CAUSES OF THE AFRICANDERS’ SECOND WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.—CONCLUDED.
The “later dispatch” promised by the British cabinet was never sent.
The answer to it of the Transvaal government was, therefore, delayed
for several days, awaiting the new proposals that were to come as the
result of further deliberations on the part of Her Majesty’s
government. At last, on the eve of the outbreak of war, Mr. Chamberlain
gave out, on the 10th of October, the text of the republic’s rejoinder
to the British cabinet’s note of the 25th of September. It was
transmitted by cable, through Sir Alfred Milner, and read thus:
“Dear Sir: The government of the South African Republic feels itself
compelled to refer the government of Her Majesty, Queen of Great
Britain and Ireland, once more to the convention of London, 1884,
concluded between this republic and the United Kingdom, and which, in
Article XIV., secures certain specific rights to the white population
of this republic—namely: That all persons other than natives, on
conforming themselves to the laws of the South African Republic—
“A—Will have full liberty, with their families, to enter, travel or
reside in any part of the South African Republic.
“B—They will be entitled to hire or possess houses, manufactories,
warehouses, shops and other premises.
“C—They may carry on their commerce either in person or by any agents
whom they may think fit to employ.
“D—They shall not be subject, in respect of their premises or property
or in respect of their commerce and industry, to any taxes other than
those which are or may be imposed upon the citizens of the said
republic.
“This government wishes further to observe that these are the only
rights which Her Majesty’s government has reserved in the above
convention with regard to the outlander population of this republic,
and that a violation only of those rights could give that government a
right to diplomatic representations or intervention; while, moreover,
the regulation of all other questions affecting the position of the
rights of the outlander population under the above-mentioned convention
is handed over to the government and representatives of the people of
the South African Republic.
“Among the questions the regulation of which falls exclusively within
the competence of this government and of the Volksraad are included
those of the franchise and the representation of the people in this
republic; and, although this exclusive right of this government and of
the Volksraad for the regulation of the franchise and the
representation of the people is indisputable, yet this government has
found occasion to discuss, in friendly fashion, the franchise and
representation of the people with Her Majesty’s government—without,
however, recognizing any right thereto on the part of Her Majesty’s
government.
“This government has also, by the formulation of the now existing
franchise law and by a resolution with regard to the representation,
constantly held these friendly discussions before its eyes. On the part
of Her Majesty’s government, however, the friendly nature of these
discussions has assumed more and more a threatening tone, and the minds
of the people of this republic and the whole of South Africa have been
excited and a condition of extreme tension has been created, owing to
the fact that Her Majesty’s government could no longer agree to the
legislation respecting the franchise and the resolution respecting
representation in this republic, and, finally, by your note of Sept.
25, 1899, which broke off all friendly correspondence on the subject
and intimated that Her Majesty’s government must now proceed to
formulate its own proposals for the final settlement.
“This government can only see in the above intimation from Her
Majesty’s government a new violation of the convention of London, 1884,
which does not reserve to Her Majesty’s government the right to a
unilateral settlement of a question which is exclusively a domestic one
for this government, and which has been already regulated by this
government.
“On account of the strained situation and the consequent serious loss
in and interruption of trade in general, which the correspondence
respecting franchise and the representation of the people of this
republic has carried in its train, Her Majesty’s government has
recently pressed for an early settlement, and finally pressed, by your
intervention, for an answer within forty-eight hours, a demand
subsequently somewhat modified, to your note of September 12, replied
to by the note of this government of September 15, and to your note of
September 25, 1899, and thereafter further friendly negotiations were
broken off, this government receiving an intimation that a proposal for
a final settlement would shortly be made.
“Although this promise was once more repeated, the proposal, up to now,
has not reached this government.
“Even while this friendly correspondence was still going on the
increase of troops on a large scale was introduced by Her Majesty’s
government, the troops being stationed in the neighborhood of the
borders of this republic.
“Having regard to occurrences in the history of this republic, which it
is unnecessary here to call to mind, this republic felt obliged to
regard this military force in the neighborhood of its borders as a
threat against the independence of the South African Republic, since it
was aware of no circumstances which could justify the presence of such
a military force in South Africa and in the neighborhood of its
borders.
“In answer to an inquiry with respect thereto, addressed to His
Excellency, the High Commissioner, this government received, to its
great astonishment, in answer a veiled insinuation that from the side
of the republic an attack was being made on Her Majesty’s colonies,
and, at the same time, a mysterious reference to possibilities whereby
this government was strengthened in its suspicion that the independence
of this republic was being threatened.
“As a defensive measure this government was, therefore, obliged to send
a portion of the burghers of this republic in order to offer requisite
resistance to similar possibilities.”
It will be seen from this correspondence that the British government
had failed to send the formulation of “its own proposals for a final
settlement” promised in the note of September 25, and that active
preparations for war, even to the mobilization of troops, had been
going on—on both sides—for some weeks.
On the 7th of August, forty-nine days before the British cabinet
engaged to prolong friendly diplomatic correspondence on the subjects
at issue by promising a later dispatch containing its own proposals for
a final settlement, Mr. Chamberlain delivered a speech in the House of
Commons which has become historic—a speech which signified past all
possibility of mistake that at that early date war was a foregone
conclusion. After deprecating the use of the word “war” unless it were
absolutely necessary, he went on to say:
“The government had stated that they recognized the grievances under
which their subjects in Africa were laboring. They had stated that they
found those grievances not only in themselves a serious cause for
interposition, but a source of danger to the whole of South Africa.
“They (the government) said that their predominance, which both sides
of the House had constantly asserted, was menaced by the action of the
Transvaal government in refusing the redress of grievances, and in
refusing any consideration of the requests hitherto put in the most
moderate language of the suzerain power. They said that that was a
state of things which could not be long tolerated. They had said: ‘We
have put our hands to the plow and we will not turn back,’ and with
that statement I propose to rest content.”
Language could not be plainer. It was the British government’s demand
that the South African Republic must accept British control of her
internal affairs—of affairs so purely domestic as the franchise and the
representation of her citizens—or fight. It is not a little remarkable
in this connection that Germany, France, the United States of America
and other powerful nations whose subjects were mingled with the English
in that vast foreign population in the Transvaal, heard of no
grievances inflicted on their subjects by the South African Republic
sufficient to call forth even a friendly diplomatic representation and
request for redress.
On the morning of August the 8th, the day after Mr. Chamberlain’s
warlike speech, the London papers announced that the Liverpool and
Manchester regiments, then at the Cape, had been ordered to Natal; that
the Fifteenth Hussars were to embark on the 23d of August, and that
troops were to be massed along the Transvaal frontier. On the 11th of
August it was announced that 12,000 British troops were to be
dispatched from India to South Africa, and on the same day a large
consignment of war stores, including medical requisites, was given out
from the royal arsenal, Woolwich, for shipment to Natal, and the sum of
$2,000,000 in gold was sent to South Africa for the War Office account.
British troops began to arrive in South Africa from India and from
England in the first week of October. By the 10th some 15,000 had
landed. These were hurried to the frontiers of the Orange Free
State—both west and east—most of them being concentrated along the
northern boundary of Natal, convenient to the southern frontier of the
Transvaal.
The government of the South African Republic made no mistake as to the
meaning of Chamberlain’s belligerent speech in the House of Commons. On
the 8th of August orders were given for the purchase of 1,000 trek
oxen, to be used in the operations of the commissary department. On the
11th the German steamer Reichstag arrived at Lorenzo Marquez with 401
cases of ammunition. On the 12th it was decided to proceed at once with
the construction of fortified camps at Laing’s Nek and Majuba Hill, and
orders were issued for the preparation of armored trains. The
mobilization of artillery was begun on the 13th, and the next day that
force went into camps of instruction to learn the handling of guns of
the latest pattern. On the 14th of August the Field Cornets were
ordered to distribute Mauser rifles to the burghers, and the government
began the purchase of mules, provisions and general war supplies. Large
quantities of arms and ammunition were dispatched on the 15th of August
to Oudtshoorn, Aliwal Bethany, and other points in Cape Colony and the
Orange Free State for the use of any Africanders who should rise
against Great Britain when hostilities began. On the 19th of August
another German steamer, the Kœnig, arrived in Delagoa Bay with 2,000
cases of cartridges for the Transvaal government. The same day fifty
cases of ammunition each were dispatched to Kimberley, Jagersfontein
and Aliwal North for the arming of sympathizers in those districts of
Cape Colony. On the same day 300 Transvaal artillerists, with guns,
ammunition and camp equipage, left Johannesburg for Komati Pass, in the
Libombo Mountains.
And so it went on during the “friendly diplomatic correspondence,”
which terminated on the 25th of September—awaiting the “later dispatch”
from the British cabinet, which never came; both sides arming and
maneuvering for strategic advantages in preparation for the struggle
that was seen to be inevitable.
Perceiving that all the days spent in waiting for that “later dispatch”
were being used by Great Britain in massing her gigantic powers of war
in South Africa and along the Transvaal frontier, and believing that no
such dispatch would now come until the points of war were all secured
by his great antagonist, President Kruger at last astonished the
world—and, most of all, Great Britain—by issuing an ultimatum
sufficiently bold and defiant to have come from any of the first-rate
powers of the earth.
The document was dated 5 o’clock, p. m., on Monday, October the 9th,
and read as follows:
“Her Majesty’s unlawful intervention in the internal affairs of this
republic, in conflict with the London convention of 1884, and by the
extraordinary strengthening of her troops in the neighborhood of the
borders of this republic, has caused an intolerable condition of things
to arise, to which this government feels itself obliged, in the
interest not only of this republic, but also of all South Africa, to
make an end as soon as possible.
“This government feels itself called upon and obliged to press
earnestly and with emphasis for an immediate termination of this state
of things, and to request Her Majesty’s government to give assurances
upon the following four demands:
“First—That all points of mutual difference be regulated by friendly
recourse to arbitration or by whatever amicable way may be agreed upon
by this government and Her Majesty’s government.
“Second—That all troops on the borders of this republic shall be
instantly withdrawn.
“Third—That all re-enforcements of troops which have arrived in South
Africa since June 1, 1899, shall be removed from South Africa within a
reasonable time, to be agreed upon with this government, and with the
mutual assurance and guaranty on the part of this government that no
attack upon or hostilities against any portion of the possessions of
the British government shall be made by this republic during the
further negotiations within a period of time to be subsequently agreed
upon between the governments; and this government will, on compliance
therewith, be prepared to withdraw the burghers of this republic from
the borders.
“Fourth—That Her Majesty’s troops which are now on the high seas shall
not be landed in any part of South Africa.
“This government presses for an immediate and an affirmative answer to
these four questions and earnestly requests Her Majesty’s government to
return an answer before or upon Wednesday, October 11, 1899, not later
than 5 o’clock p. m.
“It desires further to add that in the unexpected event of an answer
not satisfactory being received by it within the interval, it will with
great regret be compelled to regard the action of Her Majesty’s
government as a formal declaration of war and will not hold itself
responsible for the consequences thereof, and that, in the event of any
further movement of troops occurring within the above-mentioned time in
a nearer direction to our borders, this government will be compelled to
regard that also as a formal declaration of war.”
This document was signed by F. W. Reitz, State Secretary, and handed by
him to Mr. Conyngham Greene, Her Majesty’s agent at Pretoria. On
Wednesday afternoon, October the 11th, at 3 o’clock, Mr. Greene
delivered the reply of his government, which read thus:
“Her Majesty’s government declines even to consider the peremptory
demands of the Transvaal government.”
Within an hour the telegraphic wires had flashed through all the South
African Republic the ominous word “Oorlog”—war!
Mr. Conyngham Greene at once asked for his passport, and on the next
day, October the 12th, with his family, he was sent, attended by a
guard of honor, to the border of the Orange Free State, where a similar
guard received and conducted him to British territory in Cape Colony.
Thursday, the 12th of October, was a busy and exciting day in both the
Transvaal and the Orange Free State—for the two republics stood as one
in the struggle. That night—twenty-four hours after war had been
declared—30,000 burghers were on the borders ready to do battle. Of
these 20,000 invaded Natal under General Joubert, and the vanguard
under General Kock occupied Newcastle on the 13th of October. The other
10,000, under General Piet Cronje, crossed the western border into
British Bechuanaland and marched on Mafeking.
Thus, and for the causes set forth, began the Africanders’ Second War
of Independence. It was not in the proposed scope of this book to treat
of its fortunes. The prospect is that it will be a long and sanguinary
war. The story of it will afford abundant and interesting matter for a
later volume.
It only remains to show that in all the matters in dispute between the
government of the Transvaal and that of Great Britain, and in the war
which resulted therefrom, the two Africander republics acted in
solidarity. Early in November, 1899, the President of the Orange Free
State announced this to his people and to the world in the following
proclamation:
“Burghers of the Orange Free State: The time which we had so much
desired to avoid—the moment when we as a nation are compelled with arms
to oppose injustice and shameless violence—is at hand. Our sister
republic to the north of the Vaal river is about to be attacked by an
unscrupulous enemy, who for many years has prepared herself and sought
pretexts for the violence of which he is now guilty, whose purpose is
to destroy the existence of the Africander race.
“With our sister republic we are not only bound by ties of blood, of
sympathy and of common interests, but also by formal treaty which has
been necessitated by circumstances. This treaty demands of us that we
assist her if she should be unjustly attacked, which we unfortunately
for a long time have had too much reason to expect. We therefore cannot
passively look on while injustice is done her, and while also our own
dearly bought freedom is endangered, but are called as men to resist,
trusting the Almighty, firmly believing that He will never permit
injustice and unrighteousness to triumph.
“Now that we thus resist a powerful enemy, with whom it has always been
our highest desire to live in friendship, notwithstanding injustice and
wrong done by him to us in the past, we solemnly declare in the
presence of the Almighty God that we are compelled thereto by the
injustice done to our kinsmen and by the consciousness that the end of
their independence will make our existence as an independent state of
no significance, and that their fate, should they be obliged to bend
under an overwhelming power, will also soon after be our own fate.
“Solemn treaties have not protected our sister republic against
annexation, against conspiracy, against the claim of an abolished
suzerainty, against continuous oppression and interference, and now
against a renewed attack which aims only at her downfall.
“Our own unfortunate experiences in the past have also made it
sufficiently clear to us that we cannot rely on the most solemn
promises and agreements of Great Britain, when she has at her helm a
government prepared to trample on treaties, to look for feigned
pretexts for every violation of good faith by her committed. This is
proved among other things by the unjust and unlawful British
intervention, after we had overcome an armed and barbarous black tribe
on our eastern frontier, as also by the forcible appropriation of the
dominion over part of our territory where the discovery of diamonds had
caused the desire for this appropriation, although contrary to existing
treaties. The desire and intention to trample on our rights as an
independent and sovereign nation, notwithstanding a solemn convention
existing between this state and Great Britain, have also been more than
once and are now again shown by the present government, by giving
expressions in public documents to an unfounded claim of paramountcy
over the whole of South Africa, and therefore also over this state.
“With regard to the South African Republic, Great Britain has moreover
refused until the present to allow her to regain her original position
in respect to foreign affairs, a position which she had lost in no
sense by her own faults. The original intention of the conventions to
which the republic had consented under pressure and circumstances has
been perverted and continually been used by the present British
administration as a means for the practice of tyranny and of injustice,
and, among other things, for the support of a revolutionary propaganda
within the republic in favor of Great Britain.
“And while no redress has been offered, as justice demands, for
injustice done to the South African Republic on the part of the British
government; and while no gratitude is exhibited for the magnanimity
shown at the request of the British government to British subjects who
had forfeited under the laws of the republic their lives and property,
yet no feeling of shame has prevented the British government, now that
the gold mines of immense value have been discovered in the country, to
make claims of the republic, the consequence of which, if allowed, will
be that those who—or whose forefathers—have saved the country from
barbarism and have won it for civilization with their blood and their
tears, will lose their control over the interests of the country to
which they are justly entitled according to divine and human laws. The
consequence of these claims would be, moreover, that the greater part
of the power will be placed in the hands of those who, foreigners by
birth, enjoy the privilege of depriving the country of its chief
treasure, while they have never shown any loyalty to a foreign
government. Besides, the inevitable consequence of the acceptance of
these claims would be that the independence of the country as a
self-governing, independent sovereign republic would be irreparably
lost. For years past British troops in great numbers have been placed
on the frontiers of our sister republic in order to compel her by fear
to accede to the demands 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 government now resorts. While we readily
acknowledge the honorable character of thousands of Englishmen who
loathe such deeds of robbery and wrong, we cannot but abhor the
shameless breaking of treaties, 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 care to commit no deed
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 conflict,
trusting to the 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. Steyn, State President.”