodes and his company reached their climax in 1895 in the infamous Jame- son Raid, and it was from that time that the Boer Government came to the conclusion that the great struggle for the existence and independence of the Republic was unavoidable. Mr. Chamberlain, speaking of the Jameson Raid, said in his speech in the House of Commons on May 8, 1899: " To go to war with President Kruger to enforce upon him reforms in the internal affairs of his state, in which secretaries of state, standing in their places, have repudiated all right of interference — that would be a course of action which would be immoral." And yet Mr. Stead, the well-known apostle of peace, in his Review of Revieivs, openly accuses Mr. Chamberlain of being an accomplice in that raid. He says that Jameson, Rhodes, and Chamberlain were in constant communication before the raid was accomplished. We all know how the ringleaders of this raid, after their cowardly surrender at Krugersdorp, were treated by President Kruger. Instead of following the example set by the Brit- ish Government by the cruel slaughter at Slach- TO .U. ... CE. 21 tersnek in i S 1 6, the prisoners were surrendered to the British Government, with the expectation that they would he adequately punished, and that an in- demnity would be paid to the Boer Government. We all know how inadequately Jameson was pun- ished, and that the indemnity remains unpaid wholly to the present moment, although Sir Alfred Milner declared at the Bloemfontein conference of May, 1899, that the Government had decided upon prin- ciple that the Chartered Company must pay an indemnity, and that a despatch relating to the mat- ter had been forwarded to him by Mr. Chamberlain. It is fair to assume that this despatch is still on its way from Downing Street to Cape Town. Here again is an illustration of the action of a great power toward a little republic. If that out- rage had occurred in this or any other large coun- try, it would have led to a war or an apology, with the payment of an immense indemnity to the in- jured party; but when it took place in that little country in South Africa the claim was simply ig- nored. The Jameson Raid was disastrous in every respect to the plans of Messrs. Rhodes and Chamberlain. It caused the Boer Government to prepare itself with all possible energy for the final struggle, which it well knew could not be averted; and in the Cape Colony it caused a very strong resentment among the Afrikander element, which culminated in the downfall of the Rhodes administration and in the ac- cession of an Afrikander Ministry under Mr. Schrei- ner. The burghers of the Orange Free State also became convinced that the independence of their State was equally endangered, and as a consequence 22 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. the two Republics made a treaty for their mutual defence. After the failure of the Jameson Raid Mr. Cham- berlain made up his mind to pursue a different course, and accordingly he made himself the noble and dis- interested defender of the much-abused Uitlanders. Their " grievances " were to be redressed by what Mr. Rhodes was pleased to call " constitutional means." And here it may be asked, Who are these Uit- landers and why did they go to the South African Republic? Did they come there with the motives which animated the emigrants daily landing on our shores? Did they come with the purpose to make South Africa their permanent home and to become true citizens of the South African Republic? The answer is "No!" a thousand times "No!" They came merely in search of gold, and with the sole pur- pose of becoming rich in the shortest possible time and then to return whence they came. This is true of the great majority of the Uitlanders, and especially true in regard to the Englishmen. In this connec- tion we desire to repeat the question that was asked in the Dutch address to the British people — viz. : " Does such a checkered, greedy population, be its members individually ever so respectable, afford the sound material which a thriving, self-governing com- munity stands so much in need of? Is a moral at- mosphere, saturated chiefly with ideas of gold dig- ging, speculation, and stock jobbing, a wholesome 4 milieu ' for favoring the development of such ele- mentary civic virtues as public spirit, love of equity, and sense of justice? " I leave the answer to every fair minded, unprejudiced man. TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 23 These Uitlanders then clamored for the elective franchise. But could the Boer Government expect that such people would exercise that sacred right in the interest of the Republic > As a matter of fact most of these " abused " Uitlanders, especially the English, felt no love but only hatred for the Repub- lic. Still they insisted upon their "right" to the franchise, and at the same time they must be al- lowed to remain faithful subjects of Her Majesty ! If this was not the political status they wanted to assume, why should Sir Alfred Milner have objected to the draft of the Oath of Allegiance proposed by President Kruger at the Bloemfontein conference? And why should he have preferred the Orange Free State form, which was less positive on the point of forswearing allegiance to the Queen? Still the Boer Government made concessions on this point, going even further than suggested by ihe High Commissioner at Bloemfontein. The following letters to the British agent at Pre- toria prove the sincerity of the South African Re- public Government to settle this difference : [translation.] " Department ok Foreign Affairs, Government Office, "Pretoria, August 19, 1899. "Sir: With reference to your request for a joint inquiry, contained in your dispatches of 2 and 3 August, the Government of the South African Re- public have the honor to suggest the alternative proposal for the consideration of Her Majesty's Gov- ernment, which this Government trusts may lead to final settlement. 24 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. " i. The Government are willing to recommend to the Volksraad and the People a five years' retrospect- ive franchise, as proposed by His Excellency the High Commissioner at Bloemfontein on i June, 1899. " 2. The Government are further willing to recom- mend to the Volksraad that eight new seats in the First Volksraad and, if necessary, also in the Second Volksraad, be given to the population of the Wit- watersrand, thus with the two sitting members of the Goldfields, giving to the population thereof ten representatives in a Raad of thirty-six, and in future the representation of the Goldfields of this Republic shall not fall below the proportion of one-quarter of the total. " 3. The new burghers shall, equally with the old burghers, be entitled to vote at the election for State President and Commandant General. " 4. This Government will always be prepared to take into consideration such friendly suggestions regarding the details of the Franchise Law as Her Majesty's Government, through the British Agent, may wish to convey to it. "5. In putting forward the above proposals the Government of the South African Republic as- sumes: "a. That Her British Majesty's Government will agree that the present intervention shall not form a precedent for future similar action, and that in the future no interference in the internal affairs of the Republic will take place. " b. That Her Majesty's Government will not fur- ther insist on the assertion of the Suzerainty, the controversy on this subject being allowed tacitly to drop. TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 25 "c. That arbitration (from which foreign element, other than Orange Free State, is to be excluded) will be conceded as soon as the franchise scheme has become law. "6. Immediately on Her British Majesty's Gov- ernment accepting this proposal for a settlement, the Government will ask the Volksraad to adjourn for the purpose of consulting the people about it, and the whole scheme might become law, say, within a few weeks. "7. In the mean time the form and scope of the proposed tribunal are also to be discussed and pro- visionally agreed upon, while the franchise scheme is being referred to the people, so that no time may be lost in putting an end to the present state of affairs. "The Government trusts that Her Majesty's Gov- ernment will clearly understand that in the opinion of this Government the existing franchise law of this Republic is both fair and liberal to the new population, and that the consideration that induces them to go further, as they do in the above pro- posals, is their strong desire to get the controver- sies between the two governments settled, and fur- ther to put an end to the present strained relations between the two governments, and the incalculable harm and loss it has already occasioned in South Africa, and to prevent a racial war, from the effects of which South Africa may not recover for many generations, perhaps never at all, and therefore this Government, having regard for all these circum- stances, would highly appreciate it, if Her Majesty's Government, seeing the necessity of preventing the present crisis from developing still further and the 26 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. urgency of an early termination of the present state of affairs, would expedite the acceptance or refusal of the settlement here offered. " I have the honor to be, Sir, " Your obedient servant, "F. W. Reitz, " State Secretary. " The Honorable "W. CONYNGHAM GREENE, C. B. , " British Agent, " Pretoria. [translation.] " Department of Foreign Affairs, Government Office. "Pretoria, August 21, 1899. "Sir: In continuation of my dispatch of the 19th instant and with reference to the communication to you of the State Attorney this morning, I wish to forward you the following in explanation thereof, with the request that the same may be telegraphed to His Excellency the High Commissioner as form- ing part of the proposals of this government em- bodied in the above-named despatch : " 1. The proposals of this Government regarding the question of franchise and representation con- tained in that despatch must be regarded as ex- pressly conditional, on Her Majesty's Government consenting to the points set forth in par. 5 of the de- spatch — viz. : " a. In future not to interfere in the internal affairs of the South African Republic. " b. Not to insist further on its assertion of the existence of the Suzerainty. TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 27 **C. To agree to arbitration. "2. With reference to par. 6 of the despatch, this Government trusts that it is clear to Her Majesty's Government that this Government has not consulted the Volksraad as to this question, and will only do so when an affirmative reply to its proposals has been received from Her Majesty's Government. " I have the honor to be, Sir, " Your obedient servant, "F. W. Reitz, " State Secretary. " The Honorable "W. CONYNGHAM GREENE, C. B. , " British Agent, "Pretoria." These letters were only written after the Boer Government had been confidentially assured by the British agent, Mr. Conyngham Greene, that the pro- posals formulated therein would be acceptable to this government. And how were these proposals received ? The following answer was sent by the British agent : " Her Majesty's Agency, "Pretoria, August 30, 1899. " Sir : With reference to your notes to me of the 19th and 2 1 st instant I have to state to you that Her Majesty's Government have considered the pro- posals which the Government of the South African Republic have put forward therein as an alternative to those contained in the telegram from the Secre- tary of State to the High Commissioner of the 31st of July last, the substance of which I had the honor 28 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. to communicate to you in my note of the 2d of August. " Her Majesty's Government assume that the adoption in principle of the franchise proposals made by the High Commissioner at Bloemfontein will not be hampered by any conditions which would impair their effect, and that by the proposed increase of seats for the Gold Fields and by other provisions the Government of the South African Republic intend to grant immediate and substantial representation of the Uitlanders. "That being so, Her Majesty's Government are unable to appreciate the objections entertained by the Government of the South African Republic to a Joint Commission of Inquiry into the complicated details and technical questions on which the prac- tical effect of the proposals depends. Her Majesty's Government will, however, be ready to agree that the British Agent, assisted by such other persons as the High Commissioner may appoint, shall make the investigation necessary to satisfy them that the re- sult desired will be achieved, and, failing this, to enable them to make those suggestions which the Government of the South African Republic state that they will be prepared to take into considera- tion. Her Majesty's Government assume that every facility will be given to the British Agent by the Government of the South African Republic, and they would point out that the inquiry will be easier and shorter if the Government of the South African Republic will omit in the proposed new Law the complicated conditions as to previous registration, qualification and behavior which accompanied their previous proposals and which would have entirely TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 29 nullified their beneficial effect. EJer Majesty's Government hope that the Government of the South African Republic will wait to receive their suggestions founded on the report of the British Agent's investigation before submitting these new- proposals to the Volksraad and the burghers. " With regard to the conditions of the Government of the South African Republic : 41 First, as regards intervention, Her Majesty's Government hope that the fulfilment of the prom- ises made and the just treatment of the Uitlanders in future will render unnecessary any further inter- vention on their behalf, but Pier Majesty's Govern- ment cannot of course debar themselves from their rights under the conventions, nor divest themselves of the ordinary obligations of any civilized power to protect its subjects in a foreign country from injus- tice. "Secondly, with regard to Suzerainty, Her Maj- esty's Government would refer the Government of the South African Republic to the second paragraph of the despatch of the Secretary of State to the High Commissioner of the 13th of July last, a copy of which I had the honor to forward to you in my note of the 8th instant. "Thirdly, Her Majesty's Government agree to a discussion of the form and scope of a tribunal of arbitration from which foreigners and foreign influ- ence are excluded. " Such a discussion, which will be of the highest importance to the future relations of the two coun- tries, should be carried on between the President of the South African Republic and the High Commis- sioner, and for this it appears to be necessary that a 30 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. further Conference, which Her Majesty's Govern- ment suggest should be held at Cape Town, should be at once arranged. " Her Majesty's Government also desire to remind the Government of the South African Republic that there are other matters of difference between the two governments which will not be settled by the grant of political representation of the Uitlanders and which are not proper subjects for reference to arbitration. It is necessary that these should be settled concurrently with the questions now under discussion, and they will form with the question of arbitration proper subjects for consideration at the proposed conference. " I have the honor to be, Sir, " Your obedient servant, " CONYNGHAM GREENE. "*The Honorable the State Secretary." The paragraph in the despatch of Mr. Chamber- lain to Sir Alfred Milner, of July 13, 1899, above referred to, reads as follows : " Her Majesty's Government concur generally in the views in your despatch and have no intention of continuing to discuss this question with the Govern- ment of the Republic, whose contention that the South African Republic is a sovereign international State is not in their opinion warranted either by law or history, and is wholly inadmissible. They there- fore confine themselves to a very brief review of his- torical facts and of the opinions and intentions of their predecessors, on whose advice Her Majesty was pleased to grant — first the Pretoria Convention TO MAINTAIN THE] DEPENDENCE. 31 and later the London Convention — as shown in their official statements at the time." Was this an acceptance or a rejection of the Boer proposals? Mr. Chamberlain has claimed recently that it was an acceptance. But the South African Republic took it for a refusal, and Mr. Chamber- lain had the sad courage not to correct this wrong- interpretation of his reply. It will be noted that the Boer Government had made its proposal for a five years' retrospective fran- chise, subject to three conditions, viz., Her Majesty's Government : (a) In future not to interfere in the internal affairs of the South African Republic. (b) Not to insist further on its assertion of the existence of the suzerainty. (c) To agree to arbitration. Now we see that the answer to the first two con- ditions was no answer at all, and that the half affirm- ative answer to the third condition was deprived of all practical value by the additional statement that there were other matters of difference between the two Governments " which are not proper subjects for reference to arbitration." If this answer of Mr. Conyngham Greene was not a rejection of the Boer proposals — and Mr. Chamber- lain has claimed it was not — we can only assur that it was clothed in such obscure form that the Government of the Republic should take it as a re- fusal. As a matter of fact, it was so taken, and, under date of September 2, 1899, the South African Republic withdrew its offer of a five years' fran- chise, but declared its willingness to continue nego- 32 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. tiations on the basis of its prior proposals. The subsequent answer of the British agent, under date of September 12, 1899, says that: *' Her Majesty's Government cannot now consent to go back to the proposals for which those in the note of the Government of the Republic of the 19th of August are intended as a substitute." And he ends with the following ultimatum : " If, however, as they most anxiously hope will not be the case, the reply of the Government of the South African Republic is negative or inconclusive, I am to state to you that Her Majesty's Government must reserve to themselves the right to reconsider the situation de novo and to formulate their own proposals for a final settlement." And what was the positive and conclusive reply which Her Majesty's Government " most anxiously " hoped to receive? Nothing more or less than that the South African Republic would grant the five years' retrospective franchise with the increased number of Rand representatives in the Volksraad, and waive the three conditions enumerated in the letter of August 19th. And while asking the South African Republic to waive the conditions under which the offer was made, Mr. Chamberlain deemed it advisable to make some conditions him- self, both of them humiliating to the Boers, and which he knew could not possibly be accepted. These British conditions were that an inquiry should be made, either joint or unilateral, " that the new scheme of representation will not be encum- bered by conditions which will nullify the intention TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 33 to give substantial and immediate representation to the Uitlander"; and, furthermore, "Her Majesty's Government assume that, as stated to the British agent " (which was never done either officially or confidentially), " the new members of the Volksraad will be permitted to use their own language." And this demand was made by the same Government that, about seventy-five years before, had denied to the Boers the use of their own language, in violation of the guarantees given at the time of the transfer of the Cape Colony to the British in 1806. The most important condition insisted upon by the South African Republic, in connection with its offer of a five years' franchise, was that the British Government should not insist further on its asser- tion of Suzerainty. The Boers were compelled to make this a " conditio sine qua non" in view of Mr. Chamberlain's assertion of the existence of British suzerainty. In regard to the alleged suzerainty, it would be sufficient to call our readers' attention to the London Convention of 1884, the full text of which, and also of the Pretoria and Sand River con- ventions, are given in this book, to show that Mr. Chamberlain's claim was totally unjustifiable, and that the South African Republic was then and is still a sovereign and independent state. This is the status of the Republic, notwithstanding Article 4 of that Convention provided that the South African Repub- lic would conclude no treaty with any state or nation, other than Orange Free State, without Her Majes- ty's approval. At most, this was no more than a treaty stipulation between two sovereign powers. The present war has ended this treaty. Mr. Chamberlain was evidently satisfied that he 3 34 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. could not base his assertion of the existence of suze- rainty on that article of the London convention, and he therefore made the discovery that only the arti- cles of the Pretoria Convention of 1881, but not its preamble, were superseded by the 1884 Convention. This novel claim was for the first time set up in Mr. Chamberlain's despatch of October 16, 1897, to the High Commissioner, in answer to the proposal of the South African Republic that all points in dispute between the two Governments relating to the convention should be referred to arbitration, the arbitrator to be nominated by the President of the Swiss Republic. In reply to this proposal, Mr. Chamberlain said: " Finally, the Government of the South African Republic propose that all points in dispute between Her Majesty's Government and themselves relating to the Convention should be referred to arbitration, the arbitrator to be nominated by the President of the Swiss Republic. " In making this proposal the Government of the South African Republic appears to have overlooked the distinction between the Conventions of 1881 and 1884 and an ordinary treaty between two independ- ent powers, questions arising upon which may prop- erly be the subject of arbitration. " By the Pretoria Convention of 1881 Her Majesty as Sovereign of the Transvaal Territory accorded to the inhabitants of that territory complete self-gov- ernment subject to the suzerainty of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, upon certain terms and conditions and subject to certain reservations and limitations set forth in 33 Articles, and by the Lon- TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 35 don Convention of 1884 Her Majesty, while main- taining the preamble of the earlier instrument ', directed and declared that certain other articles embodied therein should be substituted for the arti- cles embodied in the Convention of 1881. The arti- cles of the Convention of 1SS1 were accepted by the Volksraad of the Transvaal State and those of the Convention of 1884 by the Volksraad of the South African Republic. " Under these conventions, therefore, Her Majesty holds towards the South African Republic the rela- tion of a suzerain who has accorded to the people of that Republic self-government upon certain condi- tions, and it would be incompatible with that posi- tion to submit to arbitration the construction of the conditions on which she accorded self-government to the Republic." Mr. Chamberlain has since insistently adhered to his contention, and in his subsequent despatches he has always referred to the conventions between Her Majesty's Government and the South African Re- public, evidently meaning the London Convention of 1884 and the Pretoria Convention of 1881. Now it is a fact beyond question that the principle of suzerainty as laid down in the 1881 Convention was from the very start the main cause of the objec- tion on the Boer side. This objection was clearly expressed by the Transvaal deputation in its letter of November 14, 1883, to Lord Derby, at that time Secretary of State for the Colonies, and it was for this very reason that it was then asked that the Sand River Convention of 1852 be restored in force. In his reply of November 20, 1S83, Lord Derby 36 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. stated " that it is not possible to entertain the sug- gestion that the Sand River Convention has now any vitality, as that, if it could be revised, it would meet the requirements of the present case. " " That Convention," Lord Derby further writes, "like the Convention of Pretoria, was not a treaty between two contracting Powers, but was a declaration by the Queen, and accepted by certain persons at that time her subjects, of the conditions under which, and the extent to which, Her Majesty could permit them to manage their own affairs without interference." Could the difference between the Convention of 1 88 1 and the new Convention under discussion be more distinctly expressed? And still, notwithstand- ing this clear statement, Mr. Chamberlain now holds that the preamble of the 1881 Convention, which gives it the character of the one-sided " declaration by the Queen," is still in existence. Again, in his letter of February 15, 1884, trans- mitting the draft of the new Convention, Lord Derby says: " By the omission of those Articles of the Conven- tion of Pretoria which assigned to Her Majesty and to the British resident certain specific powers and functions connected with the internal government and the foreign relations of the Transvaal State, your Government will be left free to govern the country without interference, and to conduct its di- plomatic intercourse and shape its foreign policy subject only to the requirement embodied in the fourth article of the new draft, that any treaty with a foreign state shall not have effect without the ap- proval of the Queen." TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 17 We print below the first page of the draft of the new Convention, as transmitted with Lord Der- by's letter, and eall special attention to the head note. A Convention Concluded between Her Majesty the Queen, &c, &c, and the South Afri- can Republic. Note. — The words and paragraphs bracketed or printed ui italics arc proposed to be inserted, those within a black line are proposed to be omitted. Her Majesty's Commissioners for the settle- ment of the Transvaal Territory, duly appointed as such by a Commission passed under the R< >ya1 Sign Manual and Signet, bearing date the 5th of April, 1 SS 1, do hereby undertake and guaran- tee, on behalf of Her Majesty, that from and after the 8th day of August, 1SS1, complete self- government, subject to the suzerainty of Her Majesty, Her Heir and Successors, will be ac- corded to the inhabitants of the Transvaal Ter- ritory, upon the following terms and conditions, and subject to the following reservations and limitations: Whereas, the Government of the Transvaal State, through its Delegates, consisting of Ste- phanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, President of the said State ; Stephanus Johannes Du Toit, Superintendent of Education; Nicholas Jacobus 38 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. ( Smit, a member of the Volksraad, have repre- sented to the Queen that the Convention signed at Pretoria on the 3rd day of August, 1881, and ratified by the Volksraad of the said State on the 25th October, 1881, contains certain provis- ions which are inconvenient, and imposes bur- dens and obligations from which the said State is desirous to be relieved; and that the south- western boundaries fixed by the said Conven- tion should be amended, with a view to pro- mote the peace and good order of the said State, and of the countries adjacent thereto; and whereas Her Majesty the Queen, &c, &c, has been pleased to take the said representations into consideration: Now, therefore, Her Maj- esty has been pleased to direct, and it is hereby declared, that the following articles of a new Convention, signed on behalf of Her Majesty by Her Majesty's High Commissioner in South Africa, the Right Honorable Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Governor of the Col- ony of the Cape of Good Hope, and on behalf of the Transvaal State (which shall herein-after be called the South African Republic) by the above-named Delegates, Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, Stephanus Johannes Du Toit, Nicholas Jacobus Smit, shall, when ratified by the Volksraad of the South African Republic, be substituted for the articles embodied in the Convention of 3rd August, 1881; which latter, pending such ratification, shall continue in full . force and effect. TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 39 We see that immediately below the head note fol- lowed the preamble to the i invention, and that this preamble was within a black line, and conse- quently to be omitted. And still Mr. Chamberlain claims that this preamble is now in foree, and on this contention he has gone to war with the South Afri- can Republic! It is also to be noted that by the 1884 Convention the name of Transvaal State was changed into the South African Republic, in accordance with the wishes of the deputation. The only reason for this change was that the deputation desired to emphasize the difference between the status of their country under the 1881 and the 1884 Conventions. In submitting the 1884 treaty to the Volksraad for ratification, the deputation said in its report of July 28, 1884: " It (the treaty) is entirely bilateral, and your dep- utation was not placed in the humiliating situation of receiving from a Suzerain Government a one-sided document containing rules and provisions, but was recognized as a free contracting party. " It (the treaty) therefore ends the British Suze- rainty and restores, with the official recognition of her name, complete self-government to the South African Republic, with one single limitation regard- ing the conclusion of treaties with foreign Powers (Art. 4)." The British Government never entered any pro- test against this interpretation of the 1884 Conven- tion, as it would have been in duty bound to do, if in its opinion this Boer interpretation had been wrong. 40 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. As well might the United States claim suzerainty over the South American republics, because under the Monroe doctrine the former deny the right of European Powers to make conventions with them for territorial acquisitions on our continent. From the foregoing it is plain that the South African Republic is a sovereign and independent state, and Great Britain has more than once admit- ted this status of the Republic prior to Mr. Cham- berlain's discovery of 1897, and notably so in the convention concluded with the South African Re- public in 1894, whereby Swaziland was placed un- der the protectorate of the Republic. Who ever heard of a vassal state being made the protector of foreign territory? It was in accordance with the treaty of 1884, and shortly after its ratification, that Jonkheer Beelaerts van Blokland was recognized by Great Britain as minister plenipotentiary of the South African Republic, and held that position until his death in 1894. Moreover, the South African Republic appointed consuls throughout Europe, and the consul-general in London and consul in Durban were each granted exequatur by the British Govern- ment, and the latter has likewise asked exequatur for the British consuls in the Republic. Another proof of its recognized sovereignty is that the Republic is admitted into the Postal Union, and is also a member of the Convention of Geneva. Furthermore, our own Government as well also as other Powers has been officially notified that there exists a state of war between Great Britain and the two South African Republics. Now, in view of the generally admitted doctrine that there cannot be a state of war between a suzerain and its vassal, Great TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 41 Britain in the face of this notice necessarily with- draws its claims of vassalage of the South African Republic, and it will require all of Mr. Chamber- lain's eloquence to explain away the inconsistency between this notice of public war and his claim of suzerainty. Furthermore, our own Government and other Powers have also appointed consuls to and received exequaturs from the Government of the South African Republic. Still stronger evidence of independent sovereignty is the fact that the United States consul at Pretoria is now acting in a protectorate capacity for British subjects; and, be it remembered, that this is at the special request of and as a matter of international courtesy to the British Government on the part of the United States, and by order of our courteous Secretary of State to that consul. Furthermore, it is well known that by international law, even with all these dealings between our Government and that of Great Britain, the American consul at Pretoria could not act in such capacity without the consent of the Government of the South African Republic, which could at any time withdraw his exquatur. Taking all these facts into consideration, it is plain that there cannot be any question of suzerainty, and that the South African Republic was and is a sovcr eign independent state. The American monthly Review of Reviews, one of the foremost magazines in this country, published in its " Leading Articles of the Month " (November number) under the title, " Mr. Chamberlain's Diplo- macy," the following: " ' Diplomaticus ' writes, in the FortnigJitly A' - 42 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. view for October, on ' Mr. Chamberlain's Mistakes.' This writer especially censures Mr. Chamberlain for putting forward a claim to the suzerainty of 1881 : " ' Never, ' says ' Diplomaticus, ' ' was a good cause compromised in a more unhappy and gratuitous fashion. To have raised this question at any time would have been unwise and superfluous, but to do it at a time when the first object of statesmanship was avowedly to solve the franchise question was a fatal and unpardonable blunder. The claim was not only of very doubtful value, but it is absolutely futile and unprofitable. There was absolutely no necessity for raising it. Even if the whole of Mr. Chamberlain's case were granted, the suzerainty for which he contends is an empty thing. It would not give us a single right or advantage we do not already possess or which was not amply secured to us. The word alone, as used in the 1881 preamble, has no effective meaning. " ' A Grave Error. "' But the worst of Mr. Chamberlain's blunder in putting forward this doubtful and unnecessary con- tention is that he thereby prejudiced the chances of an amicable settlement of the franchise question, inasmuch as he embittered the Boers and gave them a grievance with which to appeal not only to Dutch sympathy, but to the sympathy of not a few leaders of public opinion in Europe. The extraordinary thing is that it was not raised in the heat of any con- troversy, but in the full tide of Sir Milner's concilia- tory mission and before the High Commissioner had come to the conclusion that diplomacy was useless TO MAINTAIN' THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 43 to liberate the Qitlanders and the moment for inter- vention had arrived. Mr. Chamb rlain did not dream of it at the time of the raid, for when, in the negotiations which followed that deplorable act of folly, President Kruger referred to newspaper theo- ries on the subject and declared roundly that the suzerainty " no longer exists "he abstained from con- troverting him and correctly took his stand by Arti- cle IV. It was in October, 1897, that, in answer to proposals for a scheme of arbitration to settle all disputes between Pretoria and Downing Street, Mr. Chamberlain, for the first time for thirteen years, asserted the existence of the suzerainty in virtue of the 1 88 1 preamble. The Transvaal repudiated the claim, and Sir Alfred Milner himself, following in the traditions of Sir Hercules Robinson and Lord Derby, was "unable to see anything material in this controversy." Nevertheless the Colonial Secretary persisted in it, with the result that, on May 9th of the present year, he received a note from Mr. Reitz, the ill-temper of which is apparent in every line, and especially in the extravagance and defiance of the claim that the South African Republic is a " sover- eign international State. " " 4 It is not difficult to understand this ill-temper. The Boers honestly believed that in 1S84 their diplomacy had obtained the revocation of the 1SS1 preamble. Now, on the morrow of the raid and on the eve of a fresh Uitlander campaign, when they had hoped to bargain for a further extension of their independence, they found themselves confronted by what they regarded as an attempt to reduce them to the status of the 1881 Convention. It was under this aggrieved impression that they went into the Bloem- 44 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. fontein conference. Can we wonder that the meet- ing failed? How Mr. Chamberlain came to play this trump card into Mr. Kruger's hands passes my comprehension. The effect of the blunder is, how- ever, clear, for if we have war it will not be on the question of a seven or five years' franchise, but, so far as Dutch public feeling is concerned, mainly on the question of the suzerainty.' " Besides the clamor for franchise, the Uitlanders had a great many other "grievances," some of them of so puerile a character that it can be hardly un- derstood how they could have been seriously brought forward. "Those poor, oppressed Uitlanders," who claimed that they came to the Republic on the "in- vitation " of the Government, thereby implying that they would not have come in the absence of such in- vitation! As if it ever needed an invitation to the class of people who principally compose the popula- tion of mining camps, to come to any gold-produc- ing country. We know better; we know what hardships adventurous mining people will endure in their hunt for the yellow metal ; and we know that not only is no invitation required, but they will flock to such a country, notwithstanding any and all cau- tions, warnings, and dangers. The "cruel Boers" did not thank them for com- ing. They did not give at once these adventurers the franchise ! They did not offer these Uitlanders the so-much-coveted citizenship of their Republic — in other words, did not extend to these strangers the privilege to rule the country of the Boers in accord- ance with the wishes of Cecil Rhodes and others of his ilk! Just imagine how anxious men like Alfred TO MAINTAIN' THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 45 Beit, Robinson, John Hays Hammond, and the like must have been to become burghers and to be com- mandered into the Boer army, to serve the South African Republic without pay, in ease of war' The fact is that only an insignificant, small per- centage of these Uitlanders came to the Republic with any purpose of staying there. The English Uitlanders wanted the franchise, not for the sake of the country, which they would not adopt as their own, but only for their own nefarious purpose. Yet the Boer Government was willing, for the sake of peace, to run the risk and to give them the fran- chise. But, as above shown, that offer, made as it was upon the suggestion of the British Government itself, was rejected by this Government and the re- jection was accompanied by demands for further concessions! As an illustration of the "liberality" shown by British colonial authorities, we might recall that at the very same moment these oppressed Uitlanders were complaining, 3,000 Dutch residents of British Guiana, born on its soil and about equal in number to the British subjects in that colony, were and still are not entitled to hold an office under either the ex- ecutive, legislative, or judicial branches of the Colo- nial Government. Then we have the cry of " taxation without repre- sentation." What is the rate of taxation of Ameri- can mines in that part of Alaska claimed by England as British territory, and what representation have they? That the Uitlander, who bought mineral property and became rich, has to pay taxes, is no more than reasonable, and that the English pay a large share 46 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. no one denies ; but that does not indicate that they have any right to dictate to the lawmakers to make laws to suit them. The Boer Government had al- ways been courteous and ready to listen to the rea- sonable demands of this floating population, and it is admitted that the laws and taxation are as liberal as those of any other country. Does not the British Government itself, and its Colonial Government also, deny to denizens, of however long residence, the elec- tion franchise, and compel them to pay taxes at whatever rates the Parliament and Colonial legisla- tures are pleased to exact? Moreover, the taxes levied on the Uitlanders are exactly the same as those levied on the burghers, and if the former have paid more it only shows that they soon became possessed of more assessable prop- erty. The taxes levied on the gold mines by the Republic were only 2.5 per cent, on the production; in the British Klondike it is 10 per cent. ; and in Rhodesia, under the benevolent rule of that great philanthropist, Cecil Rhodes, it is even 50 per cent. It may be remarked here that no large quantities of gold are found in Rhodesia, and that this is one of the very evident reasons why Mr. Rhodes and his company are so anxious to take in the South Afri- can Republic under their own special suzerainty. Another crying injustice to the Uitlander was the dynamite monopoly. Certainly we are no friends of monopolies, but we desire to submit that Presi- dent Kruger had very good reasons for preferring that dynamite be made in his own country. Fur- thermore, the price as it was reduced was hardly higher than the cost of the imported article with the cost of transportation and duty added thereto, TO ' : A.IN El DENCE. 47 and it certainly was not higher than the prices charged at Kimberley and in Rhodesia. Another " grievance " of the Uitlander was the lan- guage of the South African Republic. The British demanded that the English language should be made the official language on equal fo< ing with the Dutch. Because in the Johannes':.; district there lived more English-speaking people than in other parts of the Republic, they wished to make their own language the official one. Does not such a demand seem ridiculous? As a rule, the offi- cials of the Government understand both English and Dutch, and the Uitlanders never found any difficulty in carrying on their business in their own language. What an absurd claim of grievance this is, and is it not the universal custom that instruction in schools, supported by the Government, should be given in the language of the country? Does, for instance, the English Government support any schools in Great Britain where instruction is given in Dutch or other foreign language? But even in this respect the Boer Government has shown its extreme liberality by paying subsidies for English schools in the gold fields. The Uitlanders further complained that their right of free speech and of holding meetings was not respected. This is wholly untrue. The authorities very wisely prohibited the holding of meetings when rebellion against the Government was openly preached, and for the same reason they did not al- low the class of people who resorted to such meet- ings to carry weapons. There are still a great many other grievances, 48 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. most of them too puerile to deserve mention, but we wish with a single word to refer to one of the com- plaints, brought forward by a man of standing, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Secretary of the Uitlander Committee. Mr. Fitzpatrick felt that his rights as a free-born British subject were grievously infringed by a de- cree issued by the Boer Government, forbidding the employment of barmaids in Johannesburg. We must admit that this barbarous decree fully shows that the Boers have not the slightest appreciation of the blessings of British civilization of that kind. One of the "sorely oppressed" Uitlanders is now travelling through this country denouncing the Boers, and even using churches for the purpose of bringing his false statements before the public. This is his mode of acknowledging the magnanimity shown him by President Kruger. I refer to Mr. John Hays Hammond, who has recently demon- strated in figures how much more profit the mine owners could make if the Republic were to be swal- lowed up by the British Empire. One of his argu- ments is that the Boer Government does not furnish sufficient native laborers for the gold mines and that the wages are too high. Under British rule this would soon be changed for the benefit of the Uit- lander capitalist. There would be more laborers and the wages of the natives would be reduced. This is indeed an argument that should strongly appeal to the American public ! It is no more ridic- ulous than the other British arguments, all based on greed. We may ask here in what manner Mr. Hammond proposes to supply the increased number of natives. By compulsory laws? And this under the highly TO MAINTAIN' THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 49 civilized British Government, which is always anxious to protect the natives against the Boers, who, according to English slanderers, are nothing but "concealed slave-holders"! Mr. Hammond is a perambulating monument of Boer clemency. He was arrested after the Jameson Raid and sentenced to death as one of the instigators of this infamous conspiracy, which was condemned by the whole civilized world. President Kruger magnanimously changed his sentence to a fine. But the fact remains that this man, a citizen of the United States, assisted the subjects of a European monarchy in their attempt to trample down the flag of a republic. My fellow-citizens, can you put any value upon the statements of such a man? All these " grievances " and a great many others equally frivolous were taken up by Mr. Chamber- lain and made the subject of official remonstrations lodged with the Boer Government. And yet all the time Mr. Chamberlain disclaimed any intention to interfere with the internal affairs of the Republic! Of course, his only purpose was to exasperate the Boers, to drive them into a war in which he fondly hoped to blot out the two Republics from the map of Africa. The Boers became soon firmly convinced that the final struggle was coming, and that no amount of concessions would avail. They knew that triumvirate Rhodes, Milner, and Chamberlain were bound to annex the Transvaal, and President Kruger and his people prepared to defend their land, their homes, and firesides. Under the auspices of the South African League, a petition signed by " 21,000 " alleged English sub- jects was sent to the Queen, asking Her Majesty's 50 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. interference. This was, of course, a new pretext for Mr. Chamberlain to become more persistent in his interference and to change his requests for con- cessions into demands. Let me here pause a moment to show how the 21,000 signatures to this " petition " were obtained. The following sworn affidavit from an American citizen, selected from the many similar documents published in the South African Republic Green Book, and submitted to the High Commissioner at the Bloemfontein Conference, will serve as an illustra- tion: Appearing before me, Justice of the Peace in Jo- hannesburg, South African Republic, this day, the 24th of April, 1899, Thomas Bernard Regan swears and declares: " I live at 33 Critic Building, Johannesburg, and I am an American citizen. Some time ago, before it became known that there was to be sent a petition to Her Majesty the Queen of England, claiming that it contained 21,000 signatures, a certain Alexander A. Banier approached me with a few sheets of blank paper, with some numbers of pages on the top, ask- ing me to sign a petition. I asked him to show me the petition, and he answered that he had not the petition with him, but that the contents were to ask the British intervention in the affairs of the Trans- vaal. I refused to sign. He remained in my pres- ence and approached a Mr. Schimmelbusch, asking him the same question. I overheard the conversa- tion, and among other things, Schimmelbusch said : ' How do I know that I am not signing my death warrant? ' I was curious and gave all my attention TO MAINTAIN THEIR [NDEPENDENCE. 51 to the incident. I saw that Banicr went to a table, sat clown and commenced to write. Afterwards he- rose from the table and showed me the same sheets of paper. I discovered that they were now filled with from ten to fifteen names. When he showed this to me, he said: 4 How's that"- 1 ' I looked at him and his papers with astonishment. I swear positive that it had been utterly impossible to get these sig- natures and I am convinced that these names were forgeries." Signed: T. B. Regan. Sworn before me, Signed: Smuts de Villiers, Justice of the Peace. A counter petition, genuinely signed by 23,000 Uitlanders, who declared their loyalty to the South African Republic Government, was simply ignored by Mr. Chamberlain and contemptuously brushed aside. I think that it is now clear to every reader of this book that Mr. Chamberlain and his followers had made up their mind, long before the Boers took up the arms to defend their rights, that the South Afri- can Republic, and incidently the Orange Free State, had to be conquered, and that no concessions on the part of the Boers would have prevented the consum- mation of that dastardly scheme. In the mean time, and previous to the negotiations already mentioned, war preparations were going on and a cry for war was heard in the English Parliament. To gain time until the British Government had a sufficient army landed so as to dictate to the Boers its own terms, was the purpose of the British negotiations. The 52 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. Government at Pretoria waited for Mr. Chamber- lain's "new proposals" until October 9th, after which they demanded a withdrawal of the British troops from the borders of both Republics and that the despatch of troops to South Africa, pending the negotiations, should stop. Again the Government of the South African Republic pleaded for arbitra- tion, and it was ready to name the Government of the United States or the Republic of Switzerland as the arbitrator; but the plea was ignored. Is not this fact of itself sufficient to convince every impar- tial person of the justice of the cause of the Boers, that they were anxious to arbitrate and let others decide upon the question, who is in the wrong? Would not that have been the honest way out of the difficulties? My fellow-citizens, judge for yourselves, what could the two Republics do under these circum- stances? There was nothing else to be done than to call the burghers to arms for the defence of their liberty, their independence, and their homes from ruthless foreign invasion. The war was forced upon them by a powerful and relentless foe, whose creed is that "might makes right," and who is bent upon the conquest of weaker nations wherever opportu- nity may safely offer. The Boers have made all the concessions they could make, far more than any peo- ple on earth could be expected to make in like case. Would not it have been an unpardonable mistake on the part of President Kruger to tarry any longer after such gross denials of common justice by the British Government? Perhaps he waited too long, but up to the last moment he tried honestly to pre- vent the terrible war that has already cast the shadow TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 53 of death into so man}- homes in both countries. It is due to Mr. Conyngham Greene, the British agent at Pretoria, to state that he also worked for peace up to the last moment, and it is a fact that Messrs. Chamberlain and Milner have not forgiven Mr. Greene for his honorable efforts. He is now in dis- grace, so far as his government is concerned. It is plain to everybody who is reasonably well informed that Messrs. Chamberlain and Milner have in effect openly admitted that the war in South Africa is not started for the purpose of obtaining redress for the grievances of the Uitlanders. Mr. Chamberlain has spoken of the " dangerous ideals of the two Dutch Republics," and Mr. Milner has dis- tinctly stated that he was determined to " break the dominion of Afrikandcrdom. " And what were these dangerous ideals of the two Republics? Simply the determination of the Boers to maintain their independence and liberty and to uphold their Dutch character. Is this a sin against civilization? Have not the Boers always been the pioneers of civilization in South Africa? It was they who first opened that region of country to commerce. Their natural desire to gather the fruits of their own toil, paid for in blood and tears, is now called "a dangerous ideal." Has not England hail time and again every possible chance to reconcile the Dutch element in this region to British dominion? And what do we see? For almost a century the Cape Colony has been under English rule, and yet the Dutch language is still spoken by a majority of the population. The Afrikanders have a majority in the Cape Parliament, with an Afrikander Prime Minister. The Dutch element still has a dominat- 54 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. ing influence in South Africa. Superior power has taken the land from them, but it can never convert the Boer to British thought or rule. Instead of treating the Dutch kindly, the English governments followed the policy of slandering, de- faming and humiliating them, driving them again and again from their old settlements into the wil- derness. And still the English think that the Dutch should accept them as masters. By a kind treat- ment they might have reconciled the Dutch, for as James Anthony Froude, the well known English historian, remarked: "The Boer responds more readily than most men to kindness and justice. If you try to drive him, there is no mule in either hemisphere more stubborn." And yet the English boast that they can sub- due the Dutch descendants of the heroes of the Eighty Years' War. For an answer to this I wish again to quote what Olive Schreiner says in her Essay : " I suppose it would be quite possible for the sol- diers to shoot all male South Africans who appeared in arms against them. It might not be easy, a great many might fall, but a great Empire could always import more to take their places ; we could not im- port more, because it would be our husbands and sons and fathers who were falling, and when they were done we could not produce more. Then the war would be over. There would not be a house in Africa — where African-born men and women lived — without its mourners, from Sea Point to the Lim- popo ; but South Africa would be pacified — as Crom- well pacified Ireland three centuries ago, and she has been being pacified ever since! As Virginia was TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 55 pacified in 1677; its handful of men and women in defence of their freedom were soon silenced by hired soldiers. 'I care that for the power of England,' said ' a notorious and wicked rebel ' called Sarah Drummond, as she took a small stick, and broke it, and lay it on the ground. A few months after her husband and all the men with him were made pris- oners, and the war was over. ' I am glad to see you,' said Berkeley, the English governor, ' I have long wished to meet you; you will be hanged in half an hour ! ' and he was hanged and twenty-one others with him, and Virginia was pacified. But a few generations later in that State of Virginia was born George Washington, and on the 19th of April, 1775, was fought the battle of Lexington — ' Where once the embattled farmers stood, and fired a shot, heard round the world, ' — and the greatest crime and the greatest folly of England's career was completed. England acknowledges it now. A hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand imported soldiers might walk over South Africa; it would not be an easy walk; but it could be done. Then from east and west and north and south would come men of pure English blood to stand beside the boys they had played with at school, and the friends they had loved ; and a great despairing cry would rise from the heart of Africa. But we are still few. When the war was over the imported soldiers might leave the land — not all; some must be left to keep the re- maining people down. There would be quiet in the land. South Africa would rise up silently, and count her dead and bury them. She would know the places where she found them. South Africa would be peaceful. There would be silence, the $6 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. silence of a long exhaustion — but not peace ! Have the dead no voices? In a thousand farmhouses black robed women would hold memory of the count, and outside under African stones would lie the African men to whom South African women gave birth under our blue sky. There would be silence, but no peace. " You say that all the fighting men in arms might have been shot. Yes, but what of the women? If there were left but five thousand pregnant South African-born women, and all the rest of their people destroyed, those women would breed up again a race like to the first. Oh, lion-heart of the North, do you not recognize your own lineage in these whelps of the South? We cannot live if we are not free! " The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the men who lay under the stones (who will not be English then, nor Dutch, but only Africans), will say, as they pass those heaps : ' There lie our fath- ers or great-grandfathers who died in the first great War of Independence, ' and the descendants of the men who lay there will be the aristocracy of Africa. Men will count back to them and say : ' My father or my great-grandfather lay in one of those graves.' We shall know no more of Dutch or English then ; we shall know only one great African people." And now the war has come with all its terrors. Thousands of brave men have fallen already on both sides, either killed or maimed for life. Thousands of children have become fatherless, thousands of wives and mothers will vainly wait for the return of their husbands and sons. And for what purpose did the soldiers of England give their lives? For right, TO MAINTAIN THEIR [NDEPENDENCE. 5/ for justice, for civilization? No, a thousand times no! They died because Mr. Chamberlain and his party of stocl: ji - and speculators, supported by the Jingoes, want the Republics of South Africa and the gold mines therein. And all this happening at the end of the nineteenth century! Is there anything that can more strikingly describe the horrors of this war than the following touching story told in the letter of an English soldier: " We were out looking after the wounded at night when the fight was over, when I came across an old, white-bearded Boer. He was lying behind a bit of rock, supporting himself on his elbows. . . . " I kept my eye on the old chap. But when I got near I saw that he was too far gone to raise his rifle. He was gasping hard for breath, and I saw he was not long for this world. He motioned to me that he wanted to speak, and I bent over him. He asked me to go and find his son — a boy of thirteen — who had been fighting by his side when he fell. " Well, I did as he asked me, and under a heap of wounded I found the lad, stone dead, and I carried him back to his father. Well, you know I'm not a chicken-hearted sort of a fellow. I have seen a bit of fighting in my time, and that sort of thing knocks all the soft out of a chap. " But I had to turn away when the old Boer saw his dead lad. He hugged the body to him and moaned over it, and carried on in a way that fetched a big lump in my throat. Until that very moment I never thought how horrible war is. I never wanted to see another shot fired. And when I looked round again the old Boer was dead, clasping the cold hand of his dead boy." 58 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. And how do the Boers carry on this War? Do they behave like half barbarians, as they were and still are called by the British? Do not they treat their wounded enemies and prisoners with the greatest kindness, even with true Christian forgiveness? And how do the highly civilized British behave? I need only refer to the slaughter of the sixty Boers at Elandslaagte in cold blood by the Royal Lancers. This is no Boer report ; the atrocities were minutely described in the approving London Times in letters from soldiers and officers. "Fine pig sticking;" "The bag was sixty," so writes one of Her Majesty's officers. These men and officers of the Royal Lancers still serve Queen Victoria. They were not considered to have dis- graced the uniform. But in every land outside of the British Empire they have placed themselves beyond the pale of humanity and have brought everlasting contempt and disgrace on the British army. Allow me to refer to the behavior of an officer of our own country at the moment of victory — to the immortal words of Captain (now Rear Admiral) Philip of the United States Navy at the battle of Santiago : " Don't cheer, boys, the poor fellows are dying! " The British officer boasting that he and his sol- diers killed defenceless enemies, enjoying the sport as if it were a mere "pig sticking," and the other officer stopping the very natural cheering of his men at the moment of victory in the presence of a dying enemy, and all his men reverentially obeying his command ! Another instance of the brutal violation of civil- TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 59 ized warfare as carried on by the mother of civ- ilization was the tragic death of General Kock. By uncontradicted evidence it is shown that the gen- eral did not die of his wound, but only in conse- quence of the exposure and neglect. He was stripped by British soldiers while lying helpless on the field. The following is a copy of the protest sent by the government of the South African Republic to the foreign consuls at Pretoria: " I have the honor to call your Government's at- tention both to the report announcing the engage- ment last night (October iS) between a commando and the English near Mafeking, the English having 1,000 Kaffir auxiliaries (one of whom was wounded and is a prisoner), and the results of this informa- tion and other reports coming in from the east fron- tier where the Kaffirs have been called to arms by the British authorities. "This shows that the British Government com- mits the unpardonable crime of arming the blacks against the whites in a struggle unjustly forced on the South African Republic. This act may have the gravest consequences for all white Africa. " I am commanded to inform your Government that a further document received is General Jou- bert's protest to Secretary Reitz, at Pretoria, under six heads, as follows: " First.— That the British at Elandslaagte fired on an ambulance. "Second. — That a British lancer attempted to assassinate a doctor wearing the Geneva cross, missing the surgeon, but killing his horse. 60 THE STORY OP THE BOERS. "Third. — The tying of thirteen prisoners, some of them wounded, behind a Maxim gun and dragging them along. "Fourth. — That at Dundee the fugitives retired under cover of a white flag while the main body was fighting the Orange Free State troops. "Fifth. — That an armored train, protected by a white flag, repaired a bridge. "Sixth. — That the British are recruiting mounted Basutos. " General Joubert appends a document seized among an officer's effects at Dundee. The paper is a communication from a Basutoland magistrate, in- forming the general commanding the Glencoe camp that there will be no difficulty in procuring Basutos at 5 shillings per day, and asking : ' Must they bring their horses?' "General Joubert added: 'I am preserving the original of this document. ' " The terrible consequences of the use of Kaffirs by the English are illustrated by the following report : " Rustenburg, 1 6th of December, 1899. "At the Landdrost's office of the Rustenburg dis- trict has been deposited the evidence, confirmed by oath, of women and girls whom the English had caught by Kaffirs. They declare that while being held by the Kaffirs they were outraged by the English. " Do raise your voices in the name of humanity and civilization against such atrocities. The poor beings are at the hospital at this moment. " Baron von Dalwig. " Formerly Captain of the Royal Prussian Horse, TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDKI'F.XDENC K. d\ now Captain and Commander of a Battery in the Boer Army." How the Red Cross flag is respected by the Eng- lish is fitly illustrated in a report of Dr. Ransbot- tom, head of the Boer Red I On November 28 Dr. Ransbottom was ordered by General Cronjeto proceed with his ambulance to the battlefield. After finishing their work the doctors were informed by the British commander that they and all the nurses were considered as prisoners of war. Their protests were ignored, and the doctors were sent to Cape Town, and arrived there on De- cember 4th, having made the trip in cattle trucks. They were then informed that it was all a mistake and on the same day were returned to the Modder River. Upon their arrival there they asked for their wagons and material, and Captain Ross informed them that he had been instructed not to give them up, and the doctors and nurses had to walk with their baggage on their back to the Boer camp. Of course this was merely a "mistake" of some overzealous British officer, but the question arises, Where are the Boer ambulance wagons? I recall the slandering cablegrams, containing the accusations in the strongest language, that the Boers disregarded the white flag and were shooting upon the ambulances of the Red Cross Society. But Gen- eral Buller was compelled to cable to his home gov- ernment that this was " satisfactorily explained by the enemy." I wish to recall the official statement of Major Donegan, chief medical officer at Glencoe, who wired to the state secretary at Pretoria an ex- pression of thanks on behalf of all the British officers 62 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. and men in the hospitals at Glencoe, for the ex- treme kindness shown them by the Boer officers and men. I wish to recall General Joubert's kind act toward Lady Symons. From an excellent sketch given by the New York Herald of November 12, describing "Slim Piet," his pet name among Afrikanders, which means literally crafty or clever Peter (or to put it in plain English: " He was one too many for me, or he outwitted me!"), as a kind gentleman, splendid general, the idol of his fighting men, I take the following: " ' Have not you English always followed on our heels — not on us here only, but all over the world, always conquering, always getting more land? We were independent when you came here. We are in- dependent now, and you shall never take our inde- pendence from us. The whole people will fight. You may shed blood over all South Africa, but it will only be over our dead bodies that you will seize our independence. Every Dutchman in South Africa will fight against you. Even the women will fight. You may take away our lives, but our independence — never. ' " That is what Pietrus Jacobus Joubert said to an English correspondent in Pretoria two years ago. It was printed in a London newspaper November 30, 1897. Joubert is showing the world to-day some- thing of the fine old Dutch spirit he talked of in 1897. He is doing some of that fighting he pre- dicted then. " It was very much like Joubert to talk like that to the English correspondent, and very much like TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPEN] E. 0} him, too, to cable condolences to Lady Symons over the dead body of her fallen husband, lie is frank- ness and honesty personified. lie is a man and a soldier of the type Englishmen and Americans like. Nothing could be more courteous than his treatment of his English prisoners from Ladysmith. Nothing could be more kinder than his care for the wounded enemy. " Nothing is written about Joubert that is not •mment on his fairness." General Joubert told the truth when more than two years ago he predicted that even the women would fight for liberty, for I have found in the offi- cial lists of the wounded and killed which I received from South Africa lately, many names of young women, who fought side by side with their husbands and relatives. And still the British press continue to call the Boers cowards, but the Boers can well afford to re- main silent. Magersfontein, Colenso, Stormberg and Spion Kop speak louder than words can do. How can England expect sympathy from the de- scendants of the Dutch, who settled that country and who are one large family, related by kinship? Step by step England has, by its mighty power and money, taken the conquered land from the Dutch, who are a peaceful and God-fearing people. Are these Boers to blame if they prefer to die rather than give up their last acre of land? They have been driven from the one place to the other, and they have found no rest. It is always England and English elements that disturb the peace. 64 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. A high official wrote to me from Pretoria in Sep- tember : " We desire peace and a quiet developing of our beloved country, and you may rest assured that if war breaks out it will be forced upon us by the im- possibility of submitting to unreasonable demands. If it comes, we shall defend our fatherland to the last drop of our blood." These patriotic people simply desire to keep their country, which they have developed and civilized. I heard recently an Englishman say : " We are foolish to spill so much blood to get that little piece of land. Have we not territory enough?" I fully agree with him. How many lives of both countries have already been sacrificed? How much distress is already brought over so many families who mourn the loss of their beloved ones? But War, War! is still the cry in England, and still growing fiercer. Oorlog! Oorlog! was the signal heard over the veldts of South Africa. War among people made by the same Creator of mankind ! Who is to blame for this terrible slaughter of men? I again call the attention of the reader to those dishonest men who created the so-called " grievances of the Uitlanders. " The Boers honestly tried to meet even the pretended grievances, but as Olive Schreiner sadly remarked : " There have been told so many lies about them." And who are the people who have told these lies; They are the same British Uitlanders, now safely located at Cape Town and Durban, who, under the leadership of Rhodes, and aided by his subsidized press, have slandered the Boers for years. But there are other Uitlanders : Americans, Ger- mans, Hollanders, Belgians, Irish, Scandinavians, TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 65 French, Sw is, even English, have of th< own free will taken up arms against Great Brit and pledgt 1 fidelity to the Republ The Washington Post of January 15, 1900, contains an article written by my friend, Mr. Fred F. Schi der, from which I quote the following - : " I know of no single instance that punctures I fabric of the luminous lie about the grievance cf I Outlanders as simply and completely as the foll< ing letter, received by the secretary of state for Transvaal republic, Mr. F. W. Reitz: '" P. O. Box 5, Johannesburg, 14 Oct., '99. '" Honored Sir — I have to request you will for- ward to the high commissioner at the earliest oppor- tunity the inclosed medal for services rendered by me to Her Majesty the Queen. My other decora- tions will be forwarded to the military authorities in England. " ' So much for the agitation for the franchise. "' I am, honorable sir, your obedient servant, " ' Edw. L. Stratton-Collins. " l Hon. F. W. Reitz, State Secretary. ' " Mr. Collins was until four years ago a captain in the British army. He resigned and went to the gold fields. He lived peaceably and prospered until the agitation of the past three years almost ruined his business. When war was declared, he took the oath of allegiance to the Republic, has sent all his medals of honor and heroism back to the English Government, and is now on the border fighting as a true burgher against what he knows to be, by per- sonal observation, the scheme of Rhodes to over- 5 66 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. throw a peaceable government. There are other similar instances." President Kruger has been accused of oppressing the Jewish population. The truth is that the Jews in the Transvaal are among his warmest friends and admirers. They have formed companies, which are now doing police duty to guard the towns. It is an acknowledged fact that President Kruger is one of the greatest statesmen the world has ever produced. His diplomacy, knowledge of interna- tional affairs and his natural sagacity have aston- ished the nations of the world, although he never had any training in that direction. He remains, however, the humble Oom Paul, taking the natural- born talents as an undeserved gift from the hands of his Lord and Master, not to be tied up in a nap- kin, but to be accounted for as a faithful steward. He has at his side, as State Secretary, the Hon. F. W. Reitz, ex-President of the Orange Free State, one of the ablest jurists in South Africa, a man who possesses the confidence of his people, and is ad- mired and respected by every one with whom he comes in contact. Olive Schreiner describes him as a man who manifested in his career a beautiful char- acter. Dr. Reitz is the successor of Dr. W. J. Leyds, who served the country in the same capacity for a number of years. Dr. Leyds has succeeded Jonk- heer Beelaerts van Blokland as Minister Plenipoten- tiary of the Republic in Europe. He has been ac- credited to and fully recognized by the following powers: Russia, Germany, France, the Nether- lands, Belgium and Portugal. He is a scholar and a distinguished lawyer, and is known as a specialist on international law. His working ability is well TO MAINTAIN THEIR [NDEPENDENCE. 67 known, and he serves his adopted country in his present position with great devotion. While the second gentleman of the land, the popu- lar Commander-in-Chief of the Boer forces, General Joubert, is directing the military operations with his able generals, Sehalk Burger, Botha, De Wet and others in the field (alas 1 our brave Cronje, the "lion of South Africa," is now deprived of serving his beloved country), the President is surrounded at home with excellent men like Reitz, Wolmarans and other members of Council, directing the internal affairs of the Republic, and he is well represented in Europe by his former Secretary of State. If we realize this situation of affairs, does it not stir up a feeling of admiration for these brave and patriotic men who are so well able to rule their own country if they were let alone? Is it not a shame that they are now compelled to fight for their liber- ties — a war declared for conquest by a lustful mon- archy? But they will never submit until the last ex- tremity, for they are a brave people — free Repub- licans as we are here in America. They are our brethren, brethren in more than one sense. Their symbol is ours, their principles are ours, they love as we do freedom and independence. They have the same flag — only they added the green to it, the color of hope — that same dear old red, white and blue, adopted as our flag after the Declaration of Independ- ence. They are fighting the same nation that our people fought — not to gain independence, but to maintain their independence. My fellow-citizens, do you know that these South African burghers are the descendants of the same Dutch people who first settled Manhattan Island? 68 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. New York, formerly New Amsterdam ; Breukelen, afterwards called Brooklyn, and Harlem, were each founded by these sturdy Dutch who came here with their Bible under their arm to build up a new coun- try. There is no country whose history is more closely connected with the history of the United States of America than little Holland. It was the Dutch, who, for love of the principles of America, fought in the ranks of George Washington, the father of his country. It was the Dutch who first took sides with the Americans in their struggle for liberty and independence, and the first who saluted the flag which was the same as theirs. It was the Dutch who sent their battleships to this coast and landed provisions to feed the soldiers, facing the fleet of England. It was the Dutch in Manhattan and Staten Island with whom the great founder of this country spent his happiest hours. He loved them and was by them beloved. It was the " Unie van Utrecht" after which the Constitution of America was formulated, and the " Afzwering van Philip " on which the Declaration of Independence was founded — two of the most im- portant Dutch national documents were thus taken as a model to aid the lawmakers of America to form the great Republic of the United States. The Holland American has a right to be proud of his pedigree. There are thousands and thousands of Americans who can trace their ancestry to the land of the great " William the Silent," that little country small in compass, but great in history. We find them to-day, as in the past, among the most prominent men in this country, many in high author- ity. The nation is at present in mourning over the TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 69 death cf one of her noblest citizens, our esteemed Vice-President, who was on his mother's side of Dutch blood. We have lost in him one of the m< popular Vice-Presidents this country ever had; President Kruger lost in him a warm sympathizer and friend. My fellow-Americans, do you hear the voice of this people, who are fighting for the same principle this country fought for in 1776? Would it not be a crime against civilization to see our sister republics wiped out from the face of the earth and swallowed up by any European power, under the pretence of "protecting the rights of its subjects?" Can there be found one true American, born or adopted, who remembers George Washington and his patriot army — the great preserver of this country — and who does not sympathize with our brethren in South Africa' For almost a century they have been oppressed, gradually the richest land has been taken from them. Is it any wonder that their determination is now, " We shall not give up our land, unless they walk over our dead bodies? " Can it be a surprise that the true South Afrikander in Cape Colony and Natal takes the side of his friends and relatives when it is that of justice and of God-given right? "The Boers do not ask for mercy," says Dr. En- gelenburg, editor of the Pretoria Volkston, in his article "A Transvaal View of the South African Question," " they ask for justice. " Those who keep up the unfair agitation against the South African Republic are the last men, how- ever, to listen to the voice of righteousness, or to be guided by any noble impulse ; political corruption is the seed they sow, and by their unexampled oppor- 70 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. tunities they feel confident of reaping their criminal harvest. Up to the present they have gathered only tears ; a still more bitter time of reaping has yet to come. In the past, the Boers have been able to fight against immensely superior odds. They feel that the final victory will be theirs ; for they know they have right on their side." Notwithstanding the many reverses to the British arms, Mr. Chamberlain and the majority of the British Parliament still profess to believe in the ulti- mate success of England ; but the English never ex- pected to lose their American colonies, but they did nevertheless. It is my honest opinion that Great Britain will never conquer the Boers, and I believe with Presi- dent Kruger, who believes that Providence is with them, because their cause is one of justice and right- eousness. If any one should ask me what special interest has America in the welfare of South Africa, or in what relation do we stand to them from a commercial standpoint, I would refer to the increasing demand of American machineries and other articles of com- merce which were exported there in the last few years. England takes, at present, the lead in the trade, but America is next. In 1897, America had exported to the Transvaal alone merchandise to the amount of $13,500,000; and, as the South Afrikan- ders are in hearty sympathy with America and American institutions, you may rest assured — if they are not utterly crushed in their present strug- gle against English oppression — that the commer- cial transactions in the near future will be increased tenfold, for they are anxious to obtain close relations TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 71 with the great sister Republic. The latter is cer- tainly a consummation not hoped for by England or her merchants. There is no doubt that the sympathy of the Ameri- cans in general is with the Boers. "An immense deal is being made of the American sympathy in this country," says the London correspondent of the Bal- timore American, in his cablegram of November 18, 1899: " It is strange that so powerful an empire as Great Britain, with 400,000,000 of people and three-fifths of the wealth of the globe, should be specially anx- ious for the sympathy of anybody when trying to whip two little states, which have not all told more than 200,000 inhabitants. Great Britain is 8,000 times as great as the Transvaal and the Orange Free State combined, and she is probably a million times their superior in actual wealth. It is a. sign of weak- ness, therefore, to be making so much of the alleged frieuds/iip of the United States, of which there is no evidence except the movement for the fitting out of a hospital ship, which is distinctly British. The women engaged in it are all married to Englishmen, and can in no sense be regarded as Americans. The London Ti/nes, through its correspondent, makes the assertion that the United States Government has granted British agents certain privileges at Ameri- can ports in contravention of the neutrality laws, with the proviso that they arc not to be regarded as a precedent, and the Times writes an editorial pane- gyric a column and a half long. The despatch is probably imaginary as to its facts. It is impossible to believe that the government of the U"nited States could have done anything of the sort." 72 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. There is much talk about the close relationship which it is alleged exists between the two great countries, the United States and England, pointing in proof thereof to the ties of the "Anglo-Saxon" race, as though other nations should be excluded. Allow me to make the remark that the Dutch and Germans are a branch of that very same race. Or, to speak more correctly, the Angles and Saxons were low German tribes, as were the ancient Dutch. We hear always of the English people as the great promoters of Anglo-Saxon civilization and progress, but I want better proof than mere boasting. Let me refer to the history of this great country and ask : Did not the Dutch bring civilization with them when they settled New York, and did the German and other nationalities leave civilization at home when they came to our shores? We absolutely deny the story that the English civilized South Africa. It was the Boers who have changed its wildernesses into a beautiful country. It was the Boers who edu- cated the natives there. The Kaffirs, Malays and other tribes speak the language of the Boers, and even the Hottentots have adopted the Cape Dutch as their native tongue. Really the Boers can govern the land of their fathers; they do not need British interference or civilization. They have been driven from their land every time as it was developed into prosperity, and perhaps they might have left it again and trek fur- ther into the interior if it were not that they are completely surrounded by British territory. So they can go no further. Therefore they have this time determined to conquer or to die. The English historian Froude, admitting the TO MAINTAIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 73 wrong done by his country, referring to the annexa- tion of the Transvaal by Shcpstone in the name of the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, said: " We have annexed a country as large as France which belonged to Dutchmen. Dutchmen do not like to have their independence taken fn-mthem any more than we do, and nobody exactly knows why we did it. I believe that in our hearts we are sorry now that we annexed it at all, and we would be glad to get rid of it again if we only knew how to get rid of it without seeming ridiculous to the rest of the world." The time might come that England's pride will receive a more severe blow than it received at Ma- juba Hill, for the Boer cause is one of justice and righteousness. No true Americans can help sym- pathizing with the God-fearing sturdy Boers. The claim that England stood by us in the late war with Spain is not any reason why we should sym- pathize with a policy of injustice toward our breth- ren in South Africa, or that we should sympathize with a war uncalled for, condemned by the civilized people all over the world, and subjected to bitter criticism by many prominent men in Great Britain itself. We should stand by the Boers and inspire them, even at this distance, with our hearty wishes for their success in their noble struggle. "We send our greetings to Oom Paul, the beloved patriot of his country We send our salute to the gallant Com- mander-in-Chief, General Joubert, and his army of brave men who defend their country and their homes so nobly and heroically. We should forward our sincere sympathy to the wounded ami < ur 74 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. heartfelt condolence to the widows and orphans of those who gave their lives for a just cause, and every liberty loving American should pray that peace, an everlasting peace, may soon reign over South Afri- can soil. The brave burghers might meet with reverses, if they are outnumbered ten to one, as recent events have shown; but their liberty, their republican principles, they will never surrender to British power. " The Boers do not ask for mercy ; they ask for justice." C. W. Van der Hoogt. A CENTURY OF INJUSTICE. INTRODUCTION. Brother Afrikanders! Once more in the annals of onr bloodstained his- tory has the day dawned when we are forced to grasp our weapons in order to resume the struggle for liberty and existence, entrusting our national cause to that Providence which has guided our peo- ple throughout South Africa in such a miraculous way. The struggle of now nearly a century, which be- gan when a foreign rule was forced upon the people of the Cape of Good Hope, hastens to an end ; we are approaching the last act in that great drama which is so momentous for all South Africa; we have reached a stage when it will be decided whether the sacrifices which both our fathers and we ourselves have made in the cause of freedom have been offered in vain ; whether the blood of our race, with which every part of South Africa has been, as it were, conse- crated, has been shed in vain ; and whether, by the grace of God, the last stone will now be built into the edifice which our fathers began with so much toil and so much sorrow. The hour has struck which will decide whether South Africa, in jealously guarding its liberty, will enter upon a new phase of its history, or whether our existence as a people will come to an end, 76 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. whether we shall be exterminated in the deadly- struggle for that liberty which we have prized above all earthly treasures, and whether South Africa will be dominated by Capitalists without conscience, act- ing in the name and under the protection of an un- just and hated Government 7,000 miles away from here. In this hour it behooves us to cast a glance back at the history of this great struggle. We do so not to justify ourselves, because liberty, for which we have sacrificed everything, has justified us and screened our faults and failings, but we do so in order that we may be, as it were, sanctified and prepared for the conflict which lies before us, bearing in mind what our people have done and suffered by the help of God. In this way we may be enabled to continue the work of our fathers, and possibly to complete it. Their deeds of heroism in adventures with Bantu and Briton shine forth like guiding stars through the history of the past, in order to point out the way for posterity to reach that goal for which our sorely tried people have made such great sacrifices, and for which they have undergone so many vicissitudes. The historical survey will, moreover, aid in bring- ing into stronger relief those naked truths to which the tribunal of impartial history will assuredly test- ify hereafter, in adjudging the case between our- selves and our enemy. And the questions which present themselves for solution in the approaching conflict have their origin deep in the history of the past ; it is only by the light of that history that it becomes possible to discern and appreciate the drift- ing straws which float on the currents of to-day. By its light we are more clearly enabled to compre- A CENTURY OF INJUSTICE. ;; hend the truth, to which our people appeal .. .•. final justification for embarking upon the war now so close at hand. History will show convincingly that the pleas of humanity, civilization, and equal rights, upon which the British Government bases its actions, are nothing else but the recrudescence of that spirit of annexation and plunder which has at all times characterized its dealings with our people. THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. The cause for which we are about to take up arms is the same, though in somewhat different form, as that for which so many of our forefathers under- went the most painful experiences centuries ago, when they abandoned house and fatherland to settle at the Cape of Good Hope. In the beautiful valleys lying between the blue mountains of the Cape of Good Hope they planted the seed-germ of liberty, which sprang up and has since developed with such startling rapidity into the giant tree of to-day — a tree which not only covers a considerable area in this part of the world, but will yet, in God's good time, we feel convinced, stretch out its leafy branches over the whole of South Africa. In spite of the oppressive bonds of the East India Company, the young settlement, containing the noblest blood of old Europe as well as its most exalted aspirations, grew so powerfully that, in 1806, when the Colony passed into the hands of England, a strong national sentiment and a spirit of liberty had already been developed. 78 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. As is forcibly expressed in an old document dating from the most renowned period of our history, there grew out of the two stocks of Hollanders and French Huguenots " a united people, one in religion, united in peaceful reverence for the law, but with a feeling of liberty and independence equal to the wide ex- panse of territory which they had rescued as a labor of love from the wilderness of nature, or from its still wilder aboriginal inhabitants." When the Dutch Government made way for that of Great Britain in 1806, and, still more, when that change was sealed in 18 14, the little settlement entered upon a new phase of its history, a phase, indeed, in which its people were destined, by their heroic strug- gle for justice, to enlist a world-wide sympathy on their behalf. Notwithstanding the wild surroundings and the innumerable savage tribes in the background, the young Afrikander nation had been welded into a white aristocracy, proudly conscious of having main- tained its superiority notwithstanding arduous strug- gles. It was this sentiment of just pride which the British Government well understood how to wound in its most sensitive part by favoring the Natives as against the Afrikanders. So, for example, the Afri- kander Boers were forced to look with pained eyes on the scenes of their farms and property devastated by the Natives without being in the position of de- fending themselves, because the British Govern- ment had even deprived them of their ammunition. In the same way the liberty-loving Afrikander burgher was coerced by a police composed of Hot- tentots, the lowest and most despicable class of the aborigines, whom the Afrikanders justly placed on THE i APE OF G< M >D HOPE. 79 a far lower social level than that of their own Malay slaves. No wonckr that in 1815 a number of the Boers were driven into rebellion, a rebellion which found an awful ending in the horrible occurrence on the 9th of March, 1816, where six of the Doers were half hung- up in the most inhuman way, and in the com- pulsory presence of their wives and children. Their death was truly horrible, for the gallows broke down before the end came; but they were again hoisted up in the agony of dying, and strangled to death in the murderous tragedy of Slachter's Xek. What- ever opinions have been formed of this occurrence in other respects, it was at .Slachter's Xek that the first bloodstained beacon was erected which marks the boundary between Boer and Briton in South Africa, and the eyes of posterity still glance back shuddering through the long vista of years at that tragedy of horror. This was, however, but the beginning. Under the cloak of religion British administration con- tinued to display its hate against our people and nationality, and to conceal its self-seeking aims under cover of the most exalted principles. The aid of religion was invoked to reinforce the policy of op- pression in order to deal a deeper and more fatal blow to our self-respect. Emissaries of the London Missionary Society slandered the Boers, and accused them of the most inhuman cruelties to the Natives. These libellous stories, endorsed as they were by the British Government, found a ready ear among the English, and the result was that under the pressure of powerful philanthropic opinion in England, our unfortunate people were more bitterly persecuted 80 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. than ever, and were finally compelled to defend themselves in courts of law against the coarsest ac- cusations and insults. But they emerged from the ordeal triumphantly, and the records of the criminal courts of the Cape Colony bear indisputable witness to the fact that there were no people among the slave- owning classes of the world more humane than the Afrikander Boers. Their treatment of the Natives was based on the theory that Natives ought not to be considered as mature and fully developed people, but that they were in reality children who had to be won over to civilization by just and rigid discipline ; they hold the same convictions on this subject to- day, and the enlightened opinion of the civilized world is inclining more and more to the same con- clusion. But the fact that their case was a good one, and that it was triumphantly decided in their favor in the law courts, did not serve to diminish, but rather tended to sharpen, the feeling of injustice with which they had been treated. A livelier sense of wrong was quickened by the way in which the emancipation of the slaves — in it- self an excellent measure — was carried out in the case of the Boers. Our forefathers had become owners of slaves, chiefly imported in English ships and sold to us by Englishmen. The British Government decided to abolish slavery. We had no objection to this, pro- vided we received adequate compensation. Our slaves had been valued by British officials at three millions, but of the twenty millions voted by the Imperial Government for compensation, only one and a quarter millions was destined for South Afri- ca; and this sum was payable in London. It was THE CAPE OP GOOD HOPE. 81 impossible for us to go there, so we were forced to sell our rights to middlemen and agents for a mere song; and many of our ;, were so overwhelmed by the difficulties placed in their way that they took no steps whatever to receive their share of the com- pensation. Gray heads and widows who had lived in case and comfort went down poverty-stricken to the grave, and gradually the hard fact was borne in upon us that there was no such thing as Justice for us in England. Froude, the English historian, hits the right nail on the head when he says : — " Slavery at the Cape had been rather domestic than predial; the scandals of the West India planta- tions were unknown among them. " Because the Dutch are a deliberate and slow people, not given to enthusiasm for new ideas, they fell into disgrace with us, where they have ever since remained. The unfavorable impression of them became a tradition of the English Press, and, unfortunately, of the Colonial Office. We had treated them unfairly as well as unwisely, and we never forgive those whom we have injured." But this was not all. When the English obtained possession of the Cape Colony by convention, the Fish River formed the eastern boundary. The Kaf- firs raided the Colony from time to time, but espe- cially in 1834, when they murdered, plundered, and outraged the helpless Colonists in an awful and almost indescribable manner. The Governor was ultimately prevailed upon to free the strip of terri- tory beyond the Fish River from the raids cf the Kaffirs, and this was done by the aid of the Boers. 6 82 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. But Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary, reversed this policy and restored the whole territory to the natives. He maligned the Boers in even more forcible terms than the emissaries of the London Missionary Society, and openly favored the Kaffirs, placing them on a higher pedestal than the Boers. The latter had succeeded in rescuing their cattle from the Kaffirs, but were forced to look on passive- ly while the very same cattle, with the owner's brand marks plainly visible, were sold by public auction to defray the cost of the commando. It was useless to hope for justice from Englishmen. There was no security for life and property under the flag of a Government which openly elected to uphold Wrong. The high-minded descendants of the proudest and most stubborn peoples of Europe had to bend the knee before a Government which united a commer- cial policy of crying injustice with a veneer of simu- lated philanthropy. But it was not only in regard to the Natives that the Boers were oppressed and their rights violated. When the Cape was transferred to England in 1806, their language was guaranteed to the Dutch inhabi- tants. This guarantee was, however, soon to meet the same fate as the treaties and conventions which were concluded by England with our people at later periods. The violator of treaties fulfilled its obligation by decreeing in 1825 that all documents were for the future to be written in English. Petitions in the language of the country and complaints about bitter grievances were not even acknowledged. The Boers were excluded from the juries because their knowl- edge of English was too faulty, and their causes and THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE 83 actions had to be determined by Englishmen, with whom they had nothing in common. After twenty years' experience of British adminis- tration it had become abundantly clear to the Boers that there was no prospect <PE. 85 in which wc have suffered enormous losses and con- tinual vexation, and are at to enter a strange and dangerous territory; but we go with a firm re- liance on an all -seeing, just and merciful God, whom we shall always fear and humbly endeavor to obey. " In the name of all who leave the Colony witli me, "P. Retief." We journeyed then with our fathers beyond the Orange River into the unknown north, as free men and subjects of no sovereign upon earth. Then be- gan what the English member of parliament, Sir William Molesworth, termed a strange sort of pur- suit. The trekking Boer followed by the British Colonial Office was indeed the strangest pursuit ever witnessed on earth. The British Parliament even passed a law in 1S36 to impose punishments be) r ond their jurisdiction up to the 25th degree south, and when wc trekked fur- ther north Lord Grey threatened to extend this un- righteous law to the Equator. It may be remarked that in this law it was specially enacted that no sov- ereignty or overlordship was to be considered as established thereby over the territory in question. The first trek was that of Trichardt and the Van Rensburgs. They went to the north, but the Van Rensburgs were massacred in the most horrible way by the Kaffirs, and Trichardt's party reached Delagoa Bay after indescribable sufferings in a poverty-stricken condition, only to die there of malarial fever. 86 THE .STORY OF THE BOERS. THE FOUNDING OF NATAL. The second trek was equally unfortunate. After Piet Retief had duly paid for and obtained posses- sion from Dingaan, Chief of the Zulus, of that tract of territory now known as Natal, the latter, incited by some Englishmen, treacherously murdered him and his party on the 6th February, 1838; 66 Boers and 30 of their followers perished. The Great Trek thus lost its most courageous and noble-minded leader. Dingaan then sent two of his armies, and they overcame the women and children and the aged at Boesmans River (Blaauw-krantz), where the village of Weenen now stands; 282 white people and 252 servants were massacred. Towards the end of the year we entered the land of this criminal with a small commando of 464 men, and on the 16th December, 1838 — since known as " Dingaan 's Day," the proudest in our history — we overthrew the military might of the Zulus, consist- ing of 10,000 warriors, and burned Dingaan's chief kraal. After that we settled down peaceably in Natal and established a new Republic. The territory had been purchased with our money and baptized with our blood. But the Republic was not permitted to remain in peace for long. The Colonial Office was in pursuit. The Government first of all decided upon a military occupation of Natal, for, as Governor Napier wrote to Lord Russell on the 2 2d June, 1840, "it was apparently the fixed determination of Her Majesty's Government not to extend Her Colonial THE 1" OF N lL. possessions in this quarter of the Globe." The only object of the military occupation was to crush the Boers, as the G . Sir George Napier, undis- guiscdly admitted in his dispatch to Lord ' lg, of the 1 6th January, 1838. The Boers were to be prevented from obtaining ammunition, and to be forbidden to establish an independent Republic. By these means he hoped to put a stop to the emigra- tion. Lord Stanley instructed Governor Napier, on the 10th April, 1S42, to cut the emigrant Boers off from all communication, and to inform them that the British Government would assist the savages against them, and would treat them as rebels. Twice we successfully withstood the military oc- cupation; more English perished while in flight from drowning than fell by our bullets. Commissioner Cloete was sent later to annex the young Republic as a reward for having redeemed it for civilization. The annexation, however, only took place under strong protest. On the 21st February, 1842, the Volksraad of Maritzburg, under the chairmanship of Joachim Prinsloo, addressed the following letter to Governor Napier: " We know that there is a God, who is the Ruler of heaven and earth, and who has power, and is willing to protect the injured, though weaker, against oppressors. In Him we put our trust, and in the justice of our cause; and should it be His will that total destruction be brought upon us, our wives and children, and everything we possess, we will with due submission acknowledge to have deserved from Him, but not from men. We are aware of the power of Great Britain, and it is not our object to defy that 88 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. power; but at the same time we cannot allow that might instead of right shall triumph without having employed all our means to oppose it." The Boer women of Maritzburg informed the Brit- ish Commissioner that, sooner than subject them- selves again to British sway, they would walk bare- foot over the Drakensberg to freedom or to death. And they were true to their word, as the follow- ing incident proves. Andries Pretorius, our brave leader, had ridden through to Grahamstown, hun- dreds of miles distant, in order to represent the true facts of our case to Governor Pottinger. He was unsuccessful, for he was obliged to return without a, hearing from the Governor, who excused himself under the pretext that he had no time to receive Pretorius. When the latter reached the Drakens- berg on his return, he found nearly the whole popu- lation trekking over the mountains away from Natal and away from British sway. His wife was lying ill in the wagon, and his daughter had been severely hurt by the oxen, which she was forced to lead. Sir Harry Smith, who succeeded Pottinger, thus described the condition of the emigrant Boers: " They were exposed to a state of misery which he had never before seen equalled, except in Massena's invasion of Portugal. The scene was truly heart- rending." This is what we had to suffer at the hands of the British Government in connection with Natal. We trekked back over the Drakensberg to the Free State, where some remained, but others wan- dered northwards over the Vaal River. THE ORANGE FREE STATE. 89 THE ORANGE FREE STATE. Giving effect to Law 6 and 7 William IV., ch. 57, the English appointed a Resident in the Free State. Pretorius, however, gave him forty-eight hours' notice to quit the Republic. Thereupon Sir Harry Smith mobilized an army, ehiefly consisting of blacks, against us white people, and fought us at Boomplaats on the 29th August, [848. After an ob- stinate struggle a Boer named Thomas Dreyer was caught by the blacks of Smith's army, and to the shame of English reputation was killed by the Eng- lish Governor for no other crime than that he was once, though years before, a British subject, and had now dared to fight against Her Majesty's nag. Another murder and deed of shame in South Africa's account with England. In the mean time Sir Harry Smith had annexed the Free State as the "Orange River Sovereignty," on the pretext that four-fifths of the inhabitants favored British dominion, and were only intimidated by the power of Pretorius from manifesting their wishes. But the British Resident soon came into collision with Moshesh, the great and crafty head chieftain of the Basutos. The Boers were called up to assist, but only 75 re- sponded out of the 1,000 who were called up. The English had then to cat the leek. The Resident in- formed his Government that the fate of the Orange River Sovereignty depended upon Andries Pretorius, the very man on whose head Sir Harry Smith had 90 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. put a price of ^2,000. Earl Grey censured and abandoned both Sir Harry Smith and the Resident, Major Warden, saying in his dispatch to the Gov- ernor, dated 15th December, 1851, that the Brit- ish Government had annexed the country on the understanding that the inhabitants had generally desired it. But if they would not support the Brit- ish Government, which had only been established in their interests, and if they wished to be freed from that authority, there was no longer any use in con- tinuing it. The Governor was clearly given to understand by the British Government that there was in future to be no interference in any of the wars which might take place between the different tribes and the in- habitants of independent states beyond the Colonial boundaries, no matter how sanguinary such wars might happen to be. In other words, as Froude says: "In 1852 we had discovered that wars with the Natives and wars with the Dutch were expensive and useless, that sending troops out and killing thousands of Natives was an odd way of protecting them. We resolved then to keep within our own territories, to meddle no more beyond the Orange River, and to leave the Dutch and the Natives to settle their differences among themselves." And again: "Grown sick at last of enterprises which led neither to honor nor peace, we resolved, in 1852, to leave Boers, Kaffirs, Basutos and Zulus to them- selves and make the Orange River the boundary of British responsibilities. We made formal treaties with the two Dutch States, binding ourselves to in- THE ORANGE FREE STATE. 91 terfere no more between them and the Natives, and to leave them either to establish themselves as a barrier between ourselves and the interior of Afriea, or to sink, as was considered most likely, in an un- equal struggle with warlike tribes, by whom they were infinitely outnumbered." The administration of the Free State cost the British taxpayer too much. There was an idea, too, that if enough rope were given to the Boer he would hang himself. A new Governor, Sir George Cathcart, was sent out with two Special Commissioners to give effect to the new policy. A new treaty between England and the Free State was signed, by which full independ- ence was guaranteed to the Republic, the British Government undertaking at the same time not to interfere with any of the Native tribes north of the Orange River. As Cathcart remarked in his letters — the Sover- eignty bubble had burst and the silly Sovereignty farce was played out. It must not be forgotten that as long as the Free State was English territory it was supposed to in- clude that strip of ground now known as Kimberley and the Diamond Fields; English title deeds had been issued during the Orange River Sovereignty in respect of the ground in question, which was con- sidered to belong to the Sovereignty and to be under the jurisdiction of one of the Sovereignty magis- trates. At the re-establishment of the Free State it consequently became a part of the Orange Free State. Not fifteen years had elapsed since the Conven- tion between England and the Free State before it 92 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. was broken by the English. It had been solemnly stipulated that England would not interfere in Native affairs north of the Orange River. The Basutos had murdered the Free Staters, plundered them, ravished their wives, and committed endless acts of violence. After a bitter struggle of three years the Free Staters had succeeded in inflicting a well-merited chastise- ment on the Basutos, when the British intervened in 1869 in favor of the Natives, notwithstanding the fact that they had reiterated their declaration of non-in- terference in the Aliwal Convention. To return to the Diamond Fields, as Froude re- marks: "The ink on the Treaty of Aliwal was scarcely dry when diamonds were discovered in large quantities in a district which we had ourselves treated as part of the Orange Territory. " Instead of honestly saying that the British Government re- lied on its superior strength, and on this ground de- manded the territory in question, which contained the richest diamond fields in the world, it hypocrit- ically pretended that the real reason of its depriving the Free State of the Diamond Fields was that they belonged to a Native, notwithstanding the fact that this contention was falsified by the judgment of the English courts. "There was a notion also, "says Froude, "that the finest diamond mine in the world ought not to be lost to the British Empire." The ground was thereupon taken from the Boers, and " from that day no Boer in South Africa has been able to trust to English promises." Later, when Brand went to England, the British Government acknowledged its guilt and paid ^90,000 for the richest diamond fields in the world, a sum THE ORANGE FREE STATE. 93 which scarcely represents the daily output of the mines. But notwithstanding the Free State Convention, notwithstanding the renewed promises of the Ali- wal Convention — the Free State was forced to suffer a third breach of the Convention at the hands of the English. Ten thousand rifles were imported into Kimberley through the Cape Colony and sold there to the Natives who encircled and menaced the two Dutch Republics. General Sir Arthur Cunynghame, the British Commander-in-Chief in South Africa, admits that 400,000 guns were sold to Kaffirs during his term of office. Protests from the Transvaal and the Free State were of no avail. And when the Free State in the exercise of its just rights stopped wagons laden with guns on their way through its territory, it was forced to pay compensation to the British Government. "The Free State," says the historian Froude, "paid the money, but paid it under protest, with an old-fashioned appeal to the God of Righteous- ness, whom, strange to say, they believed to be a reality." It seems thus that there is no place for the God of Righteousness in English policy. So far we have considered our Exodus from the Cape Colony and the way in which we were de- prived of Natal and the Free State by England. Now for the case of the Transvaal. 94 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. The disastrous fate of the Trichardt Trek has al- ready been told. The Trichardts found the Trans- vaal overrun by the warriors of Moselikatse, the King of the Matabele and father of Lobengula. The other tribes of the Transvaal were his "dogs," ac- cording to the Kaffir term. As soon as he heard of the approach of the emi- grant Boers he sent out an army to exterminate them. This army succeeded in cutting off and mur- dering one or two stragglers, but it was defeated at Vechtkop by the small laager of Sarel Celliers, where the Boer women distinguished themselves by deeds of striking heroism. Shortly afterwards the emigrant Boers journeyed across the Vaal River, and after two battles drove Moselikatse and his hordes across the Limpopo right into what is now Matabeleland. Andries Pretorius had come into the Transvaal after the annexation of Natal and lived there quietly, notwithstanding the price which had been put on his head after Boom- plaats. The British Resident in the Free State, which at this time still belonged to England, was compelled to admit in a letter to the English Gov- ernor that the fate of the Free State depended upon the self-same Pretorius. It was owing to his influ- ence that Moshesh had not killed off the English sol- diers. People had decided in England — to quote Froude once more — to abandon the Afrikanders and the Kaffirs beyond the borders to their fate, in the hope that the Kaffirs would exterminate the Afri- kanders. THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLK P 1881 AND 1884. An ordinary person would have thought that the only upright way of carrying a policy of restitution into effect would have been for the British Govern- ment to have returned to the provisions of the Sand River Convention. If the Annexation was wrong in itself — without taking the Boer victories into con- sideration — then it ought to have been abolished with all its consequences, and there ought to have been a restitutio in integrum of that Republic; that is to say, the Boers ought to have been placed in exactly the same position as they were in before the Annexation. But what happened? With a mag- nanimity which the English press and English ora- tors are never tired of vaunting, they gave us back our country, but the violation of the Sand River Convention remained unredressed. Instead of a sovereign freedom, we obtained free internal ad- ministration, subject to the suzerain power of Her Majesty over the Republic. This occurred by virtue of the Convention of Pretoria, the preamble of which bestowed self-government on the Transvaal State with the express reservation of suzerainty. The articles of that Convention endeavored to establish a modus vivendi between such self-government and the aforesaid suzerainty. Under this bilateral ar- rangement the Republic was governed for three 104 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. years by two heterogeneous principles — that of rep- resentative self-government and that represented by the British agent. This system was naturally un- workable ; it was also clear that the arrangement of 1 88 1 was not to be considered as final. The suzerainty was above all an absurdity which was not possible to reconcile with practical efficacy. So with the approval of the British Government a Deputation went to London in 1883, in order to get the status of the Republic altered and to substitute a new Convention for that of Pretoria. The Deputa- tion proposed to return to the position as laid down by the Sand River Convention, and that was in fact the only upright and statesmanlike arrangement pos- sible. But according to the evidence of one of the witnesses on the British side, the Rev. D. P. Faure, the Ministry suffered from a very unwholesome dread of parliament ; so it would not agree to this, and submitted a counter-proposal which eventually was accepted by the Deputation, and the conditions of which are to-day of the greatest importance to us. This Draft was constructed out of the Pretoria Convention with such alterations as were designed to make it acceptable to the Deputation. The pre- amble under which complete self-government, sub- ject to the suzerainty, was granted to the Republic was deliberately erased by Lord Derby, then Secre- tary of State for the Colonies, so that the suzerainty naturally lapsed when the Draft was eventually ac- cepted. In order to make it perfectly clear that the status of the Republic was put upon another basis, the title " Transvaal State " was altered to that of the " South African Republic." All articles in the Pre- toria Convention which gave the British Govern- CONVENTION'S OF 1881 AND 1884. 105 ment any authority in the internal affairs of this Republic were done away with. As far as foreign affairs were concerned, a great and far-reaching change was made. It was stipulated in Article 2 of the Pretoria Convention that" Her Majesty reserves to herself, her heirs and successors (se who, for- eigners by birth, i qj »y the privil f depriving the country of its chief treasure, while they have never shown any loyalty to a foreign government. Besides, the inevitable consequence of the ac- ceptance of these claims would be that the inde- pendence of the country as a self-governing, ind pendent sovereign republic would be irreparably lost. For years past British troops in great num- bers have been placed on the frontiers of our sister republic in order to compel her by fear to accede to the demand which would be pressed upon her, and in order to encourage revolutionary disturbances and the cunning plans of those whose greed for gold is the cause of their shameless undertakings. Those plans have now reached their climax in the open violence to which the present British Gov- ernment now resorts. While we readily acknowl- edge the honorable character of thousands of English- men, who loathe such deeds of robbery and wrong, we cannot but abhor the shameless breaking of trea- ties, the feigned pretexts for the transgression of law, the violation of international law and of justice, and the numerous right-rending deeds of the British statesmen, who will now force a war upon the South African Republic. On their heads be the guilt of blood, and may a just Providence reward all as they deserve. Burghers of the Orange Free State, rise as one man against the oppressor and the violator of right. In the strife, to which we are now driven, have a care to commit no act unworthy of a Christian and of a Burgher of the Orange Free State. Let us look forward with confidence to a fortunate end of this 200 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. conflict, trusting to that Higher Power, without whose help human weapons are of no avail. May He bless our arms. Under His banner we advance to battle for liberty and for Fatherland. M. T. Stein, State President. OFFICIAL DESPATCHES EXCHANGED BETWEEN PRESIDENT STEIN AND THE HIGH COMMISSIONER. The following despatches have been exchanged between His Honor President Stein and His Excel- lency Sir Alfred Milner : High Commissioner, Cape Town, State President, Bloemfontcin : 19th Sept. — I have the honor to inform Your Honor that it has been deemed advisable by the Impe- rial military authorities to send a detachment of the troops, ordinarily stationed at Cape Town, to assist in securing the line of communication between the Colony and the British territories lying to the north of it. As this force, or a portion of it, may be sta- tioned near the borders of the Orange Free State, I think it desirable to acquaint Your Honor with this movement, and the reasons for it, in order to prevent any misconception on the part of the Burghers of the Orange Free State, of the object which the mili- tary authorities have in view. The movement in question is in no way directed against the Orange Free State, nor is it due to any anxiety as to the in- tentions of the latter, as I rest fully satisfied with the declarations on this point contained in Your 202 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. Honor's telegram of August 16 last. I take this opportunity of making a general statement of the attitude of H. M. Govt, at the present juncture which in view of the many current misapprehensions on the subject, H. M. Govt, have authorized me to con- vey to Your Honor. H. M. Govt, are still hopeful of a friendly settlement of the differences which have arisen between them and the South African Repub- lic: but should this hope unfortunately be disap- pointed, H. M. Govt, look to the Government of the Orange Free State to preserve strict neutrality and to prevent any military intervention by any of its citizens, and are prepared to give formal assurances that in that case the integrity of the Orange Free State Territory will be strictly respected under all circumstances. As far as H. M. Govt, are aware, there is absolutely no cause to justify any disturb- ance of friendly relations between Great Britain and the Orange Free State. Her Majesty's Gov- ernment are animated by the most friendly senti- ments toward the Orange Free State, and it is entirely untrue that they desire to impair the inde- pendence of that Republic. II. State President, Bloemfontcin, His Excellency High Commissioner , Cape Town : 19th Sept. — Your Excellency's telegram of this day. I share with Your Excellency the hopefulness of a friendly settlement of the differences which have arisen between H. M. Government and the S. A. R. being still arrived at. I cannot even now see that those differences justify the use of force as the only « IFPICIAL DESPATCHES. solution thereof. Both on this account and seeii the existing state of tension here and elsewhere in South Africa, I note with appreb □ and regret the intention of II. M. Government to send a detach- ment of the troops ordinarily stationed at C pe Town northward with a view to having same or a portion thereof stationed near the border of this State. While this Government will continue to do all in its power to allay excitement, I cannot help impressing upon Your Excellency the fact that, if the proposed course be pursued, following as it will on other mili- tary preparations, near our borders, it will not im- probably be considered by our Burghers as a menace to this State, and will in any case and naturally create a very strong feeling of distrust and unrest among them. If unwished for developments should arise therefrom, the responsibility will not rest with this Government. I will submit Your Excellency's telegram to the Volksraad early in its session, which opens on Thursday next, and meanwhile beg to as- sure Your Excellency that this Government would view with deep regret any disturbance of those friendly relations which hitherto existed between Great Britain and this State. III. High Commissioner, Cape Town, State President, Bloemfontein : 20th Sept. — I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of Your Honor's telegram of yesterday. I propose to publish the telegram which I addressed to Your Honor. Does Your Honor desire that I should at the same time publish your reply' 204 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. IV. State President, Bloemfontein, His Excellency High Commissioner, Cape Town : 20th Sept. — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency's telegram of this day. I contemplate, as stated yesterday, submitting Your Excellency's telegram to the Volksraad if possible to-morrow, and at the same time to inform it of my reply thereto. I have no objection to my reply to Your Excellency being published. V. State President, Bloemfo?itein, His Excellency High Commissioner, Cape Town : 25 th Sept. — I have this day received informa- tion that considerable body of troops are being moved northward along and nearer our border, from Lady- smith by rail. With a view to allaying undue ex- citement, I trust and would be pleased to learn from Your Excellency that the report is devoid of truth. VI. From High Commissioner, Cape Town, to State Presi- dent, Bloemfontein : 25th Sept. — Your Honor's telegram of to-day. Governor of Natal informs me that some troops are being moved from Ladysmith to Glencoe, and will be replaced at Ladysmith by troops from Maritz- burg. There is no advance toward the borders of the Orange Free State, nor is there any justification OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. 205 for alarm. I am not aware of any change in the sit- uation since my telegram to Your Honor of the 19th. I adhere to the hope therein expressed as regards differences between Her Majesty's Government and the South African Republic and repeat the assurance- given to the Orange Free State. VII. State President, Blocmfontein, His Excellency High Commissioner, Cape Town : 27th Sept. — I have the honor to communicate, for information of Your Excellency and H. M.'s Government, the following resolution, this day unanimously adopted by the Volksraad. Translated begins: "The Volksraad having heard the second para- graph of His Honor's opening speech and the official documents and correspondence relating thereto which have been handed in ; " Having regard to the strained state of affairs in South Africa, which has arisen in consequence of the differences between the Governments of the South African Republic and H. B. Majesty's, which constitute a threatening danger for bringing about hostilities, the calamitous effects of which would be incalculable for all white inhabitants of South Afri< " Being bound to the South African Republic by the closest bonds of blood and alliance, and standing: in a most friendly relationship toward Her British. Majesty's Government; " Fearing that should a war break out a hatred would be generated between the European races in South Africa, which still, in the far future, will im- 206 THE STORY OP THE BOERS. pede and restrain the peaceful development of all the States and Colonies of South Africa; " Being sensible that the serious obligation rests upon the Volksraad to do all that is possible to pre- vent the shedding of blood ; "Considering that in the course of negotiations with the British Government, which have extended over several months, every endeavor has been made by the Government of the South African Republic to arrive at a peaceful solution of the differences which have been brought forward by the Uitlanders in the S. A. Republic, and which have been adopted as its own cause by the Government of H. B. Majesty, which endeavors unfortunately have only had the re- sult that British troops have been concentrated upon the borders of the South African Republic, and are still continually being reinforced ; " Resolves to instruct the Government still fur- ther to do everything in their power to preserve and establish peace and to contribute by peaceful methods toward the solution of the existing differences, pro- vided that can be brought about without injury to the Honor and Independence of this State or of the South African Republic, and wishes unmistakably to declare its opinion that there exists no cause for war, and that if a war is now begun or occasioned by H. B. Majesty's Government against the South African Republic this will morally be a war against the whole white population of South Africa, and would in its results be calamitous and criminal. Further, that the Orange Free State will honestly and faithfully observe its obligations toward the South African Republic arising out of the political alliance between the two Republics, whatever may happen. " OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. 207 VIII. From State President, lUoemfontein, to His Excel- lency the High Commissioner, Cape Town: 27th Sept. — In view of the ever-increasing- grav- ity of the situation and the strained relations unfortu- nately existing between the Government of Great Britain and of the S. A. Republic, I deem it my duty to avail myself of this opportunity to address H. M.'s Government through Your Excellency. The Free State Government, as H. M.'s Govern- ment are aware, is bound both to the people of the S. A. Republic and of the neighboring British Colo- nies by ties of blood and friendship. It is in addi- tion bound on the one hand to the S. A. Republic by a solemn treaty, in which this State has undertaken to assist the Sister Republic in the event of its Inde- pendence being threatened or attacked, while on the other side there exists between it and the British Government and the Governments of the neighbor- ing British Colonies long established and highly ap- preciated amicable relations. It has ever been and still is the aim and object of Free State Policy heart- ily to support and continually to foster any measures tending to maintain not only, but to increase the spirit of harmony and co-operation among the Colo- nies and States of South Africa and their respective Governments, and it would most deeply regret the occurrence of any untoward event that would cause a break in the cordial relations hitherto so happily subsisting between this State and all its neighbors. It is this strong feeling of good will and amity toward both the Government of Great Britain and 208 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. of the S. A. Republic, between whom relations have now for some time been unfortunately, but, as I trust, only temporari 1 y strained, that led me to bring- about the Conference between Your Excellency and President Kruger in May last. I acted in the hope that thereby the basis for a good understanding and harmonious co-operation in the future might have been arrived at. That Conference terminated with- out effecting the desired results, and ever since then this Government has been unceasing in its efforts and has done all in its power to obtain a peaceful and satisfactory solution of the differences between H. M. 's Government and the S. A. Republic, by influencing the Government of the S. A. Republic to make most important reforms in the matter of Franchise and representation for British subjects who are desirous of becoming burghers of that Re- public. In pressing those Franchise and representation reforms and concessions, this Government kept in view the spirit that animated Your Excellency at the Conference and in which they assumed that the Brit- ish Government also was willing to act, viz. , " to adopt an attitude of friendly suggestion and not of dictation in the internal affairs of the Republic." When it is borne in mind what the position was both in regard to the question of Franchise and of repre- sentation in the S. A. Republic at the time of the Conference, and what radical reforms have been effected by the Government and Legislature of that country in the comparatively short time that has elapsed since that date, I think it may be fairly claimed that our efforts, aided by the representa- tions of other friends of peace and harmony in OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. 209 South Africa, have been crowned with ;i large meas- ure of success. While the Government of the S. A. Republic, encouraged thereto by the advice of the Free State and other friends, were busy inducing the Legisla- ture and people of that Republic to accept reform in the direction suggested and 5 by II. M.'s Gov- ernment, and intended to meet the alleged wants of the Uitlander population, and even lie tore the pro- posal was made by the British Government, that the Franchise Law and scheme of increased representa- tion for the Witwatersrand Goldfields should be submitted to a Joint Commission for examination and report, this Government could not be blind to the fact that the tone of the dispatches had altered, and that the British Government had, in fact, de- parted from the basis on which negotiations were opened: that of not interfering in the internal affairs of the Republic. The request for the Joint Com- mission of Inquiry emphasized that fact beyond any shadow of doubt. Notwithstanding this the Govern- ment of the O. F. State, in the hope that an impartial investigation might inaugurate a renewal of the employment of friendly methods tending toward a satisfactory solution of the questions in difference, and adopting the friendly suggestion received from several quarters, once more advised the Government of the S. A. Republic to make yet another conces- sion, and to give yet another proof of its willingness to meet the British Governm> y consenting to accept the invitation of the British Government to take part in such a Joint Commission ; this advice was adopted, and at last it seemed that th efforts of the friends of peace and harmony in South Africa 2IO THE STORY OF THE BOERS. stood a fair chance of being crowned with success. Great, therefore, was the disappointment of the Gov- ernment and people of this State when it transpired that, from causes with which I am still unacquainted, our best efforts, culminating in the acceptance by the S. A. Republic of the proposals of the British Govern- ment for a Joint Commission of Inquiry on the seven years Franchise Law and adopted increased repre- sentation scheme, proved unavailing, and that the unfortunate tension seemed, as it seems now, to be only increasing. This Government are still prepared, and tender their services to further the interests of peace, and to continue in their endeavors to procure a satisfac- tory solution of existing difficulties on fair and rea- sonable lines: they feel themselves, however, ham- pered now as in the past : a. By a want of knowledge as to the definite object and extent of the desires or demands of the British Government, compliance with which that Government consider themselves entitled to insist upon, and as to the grounds on which such insistence is based. b. By the fact that, notwithstanding the repeated assurances of the British Government that it did not wish to interfere in the internal affairs of the S. A. Republic nor to disturb its independence, it has pursued a policy which seems to justify a con- trary conclusion. To give but one instance, which could not be otherwise than calculated to be a most disturbing element in the conduct of negotiations, I may men- tion the enormous and ever-increasing military preparations on the part of the British Government, OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. 211 indicating a policy of force and coercion during the whole course of negotiations which were stated to be of a friendly and conciliatory nature, those prepa- rations, in the absence of any apparent cause justi- fying the same, being not unnaturally looked upon as a direct menace to the S. A. Republic. After all that has been done by the S. A. Republic to meet the wishes of H. M.'s Government for a Joint Com- mission to inquire into the scope and effect of those measures, and whether immediate and substantial representation would thereby be assured to the Uitlanders willing to avail themselves of the provi- sions thereof, this Government cannot conceive it possible that the points of difference that may exist on this subject justify those extensive and ever-in- creasing military preparations being carried out on the borders, not only of the S. A. Republic, but also of the O. F. State, and it is, therefore, reluctantly compelled to conclude that they must be intended to secure other objects at present unknown to the Gov- ernment of this State, and the knowledge whereof, if they prove to be fair and reasonable, might induce this Government to make necessary representations to secure their attainment and enable them to con- tinue their efforts to secure a speedy, peaceful, and satisfactory solution of the difficulties and differences existing between H. M.'s Government and the Gov- ernment of the S. A. Republic. I beg to add that I am firmly convinced (and feel sure that any reason- able assurance could be obtained), that the Govern- ment of the S. A. Republic have been sincerely de- sirous to maintain in its integrity the Convention of 1884, both as regards its letter and its spirit, and that they do not contemplate or assert a claim to any 212 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. absolute political status without the qualification aris- ing out of Art. 4 of that Convention, and accord- ingly it does not appear to me that there is any mis- understanding hereon that could not promptly and without difficulty be settled. I feel assured that there is no difference between their contention on that point and the communication made on behalf of H. M.'s Government by H. M. 's High Commis- sioner to the Governments, both of the S. A. Re- public and of this State, on the 27th February, 1884, as to the import of that Convention. That commu- nication was as follows : " Same complete internal independence in Transvaal as in the Orange Free State. Conduct and control intercourse, Foreign Governments conceded. Queen's final approval Treaties reserved." In the expectation that H. M.'s Government will share my views that no effort should be spared to effect a peaceable settlement, if possible, of the points in difference between them and S. A. Repub- lic, and that consequently all causes of irritation likely to delay or prevent such settlement should be removed or at least not be aggravated, I trust that H. M.'s Government may see their way clear pend- ing the arrival of the further despatch intimated as about to be sent to the Government of the S. A. Re- public, and pending further negotiations, to stop any further movements or increase of troops on or near the borders of the S. A. Republic and of this State, and further to give an assurance to that effect to al- lay the great excitement and irritation naturally aroused and increased thereby, and if H. M.'s Gov- ernment should be pleased to accede to this request, this Government would be glad to be favored with FICIAL \.TCH1 the views of !:' M.'s Government on the points raised herein, and mere particularly as to the pre- cise nature and scope of the meas- ures, the adoption whereof II. M.'s Government consider themselves entitled to claim or which they suggest as being- necessary or sufficient to insure a satisfactory and permanent solution of existing dif- ferences between them and the S. A. Republic, while at the same time providing a means for set- tling any others that may arise in the future. (Sig.) M. T. Steyn, Stat i- President. IX. High Commissioner, Cape Town, His Honor State President, Bloemfontein : 28th Sept. — I beg to acknowledge your Honor's two telegrams received last night, the contents of which I have communicated to H. M.'s Govern- ment. State President, Bloemfontein, His Excellency High Commissioner, Cape Town : 2d Oct. — I have the honor to inform Your Ex- cellency that I have deemed it advisable in order to allay the intense excitement and unrest among our Burghers arising from the totally undefended state of our Borders in the presence and continued increase and movement of troops on two sides of this State, to call up our Burghers to satisfy them that due pre- cautions have been taken in regard to guarding our Borders and to insure their not acting independentlv of proper control. I am still strongly and sincerely 214 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. desirous of seeing and, if possible, aiding in a friendly settlement of the differences between K. M. Govern- ment and the S. A. Republic being arrived at. I am still looking forward soon to be favored with the views of H. M. Government on the points touched upon in my telegraphic despatch to Your Excellency of the 27 th ult, receipt whereof was acknowledged by Your Excellency on the following day. XL High Commissioner, Cape Town, His Honor State President, Bloemfontein : 2d October — I have the honor to acknowledge Your Honor's telegram of to-day, the terms of which I am communicating to H. M. Government. With reference to the movements of troops to which you refer, I can only repeat the assurances given in my telegrams of the 19th and 25th September. I regret that Your Honor should have felt obliged to order up a large body of Burghers and to place them imme- diately on our Borders, whereas no Imperial troops have been so placed on the Borders of the Orange Free State, except the small detachment engaged in the defence of Kimberley, but as Your Honor has seen fit to take this course, I am glad to have Your Honor's assurance that your forces will be held in proper control. As Your Honor is aware, the Gov- ernment of the S. A. Republic has mobilized and piaced upon the Borders of Natal a very consider- able army and made dispositions which, unwilling as I am to believe such action possible, seem to indi- cate an immediate invasion of the Queen's domin- ions. In view of the repeated declaration of Your OF L DESPATCHE 215 Honor I feel confident tii.it any invasion of II. M. territories by the S. A. Republic would not have the countenance and sup;".!! of Your Honor's Govern- ment, all the n as Your Honor continues to express the hope of a peaceful settlement, of which I likewise do not despair. I hope to be able very shortly to communicate to you the reply of II. M. Government to your telegram of the 27th of Sep- tember. XII. State President, Bloemfontein, His Excellency High Commissioner ; Cape Town; 2d October. — I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency's telegram of this after- noon. I cannot help, regretfully, expressing my conviction that the action of the Transvaal in put- ting Burghers on their Borders is only the natural result, all along feared by me, of the constant in- crease of British troops and their movement in the direction of Transvaal Border. At the same time I have no reason to anticipate any immediate aggres- sive action on part of Transvaal, unless further for- ward movement of British troops should indicate in- tention of attack on Transvaal. I beg to urge upon Your Excellency the necessity of trying both to ex- pedite the reply to my telegraphic despatch and to prevent further movement of troops. XIII. High Commissioner, Cape Town, Slate J "resident, Blocnifontcin : 3rd Oct. — I have the honor to acknowledge Your Honor's telegram of yesterday evening. Your 2l6 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. Honor must be perfectly aware that all the move- ments of British troops which have taken place in this country since the beginning of present troubles, and which have been necessitated by the natural alarm of the inhabitants in exposed districts, are not comparable in magnitude with the recent massing of armed forces of the S. A. Republic on the bor- ders of Natal. I do not suggest that Your Honor is in any way responsible for that action, which appears to me inconsistent with the tone of Your Honor's telegram of the 27th September, in which you ex- pressed your conviction that a peaceful settlement of difficulties was still possible and ought to be ar- rived at. XIV. State President, Bloemfontein, High Commissioner, Cape Town : 3rd Oct. — I have the honor to acknowledge Your Excellency's telegram of this morning. I am as sincerely and strongly desirous as ever to see a speedy, peaceful, and satisfactory solution being ar- rived at, and to do all that lies in my power to try even yet to attain that result. I deem it my duty, however, to state emphatically that I do not con- sider that the movements of British troops which have taken place in this country since the beginning of the present troubles have been necessitated by the natural alarm of the inhabitants in exposed dis- tricts, nor, in fact, have I ever thought that there were any fair grounds justifying such movements. On the contrary, I have never for a moment had or expressed any other view than that the ever-increas- ing military preparations, which both in England OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. 217 and in South Africa have all along accompanied protestations for a desire to arrive at peaceful and friendly settlement, retarded and hampered the ef- forts of myself and all those who were sincerely working to maintain peace and effect fair settlement. To the bitter and hostile tone of the utterances made both by responsible men and by almost the whole English press in South Africa and in England, bris- tling with misrepresentation and constant menace to the Transvaal, accompanied by ever-increasing military preparations on an extensive scale, not only in South Africa and in England, but throughout the British Empire, which are openly stated as being directed aeainst and intended to coerce the Trans- o vaal, I mainly attribute the failure hitherto of arriv- ing at an amicable and satisfactory solution of exist- ing difficulties. I wish to place on record my earnest conviction, that on those in authority, who introduced the military element, and who thereby inaugurated and have since continued a policy of menace and forcible intervention, will rest the re- sponsibility, should all efforts fail to secure peace and an honorable settlement of differences. After the proofs already given by the Transvaal since the Conference, to meet the views and wishes of the British Government, I consider the constant and systematic attempts to throw the blame for the pres- ent critical situation of affairs on the S. A. Republic unjust to and undeserved by the latter. While I am not responsible for, but, on the con- trary, for a long time successfully used my best en- deavors to prevent the massing of burghers by the Government of the S. A. Republic on their borders, I cannot but recognize the fact that in view of the 218 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. action of the British authorities already alluded to, the Transvaal Government cannot be blamed for act- ing as they have done. I am the more confirmed in this view by the fact that while I am still without any reply to my telegraphic despatch of the 27 th ult. , and in which I expressed my conviction as quoted by Your Excellency, the reasonable request therein made that the increase and further movement of British troops should be stayed, and which, if ac- ceded to, would probably have prevented the calling out of the burghers both in the S. A. Republic and in this State, has not only been ignored, but activity in military preparations and the despatch of troops have been going on more persistently than ever. I am not in a position to judge whether the movement of British troops on the Border of the S. A. Republic is comparable or not in magnitude with the recent massing of armed forces of the S. A. Re- public on their Borders, but Your Excellency should not lose sight of the fact that on all sides in the Eng- lish press and otherwise the assertion constantly finds expression that the British troops already in this Country, with their superior armament and dis- cipline, are more than a match for the undisciplined Burgher force of the Republic, are intended forth- with to enforce British demands on the Transvaal, and that moreover troops are being despatched al- most daily from England, and military preparations are in active and constant progress which are utterly incompatible with the requirements of defence, and which would seem to more than sufficiently justify a conviction, in the minds of the Burghers of the S. A. Republic, that England has abandoned any idea of attempting any longer to arrive at a solution of OFFICIAL DESPATCHE 2 ii- missioner, Cape '/'oxen ; 6th Oct. — I have the honor to acknowledge the re- ceipt of Your Excellency's telegram of to-day. I am earnestly desirous of meeting any reasonable sugges- tion that may tend to a continuance of friendly nego- tiations and to avert an issue for which, as I have frequently stated, I see no justification whatever. I trust that Your Excellency will, on reconsideration, see that the Government of the S. A. Republic, in only taking proper precautions for the future, might fairly decline, and I do not feel I could be expected to ask them to continue negotiations in the face of the fact that from all sides of H. M.'s Dominions troops are being poured into South Africa with the avowed object of coercing the S. A. Republic into accepting whatever terms H. M. 's Government might decide to impose. I have no doubt in so far as II. M.'s troops are intended for the defence of H. M.'s possessions the same purpose, viz., fully safeguard- ing those possessions from invasion and subjects from molestation, could be effected. I would be willing to assist in its being effected without one side finding itself put at a great disadvantage during and because of further negotiations. The assurance asked for by Your Excellency could, I have no doubt, be obtained and satisfactorily arranged ; but the point that I think it fair to urge is that it would 224 THE STORY OV THE BOERS. be taken by the S. A. Republic as virtually amount- ing to an act of hostility on the part of Her Maj- esty's Government to be continuously and exten- sively increasing- its forces during negotiation when all need for defensive measures can, as I firmly be- lieve, be fully obviated without such increase. XIX. From High Commissioner, Cape Town, to State Presi- dent, Bloemfontcin : 7th Oct.— With reference to Your Honor's tele- gram of Sept. 27th, I am instructed by H. M.'s Gov- ernment to inform Your Honor that H. M. 's Govern- ment have repeatedly explained their views on the questions at issue between them and the Govern- ment of the S. A. Republic, and especially in the note addressed to that Government, on September 1 2th. Her Majesty's Government do not think their position open to misunderstanding, but if Your Honor desires the elucidation of any specific point in their proposals, H. M. 's Government are prepared to give it. As regards their military preparations, these have been necessitated by the action of the Gov- ernment of the S. A. Republic, in converting that country into an armed camp. In view of the rejec- tion of their last proposals by the Government of the S. A. Republic, H. M.'s Government are reconsid- ering the situation, having regard to the grave fact that both Republics have now placed themselves on a war footing. While intending shortly to put for- ward new proposals of their own, H. M. 's Govern- ment would even now be prepared to consider any OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. definite suggestion from Your Honoi for the termi- nation of the present crisis, providi d it was n consistent with tl e atte: ts avowed and pursued by them. The above was received ' Honor's telegram of yesterday afternoon, to which I will re- ply immediately. XX. From High Commissioner^ Cape Town, to State Presi- dent, Bloemfontein ; 7th October. — I have the honor to acknowledge Your Honor's telegram of yesterday afternoon. With every desire to relieve the strain of the present situation, I cannot go beyond the suggestions made by me in my telegram of yesterday morning. I have no right to attempt to influence Your Honor as to what advice it would be reasonable for you to give to the Government of the South African Republic, having regard to the impending increase of Her Maj- esty's forces in South Africa. My object, in all the communications which have passed between us since Your Honor's telegram of 2d October, has been to leave nothing undone which could prevent action on the part of the South African Republic calculated to make a pacific solution finally impossible. Bu I cannot, even with that object ask Her Majesty's Gov- ernment to pledge themselves either with regard to the disposition of troops within British territory in South Africa or to their despatch thither from other parts of the Empire. l 5 THE BOER GOVERNMENT'S REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 26th September, 1899. Sir: The Government of the South African Re- public has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of a certain despatch dated 10th May, 1899, addressed to His Excellency the High Commissioner by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in conse- quence of a petition sent to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. 21,684 signatures appear on this petition, and are said to have been affixed thereto by an equivalent number of British subjects resident at Johannesburg, in this Republic. This Government notes that Her Majesty's Gov- ernment have thought fit, on the grounds of the in- formation already in their possession, to make in- vestigation into the subject-matter of the aforesaid petition, and, as a result of such investigation, to ex- press to this Government their views on the admin- istration of the internal affairs of this Republic, which said views they have at the same time com- municated to the memorialists as an answer to their petition. This Government may be permitted to point out that the Convention of London of 1884, entered into between this Republic and the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, guarantees to the South African Republic full and free internal administration with- REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 227 out any interference from any one whatever. As Lord Derby notifies in his despatch of the 15th Feb- ruary, 1884 : "Your Government will be left free to govern the country without interference, and to conduct its diplomatic intercourse, and shape its foreign policy, subject only to the requirements embodied in the fourth article of the new draft — that any treaty with a foreign State shall not have effect without the ap- proval of the Queen." In his despatch of the 4th February, 1896, the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, states: " In the next place, it is necessary that I should state clearly and unequivocally what is the position which Her Majesty's Government claim to hold toward the Government of the South African Re- public. Since the Convention of 1S84, Her Maj- esty's Government recognized the South African Republic as a free and independent Government as regards all its internal affairs not touched by the Convention." In a telegram, also from Mr. Chamberlain, dated 26th March, 1896, the same statement is substantially made, viz. : " Her Majesty's Government do not claim any rights under the Conventions to prescribe particular internal reforms which should be made in South African Republic." This Government has always felt it a solemn duty for the Republic to adhere strictly to the Conven- tion of 1884 in its entirety; at the same time, it has been consistent in protesting in the most forcible manner against any interference or intermeddling with the internal affairs of the Republic, and against the discussion or treatment of these affairs with or 228 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. by any other than the Republic itself , and it can dis- cover no reasons now which would either justify such interference or exempt it from the accusation of be- ing a violation of the Convention of London. This Government feels convinced that Her Majes- ty's Government would not favorably entertain a re- quest from British subjects for intervention because the said British subjects are unwilling (as was agreed between this Republic and Her Majesty's Govern- ment in the Convention of London) to conform them- selves to the laws of the land and to respect the legal institutions and customs of the South African Re- public, and because they feel aggrieved that the laws are not altered in accordance with their demands. The friendly relations so highly prized by this Gov- ernment which have existed between this Republic and the United Kingdom, the other party to the Convention of London, have always been a safe guarantee to this Government against such a breach of the Convention on the part of Her Majesty's Gov- ernment, and it greatly deplores the fact that Her Majesty's Government has now decided to act in con- flict with the Convention of London by busying itself with the imaginary grievances of the Uitlanders, and making representations there anent to this Govern- ment. Against such action this Government feels that it must earnestly and emphatically protest, and the Right Hon. Mr. Chamberlain could not take it amiss if this Government were to pay no further at- tention to the charges against its administration con- tained in the petition, or if they declined to discuss further the views of Her Majesty's Government about these charges. This Government has, however, on more than one REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 229 occasion, notified to Her Majesty's Government that it will attach great value to .' ons which may be tendered in the interests of Bi itish subjects, and it will certainly lend a very willing ear to any friendly advice or hints which may be given by Her Majesty's Government as being the representative of a Power which, with this Republic and the Orange Free State, protects and fosters the paramount in- terests of South Africa. His Honor the State President was animated by these sentiments when he accepted the courteous invitation of Plis Honor President Steyn to proceed to Bloemfontein in order to confer with Your Ex- cellency about matters which are an equal source of interest to this Republic and Her Majesty's Government. These friendly sentiments now prompt it to take the liberty of drawing serious at- tention to the fact that Her Majesty's Government certainly appear to be supplied with insufficient and incorrect data about facts and occurrences from which erroneous ideas and conclusions are drawn, so that, although desirous of avoiding subjects the dis- cussion of which would be contrary to the Conven- tion, this Government nevertheless feels that it ought to convey to Her Majesty's Government the true position of affairs, and that it ought to point out how the latter is misled, the condition of affairs as d picted in the despatch under reply being in all respects exaggerated, and in many instances entirely untrue. In the first place, this Government wishes to point out that, so far from the petition which gave rise to the despatch under reply having been signed by 21,- 6S4 British subjects, it appears indeed that it was signed by very few people in the South African Re- 230 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. public — leaving aside all mention of British subjects. This has been substantiated in many cases by sworn declarations, many of which were handed to His Ex- cellency the High Commissioner during the Confer- ence at Bloemfontein, and this Government feels that it may flatter itself that the British Government, after having examined these documents, will share with this Government the view that this memorial is in itself a matter of very slight importance, even although it may contain the signatures of a certain number of British subjects who hold the opinion that they are entitled to a change in the form of Govern- ment because, in violation of the Convention entered into between this Republic and Her Majesty's Gov- ernment, they will not conform themselves to the laws of the land, but claim alterations therein at their own caprice. This Government is all the more convinced that this memorial is of no great moment, and that it cer- tainly does not express the feelings of all the so- called Uitlanders, because another memorial has been received by it from about 23,000 inhabitants of this Republic, nearly all Uitlanders, and. among whom are several British subjects. The High Com- missioner was informed that the signatures to this memorial were obtained in a perfectly bona fide way, and this information was supported by sworn affi- davits. The purport of this memorial bore evidence to the fact that the thousands of Uitlanders who signed it were satisfied with the administration and the Government of this Republic, and did not share the views of the memorialists to Her Britannic Maj- esty in respect of what the latter considered to be legitimate grievances. REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 231 This Government may further be permitted to point out that although the CJitlander population may have co-operated in effecting an increase in the revenues of the State, principally, as His Excellency has been informed, in custom dues, prospecting licenses, railway receipts, etc., so that the revenue in 1898 amounted to , 5,360, the fact must not be lost sight of, on the other hand, that gold to the value of £20,000,000 was exported from the State during the same year 1898, almost entirely by the Uitlanders. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that al- though the chief item in custom dues is collected on goods which are imported at Johannesburg, yet these goods are not entirely used or consumed by the Uitlanders, for a considerable quantity is sent over the whole Republic by the wholesale merchants to the retail dealers who do business with the burgrh- ers in the villages and the country, so that much of what is imported into Johannesburg is destined for consumption by the original burgher of the Republic. With regard to the contention that the mining in- dustry is more heavily taxed than in any other coun- try, and that the cost of the necessaries of life is higher, this Government desires to remark that this contention is entirely contradicted by facts and sta- tistics. The value of goods imported into the South African Republic during 1898 amounted to £9,996,- 575, and the custom duties levied thereon to £1,058,- 224, or 1 0.6 per cent. Under the Customs Union of the adjacent British Colonies the import duties amounted to 15 per cent, of the value of the goods, a comparison which yields a difference of nearly 50 232 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. per cent, in favor of the Republic. When the mat- ter is examined in detail, the case is even stronger. In the Colonies certain articles, such as breadstuffs, are subject to a special duty of 2s., say about 30 per cent, of the value, in corn, and 40 per cent, in meal. In this Republic the duty on both the foregoing ar- ticles is i\ per cent. ; butter is especially taxed at 3d. per pound, or 30 per cent., under the Customs Union, while in the Republic it is subject only to the 7^ ad valorem duty. Coffee and other necessaries of life, on being compared, would show a similar differ- ence, and this Government therefore trusts that Her Majesty's Government will exonerate it when it points out the incorrectness and unreliability of the information supplied to the Secretary of State, on which he bases his conclusion that the cost of living is unusually high in consequence of the taxation levied by the State ; that such is not the case will be at once shown by a comparison with the taxation of the neighboring Colonies. The character of the financial administration must have been erroneously represented to Her Majesty's Government if it was simply stated that defalcations to an amount of ^18,590 had taken place. It would ex facie appear from such a statement that the above defalcations had taken place during the past year; as a matter of fact, the Inspection Department, which has only recently been called into existence, reported over financial matters covering the years 1884 to 1896. It is unfair to characterize all deficiencies as defal- cations, for from the nature of the case a deficiency does not always constitute a defalcation. The report specified the subdivisions of moneys which had yet REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 233 to be accounted for. The first item in such deficien- cies amounted originally to ,£12,000, and of this ^6,ooowas afterward collected, and the balance was only brought forward; another item of £10,808 1 is. was brought forward in its entirety, but X3>°°° °f this was eventually collected and accounted for, while continual efforts were made to secure the bal- ance. Many items not brought forward were col- lected long- before and accounted for, while during the inspection of last year it was found that a sum of .£800 yet remained to be paid in out of the deficien- cies, which balance has been accounted for. The contention that advances to officials amount- ing to £2,398,506 16s. 8d. have remained unac- counted for is also absolutely incorrect ; and the en- deavor to pass this circumstance off as constituting defalcations on the part of officials bears ample wit- ness to the strong desire to mislead which has actu- ated the informants of Her Majesty's Government. Any person who is even superficially acquainted with financial administration will readily admit that this is due to a system of accounting which was fol- lowed until recently by Her Majesty's Government, and which obtains in some British Colonies, in Natal, for instance, at the present moment. This system may deserve condemnation; it does not, however, necessarily follow that because the ad- vances may not be speedily accounted for they have been embezzled, and it does not appear either from the report of the Inspector of Offices, or from the debates of the Volksraad, that such accusations were made. But in addition to this a sum of at least ^1,968,306 is included in the aforesaid total of ,£ 2 >39 8 >5°6 16s. Sd. (but which is not comprised in 234 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. the customary advances), such as Orphan Chamber £80,000, Indigent Burghers ,£150,000, Postal Orders £60,000, various loans to School Committees, Sani- tary Boards, and for Waterworks, Hospitals, Com- mittees, moneys placed at interest in Europe, pro- visional loans to Railway Companies, purchases of food-stuffs and mules in time of famine, and many others. Items, too, of considerable importance appear in the advances, although they have really been ac- counted for up to within a pound or two, because for one reason or another it has not been possible to write off the exact total, the amount still to be ac- counted for having dwindled to a very insignificant figure. The contention that during 1896 a sum of £191,- 837 was paid out of the Secret Service Money is also absolutely unfounded, for in that amount a sum of £158,337 was included which was used for special Government Works, as was expressly stated in a foot-note on page 44 of the Estimates for 1897. The Secret Service Fund for that year (1896) did not amount to more than £33,500. This faulty infor- mation, supplied to Her Majesty's Government, is apparently taken from the said Estimates, it would seem with the fixed determination to ignore the ex- planatory foot-note on page 44. It is incorrect to state that the system of granting concessions remains in full force. Where the Right Hon. the Secretary of State in his despatch refers to industrial concessions, this Government may remark that these are privileges granted in order to stimu- late and protect local industry, and the contention that these concessions will develop into practical REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 235 monopolies rted by any evidence ; results will show tl: sading information has be □ /en lie re as well. With regard to the question of education which has been dealt with in the despatch of the Right Hon. the Colonial Secretary, this Government wishes to point out that the amount expended on education during the year 1898 was ^226,219 4s. 8d. In the former year it was less. Of this amount ,£36,503 17s. 2d. was devoted to Education on the Gold Fields (for State as well as for subsidized schools). As the number of scholars under Act 15, 1896, as well as that of the teachers, have considerably increased, the amount during the current year will probably be £,53,000. The conditions on which this money is given are certainly not such as to exclude the chil- dren of Uitlanders from its benefits. According to Volksraad Resolution of 1st June, 1892 (and amend- ments), schools where a foreign language was the medium of instruction were entitled to a subsidy of 20s. per pupil per quarter for the lower standard, and 25s. for the middle standard, provided that cer- tain requirements as to knowledge of the official lan- guage of the country were complied with. These requirements are a standard lower than that for children of burghers in the country, who are taught in schools governed by Law No. 8 of 1S92. Few, if any, Uitlanders avail themselves of this offer; the few who have done so are now satisfied with it, and continue to enjoy the privileges of the resolution, although it was only renewed in 1898 for those schools which made a bona fide use of it. Law No. 15, 1896, made provision for the children of poor parents and strangers on the proclaimed gold fields 236 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. entirely at State expense, and 13 schools have been established by this law — with 5 1 teachers and about 1,500 scholars — at Barberton, Pilgrims' Rest, Kaap- sche Hoop, Johannesburg- (5, viz., 1 in von Brandis Street, 1 at Braamfontein, 1 at Union Ground, 1 at Vredesdorp, and 1 in Market Street), Maraisburg, Krugersdorp, Randfontein, Klerksdorp, and Nigel. In addition to these, preparations are being made for State schools at the City and Suburban, Bertrams- township, Johannesburg, and at Roodepoort (Kru- gersdorp) . Out of the above-named 13 schools, English is the medium of instruction in four, and of the remaining nine English is the medium for the children of Eng- lish-speaking parents, and Dutch for those of Dutch- speaking parents. In these nine schools a little more time is devoted to learning Dutch in each standard than was the case in the former standard, so that equality in both languages is reached at the 5th standard. Altogether there are 27 Dutch Afrikander or Hol- lander teachers, and 24 teachers of English origin in these 13 schools. The Dutch Afrikander or Hol- lander teachers are obliged to possess a thorough knowledge of English, and have either to pass an examination or produce a certificate to that effect. The object of the system of education in this Re- public is to insure in the first place the foundation of general knowledge. Law No. 8, 1892, provides this for the children of the original Boer population in their mother tongue, in which the necessary schoolbooks must be written, with this understand- ing, however, that in the 3d standard three hours, and in the higher ones four hours, per week out of REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 237 the 25 must be devoted to education in a foreign lan- guage. With regard to the schools formed under the above-mentioned Resolution, teaching is carried on through the medium of a foreign language, but at least five hours per week must be devoted to the study of the official language of the country. Of the 13 schools formed under Law 15 of 1896, the children of strangers are instructed in their own language, while the number of hours for instruction in and by means of Dutch is increased in each stand- ard. According to a Resolution of the First Volksraad, dated the 8th August, 1898, Article 731, a certain number of the School Board members required by Article 1 of Law 15 of 1896 have to be nominated and chosen by the Executive Council out of enfranchised persons (Article 2, Law 8, 1S93) proposed by the fathers of the school children, on the understanding that the persons so chosen shall constitute less than half of the whole School Board, and further, that the persons so proposed shall always be double the number of the people actually nominated. The above facts clearly prove, according to the opinion of this Government, that Her Majesty's Gov- ernment has also been misled in respect to the mat- ter of education. It is clear that one-fourth of the whole educational vote has been devoted to the gold fields, so that the children of Uitlander residents can make use of it ; that proper provision is made for education in the mother tongue whatever it may be, while at the fame time compulsory education of the language of the country is also provided for. That both by the Resolution of the 1st June, 1892, as well 238 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. as by the Law 15 of 1896, more has actually been done for the Uitlanders than for the original inhabit- ants, and that more time is given to the mother tongue of the children in the schools on the gold fields of this Republic than in any country in the world, and that here again information of a mislead- ing character must have been given to His Excel- lency and the British Government. Law No. 15, 1896, and the schools thereby estab- lished have been defended by Englishmen in various newspapers. (See the S. A. Neivs, 10th May, 1899; The Star, 2 2d March, 1899; Manchester Guardian, etc.). With reference to the Municipality of Johannes- burg, this Government desires to remark that in accordance with the promise made in 1896, the grant of Municipal Administration was made to the inhab- itants of Johannesburg by which the control of that town and its suburbs was conferred upon them. Her Majesty's Government seem to think that this Municipality does not answer its purpose, in the first place because half of the members must be natural- ized burghers (not fully enfranchised burghers as the despatch under reply erroneously contends), and in the second place because the financial powers of the town council are restricted. With regard to the first objection, it is impossible that this should be a great grievance, because a resi- dence of two years in the Republic is sufficient for naturalization ; as a matter of fact, more than the necessary half of the members are burghers; this shows conclusively that the requirement of burgher- ship is in no sense an obstacle. The objection as to the restriction of the financial powers of the council REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 239 is not conclusive, because there is no Municipality in the world the financial powers of which are not restricted by the law under which they are created, and the restrictions in the case of the town council of Johannesburg are the usual ones in such cases. The Advisory Board recommended by the Indus- trial Commission would have proved inefficient be- cause the laws with the administration of which that body would have had to concern itself can be carried out in a better and more efficient way by an official like the State Attorney, who has almost unlimited power and means of doing so. This is exactly what has happened. All complaints with regard to gold thefts have actually disappeared ; one no longer hears of complaints as to the operation of the pass law; while latterly, as Her Majesty's Government must be well aware, the Chamber of Mines and other bodies of the Witwatersrand have repeatedly ex- pressed their satisfaction with the stringent way in which the liquor law has been upheld. No local body, however well informed, would have been able to do what the State Attorney has done in this mat- ter, and that is sufficient justification of the action of both Government and Volksraad in refusing to es- tablish such an Advisory Board. The Government now passes on to the discussion of the administration of justice, of which so much is made in the despatch under reply. With regard to these allegations, this Government perceives that much importance is attached in the despatch to the so-called Lombard incident, the so- called Edgar case, and the so-called Amphitheatre occurrence. A brief consideration of the facts referring to 240 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. these three matters will show how unfounded are the accusations of Her Majesty's Government. With reference to the Lombard incident, this Gov- ernment wishes to point out that no complaint was lodged with any official in this Republic for a full month after the ill-treatment of Cape colored people was alleged to have taken place, and that neither the Government nor the public was aware that anything had taken place. The whole case was so insignifi- cant that some of the people who were alleged to have been ill-treated declared under oath at a later period before a court of investigation that they would never have made any complaint on their own initia- tive. What happened, however? About a month after the occurrence the South African League came to hear of it ; some of its offi- cials sent round to collect evidence from the parties who were alleged to have been ill-treated, and some sworn declarations were obtained by the help of Her Majesty's Vice-Consul of Johannesburg (between whom and this League a continual and conspicuous co-operation has existed). Even then no charge was lodged against the implicated officials with the judi- cial authorities of the country, but the case was put in the hands of the Acting British Agent at Pretoria. When the allegations were brought under the notice of this Government, they at once appointed a commission of inquiry consisting of three members, namely, Landdrost Van der Berg, of Johannesburg, Mr. Andries Stockenstrom, barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, head of the Criminal Section of the State Attorney's Department, and Mr. Van der Merwe, mining commissioner, of Johannesburg; gentlemen against whose ability and impartiality REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 241 the Uitlandcr population of the Republic have never harbored the slightest suspicion, and with whose ap- pointment the Acting British Agent also expressed his entire satisfaction. The instructions given to these officials were to thoroughly investigate the whole case, and to report the result to the Govern- ment; and they fulfilled these instructions bysitt; for days at a time, and carefully hearing and sifting the evidence of both sides. Every right-minded per- son readily acknowledges that far greater weight ought to be attached to the finding of this Commis- sion than to the declarations of the complainants, who contradicted one another in nearly every par- ticular, and who caused the whole inquiry to degen- erate into a farce. According to the report, nothing was proved as to the so-called ill-treatment; the special instances of alleged ill-treatment turned out to be purely imagi- nary; it was clearly proved and found that the com- plainants had acted contrary to Law, and the Com- mir.sion only expressed disapproval of the fact that the arrests and the investigation had taken place at night, and without a proper warrant. It fills this Government with all the greater regret to observe that Her Majesty's Government bases its charges on 1'. v parte, groundless, and in many respects false dec- larations of complainants who have been set in mo- tion by political hatred, and that it silently ignores the report of the Commission. The Amphitheatre occurrence is used by Her Maj- esty's Government to show how incapable the police of the Witwatersrand are to fulfil their duties and to preserve order. The League meeting was held at the so-called Amphitheatre at Johannesburg, with 16 242 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. the knowledge of the State Secretary and State At- torney, and the accusation is that, in spite of that fact, the uproar which arose at that meeting was not quelled by the police. The following are the true facts : Mr. Wybergh and another, both in the service of the South African League, informed the State Secretary and the State Attorney that they intended to call this meeting in the Amphitheatre, and asked permission to do so ; they were informed that no per- mission from the authorities was necessary, and that as long as the meeting did not give rise to irregulari- ties or disturbances of the peace, they would be act- ing entirely within their rights. Their attention was then drawn to the fact that owing to the action and the propaganda of the South African League, this body had become extremely unpopular with a large section of the inhabitants of Johannesburg, and that in all probability a disturbance of the peace would take place if a sufficient body of the police were not present to preserve order. To this these gentlemen answered that the police were in very bad odor since the Edgar case, that the meeting would be a very quiet one, and that the presence of the police would contribute, or give rise to, disorder, and that they would on those grounds rather have no police at all. The State Secretary and State At- torney thereupon communicated with the head offi- cials of the police at Johannesburg, with the result that the latter also thought that it would be better not to have any considerable number of police at the meeting. The Government accordingly, on the ad- vice of these officials of the League as well as their own police officials, gave instructions that the police should remain away from the meeting; they did this REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 243 in perfect good faith, and with the object of letting the League have its say without let or hindrance. The proposed meeting was, however, advertised far and wide. As the feeling among a section of the Wit- watersrand population was exceedingly bitter against the League, a considerable number of the opponents of that body also attended the meeting. The few police who were present were powerless to quell the disorder, and when the police came on the scene in force some few minutes after the commencement of the uproar, the meeting was already broken up. Taken by itself, this occurrence would not be of much importance, as it is an isolated instance as far as the gold fields of this Republic are concerned, and even in the best organized and best ordered commu- nities irregularities like the above occasionally take place. The gravity of the matter, however, lies in the un- just accusation of Her Majesty's Government — that the meeting was broken up by officials of this Re- public, and that the Government had curtly refused to institute an inquiry. This Government would not have refused to inves- tigate the matter if any complaints had been lodged with it, or at any of the local Courts, and this has been clearly stated in its reply to Her Majesty's re- quest for an investigation. The Government objects strongly to the system- atic way in which the local authorities are ignored, and the continual complaints which arc lodged with the Representatives of Her Majesty about matters which ought to be decided by the Courts of this Re- public Instead, however, of complaining to Her Majesty's Government after all other reasonable 244 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. means of redress have been vainly invoked, they con- tinually make themselves guilty of ignoring and treating with contempt the local Courts and authori- ties, by continually making all sorts of ridiculous and ex parte complaints to Her Majesty's Govern- ment in the first instance; Her Majesty's Govern- ment is also thereby placed in the equivocal and un- desirable position of intermeddling in the internal affairs of this Republic, which is in conflict with the London Convention. Had the complaints been lodged with this Government, or with the proper officials or Courts, the facts could have been very easily arrived at, and it would have been proved that the few officials who were present at the meet- ing as a section of the public had done their best to prevent the irregularities, and that some of them had been hurt in their endeavors to preserve order. Instead of expressing their disapproval of sucn complaints, and referring the petitioners to the local Courts, Her Majesty's Government accepts those complaints, and gives them an official character by forwarding them for the information of this Govern- ment, and by publishing them in blue books for the information of the world. Her Majesty's Government will readily acknowl- edge that there is no State in the world with any sense of dignity, however weak and insignificant it may be, which can regard such matters with an in- different eye; and when the relations of the two Governments are strained, then the mainspring must be looked for in this action of its subjects, which is not disapproved of by Her Majesty's Government, and not in imaginary or trumped-up grievances. The Edgar case is referred to by your Government REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 245 as "the most Striking recent instance of arbitrary action by officials, and of the support of such action by the Courts," and this case is quoted as a conclu- sive test of the alleged judicial maladministration of this Republic; it will therefore be of interest to pause for a moment and consider it. What are the true facts? A certain Foster, "an Englishman," was assaulted and felled to the ground, without any lawful cause, by a man named Edgar during the night of the- 18th December, 1898; he lay on the ground as if dead, and ultimately died in the hospital. Edgar escaped to his room, and some police came on the scene, at- tracted by the screams of the bystanders. Among the police was one named Jones. When they saw the man who had been assaulted lying'- as if dead, they went to Edgar's apartments in order to arrest him as a criminal (he had indeed rendered himself liable for manslaughter, and apparently for murder). As he was caught in the ver , the police officers were, according to the Laws not only of this Repub- lic, but of all South Africa and of the United King- dom of Great Britain and Ireland, justified in break- ing open the door in order to arrest the culprit. While doing so, Edgar, with a dangerous weapon, struck Jones a severe blow. Under the stress of necessity the latter shot Edgar, from the effects of which he died. The question is not if Jones was justified in taking this extreme step, for the State Attorney of the Republic had already given effect to his opinion that this was a ease for the jury by prosecuting him for man iter. The question is solely whether any jury in any country in the world would have found a man guilty of any crime under 246 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. the circumstances set forth, and whether, if they did not find him guilty, the fact of their doing so would have been stamped and branded as a flagrant and remarkable instance of the maladministration of jus- tice. This Government is convinced that the English Judicial administration affords numberless instances where the facts are as strong as in this case, and it cannot see why an occurrence which could happen in any part of the world should be especially thrown in their teeth in the form of an accusation. This Government does not wish to pass over in silence the censure which has been passed by Her Majest3 7 's Government on the Public Prosecutor of Johannesburg, by whom the prosecution of this case was conducted ; the fact that he is of pure English blood, that he received his legal training in London, that he is generally respected by the Uitlander popu- lation on account of his ability, impartiality, and general character, will naturally not be of any weight with Her Majesty's Government against the facts of his action in calling witnesses for the prosecution who were intended for the defence, and thus render- ing an imaginary cross-examination abortive. This Government only wishes to point out that the fact that the Edgar case is the strongest which Her Majesty's Government has been able to quote against the administration of justice in this Repub- lic affords the strongest and most eloquent proof pos- sible that, taking it in general, the administration of justice on the gold fields of this Republic not only compares favorably with that on other and similar gold fields, but even with that of old and settled countries. REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 247 The untrue representations of this occurrence in the Press prove conclusively that the newspapers of the Witwatersrand, the atrocity-mongering tactics of which constitute a share of the organized cam- paign against the Republic and its Government, have been compelled to resort to mendacious criticisms on imaginary instances of maladministration which were often simply invented. Where the Press is forced to adopt such methods, the true grievances must of necessity be unreal. Her Majesty's Government now proceeds to dis- cuss certain laws of this Republic, with the object of showing that the Uitlander poplation is also op- pressed by the legislature of this country, the Press Laws, the Aliens Expulsion Law, and Law No. 1 of 1897 being especially instanced. But it can also be proved that the population of the gold fields have no solid grounds of complaint in regard to the laws in question. Respecting the existing Press Laws, No. 26 of 1896, and No. 14 of 189S, it is necessary to remark that no printer, issuer, or editor of a newspaper can be prosecuted unless he has made himself guilty of criminal libel, so that the principle of the Grondwet of 1858 has in this respect been rigidly adhered to. Her Majesty's Government will at once see that these laws cannot in any way bear harshly upon the writ- ing public, a fact which is clearly borne out by the way in which the newspapers of this country are edited. Nowhere else in the world has the liberty of the Press so degenerated into license. No news- paper in any country in the world would for one moment dare to speak of the Government, the Leg- islature, and authorities of the country as the Star, 248 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. the Transvaal Leader, and similar newspapers do every day in this Republic. The imaginary nature of these grievances is not dispelled by the fact that the power is vested in the State President of prohibiting either entirely or provisionally the cir- culation of any printed matter which is contrary to good morals or public order, because the very same Supreme Court, which in the opinion of Her Maj- esty's Government only exists at the mercy of this Government, has pronounced that it has no power to prohibit the circulation of any newspaper; the free- dom of the regular Press thus remains as unrestricted as under the old Grondwet. As a matter of fact, any person who has any prac- tical experience of the Press of this Republic will re- gard the accusation as ridiculous, and as evincing an entire ignorance of the true facts. This power has not been exercised by the Judges on many occasions, but only once, and in that instance the High Court annulled the decision. With regard to the Aliens Expulsion Law, this, like the Press Law, ought to be estimated according to its spirit and operation. Since this law has come into force the State President has only on one occa- sion made use of the power vested in him of expel- ling an undesirable individual, and his action was indorsed by the approval of the Press and the public of the country. As similar laws exist in nearly every civilized country in the world, it is difficult to see why such a law in this Republic should prove so ob- jectionable in the eyes of Her Majesty's Government. With regard to Law No. i of 1897, and the dis- missal of Chief Justice Kotze by virtue of its provi- sions, this Government can only state that it was with REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 249 the bitterest regret that it felt itself compelled, in consequence of the arbitrary action of the said Chief Justice, to take comprehensive measures in order to prevent absolute constitutional and judicial disorder and chaos. It was an instance where a Chief Jus- tice in conflict with a law existing for, at least, forty years, and in direct contradiction of his own deci- sions, suddenly adopted and applied a new principle, which affected the legality of the laws of the Repub- lic, and produced real constitutional chaos. Would not any other Government under similar circum- stances have done exactly what this Republic did namely, pass a special law in this unusual case, in order to remove the exceptional difficulties? This law was only applicable to this particular in- stance, and became inoperative immediately after its application; and this Government cannot under- stand how suspicion can therefore fall upon the im- partial administration of Justice in this Republic. If the Government had acquiesced in the position taken up by the late Chief Justice, then all titles dependent upon Volksraad resolutions would have been called in question, which would not only have dealt a heavy blow to existing rights, but also have plunged the administration of Justice in great uncertainty and doubt. By this law the Judges, instead of being brought under the influence of the Executive Council, were really placed in the same constitutional position as any Judge in the Supreme Court of England, who unable to question the validity of any law This Government has now traversed the various contentions of Her Majesty's Government, which have been submitted in order to prove that the pol- 250 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. icy of this Government, with regard to the Uitlander population and the administration of the laws, especially on the gold fields, are the causes of the strained relationship at present existing between the two Governments. This Government believes that this explanation and answer will clearly show that these causes are in no way sufficient to have resulted in the aforesaid tension. It is of opinion that the source of evil must be sought for elsewhere, and it trusts that Her Maj- esty's Government will not take it in bad part if it now proceeds to explain what the real root of the evil is from its point of view ; and in the first place it remarks as a very noticeable and prominent fact that although there are thousands of subjects of other Powers in Johannesburg, there are few complaints heard from them or from their Governments about the so-called grievances of the Uitlanders. If these grievances existed in reality, and if they pressed equally on all so-called Uitlanders (and Her Maj- esty's Government does not contend that in this re- spect a difference is made between British subjects and subjects of other Powers), how does it happen that the complaints always come from British sub- jects, and that the subjects of other Powers, as a rule, express their sympathy with this Government and promise it their support? But this Government wishes to go further. Even in regard to those Uitlanders who are British sub- jects, it is a small minority which, under the pretext of imaginary grievances, promotes a secret propa- ganda of race hatred, and uses the Republic as a base fcr fomenting a revolutionary movement against this Government. Ministers of Her Majesty have so REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 251 trenchantly expressed the truth about this minority that this Government wishes to quote the very words of these Ministers with the ol)je> bringing the actual truth to the knowledge HerMaji ty' ' ernment, as well as to that of the whole world, and not for the purpose of making groundless accusa- tions. The following words are those of the Ministers of the Cape Colony, who are well acquainted with local conditions and fully qualified to arrive at a conclu- sion: "In the opinion of Ministers the persistent aetion, both beyond and within this Colony, of the political body styling itself the South African League in en- deavoring to foment and excite, not to smooth and alla) T , ill-will between the two principal European races inhabiting South Africa is well illustrated by these resolutions, the exaggerated and aggravated terms of which disclose the spirit which informs and inspires them. "His Excellency's Ministers are one in their ear- nest desire to do all in their power to aid and further a policy of peaceful progress throughout South Africa, and they cannot but regard it as an unwise propagandism, hostile to the true interests of the Empire, including this Colony as an integral part, that every possible occasion should be seized by the League and its promoters for an attempt to magnify into greater events minor incidents when occurring in the South African Republic, with a prospect thereby of making racial antagonism more acute, or of rendering less smooth the relations between Her Majesty's Government or the Government of this Colony and that Republic." 252 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. Race hatred is, however, not so intense in South Africa as to enable a body with this propaganda, aiming at revolutionary objects, to obtain much in- fluence in this part of the world ; and one continu- ally asks oneself the question — " How is it that a body so insignificant, both in regard to its principles and its membership, enjoys such a large measure of influence? " The answer is that this body depends upon the protection and the support of Her Majesty's Government in England, and that both its members and its organs in the Press openly boast of the influ- ence they exercise over the policy of Her Majesty's Government. This Government would ignore such assertions, but when it finds that the ideas and the shibboleths of the South African League are continu- ally echoed in the speeches of members of H. M. Government, when it finds that blue books are com- piled chiefly from documents prepared by officials of the South African League, as well as from reports and leading articles containing " malignant lies " taken from the Press organs of that organization, thereby receiving an official character, then this Gov- ernment can well understand why so many of Her Majesty's right-minded subjects in this part of the world have obtained the impression that the policy advocated by the South African League is supported by Her Majesty's Government, and is thus calcu- lated to contribute to the welfare and blessing of the British Empire. If this mistaken impression could be removed, and if it could be announced as a fact that the South Afri- can League, as far as its actions in the South African Republic are concerned, is only an organization hav- ing as its object the fomentation of strife and dis- REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. 253 order and the destruction of the independence of the country, then it would very soon lose its intluen and the strained relations existing between the two Governments would quickly disappear. The Afri- kander population of this country would not then be under the apprehension that the interests of the British Empire imperatively demand that the I' public should be done away with and its people be either enslaved ox exterminated. Both sections of the white inhabitants of South Africa would then re- turn to the fraternal co-operation and fusion which was beginning- to manifest itself when the treacher- ous conspiracy at the end of 1895 awakened the pas- sions on both sides. SAND RIVER CONVENTION OF 1852. 1. The Assistant Commissioners guarantee, in the fullest manner, on the part of the British Gov- ernment, to the Emigrant Farmers beyond the Vaal River, the right to manage their own affairs and to govern themselves according to their own laws, without any interference on the part of the British Government; and that no en- croachment shall be made by the said Govern- ment on the territory beyond, to the north of the Vaal River ; with the further assurance that the warmest wish of the British Government is to promote peace, free trade, and friendly inter- course with the Emigrant Farmers now inhabit- ing, or who hereafter may inhabit, that country ; it being understood that this system of non-in- terference is binding upon both parties. 2. Should any misunderstanding hereafter arise as to the true meaning of the words " the Vaal River," this question, in so far as regards the line from the source of that river over the Drak- ensberg, shall be settled and adjusted by com- missioners chosen by both parties. 3. Her Majesty's Assistant Commissioners hereby disclaim all alliances whatever and with whomso- ever of the colored nations to the north of the Vaal River. 4. It is agreed that no slavery is or shall be per- mitted or practised in the country to the north of the Vaal River by the Emigrant Farmers. SAND RIVER CONVENTION OF 1852. 255 5. Mutual facilities and liberty shall be afforded to traders and travellers on both sides of the Vaal River; it being understood that every wagon containing ammunition and firearms, coming from the south side of th< River, shall pro- duce a certificate signed by a British Magistrate or other functionary duly authorized to grant such; and which shall state the quantities of such articles contained in tid wagon, to the nearest Magistrate north of the Vaal River, who shall act in the case as the regulations of the Emigrant Farmers direct. 6. It is agreed that no objection shall be made by any British authority against the Emigrant Boers purchasing their supplies of ammunition in any of the British colonies and possessions of South Africa; it being mutually understood that all trade in ammunition with the native tribes is prohibited both by the British Government and the Emigrant Farmers, on both sides of the Vaal River. 7. It is agreed that, so far as possible, all criminals and other guilty parties who may fly from jus- tice, either way across the Vaal River, shall 1 le mutually delivered up, if such should be re- quired, and that the British Courts, as well as those of the Emigrant Farmers, shall be mutu- ally open to each other for all legitimate pro- cesses, and that summonses for witnesses sent either way across the Vaal River, shall be backed by the Magistrates on either side of the same re- spectively, to compel the attendance of such witnesses when required. 8. It is agreed that certificates of marriage issued by 256 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. the proper authorities of the Emigrant Farmer* shall be held valid and sufficient to entitle chil- dren of such marriages to receive portions accru- ing to them in any British colony or possession in South Africa. 9. It is agreerl that any and every person now in possession of land and residing in British Terri- tory shall have free right and power to sell his said property and remove unmolested across the Vaal River, and vice versa; it being distinctly understood that this arrangement does not com- prehend criminals or debtors without providing for the payment of their just and lawful debts. (Signed) A. W. J. Pretorius, Commandant General. H. S. Lombard, Latiddrost. W. F. Joubert, Commandant General. G. J. Kruger, Commandant. W. S. Hogge, Assistant Commissioner . C. Mostyn Owen, Assistant Commissioner. J. N. Grobbelaar, Member of the Volksraad. P. E. Scholtz. F. G. Wolmarans, Elder. J. A. van Aswegen, Ficldcornet. F. J. Botes. N. J. S. Basson, Ficldcornet. J. P. Furstenberg, Fieldcornet. J. P. Pretorius. J. H. Grobbelaar. J. M. Lehman. P. Schutte. J. C. Klopper. In presence of: John Burnet. J. H. Visagie. THE PRETORIA CONVENTION OF 1881. Preamble. Her Majesty's Commissioners for the Settlement of the Transvaal territory, duly appointed as such by a Commission passed under the Royal Sign Manual and Signet, bearing date the 5th of April, 1881, do hereby undertake and guarantee on behalf of Her Majesty that, from and after the 8th day of August, 1881, complete self-government, sub- ject to the suzerainty of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, will be accorded to the inhabitants of the Transvaal territory, upon the following terms and conditions, and subject to the following reserva- tions and limitations: Article i. The said territory, to be hereinafter called the Transvaal State, will embrace the land lying between the following boundaries, to wit : [here follow three pages in print defining boundaries.] Article 2. Her Majesty reserves to herself, her heirs and successors, (a) the right from time to time to appoint a British Resident in and for the said State, with such duties and functions as are herein- after defined ; (b) the right to move troops through the said State in time of war, or in case of the appre- hension of immediate war between the Suzerain Power and any Foreign State or Native Tribe in South Africa; and (c) the control of the external re- lations of the said State, including the conclusion of treaties and the conduct of diplomatic intercourse *7 258 THE STORY OP THE BOERS. with Foreign Powers, such intercourse to be carried on through Her Majesty's diplomatic and consular officers abroad. Article 3. Until altered by the Volksraad, or other competent authority, all laws, whether passed before or after the annexation of the Transvaal territory to Her Majesty's dominions, shall, except in so far as they are inconsistent with or repugnant to the pro- visions of this Convention, be and remain in force in the said State in so far as they shall be applicable thereto, provided that no future enactment especially affecting the interest of natives shall have any force or effect in the said State, without the consent of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, first had and obtained and signified to the Government of the said State through the British Resident ; provided further that in no case will the repeal or amendment of any laws enacted since the annexation have a retrospec- tive effect, so as to invalidate any acts done or liabili- ties incurred by virtue of such laws. Article 4. On the 8th day of August, 1881, the Government of the said State, together with all rights and obligations thereto appertaining, and all State property taken over at the time of annexation, save and except munitions of war, will be handed over to Messrs. Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, Martinus Wessel Pretorius, and Petrus Jacobus Jou- bert, or the survivor or survivors of them, who will forthwith cause a Volksraad to be elected and con- vened, and the Volksraad, thus elected and convened, will decide as to the further administration of the Government of the said State. Article 5 All sentences passed upon persons who may be convicted of offences contrary to the rules PRETORIA CONVENTION OF 1881. 259 of civilized warfare committed during the recent hos- tilities will be duly carried out, and no alteration or mitigation of such sentences will be made or al- lowed by the Government of the Transvaal State without Her Majesty's consent conveyed through the British Resident. In ease there shall be any prisoners in any of the jails of the Transvaal State whose respective sentences of imprisonment have been remitted in part by Her Majesty's Adminis- trator or other officer administering the Government, such remission will be recognized and acted upon by the future Government of the said State. Article 6. Her Majesty's Government will make due compensation for all losses or damage sustained by reason of such acts as are in the 8th Article herein- after specified, which may have been committed by Her Majesty's forces during the recent hostilities, except such losses or damage as may already have been compensated for, and the Government of the Transvaal State will make due compensation for all losses or damage sustained by reason of such acts as are in the 8th Article hereinafter specified which may have been committed by the people who were in arms against Her Majesty during the recent hos- tilities, except for such losses or damages as may already have been compensated for. Article 7. The decision of all claims for compen- sation, as in the last preceding Article mentioned, will be referred to a Sub-Commission, consisting of the Honorable George Hudson, the Honorable Jaco- bus Petrus de Wet, and the Honorable John Gilbert Kotze\ In case one or more of such Sub-Commis- sioners shall be unable or unwilling to act, the re- maining Sub-Commissioner or Sub-Commissioners 260 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. will, after consultation with the Government of the Transvaal State, submit for the approval of Her Majesty's High Commissioners the names of one or more persons to be appointed by them to fill the place or places thus vacated. The decision of the said Sub- Commissioners, or of a majority of them, will be final. The said Sub-Commissioners will enter upon and perform their duties with all convenient speed. They will, before taking evidence or ordering evi- dence to be taken in respect of any claim, decide whether such claim can be entertained at all under the rules laid down in the next succeeding Article. In regard to claims which can be so entertained, the Sub-Commissioners will, in the first instance, afford every facility for an amicable arrangement as to the amount payable in respect of any claim, and only in cases in which there is no reasonable ground for be- lieving that an immediate amicable arrangement can be arrived at will they take evidence or order evi- dence to be taken. For the purpose of taking evi- dence and reporting thereon, the Sub-Commission- ers may appoint Deputies, who will, without delay, submit records of the evidence and their reports to the Sub-Commissioners. The Sub-Commissioners will arrange their sittings and the sittings of their Deputies in such a manner as to afford the earliest convenience to the parties concerned and their wit- nesses. In no case will costs be allowed to either side, other than the actual and reasonable expenses of witnesses whose evidence is certified by the Sub- Commissioners to have been necessary. Interest will not run on the amount of any claim, except as is hereinafter provided for. The said Sub-Commis- sioners will forthwith, after deciding upon any claim, PRETORIA CONVENTION OF 1881. 261 announce their decision to the Government against which the award is made and to the claimant. The amount of remuneration payable to the Sub-Com- missioners and their Deputies will be determined by the High Commissioners. all the claims have been decided upon, the British Government and the Government of the Transvaal State will pay propor- tionate shares of the said remuneration and of the expenses of the Sub-Commissioners and their Depu- ties, according to the amount awarded against them respectively. Article 8. For the purpose of distinguishing claims to be accepted from those to be rejected, the Sub- Commissioners will be guided by the following rules, viz. : Compensation will be allowed for losses or dam- age sustained by reason of the following acts com- mitted during the recent hostilities, viz., (a) com- mandeering, seizure, confiscation, or destruction of property, or damage done to property; (/>) violence done or threats used by persons in arms. In regards to acts under (a), compensation will be allowed for direct losses only. In regard to acts falling under (b), compensation will be allowed for actual losses of property, or actual injury to the same proved to have been caused by its enforced abandonment. No claims for indirect losses, except such as are in this Article specially provided for, \."A be entertained. No claims which have been handed in to the Secre- tary of the Royal Commission after the 1st day of July, 1S81, will be entertained, unless the Sub-Com- missioners shall be satisfied that the delay was reasonable. When claims for loss of property are considered, the Sub-Commissioners will re- quire distinct proof of the existence of the prop- 262 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. erty, and that it neither has reverted nor will re- vert to the claimant. Article 9. The Government of the Transvaal State will pay and satisfy the amount of every claim awarded against it within one month after the Sub- Commissioners shall have notified their decision to the said Government, and in default of such pay- ment the said Government will pay interest at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum from the date of such default; but Her Majesty's Government may at any time before such payment pay the amount, with in- terest, if any, to the claimant in satisfaction of his claim, and may add the sum thus paid to any debt which may be due by the Transvaal State to Her Majesty's Government, as hereinafter provided for. Article 10. The Transvaal State will be liable for the balance of the debts for which the South African Republic was liable at the date of annexation, to wit, the sum of ^48,000 in respect of the Cape Commer- cial Bank Loan, and ,£85,667 in respect to the Rail- way Loan, together with the amount due on 8th August, 1 88 1, on account of the Orphan Chamber Debt, which now stands at ^22, 200, which debts will be a first charge upon the revenues of the State. The Transvaal State will, moreover, be liable for the lawful expenditure lawfully incurred for the neces- sary expenses of the Province since the annexation, to wit, the sum of ^265,000, which debt, together with such debts as may be incurred by virtue of the 9th Article, will be second charge upon the revenues of the State. Article ii. The debts due as aforesaid by the Transvaal State to Her Majesty's Government will bear interest at the rate of three and a half per cent. , PRETORIA ik>\ OF 1 88 1 . 263 and any portion of such debt as may remain unpaid at the expiration of twelve months from the 8th August, 1881, shall be repayable by a payment for interest and sinking fund of six pounds and nine- pence per cent, per annum, which will extinguish the debt in twenty-live years. The said payment of six pounds and ninepence per jQioo shall be payable half yearly in British currency on the Sth February and 8th August in each year. Provided, always, that the Transvaal State shall pay in reduction of the said debt the sum of ^100,000 within twelve months of the Sth August, 18S1, and shall be at liberty at the close of any half year to pay off the whole or any portion of the outstanding debt. Article 12. All persons holding property in the said State on the Sth day of August, 1881, will con- tinue after the said date to enjoy the rights of prop- erty which they have enjoyed since the annexation. No person who has remained loyal to Her Majesty during the recent hostilities shall suffer any moles- tation by reason of his loyalty, or be liable to any criminal prosecution or civil action for any part taken in connection with such hostilities, and all such per- sons will have full liberty to reside in the country, with enjoyment of all civil rights, and protection for their persons and property. Article 13. Natives will be allowed to acquire land, but the grant or transfer of such land will, in every case, be made to and registered in the name of the Native Location Commission, hereinafter mentioned, in trust for such natives. Article 14. Natives will be allowed to move as freely within the country as may be consistent with the requirements of public order, and to leave it for 264 THE STORY OF THE BOERS. the purpose of seeking employment elsewhere or for other lawful purposes, subject always to the pass laws of the said State, as amended by the Legisla- ture of the Province, or as may hereafter be enacted under the provisions of the Third Article of this Con- vention. Article 15. There will continue to be complete freedom of religion and protection from molestation for all denominations, provided the same be not in- consistent with morality and good order, and no dis- ability shall attach to any person in regard to rights of property by reason of the religious opinions which he holds. Article 16. The provisions of the Fourth Article of the Sand River Convention are hereby re-affirmed, and no slavery or apprenticeship partaking of slav- ery will be tolerated by the Government of the said State. Article i 7. The British Resident will receive from the Government of the Transvaal State such assist- ance and support as can by law be given to him for the due discharge of his functions ; he will also re- ceive every assistance for the proper care and preser- vation of the graves of such of Her Majesty's forces as have died in the Transvaal, and if need be for the expropriation of land for the purpose. Article 18. The following will be the duties and functions of the British Resident: Sub-section 1, he will perform duties and functions analogous to those discharged by a Charge d' Affaires and Consul-Gen- eral . Sub-section 2. In regard to natives within the Transvaal State he will (a) report to the High Com- missioner, as representative of the Suzerain, as to PRETORIA CONVENTION OF [881. 265 the working and observance of the provisions of this Convention; (/>) report to the Transvaal authorities any cases of ill-treatment of natives or attempts to in- cite natives to rebellion that may- come to his knowl- edge; (() use his influence with the natives in favor of law and order; and {) they will be en- titled to hire or possess houses, manufactories, ware- houses, shops, and premises; (r) they may carry on their commerce either in person or by any agents whom they may think fit to employ ; (