IN FLIGHT FROM THE RAND
One of the greatest difficulties with which the Imperial Government found
themselves confronted when relations between Great Britain and the
Transvaal became strained was the influx of refugees who at the first hint
of impending trouble left Johannesburg and the Rand, and flocked to Cape
Town.
The greater number were aliens. From Russia in particular they had flocked
to the Transvaal when they heard of its treasures. Adventurers from other
parts of Europe, with a sprinkling of remittance men, also deserted
Johannesburg. Only the few were real English residents who, from the time
the Rand had begun to develop, had been living and toiling there in order
to win sufficient for the maintenance of their families. All this mass of
humanity, which passed unnoticed when scattered over wide areas in the
vicinity of Pretoria or Johannesburg, had lived for many years in the
expectation of the day when the power of the Transvaal Republic would be
broken. They had discounted it perhaps more than they should have done had
the dictates of prudence been allowed to take the lead against the wishes
of their hearts.
When war became imminent the big mining houses considered it wiser to
close their offices and mines, and for these unfortunate beings, deprived
of their means of existence, the position became truly a lamentable one.
They could not very well remain where they were, because the Burghers, who
had never taken kindly to them, made no secret of their hostility, and
gave them to understand very clearly that as soon as war had been declared
they would simply turn them out without warning and confiscate their
property. Prudence advised no delay, and the consequence was that,
beginning with the month of August, and, indeed, the very first days which
followed upon the failure of the Bloemfontein Conference, a stream of
people from the Transvaal began migrating toward Cape Colony, which was
supposed to be the place where their sufferings would find a measure of
relief that they vainly imagined would prove adequate to their needs. At
the Cape, strangely enough, no one had ever given a thought to the
possibility of such a thing happening. In consequence, the public were
surprised by this persisting stream of humanity which was being poured
into the Colony; the authorities, too, began to feel a despair as to what
could be done. It is no exaggeration to say that for months many hundreds
of people arrived daily from the north, and that so long as communications
were kept open they continued to do so.
At first the refugees inundated the lodging-houses in Cape Town, but these
soon being full to overflowing, some other means had to be devised to
house and feed them. Committees were formed, with whom the Government
officials in the Colony worked with great zeal and considerable success
toward alleviating the misery with which they found themselves confronted
in such an unexpected manner. The Municipal Council, the various religious
communities, the Medical men--one and all applied themselves to relief
measures, even though they could not comprehend the reason of the blind
rush to the Cape. Nor, in the main, could the refugees explain more
lucidly than the one phrase which could, be heard on all sides, no matter
what might have been the social position: "We had to go away because we
did not feel safe on the Rand." In many cases it would have been far
nearer to the truth to say that they had to go because they could no
longer lead the happy-go-lucky existence they had been used to.
The most to be pitied among these people were most certainly the Polish
Jews, who originally had been expelled from Russia, and had come to seek
their fortunes at Johannesburg. They had absolutely no one to whom they
could apply, and, what was sadder still, no claim on anyone; on the
English Government least of all. One could see them huddling together on
the platform of Cape Town railway station, surrounded by bundles of rags
which constituted the whole of their earthly belongings, not knowing at
all what to do, or where to go to. Of course they were looked after,
because English charity has never stopped before differences of race and
creed, but still it was impossible to deny that their constantly
increasing number added considerably to the difficulties of the situation.
A Jewish Committee headed by the Chief Rabbi of Cape Town, the Rev. Dr.
Bender, worked indefatigably toward the relief of these unfortunate
creatures, and did wonders. A considerable number were sent to Europe, but
a good many elected to remain where they were, and had to be provided for
in some way till work could be found for them, which would at least allow
them to exist without being entirely dependent on public charity. Among
the aliens who showed a desire to remain in South Africa were many in
possession of resources of their own; but they carefully concealed the
fact, as, upon whatever it amounted to, they counted to rebuild their
fortunes when Britain became sole and absolute mistress on the Rand.
The most dangerous element in the situation was that group of easygoing
loafers who lived on the fringe of finance and picked up a living by doing
the odd things needed by the bigger speculators. When things began to be
critical, these idlers were unable to make money without working, and
while prating of their patriotism, made the British Government responsible
for their present state of penury. These men had some kind of instruction,
if not education, and pretended they understood all about politics, the
government of nations, and last, but not least, the conduct of the war.
Their free talk, inflamed with an enthusiasm got up for the occasion, gave
to the stranger an entirely incorrect idea of the position, and was
calculated to give rise to sharp and absolutely undeserved criticisms
concerning the conduct of the administration at home, and of the
authorities in the Colony. They also fomented hatred and spite between the
English and the Dutch.
The harm done by these people, at a moment when the efforts of the whole
community ought to have been directed toward allaying race hatred, and
smoothing down the differences which had arisen between the two white
sections of the population, is almost impossible of realisation for one
who was not in South Africa at the time, and who could not watch the slow
and gradual growth of the atmosphere of lies and calumny which gradually
divided like a crevasse the very people who, in unison, might have
contributed more than anything else to bring the war to a close. One must
not forget that among these refugees who poisoned the minds of their
neighbours with foundationless tales of horror, there were people who one
might have expected to display sound judgment in their appreciation of the
situation, and whose relatively long sojourn in South Africa entitled them
to be heard by those who found themselves for the first time in that
country. They were mostly men who could talk well, even eloquently; and
they discussed with such apparent knowledge all the circumstances which,
according to them, had brought about the war, that it was next to
impossible for the new-comers not to be impressed by their language--it
seemed bubbling over with the most intense patriotism.
The observer must take into account that among these people there happened
to be a good many who, as the war went on, enrolled themselves in the
various Volunteer Corps which were formed. These gave the benefit of their
experience to the British officers, who relied on the knowledge and
perception of their informants because of themselves, especially during
the first months which followed upon their landing, they could not come to
a clearly focused, impartial judgment of the difficulties with which they
found their efforts confronted. One must also remember that these officers
were mostly quite young men, full of enthusiasm, who flamed up whenever
the word rebellion was mentioned in their presence, and who, having
arrived in South Africa with the firm determination to win the war at all
costs, must not be blamed if in some cases they allowed their minds to be
poisoned by those who painted the plight of the country in such a
lugubrious tint. If, therefore, acts of what appeared to be cruelty were
committed by these officers, it would be very wrong to make them alone
responsible, because they were mostly done out of a spirit of self-defence
against an enemy whom they believed to be totally different from what he
was in reality, and who if only he had not been exasperated, would have
proved of better and healthier stuff than, superficially, his acts seemed
to indicate.
There was still another class of refugee, composed of what I would call
the rich elements of the Rand: the financiers, directors of companies;
managers and engineers of the different concerns to which Kimberley and
Johannesburg owed their celebrity. From the very first these rightly
weighed up the situation, and had been determined to secure all the
advantages which it held for anyone who gave himself the trouble to
examine it rationally. They came to Cape Town under the pretence of
putting their families out of harm's way, but in reality because they
wanted to be able to watch the development of the situation at its centre.
They hired houses at exorbitant prices in Cape Town itself, or the
suburbs, and lived the same kind of hospitable existence which had been
theirs in Johannesburg. Their intention was to be at hand at the
settlement, to put in their word when the question of the different
financial interests with which they were connected would crop up--as it
was bound to do.
The well-to-do executive class forming the last group had the greatest
cause to feel alarmed at the consequences which might follow upon the war.
Although they hoped that they would be able to maintain themselves on the
Rand in the same important positions which they had occupied previous to
the war, yet they had enough common sense to understand that they would
not be allowed under a British administration the same free hand that
President Kruger had given, or which they had been able to obtain from him
by means of "refreshers" administered in some shape or other. It is true
that they had always the alternative of retiring from South Africa to Park
Lane, whence they would be able to astonish Society, but they preferred to
wait, in case the crash were still delayed for some little time.
The big houses, such as Wernher, Beit and Co.--the head of which, at
Johannesburg, was Mr. Fred Eckstein, a man of decided ability, who perhaps
was one of those in South Africa who had judged the situation with
accuracy--would have preferred to see the crisis delayed. Mr. Eckstein and
other leading people knew very well that sooner or later the Transvaal was
bound to fall to England, and they would have felt quite content to wait
quietly until this event had been accomplished as a matter of course, by
the force of circumstances, without violence. President Kruger was such an
old man that one could, in a certain sense, discuss the consequences which
his demise was bound to bring to South Africa. There was no real necessity
to hurry on events, nor would they have been hurried had it not been for
the efforts of the Rhodesians, whose complaints had had more than anything
else to do with the failure of the Bloemfontein Conference, and all that
followed upon that regrettable incident. It was the Rhodesians, and not
the big houses of the Rand, who were most eager for the war.
The exploitation of Rhodesia, the principal aim of which was the
foundation of another Kimberley, had turned out to be a disappointment in
that respect, and there remained nothing but making the best of it,
particularly as countless companies had been formed all with a distinctly
mineral character to their prospectuses. Now, if the Rand, with all its
wealth and its still unexplored treasures, became an appanage of
Kimberley, it would be relatively easy to effect an amalgamation between
gold and diamond mines, which existed there, and the Rhodesian companies.
Under these conditions it was but natural that despite an intelligent
comprehension of the situation, Sir Alfred Milner was nevertheless unable
to push forward his own plans in regard to the Transvaal and its aged
President, Mr. Kruger.
The misfortune of the whole situation, as I have already pointed out, was
that the men who had attempted to play a high game of politics, in reality
understood very little about them, and that instead of thinking of the
interests of the Empire to which they professed themselves to be so deeply
attached, they thought in terms of their personal outlook. Rhodes alone of
those not in official position saw the ultimate aim of all these entangled
politics. But unfortunately, though he had the capacities and experience
of a statesman, he was not a patient man; indeed, throughout his life he
had acted like a big spoiled child, to whom must be given at once whatever
he desires. Too often he acted in the present, marring the future by
thinking only of the immediate success of his plans, and brutally starting
to work, regardless of consequences and of his personal reputation. Though
his soul was essentially that of a financier and he would ride rough-shod
over those who conducted their business affairs by gentler methods, yet at
the same time, by a kind of curious contrast, he was always ready, nay,
eager, to come to the material help of his neighbour--maybe out of
affection for him; maybe out of that special sort of contempt which makes
one sometimes throw a bone to a starving dog one has never seen before.
The greatest misfortune in Rhodes' life was his faculty, too often applied
upon occasions when it were best suppressed, of seeing the mean and sordid
aspects of an action, and of imagining that every man could be bought,
provided one knew the price. He was so entirely convinced of this latter
fact that it always caused him a kind of impatience he did not even give
himself the trouble to dissimulate, to find that he had been mistaken.
This happened to him once or twice in the course of his career.
The English party in the Colony regretted until the end of Rhodes' life
the strange aberration that allowed the Raid, and made him sacrifice his
reputation for the sake of hastening an event which, without his
interference, would almost surely soon have come to pass. The salient
feature of the Raid was its terrible stupidity; in that respect it was
worse than a crime, for crime is forgotten, but nothing can efface from
the memory of the world or the condemnation of history a colossally stupid
political blunder.
After the foolish attempt to seize hold of their country, the Boers
distrusted British honour and British integrity; and doubting the word or
promises of England, they made her responsible for this mistake of Cecil
Rhodes. Rhodes, however, refused to recognise the sad fact. The big
magnates of Johannesburg said that the wisest thing Rhodes could have done
at this critical juncture would have been to go to Europe, there to remain
until after the war, thus dissociating himself from the whole question of
the settlement, instead of intriguing to be entrusted with it.
The fact of Cecil Rhodes' absence would have cleared the whole situation,
relieved Sir Alfred Milner, and given to the Boers a kind of political and
financial security that peace would not be subject to the ambitions and
prejudices of their enemies, but concluded with a view to the general
interests of the country.