THE NATIVE QUESTION
MAFEKING, _March 3rd, 1900_.
It has become altogether impossible to gauge with any degree of
accuracy, the situation in relation to the fortunes of the Imperial
arms, or as it might be found in the camp of the enemy without
Mafeking. We do not lack here men who, from a previous knowledge of
the Boers, consider themselves capable of estimating the purpose and
designs of Commandant Snyman; but what seems to be precise and even an
admirable forecast one week, is proved, by events in the succeeding
week, to be irrelevant and unreliable. It has been our habit, when for
any length of time the enemy has rested, to attribute their
comparative cessation from hostilities to news of ill-omen, and in our
fatuous presciency we have approximately given the date upon which the
siege will be raised. But in light of the never-varying contradiction
in sense which befalls our optimistical assurance, we must perforce,
recognise the falsity of our deductions and cease from worrying.
Recently, indeed during the past week, we expected the Boers to
celebrate Amajuba Day, and to this end, the garrison was held in a
condition of complete readiness, so as to be able to at once repel the
anticipated attack. The anniversary of this disastrous fight passed
off, however, without incident, and as it happened that runners
arrived from the North upon the same day, conveying to us the
unconfirmed intelligence that a force under the ever-victorious
General French had relieved Kimberley, the wise-acres here, both civil
and military, were of opinion that the investing force, that has now
surrounded us for six months, could not stomach such unfortunate
information, and were as a consequence timorous of any renewed
aggression. But now again our theories are erroneous, and the siege
progresses to-day merrily and as pugnaciously as ever. With the
tidings of Kimberley's good-luck, we looked to see the big Creusot gun
removed across the border in its return to Pretoria, but alas! it
still confronts us and still flings its daily complement of shells
into the town. Indeed, without this piece of ordnance, life would
become so strikingly original that the townspeople would break down
under the strain. The uncertainty as to what direction it will take,
as to the number of tolls which have been rung out from the alarm
bell, as to whose house has been wrecked, or what family put into
mourning, has buoyed up the townspeople to a pitch from which, when
the cause is removed, there will be a pretty general collapse. With
the advent of the news about the South, the Northern runners confirmed
the fact of the presence of Colonel Plumer's force being near at hand.
But this has been the irony of our situation since the siege began.
There has ever been, it would seem, some worthy general or colonel
within a little trifle of two hundred miles from us, bringing Mafeking
relief, or if not for us, for the starving natives. This has always
been so pleasant to reflect upon, just this little detail of two
hundred miles. Colonel Plumer, we hear, is laying down "immense"
stocks of food-supplies at Kanya, so that the natives here, who are
already so reduced that they are dying from sheer inanition, having
successfully accomplished the journey, which is one of ninety miles,
may feed to their hearts' content--provided that they are able to pay
for the rations which are so generously distributed to them. Whatever
motives of philanthropy direct the policy of the executive in this
question of distributing food allowances to natives, it cannot be said
that the Government or its administrators, err in their administration
upon the side of liberality. Even here in Mafeking we have set a price
upon the bowl of soup--horseflesh and mealie-meal mixed--which is
served out to the natives from the soup-kitchen, finding excuses for
such parsimony in the contention that, by charging the starving
natives threepence per bowl of soup, when it is exceedingly doubtful
if they have that amount of money in their possession, we can
successfully induce them to remove to Kanya, and there live in a state
of happy flatulency off the stocks which Colonel Plumer has been
ordered to prepare against their reception. Of course, at a moment
like this, it is injudicious to cavil at the procedure of the Imperial
Government, but there can be no doubt that the drastic principles of
economy which Colonel Baden-Powell has been practising in these later
days are opposed to and altogether at variance with the dignity of the
liberalism which we profess and are at such little pains to execute,
and which enter so much into the pacific settlement of native
questions in South Africa. The presence of a large alien native
population gathered in Mafeking at the present juncture has been our
own fault, since the authorities, in whom the management and control
of the natives of this district is invested, advised the military
authorities here to allow some two thousand native refugees from the
Transvaal to take up their abode upon the eve of war in the Mafeking
stadt, and it is through the tax which this surplus population put
upon the commissariat that this particular question has required such
delicate adjustment. With supplies which are rapidly diminishing, we
are compelled to force nightly a moderate number to attempt the
journey to Kanya, and if they have been signally unsuccessful in their
essay to pass through the Boer lines, it is in part because the enemy,
having promised them a free passage, maliciously fires upon them as
they reach the advanced trenches. For the most part, therefore, we are
no better off than we were, since those natives who escaped invariably
return to Mafeking.
With the good news which we have received, a slightly better tone of
feeling would seem to be about the community. We are simple people for
the present, living as we do under the rigours of Martial Law, but we
have such genuine faith in the supremacy of our flag, that now that we
have heard of the general movement of troops, we are infinitely
happier and inclined to forget for the moment the trials and
difficulties of our position. There was a time when the townspeople
were so disgusted with the conduct of the war, with the disgraceful
and nefarious practices of the Colonial Government, with the
abominable lethargy of the Imperial authorities, that five men out of
every six had resolved to abandon a country where such misrule was
possible, and to remove to some one other of our colonies, where life,
upon a broader and happier basis, was the order. But with the
inauguration of brighter things, such as the relief of Kimberley
portends, this tone has disappeared, while there seems to be an almost
unanimous desire to wait the arrival of the next intelligence. It is
perhaps not altogether incorrect to say that the feeling of disgust,
by which so many people were at one time swayed, existed chiefly among
those who were connected to and related with families of Dutch origin,
and who at some period discarded their Dutch allegiance, casting in
their lot with the British. These people yet retained a certain
sympathy with the Transvaal, and were as concerned as any Boer about
the issues of the campaign. Upon the outbreak of war, many of these
people took up their residence in border towns, and by these means
Mafeking received a sprinkling of people who were, by protestation,
Britishers, and by instinct, Dutch. These men were accepted, since as
a rule they were known to be genuine in their avowal; but when they
brought their families into Mafeking, their womenfolk, being wholly
Dutch, were as a rule regarded in quite a different light. It must be
remembered that inter-marriage is practised in the Transvaal to an
extraordinary degree, and that the relationship of any one family with
others can by this means permeate the entire country to such an extent
that, while the woman might be the wife of an African Imperialist, she
might be able to claim kinship with men who held high positions in the
Republican service. These ladies, therefore, were quite open to the
suspicion of wishing to convey to their relations in the Transvaal
authentic information regarding Mafeking. As our condition has been
precarious, and as important information was surreptitiously carried
to the enemy, it was perhaps natural that we should take steps to
confine these ladies within their laager, and to place a guard upon
it--precautions which were neither valued nor appreciated by them, and
from which they suffered no hardships other than those which might be
expected to accrue from the enjoyment of the somewhat restricted
liberty, with which they, together with the entire garrison, must
perforce rest content.