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ORIGIN OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR REVEALED
The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked
By C.H. THOMAS
of Belfast Transvaal formerly Orange Free State Burgher
SECOND EDITION
LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON
27 PATERNOSTER ROW MCM
_Butler & Tanner The Selwood Printing Works Frome and London_
NOTICE
The present book had been intended for publication in South Africa
before the end of 1899, with the object of laying bare the wicked and
delusive aims of the Afrikaner Bond combination, to which the Anglo-Boer
war alone is attributable, and to counteract its disastrous influences
so far as then still possible. But until quite lately circumstances had
conspired so as to prevent the writer from leaving the Transvaal, and
when he at last obtained the required passport to Lourenço Marques he
was there denied a permit to visit a colonial port. He therefore sailed
for London in order to publish this book without more loss of time.
Though too late to serve as a deterrent, the contents may be effective
towards showing up the really guilty parties--the instigators and
seducers of the deluded Boer nation, and so pave and widen the avenue of
peace and of conciliation between Boer and Briton who were duped and
victimized alike.
The exposure of the actual culprits and originators should also operate
favourably, and in mitigation in behalf of the much less guilty Boers,
so as to dispose the victors to the exercise of magnanimous
consideration. In exposing the villainy of the Dutch coterie in Holland,
the writer is far from impugning the honourable character of that
nation, the better part of whom, when once undeceived, will be the first
to reprobate and disown those arch-plotters who sacrificed the peace of
South Africa for personal and national advantage.
Some other information regarding the Boers and South Africa will be
found interspersed in this study, which will be found of use to the
uninitiated and to intending emigrants to that sub-continent. As the
reader proceeds with the examination of this book it will suggest
comparisons and even analogies which may commend themselves as
singularly apposite and instructive in relation with the study of the
presently budding Eastern question.
C.H. THOMAS
NOTE TO SECOND EDITION
The issue of a Second Edition has afforded an opportunity to
correct a few linguistic blemishes, but the work has only been
very slightly revised.
CONTENTS
PAGE
NOTICE V
INTRODUCTION 1
CURSORY HISTORY OF THE BOER NATION 6
PROSPERITY OF BOERS AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND UP TO 1881 16
TRANSVAAL HISTORY--SUZERAINTY 21
TREATMENT OF UITLANDERS, FRANCHISE, VENALITY, BRIBERY 25
MONSTER PETITION, JAMESON INCURSION, ARMAMENTS 37
BLOEMFONTEIN CONFERENCE, BOER ULTIMATUM 43
BOER LANGUAGE 52
THE DUTCH COTERIE, ITS SEAT IN HOLLAND 57
AFRIKANER BOND--OUTLINES AND PROGRAMME 62
PACIFIC POLICY OF GREAT BRITAIN 70
PRESS PROPAGANDA--SECRET SERVICE--TRADE RIVALRIES 72
DISLOYALTY OF COLONIAL BOERS 82
PORTUGUESE TERRITORY--TRANSVAAL LOW VELDT--MALARIA--HORSE SICKNESS 89
CLIMATE AND TOPOGRAPHY 95
BOER PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR 108
ALLIANCE OF ORANGE FREE STATE WITH TRANSVAAL--SUZERAINTY
SQUABBLE--TRANSVAAL ARMAMENTS PRIOR TO JAMESON RAID 115
THE TRANSVAAL DYNAMITE AND EXPLOSIVES MONOPOLY 122
BOER FIGHTING STRENGTH 124
BOER CONSERVATISM, EDUCATION, DUNDEE DOSSIER, ANTI-ENGLISH
PAMPHLET ENTITLED "A HUNDRED YEARS' INJUSTICE" 126
AN OLD FREE STATER'S ADMONITION 137
MODUS VIVENDI SUGGESTED BY OLD FREE STATER 143
MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S POLICY TO AVERT WAR 150
AFRIKANER BOND GUILT IN GRADATIONS 155
RÉSUMÉ 161
BOERS' NATIVE POLICY 167
ENGLAND'S NATIVE AND COLONIAL POLICY 172
OCCULT OPERATIONS AND AGENCIES 178
RELIGION 184
PHYSIQUE AND HABITS 193
PRESIDENT KRÜGER 207
PEACE ADJUSTMENTS 212
INTRODUCTION
Apart from the progress of the present Anglo-Boer war a world-wide
interest has been excited also upon the question of its actual origin.
Much disparity of opinion prevails yet as to how it was provoked and
upon which side the guilt of it all lay.
English statesmen of noblest character and best discriminating gifts are
seen professing opposite convictions; one party earnestly asserting the
complete blamelessness of their Government, whilst the other, with
equally sincere assurance, denounces the responsible Ministry for having
provoked a most unjust war against a totally inoffensive people, whose
only fault consisted in asserting its love of freedom, and for thus
plunging the entire British nation into blackest guilt deserving
universal reprobation, a blot and stigma upon Her Majesty's reign.
In following the course of the arguments which have led to those
opposing verdicts, one is impressed with the paucity and the clashing
character of the information adduced. The marked reticence on the part
of the British Cabinet in regard to its diplomatic proceedings tends
further to mystify the inquirer, and leaves the bulk of the British
nation in a painful state of suspense without conclusive data for
judging whether the war is really justifiable or not.
Nor do the various pamphlets and Press articles furnish sufficient light
for exploring the maze and producing an approximate unanimity of
conviction.
It is hoped that the succeeding pages will be found to supplement the
material so essential for diagnosing those grave questions with some
degree of certainty, and to locate the guilt more precisely.
Since my youth I have passed nearly forty years in uninterrupted and
intimate intercourse with all classes of Boers, resulting in a sincere
attachment to that people, with no small appreciation of its many good
traits and character. Besides making myself familiar with the earlier
portion of that nation's history, I have had leisure and opportunities
to closely follow up its later interesting phases up to the present
moment. These presented a more perplexing aspect during the last decade,
adding a zest to my endeavours for unravelling them, and happening to
be a good deal in the know I felt that I might not remain quiet.
Being anything but anti-Boer, nor an Englishman, but a foreigner, born
of continental parents and brought up in Europe, these facts should
exempt me from a supposition of bias in exonerating England. It is with
real grief that I must record my convictions against the Boer nation as
solely and entirely guilty, but with this qualification, that its
responsibility is much attenuated by the fact, as I will endeavour to
show, that the bulk of that people has been unconsciously decoyed as
tools of a gigantic intrigue, a conspiracy which was originated some
thirty years ago by an infamous Hollander coterie, and operated since by
its product and engine, the now well-known "Afrikaner Bond Association,"
with its significant motto of "Afrika voor Afrikaners"[1]--its object
being no less than the eviction of all that is English from South
Africa, and to substitute a federation of all South African States into
one free and independent Republic, the affiliation to be with Holland
instead, and Dutch the common and official language, other nations, in
return for afforded aid, to participate in the trade and other
advantages wrested from England.
I only regret that my ability falls so much short for the task of
demonstrating all this in an approved style--for doing justice to the
subject. Its investigation embraces a wider range of details to serve as
evidence than may, upon first thought, be held as relevant; but I
believe that a willing study will show their connection as serviceable
for arriving at an independent and unhesitating verdict.
A very strong and convincing case is indeed needed for remodelling
opinions where there is preconceived Boer partisanship, and where party
spirit or else foreign jealousy have already warped judgment and
established bias.
It would be no small relief to every honest-minded person, especially in
England, to be clear upon the subject that England is free of
guilt--equally so to the soldier who is called upon to fight her
battles. But other objects of no less importance are in view, viz., to
open the eyes of the misguided Boer people to the wicked artifices by
which it has been seduced from friendly relations with England into an
unjustifiable war, to deter the still wavering portion from joining the
ranks of sedition, and, lastly, the grounds for palliation being
recognised, to pave the way to an early termination of the war by
adjustments which could restore mutual goodwill and respect between the
contending parties, and so bring about a speedy return of South African
prosperity and progress.
The writer is fully prepared to give data and names of the incidents
adduced in this paper in support of their authenticity.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Africa for white African citizens.]
CURSORY HISTORY OF THE BOER NATION
The two principal elements of the Boer nation were the settlers of the
Dutch trading company at the Cape of Good Hope, sturdy farmers and
tradesmen belonging to the proletarian class of Holland, and a
subsequent contingent of French Huguenot refugees and their families who
joined as colonists soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I
mention below the names still existing which form a large proportion of
the present Boer nation of Huguenot descent:--
Billion Blignaut Bisseux Delporte
Du prez Du Toit De la Bey Durand
Davel De Langue Duvenage Fourie
Fouché Grove Hugo Jourdan
Lombard Le Roux Roux Lagrange
Labuscaque Maré Marais Malan
Malraison Maynard Malherbe De Meillon
De Marillac Matthée Naudé Nortier
Rousseau Taillard Theron Terblanche
De Villiers Fortier Lindeque Vervier
Vercueil Basson Pinard Duvenage
Celliers de Clercq Leclercq Devinare
Men of the best French stock, noted for honour, energy and
perseverance, rather than recant their Protestant faith, abandoned
seigneurial homes, high positions and lucrative callings to carve out
fresh careers, and even to become humble farmers wherever they found
asylums and tolerance, men who became very valuable accessions to the
nations who received them and a correspondingly significant loss to
France. To those two main elements were added sparse accessions from
other nations at later intervals, and also a strain of aboriginal blood,
of which a more or less faint tinge is still discernible in some
families, an admixture which many deplore and others consider as most
serviceable, supplying a subtle piquancy for perfecting the general
stock.
The early Cape Governors aimed at the prompt assimilation of those
French people with their own colonists--to make Dutchmen of them. Among
other drastic enactments to enforce that object, no other language but
Dutch was permitted to be used in public of pain of corporal punishment.
Not a few noble Frenchmen were subjected to that indignity for
inadvertent breaches of that draconian law, but, as conscientious
observers of biblical commands which enjoin subjection to all
governmental rule, they willingly submitted and obeyed. Intermarriages
with their Dutch fellow-colonists further promoted assimilation into one
cohesive community. At the same time the Huguenot faith was transmitted
to their descendants, and had a marked influence in sustaining common
religious fervour and consistency. They did not look for a reward or
compensation for the sacrifices endured, for the sake of faith, by those
refugees, though a gracious providence, as the sequel showed, held in
store a most ample restitution--magnificent heirlooms for their later
descendants, heirlooms which are now unhappily staked in this present
war.
In 1814 a payment of six millions sterling received by the Prince of
Orange closed the transfer of the Dutch Cape settlement to Great
Britain. Immigration of English settlers followed and the area of the
colony soon largely extended. As under the Dutch _régime_, the practice
of slavery had continued until its abolition in 1833 by the ransom
payable by the English Government to the owners of slaves. The Boer
colonists deeply resented that act, and especially the next to
impracticable condition which provided that payments could only be
received in England instead of on the spot. Many were cheated of all
their emancipation money by their appointed proxies or agents, or else
had to submit to exorbitant charges and commissions; a great number
voluntarily renounced all in disgust.
By that time the existence had become known of promising tracts of
country lying north of the Orange River beyond the confines of the
British colonies, and a large number of Boers combined with the
intention of establishing an independent community northwards free from
British restraint.
The British authorities appeared at that time not to fully realize that
that movement was rife with future dangers and complications to their
own colonial interests, that it meant the creation of a nucleus of a
people openly averse to the English, and who would independently carry
out practices in near proximity, especially in dealing with aborigines,
which would seriously compromise them and become a standing menace
against peaceful expansion and civilization.
It was, on the other hand, anticipated that the movement could only end
in disaster, the people being too few to make a successful stand against
the numerous hostile Kaffir tribes. The Government, therefore, refrained
from preventive measures, and confined its efforts to discouraging the
emigration and to reconcile the malcontents. Those efforts, however,
proved fruitless; the people held to their project with resolute
fearlessness and self-confidence, and were even content to sacrifice
their farms and homesteads, their sale being in some cases forbidden by
special enactment.
The terms of "Boer" and "Boer nation" do not convey or mean anything
disparaging, rather the contrary. Boer simply means farmer, as a rule
the proprietor of a farm of about 3,000 to 10,000 acres, who combines
stock-breeding with a variety of other farming enterprises as well,
according to the soil and locality. As a national designation, the term
"Boer" conveys the distinction from the recently arrived Dutchman, who
is called "Hollander." Hollanders, again, delight of late to claim the
Boer nation as their kith and kin, but prefer to ignore the existence of
the French Huguenot factor.
The great "trek," with families and movables, as the emigration movement
is called, occurred in 1836; some families started even before, and
other contingents followed shortly afterwards. After many vicissitudes
and nearly twenty years of wanderings, and a nomadic life attended with
untold hardships and dangers, intermittent conflicts with native tribes,
and at times also contests with British forces, they were eventually
permitted, under treaty with England, to settle down and to constitute
the independent Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics. That was in
1854 and 1852 respectively.
But, until then, progress in the British colonies and peaceful relations
with the several Kaffir nations had at times been sadly impeded by the
aggressive native policy pursued by the Boers after the pattern adopted
from the previous Dutch _régime_, which admitted of slavery, whilst
English law had abolished and forbade that practice as contrary to a
soundly moral method of civilizing natives and inimical to prosperous
and peaceable colonial progress. Broils and wars between Boers and
Kaffirs had been almost incessant, and intervals of peace only proved
their mutually latent hostility. Besides being occasionally engaged in
unavoidable wars with neighbouring tribes themselves, it became
frequently incumbent upon the British military authorities to intervene
in conflicts induced by the Boers, alternately protecting them against
natives and natives against the Boers, and all that at the unnecessary
expenditure of much blood and treasure.
The Boer occupation of Natal was found to be wholly prejudicial to
British interests on aforesaid accounts, and was, besides, contrary to
the express declaration of the Boer emigrants at the time of their
exodus from the Cape Colony, which was that their new settlements should
be located north of the Orange River. Stepping in to the eastward and
claiming part of the littoral constituted a rivalry in conflict with
that understanding, and England therefore considered it within her
rights to expel the Boers from Natal, and to proceed with the
colonization there with British settlers instead. That temporary
occupation of Natal had been fraught to the Boers with most stirring
episodes--some of the most melancholy description, and others
representing records of really unsurpassed heroism, which can but arouse
deepest emotions and admiration in any reader of their history. There
was the treacherous massacre of Retief and Potgeiter and his party by
the Zulu king Dingaan at his military kraal, followed by other wholesale
massacres of men, women, and children at Weenen and other Boer camps in
Natal. Then came the punitive expedition of 450 Boers, armed with
flint-locks only, who utterly defeated Dingaan's most redoubtable impi
of 10,000 warriors, and resulted in the complete overthrow of that Zulu
monarch.
When that punitive Boer commando was about to start upon its mission it
was solemnly vowed to observe a day of national thanksgiving each year
if Divine aid were vouchsafed to accomplish the object. That brilliant
victory had occurred on the 16th December, 1838, and the day has ever
since been religiously observed as had been vowed. The celebrations in
the Transvaal take place at Paarden-kraal, near Johannesburg, and some
other accessible and central camping grounds, where the burghers with
their families congregate in thousands--a sort of feast of tabernacles,
lasting three days, undeterred by the most boisterous weather. The
declaration of independence fell on that same date at Paarden-kraal in
1879, and it was also in December of the succeeding year that the Boers
proved victorious over the British troops in Natal, after which the
Transvaal had its independence generously restored by the Gladstone
Ministry (subject to treaty 1881).
On those anniversaries stirring speeches would be made by the elder
leading men, rehearsing the events of the nation's history so as to
grave them upon the minds of the younger, and to revive the thankful
memories of the elder people. It is only in human nature that
unsympathetic feelings against the English would intrude upon the
thanksgivings on those occasions, especially as it continues yet to be
averred that the British authorities had incited the Zulu king Dingaan
to those massacres. Nevertheless, except in instances of implacable
natures, the predominant sentiments at those gatherings were those of
gratitude to the Almighty and good-will towards all men. After the peace
of 1881, it used to be publicly recognised that the English were
entitled thenceforth to a first place in the nation's friendship, and
that the retrocession put a term to all recriminations applying to
previous dates.
The sequel has shown that soon afterwards another spirit was allowed to
intrude to displace those good and just sentiments, and that without any
reason or provocation and despite a persistently loyal and sincere
attitude of friendship and confidence observed towards the Boers by the,
British Government and the English people in South Africa. As instances
may be cited: (1) England's conceding spirit in assenting to a
modification of the convention of 1881 and agreeing to that of 1884; (2)
genial treatment of the colonial Boers on perfect equality with English
colonists, sharing in the privileges of self-government, the Dutch
language also raised to equal rights with English; (3) most harmonious
relations with the Orange Free State; (4) reduction of transit duties
for goods to the Republics to 5 per cent, and later to 3 per cent.; (5)
unrestricted privilege for the importations of arms and ammunition to
both Republics. In lieu of friendly reciprocity the return began to be
rancorous mistrust and revival of hatred.
In the course of our study to account for this sad and unwarrantable
change on the part of the Boers we will be following the trail of the
serpent and track it right up to its Hollander lair and to its at first
unsuspected product, the Afrikaner Bond.
PROSPERITY OF BOERS AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND UP TO 1881
A period of about twenty-five years following the establishment of the
Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics was marked with much progress
and prosperity in the Cape Colonies and Natal, both Republics also
having cause to rejoice over similar advancement.
The evil influence which aimed at rending good relations between Boer
and English became more apparent after 1881. During the preceding era
the two races actually had been in a fair way towards friendly
assimilation. Mutual appreciation was further stimulated by the
reciprocal benefits arising from trade and economic relations.
Intermarriages became more frequent under such friendly intercourse, a
respectable Englishman being truly prized in those days as a Boer's
son-in-law. The English language also largely advanced in favour and
prestige not only among the Cape Colonial and Natal Boers, but also in
both Republics, and anti-English sentiments were fast being supplanted
by amity and goodwill.
The principal event in the Orange Free State during that period was a
three years' exhaustive war with the Basuto nation, which ended in the
latter's defeat in 1867. Their chief Moshesh then appealed for British
intervention. The Basutos thus came under England's protection, and a
peace resulted which has ever since continued, through British prestige
and authority as well as good government. The Orange Free State gained a
large tract of the territory conquered by that State, but had to
renounce the rest.
Then, in about 1870, came the discovery of the diamond-fields, situated
on the then still ill-defined western limits of the State. According to
a boundary line claimed by Great Britain, those diamond-fields fell
outside Free State territory. That State received £90,000 compensation
for improvements and expenses incurred during its short occupation of
that disputed strip of diamondiferous ground. The diamond-fields at
Jagersfontein and Koffyfontein were subsequently discovered and lie deep
within the confines of the State. President Brand had proved his
sagacity and discretion in concluding the negotiations with England
upon the question of the peace with the Basutos and then again in
submitting to the boundary delimitations, it being contended even yet
that the Orange Free State had the weightier arguments in its favour in
both instances.
The people of that Republic proved however to be the ultimate gainers in
those adjustments; they did not miss the more solid advantages attending
the discovery of the diamond-fields. Believed of the grave
responsibility involved in governing a turbulent population of foreign
diggers, the geographical position of the Kimberley fields secured to
the Free State farmers an almost entire monopoly in the supply of
products; trade also flourished apace, all tending to enrich the
inhabitants and the State revenue as well.
But the Orange Free State derived a permanent advantage, quite unique
and more than compensating the apparent set-back suffered by the loss of
the diamond-field territory and by British intervention in the Basuto
war matter, in that the method of those procedures saddled England with
the responsibility of guaranteeing the internal safety of the State from
those hitherto unprotected borders "altogether at her own cost." The
Keate award completed the British cordon around the Free State,
excepting only in regard to the Transvaal frontier. No need thenceforth
for costly military provisions for the protection of the State--it was,
as it were, walled and fenced in at British expense, and the State
revenue was thus for ever relieved of a very heavy item of expenditure,
which could be devoted to the increase of the national wealth instead--a
peaceful security accompanied with an intrinsic gain constituting a
veritable and permanent heirloom for the people of that State.
It is notable that the position of the Orange Free State, without any
other access to the sea-board than from colonial ports, made its status
and welfare entirely dependent upon the friendly and loyal good faith of
England. Up to the present unhappy war that State enjoyed unaltered the
best relations without being ever subjected to even a trace of chicanery
from the part of Great Britain.
By what illusion, it may well be asked, could that hitherto friendly
people have been deluded to risk all in a disloyal breach with England
by joining the Transvaal in a "Bond" issue against her best friend?
Towards the Transvaal also had England proved her earnest desire to
maintain an intercourse on the basis of sincere amity, desirous only of
reciprocity, which indeed could be expected in willing return, seeing
that England took upon her own shoulders to provide for the protection
and welfare of the entire area of South Africa by sea and land, whilst
both Republics freely participated in all the great benefits so derived.
These considerations should substantially disprove the wicked aspersion
lately made that British policy aimed at the subversion of republican
autonomy in those two States. All that Great Britain needed and
confidently expected in return for her goodwill was friendly adhesion,
and a willing recognition of her paramountcy in matters affecting the
common weal of South Africa as a whole, and also such reciprocity and
mutual concern in the welfare of all as consistently comport with common
interests. How fell and malignant the "influence" which operated a
treacherous ingratitude and hostility instead!
TRANSVAAL HISTORY--SUZERAINTY
The references made to the history of the Transvaal so far reach up to
the rehabilitation of its independence and the convention of 1881. Some
of the conditions of that treaty, especially the subordinate position
imposed by the suzerainty clause, were found to be repugnant to the
burghers. Delegates were therefore commissioned to proceed to England in
order to get the treaty so altered as to place the State into the status
provided by the Sand River convention, which conceded absolute
independence. Mr. Jorrison, a violent anti-English Hollander, was the
chief adviser of the members of that delegation.
To that the English Ministry could not assent, but sought to meet the
wishes of the people by agreeing to certain modifications of the
convention of 1881. This was effected with the treaty of 1884. The
delegates had specially urged the renunciation of the suzerainty claim,
but that claim appears not to have been abandoned, to judge from the
absence of such mention in the novated treaty. Had its renunciation been
agreed to, as has been since averred, it is quite certain that the
delegates would not have been content without the mention in most
distinct terms of that, to them, so important point. It may therefore be
assumed as a fact that the negotiations did not result in an active
suspension of the relations as set forth in the convention of 1881, and
that the Transvaal continued in a status of subordinacy to England, but
only with a wider range in regard to conditions of autonomy. To most lay
minds it therefore appears perfectly clear that the Transvaal delegates
had well understood and accepted, and so had also their Government, that
the convention of 1884 was _de facto_ a renewal of that of 1881, with
the only difference that it provided an enlarged exercise of autonomy,
but without in the least abrogating the principles of respective
relations, which were left intact, or at least latent.
It has been averred and a strong point made in the theory of repudiating
suzerainty or over-lordship that Lord Kimberley had given the assurance
that the right of Transvaal autonomy and independence was meant to equal
that of the Orange Free State. This need not be contested, as that
Minister obviously relied upon a similar observance of staunch adhesion
towards England which that State had shown during a period of thirty
years previous; the fact that the Transvaal was quite differently
situated as to adjoining territory imposed the necessity, if only as a
matter of form, to preserve the written conditions of Transvaal
vassalage.
Lord Kimberley, in 1889, intimated the readiness of his Government to
afford advisory and other co-operation with the Transvaal Government in
order to cope with the new element of foreign immigration, resulting
from the discovery of the rich gold-fields, and to provide appropriate
relations with a new floating population, without materially altering
the status of Transvaal authority, or the methods of government then in
practice.
The Transvaal Government, however, preferred to ignore that loyal offer,
and to be guided by Bond principles instead. That circumstance affords
another proof that England did not then see the necessity, as has
subsequently been the case, of strengthening her position against Bond
aggression by imposing a demand of general franchise for Uitlanders.
One aspect of the prolonged controversy _re_ suzerainty forced upon
England would be to denote a lack of honour, which is not of unfrequent
occurrence when one party to a contract seeks by cavil and legal quibble
to evade compliance with some of its conditions, simply because the
written terms appear to afford scope for doing so. But the principal
reason of the Transvaal contention proceeded from the project of gaining
over some strong foreign ally who would see an obstacle, if not
scruples, in joining common cause whilst England's claim of
over-lordship remained unshaken. But for that consideration the
Transvaal Government inwardly viewed the whole of the treaties as waste
paper, since it was not only intended to violate them all, but also to
bring about, at an opportune moment, a hostile severance from England.
In the meantime, the academic squabble was to serve as a decoy to hide
Transvaal identification with any such sinister objects, and to divert
attention and suspicion.
TRANSVAAL HISTORY--TREATMENT OF UITLANDERS--FRANCHISE
To resume the cursory history of the Transvaal. Mr. Burger, during his
Presidency in the early seventies, went to Europe with the mission of
attracting capital to the development and exploitation of gold, etc.,
then already authentically discovered; also, to provide for the building
of a railway connecting with Delagoa Bay. The Transvaal Boers were at
that time exceedingly poor, and without a sufficient revenue for
properly maintaining the administration. Beyond creating a lively
interest, his success was confined to an agreement with a company in
Holland for building a section of that railroad, which, however, fell
through, because the Transvaal proved ultimately unable to furnish its
quota of the necessary funds. The present President fared better. A
Dutch company styled "The Nederlandsch Zuid Afrikaansche Spoorweg
Maatschappy," abbreviated "Z.A.S.M.," undertook the work and completed
it in 1887, from the Portuguese border to Pretoria. The line from
Pretoria to the Natal border was soon after built, as also several
extensions around the Wit-waters Rand, and that from Pretoria to
Pietersburg. The section connecting Delagoa Bay as far as the Transvaal
border had previously been completed by McMurdo, and is the subject of
the present Berne arbitration.[2]
The contract conferred to the Dutch Company a monopoly, and most
advantageous financial terms as well. By that time great strides had
been made in the development of the Transvaal gold-fields, especially at
the Wit-waters Rand (Johannesburg); and immigration on a large scale
from all parts of the world had set in, and was constantly increasing
with vast amounts of investments in mercantile and other enterprises, as
well as in mining industries. At first, equitable laws governed burghers
and Uitlanders alike, administered by an independent judiciary. All
desirable security was afforded for person and property, with confidence
in the safety of investments, and great general prosperity kept pace
with ever-increasing activities and enterprise.
It was a great satisfaction to Uitlanders that the peace of 1881, and
the reinstatement of Transvaal independence, had restored harmony
between Boer and English, and that a policy was being followed to
preclude friction between the respective Governments. Those facts
largely stimulated investments and enhanced confidence. By 1887 the
alien population had already exceeded 100,000, and the capital
investments £200,000,000 sterling, and the desire so ardently
entertained by the people of the land, for twenty years back, was
gratified at last. The burghers shared in the prosperity to a very large
degree, and in lieu of former poverty, competence and wealth became the
rule, and many of them became exceedingly rich. It was not unusual to
hear Boers expressing undisguised gratitude, not merely for the natural
gold deposits, but specially also that people had come to prospect and
to invest capital, without which the wealth of the land would have
remained unexploited and lain fallow. Harmony and cordiality were the
proper outcome between foreigners and Boers. The influx of capital and
of immigrants continued to increase, but not so the happy conditions.
These were gradually getting marred by a spirit of variance, no one
seemed to know how. The study of this paper will reveal it. The variance
between Boers and Uitlanders began to be specially discernible from 1887
and had been increasing like a blight ever since. This was noticeably
coincident with the numerous arrivals of educated Hollanders employed
for the railways and the Government administration.
In the earlier period of the Transvaal Republic, one year's residence
was first held sufficient for acquiring full franchise or burgher rights
and voting qualifications. The condition was successively raised to two,
three, and five years; but in 1890 laws were passed which required
fourteen years' probation, with conditions which virtually brought the
term to twenty-one years, and even then left the acquisition of full
franchise to the caprice of field-cornets and higher officials.
Englishmen and their descendants were at one time totally and for ever
excluded and disqualified just merely because of their nationality
whilst Hollanders were admitted in very large numbers without having to
pass any probation at all or only comparatively short terms. The English
language became a target for hostility and as good as proscribed;
impracticable and ludicrous attempts even were made to exclude its use
in Johannesburg, where hardly any Uitlander understood Dutch, whilst
every Boer official was well versed in English: market and auction sales
were to be conducted only in Dutch; bills of fare at hotels and
restaurants were also to be in full-fledged Dutch only--and all this, it
must be remembered, some years before the Jameson incursion took place.
The judiciary, which, according to the "Grondwet" (Constitution), was
the highest legal authority, was by one stroke of enactment rendered
subservient and subordinate to the First Volksraad. The then Chief
Justice (Kotzee) was ignominiously deposed for honourably contending
against the grave departure from right and justice in subverting the
sacred prerogative due to the highest tribunal, which Boer and Uitlander
alike relied upon for independent justice.
A new system of education was next introduced which admitted only High
Dutch as the medium of instruction in public schools. As only Hollander
children could benefit by such tuition, and whereas those of other
immigrants could not understand that language, the effect was that
parents of English and other nationalities had to combine in
establishing private schools or else to employ private teachers at their
own expense--whilst paying, in the way of taxation, for Hollander public
schools as well. That oppressive system was subsequently somewhat
modified in a manner which admitted the English language as a medium for
a portion of the school hours, the proportion so accorded being larger
in Johannesburg and other such wholly English-speaking centres than in
other parts of the State; but the amelioration did not take place until
after much irritation and expense had been occasioned, nor did it meet
the case of hardship more than half-way. I may here place the remark
that the public educational department is conducted without stint of
expenditure in providing from Holland the amplest and best school
equipments and highly salaried Dutch professors and teachers.
Irritating class legislation began to be systematically resorted to, to
the prejudice of Uitlanders (the majority of whom, it will be borne in
mind, were English), which painfully pointed to a fixed determination on
the part of the Boers to lord it over them as a totally inferior class,
allowing them no representation, and to treat them, in fact, just as a
conquered people placed under tribute and proper only to be dominated
and exploited.
Boers could walk or ride about armed to the teeth, whilst Uitlanders
were forbidden to possess arms under penalty of confiscation and other
punishments (except sporting-guns under special permit). The like
irritations became rampant by 1890 already.
The alien population were at first too much occupied with their
prosperous vocations to combine in the way of protesting against such
prevailing usage. The Press was, however, eventually employed, and the
Government was approached with respectful petitions praying for redress
of the most glaring causes of discontent; but those were invariably
either disdainfully rejected or ignored, or, if some matter was
relieved, other more exasperating enactments were defiantly substituted.
They were cynically told that they had come to their (the Boer's)
country unasked, and were at liberty, and in fact invited, to leave it
if the laws did not please them. This was said, well knowing that to
leave would involve too great sacrifices of homes and investments. The
Uitlanders could not, however, be brought to the belief that the
Government of a conscientious people could persist in dealing with them
as if a previous design had existed--first to inveigle them and their
capital into their midst, with the object of goading and despoiling them
afterwards. The course of petitioning and respectful remonstrances was
therefore persevered in, but all to no purpose. Indignation and
resentment were the natural result of those failures. There appeared no
alternative but to submit or else to abandon all and leave the country.
It is true that numerous Uitlanders acquired competences, and some were
amassing fortunes, but such prizes were comparatively few. The majority
just managed, with varying success, to reap a reasonable return for
their outlays and energies, or only to live more or less comfortably.
The fashion of luxurious and unthrifty living, so prevalent among the
"_nouveaux riches_" and the section who vied with them, impressed the
Boers with the notion that all were getting rich, and that soon there
would be nothing left for them in the race. In their Hollander Press
they were reminded that the gold, in reality belonging to them, was
rapidly being exhausted, and the wealth appropriated by aliens, whose
hewers of wood and drawers of water they would finally become. All this
galled them to the heart, and the Government readily lent itself to
proceedings intended to balance conditions in favour of their burghers,
as the process was described. I will adduce a few instances. As is well
known, it is only burghers and some privileged Hollanders who are
employed in Government service, from President down to policeman. There
are very few exceptions to this rule, which also applies to the
nominations of jurymen, who are well paid too. The salaries of all,
especially in the higher grades, had been largely augmented; the
President receiving £8,000 per year, and so on downwards.
For Government supplies and public works the tenders of burghers only,
and perhaps of some privileged persons, are accepted. In many instances
the tenderers are without any pretence of ability for the performance of
the contract, but are nevertheless accepted, performing only a _sub rosa
rôle_. One such instance occurred some years ago when a burgher who did
not possess £100--a simple farmer and a kind of "slim"
speculator--received by Volksraad vote the contract for building a
certain railway.[3] The price included a very large margin to be
distributed in places of interest--as douceurs of £1,000 to £5,000 each,
and £10,000 for the _pro forma_ contractor and his Volksraad
confederates; all those sums were paid out by the firm for whom the
contract was actually taken up.
Similarly in contracts for road making, repairing, and making streets,
etc., etc. On one occasion a rather highly placed official obtained a
contract for repairing certain streets in Pretoria for £60,000. The work
being worth £20,000 at most, the difference went to be shared by the
several official participants.
One of the first instances of glaring peculation occurred about fifteen
years ago in relation with the Selati railway contract obtained by Baron
Oppenheim.[4] The procedure was publicly stigmatized as bribery. It had
transpired that nearly all the Volksraad's members had received gifts in
cash and values ranging each from £50 to £1,000 prior to voting the
contract, but what was paid after voting did not become public at the
time of exposure.
The acceptance of those gifts was ultimately admitted, in the face of
evidence adduced in a certain law case; denial became, in fact,
impossible. The plea of exoneration was that those gifts had been freely
accepted without pledging the vote. The President publicly exculpated
the honourable members, expressing his conviction that none of them
could have meant to prejudice the State in their votes for the contract;
and as there had been no pledge on their part, the donor had actually
incurred the risk of missing his object. From that time the practice of
obtaining and selling concessions or of sinecures and other lucrative
advantages grew quite into a trade; and receiving douceurs became a
hankering passion from highest to lowest, but happily with not a few
exceptions where the official's honour was above being priced.
There was nothing shocking in all this venality to the bulk of the
Johannesburg speculator class and others of that category. The rest
assessed official morality at a depreciated value, but hoped the
blemishes might be purged out with other and graver causes for
discontent, if Uitlanders, were only granted some effective
representation in public matters. That appeared to be the only
constitutional remedy. But this continued to be resentfully refused,
even in matters which partook of purely domestic interest, such as
education, municipal privileges, etc. The latter were opposed upon the
specious argument that such extended rights would constitute an
_imperium in imperio,_ and thus a condition incompatible with the safety
and the conservation of complete control.
In the usual intercourse with burghers and officials a great deal of
exasperating and even humiliating experiences had often to be endured,
Uitlanders being treated as an inferior class, with scarcely veiled and
often with arrogant assumption of superiority.
I witnessed a field cornet enjoying free and courteous hospitality at a
Uitlander's house, while being entertained by his host and others in the
vernacular Dutch, peremptorily object to the conversation in English in
which the lady of the house happened to be engaged with another guest at
the further end of the table. His remark was to the effect "that he
could not tolerate English being spoken within his hearing"; this was in
about 1888.
No wonder that under such conditions and ungenial usage Englishmen and
other Uitlanders were put in a resentful mood, and many of them
bethought themselves of methods other than constitutional to improve
their position.
Identification was resorted to with the Imperial League, a political
organization called into being in the Cape Colony to stem Boer
assertiveness there and to restrain Bond aspirations. It was also
seriously mooted to obtain the good offices of Great Britain as an
influence for intervention and remonstrance.
It was not that the Transvaal Government was unaware of its duty and
responsibility to remove causes which produced discontent and resentment
among by far the larger section of the people under its rule. It seemed
rather that the Uitlanders were provoked with systematic intention.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 2: The Berne award has, as is well known, since been given.]
[Footnote 3: The Ermelo-Machadodorp branch.]
[Footnote 4: These very details were since made public in the Belgian
Law courts in the recent _cause célèbre_ of "The Government of the South
African Republic _versus_ Baron Oppenheim."]
MONSTER PETITION--JAMESON INCURSION--ARMAMENTS
It was at this stage in May, 1894, that a monster petition with some
25,000 signatures was presented to the Volksraad, setting forth the
entire position, and praying for a commission to be appointed to examine
the merits of the Uitlander complaints, and to frame a programme of
reforms, the interests of the mining community needing such in a most
urgent degree, not only for the sake of its own prosperity, but for the
welfare of the entire State. A commission was indeed appointed, who
reported in favour of the petitioners, and suggested a series of
reforms; but the final Volksraad vote resulted in an angry rejection of
the petition and denunciation of its organizers.
As on the occasion of previous memorials, some few abuses were
redressed, but those benefits were made worse than nugatory by
enactments in other directions of a still more galling nature. The
petitioners found themselves snubbed and in the position of humiliating
defeat.
Treatment of Coloured British Subjects
A glaring instance of oppression practised by the Transvaal Government
was its cruel treatment of coloured British subjects who had been
admitted into the State. Among these figured some thousands of educated
Asiatic traders, including numerous cultured Indian and Parsee merchants
with large stakes in the State and well-appointed residences, people
whose very religion exacted the most scrupulous cleanliness and who had
all proved themselves obedient and law-abiding. These were classed under
one rubric with the vastly inferior coolie labourer, with Kaffirs and
Hottentots, and actually compelled to abandon their stores and
residences to reside in one common ghetto upon the outskirts of the
towns, a measure which entailed great losses apart from the gratuitous
humiliation--to many it involved ruin and in fact meant their expulsion.