results of the Annexation of the Republic, that the Zululand difficulty,
as well as that with Secoecoeni, was the direct consequence of the
unfortunate Annexation of the Transvaal, which would not have happened
if we had not taken possession of the country like a lot of freebooters,
partly by "trickery," partly by "bullying." Elsewhere he said: "And in
this way we annexed the Transvaal, and that act brought as its Nemesis
the Zulu difficulty."
That the British Government had all along considered the Zulus as a
means of annihilating the Transvaal when a favourable opportunity
occurred, is clear from a letter which the High Commissioner, Sir Bartle
Frere, wrote to General Ponsonby, in which he says:--[27] "That while
the Boer Republic was a rival and semi-hostile power, it was a Natal
weakness rather to pet the Zulus as one might a tame wolf who only
devoured one's neighbours' sheep. We always remonstrated, but rather
feebly, and now that both flocks belong to us, we are rather embarrassed
in stopping the wolfs ravages."
And again in a letter to Sir Robert Herbert:--[28] "The Boers were
aggressive, the English were not; and were well inclined to help the
Zulus against the Boers. I have been shocked to find how very close to
the wind the predecessors of the present Government here have sailed in
supporting the Zulus against Boer aggression. Mr. John Dunn, still a
salaried official of this Government, thinking himself bound to explain
his own share in supplying rifles to the Zulus in consequence of the
revelations in a late trial of a Durban gun-runner, avows that he did so
with the knowledge, if not the consent, and at the suggestion of (naming
a high Colonial official) in Natal. There can be no doubt that Natal
sympathy was strongly with the Zulus as against the Boers, and, what is
worse, is so still."
Under such circumstances did the Annexation take place. The English did
not scruple to make use of Kaffir aid against the Boers, as at
Boomplaats, and it was brought home in every possible way to the British
Nation that a great wrong had been committed here; but even the High
Commissioner, though he heard the words issue from our bleeding hearts,
wished that he had brought some artillery in order to disperse us, and
misrepresented us beyond measure.
Full of hope we said to ourselves if only the Queen of England and the
English people knew that in the Transvaal a people were being oppressed,
they would never suffer it.
[Sidenote: The War of Freedom.]
But we had now to admit that it was of no use appealing to England,
because there was no one to hear us. Trusting in the Almighty God of
righteousness and justice, we armed ourselves for an apparently hopeless
struggle in the firm conviction that whether we conquered or whether we
died, the sun of freedom in South Africa would arise out of the morning
mists. With God's all-powerful aid we gained the victory, and for a time
at least it seemed as if our liberty was secure.
At Bronkorst Spruit, at Laing's Nek, at Ingogo, and at Majuba, God gave
us victory, although in each case the British troopers outnumbered us,
and were more powerfully armed than ourselves.
After these victories had given new force to our arguments, the British
Government, under the leadership of Gladstone, a man whom we shall never
forget, decided to cancel the Annexation, and to restore to us our
violated rights.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 23: Molesworth.]
[Footnote 24: Theal, 305.]
[Footnote 25: 30th April, 1877, Letter to the Rev. La Touche.]
[Footnote 26: Martineau, _The Transvaal Trouble_, page 76.]
[Footnote 27: Martineau, _The Transvaal Trouble_, page 69.]
[Footnote 28: _The Transvaal Trouble_, page 76.]
CONVENTIONS OF 1881 AND 1884.
[Sidenote: Pretoria Convention.]
An ordinary person would have thought that the only upright way of
carrying a policy of restitution into effect would have been for the
British Government to have returned to the provisions of the Sand River
Convention. If the Annexation was wrong in itself--without taking the
Boer victories into consideration--then it ought to have been abolished
with all its consequences, and there ought to have been a _restitutio in
integrum_ of that Republic; that is to say, the Boers ought to have been
placed in exactly the same position as they were in before the
Annexation. But what happened? With a magnanimity which the English
press and English orators are never tired of vaunting, they gave us back
our country, but the violation of the Sand River Convention remained
unredressed. Instead of a sovereign freedom, we obtained free internal
administration, subject to the suzerain power of Her Majesty over the
Republic. This occurred by virtue of the Convention of Pretoria, the
preamble of which bestowed self-government on the Transvaal State with
the express reservation of suzerainty. The articles of that Convention
endeavoured to establish a _modus vivendi_ between such self-government
and the aforesaid suzerainty. Under this bi-lateral arrangement the
Republic was governed for three years by two heterogeneous
principles--that of representative self-government, and that
represented by the British Agent. This system was naturally unworkable;
it was also clear that the arrangement of 1881 was not to be considered
as final.
[Sidenote: The London Convention.]
The suzerainty was above all an absurdity which was not possible to
reconcile with practical efficacy. So with the approval of the British
Government a Deputation went to London in 1883, in order to get the
status of the Republic altered, and to substitute a new Convention for
that of Pretoria. The Deputation proposed to return to the position as
laid down by the Sand River Convention, and that was in fact the only
upright and statesmanlike arrangement possible. But according to the
evidence of one of the witnesses on the British side, the Rev. D.P.
Faure, the Ministry suffered from a very unwholesome dread of
Parliament; so it would not agree to this, and submitted a counter
proposal (see Appendix A.), which eventually was accepted by the
Deputation, and the conditions of which are to-day of the greatest
importance to us.
This Draft was constructed out of the Pretoria Convention with such
alterations as were designed to make it acceptable to the Deputation.
The preamble under which complete self-government, subject to the
suzerainty, was granted to the Republic was deliberately erased by Lord
Derby, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, so that the suzerainty
naturally lapsed when the Draft was eventually accepted. In order to
make it perfectly clear that the status of the Republic was put upon
another basis, the title "Transvaal State" was altered to that of the
"South African Republic." All articles in the Pretoria Convention which
gave the British Government any authority in the internal affairs of
this Republic were done away with. As far as foreign affairs were
concerned, a great and far-reaching change was made. It was stipulated
in Article 2 of the Pretoria Convention that "Her Majesty reserves to
herself, her heirs and successors (_a_), the right from time to time to
appoint a British Resident in and for the said State, with such duties
and functions as are hereinafter defined; (_b_), the right to move
troops through the said State in time of war or in case of the
apprehension of immediate war between the Suzerain Power and any Foreign
State or Native tribe in South Africa; and (_c_) the control of the
external relations of the said State, including the conclusion of
treaties and the conduct of diplomatic intercourse with Foreign Powers,
such intercourse to be carried on through Her Majesty's diplomatic and
consular officers abroad."
This was superseded by Article 4 of the Convention of London, which was
to the following effect:--
"The South African Republic will conclude no treaty or engagement
with any State or Nation other than the Orange Free State, nor
with any Native tribe to the eastward or westward of the
Republic, until the same has been approved by Her Majesty the
Queen.
"Such approval shall be considered to have been granted if Her
Majesty's Government shall not, within six months after receiving
a copy of such treaty (which shall be delivered to them
immediately upon its completion), have notified that the
conclusion of such treaty is in conflict with the interests of
Great Britain, or any of Her Majesty's possessions in South
Africa."
The right of the British Government to exercise control over all our
foreign relations, and to conduct all our diplomatic negotiations
through its own Agent, was thus replaced by the far more slender right
of approving or disapproving of our treaties and conventions _after they
were completed_, and then only when it affected the interests of Great
Britain or Her Majesty's possessions in South Africa.
[Sidenote: Status of the Republic.]
It was this Article 4 which gave an appearance of truth (and an
appearance only) to Lord Derby's declaration in the House of Lords that
although he had omitted the term of suzerainty, the substance thereof
remained. It would have been more correct to have said that owing to the
lapse of suzerainty the South African Republic no longer fell under the
head of a semi-suzerain State, but that it had become a free,
independent, sovereign international State, the sovereignty of which was
only limited by the restriction contained in Article 4 of the
Convention. Sovereignty need not of necessity be absolute. Belgium is a
sovereign international State, although it is bound to observe a
condition of permanent neutrality. The South African Republic falls
undoubtedly under this category of States, the sovereignty of which is
limited in one or other defined direction. But the fact of its
sovereignty is nevertheless irrefutable. It will be pointed out later
how this position, which is undoubtedly the correct one, has been
consistently upheld by the Government of the South African Republic, but
it is necessary now to revert to the historical development.
CAPITALISTIC JINGOISM.
FIRST PERIOD.
[Sidenote: The gold fields.]
In 1886 gold was discovered in great quantities and in different parts
of the South African Republic, and with that discovery our people
entered upon a new phase of their history. The South African Republic
was to develope within a few years from a condition of great poverty
into a rich and prosperous State, a country calculated in every respect
to awaken and inflame the greed of the Capitalistic speculator. Within a
few years the South African Republic was ranked among the first
gold-producing countries of the world. The bare veldt of hitherto was
overspread with large townships inhabited by a speculative and bustling
class brought together from all corners of the earth. The Boers, who had
hitherto followed pastoral and hunting pursuits, were now called upon to
fulfil one of the most difficult tasks in the world, namely, the
management of a complicated administration, and the government of a
large digging population, which had sprung up suddenly under the most
extraordinary circumstances. And how have they acquitted themselves of
the task? We quote the following from a brilliant pamphlet by Olive
Schreiner, who possesses a deeper insight into the true condition of
affairs in South Africa than has been vouchsafed to any other writer on
the same subject:--
[29] "We put it to all generous and just spirits, whether of statesmen
or thinkers, whether the little Republic does not deserve our
sympathy, which wise minds give to all who have to deal with new
and complex problems, where the past experience of humanity has
not marked out a path--and whether, if we touch the subject at
all, it is not necessary that it should be in that large
impartial, truth-seeking spirit in which humanity demands we
should approach all great social difficulties and questions?"
"It is sometimes said that when one stands looking down from the
edge of this hill at the great mining camp of Johannesburg
stretching beneath, with its heaps of white sand and _débris_
mountain high, its mining chimneys belching forth smoke, with its
seventy thousand Kaffirs and its eighty thousand men and women,
white or coloured, of all nationalities, gathered here in the
space of a few years on the spot where, fifteen years ago, the
Boer's son guided his sheep to the water and the Boer's wife sat
alone at evening at the house door to watch the sunset, we are
looking upon one of the most wonderful spectacles on earth. And
it is wonderful; but as we look at it the thought always arises
within us of something more wonderful yet--the marvellous manner
in which a little nation of simple folk, living in peace in the
land they loved, far from the rush of cities and the concourse of
men, have risen to the difficulties of their condition; how they,
without instruction in statecraft or traditionary rules of
policy, have risen to face their great difficulties, and have
sincerely endeavoured to meet them in a large spirit, and have
largely succeeded. Nothing but that curious and wonderful
instinct for statecraft and the organisation and arrangement of
new social conditions which seem inherent as a gift of the blood
to all those peoples who took their rise in the little deltas on
the north-east of the Continent of Europe where the English and
Dutch peoples alike took their rise could have made it possible.
We do not say that the Transvaal Republic has among its guides
and rulers a Solon or a Lycurgus, but it has to-day, among the
men guiding its destiny, men of brave and earnest spirit, who are
seeking manfully and profoundly to deal with the great problems
before them in a wide spirit of humanity and justice. And we do
again repeat that the strong sympathy of all earnest and
thoughtful minds, not only in Africa, but in England, should be
with them."
If one compares the gold fields of the Witwatersrand with those of other
countries, it is certain that the former can claim to be the best
governed mining area in the world. This is the almost unanimous verdict
of people who have had a lengthy experience of the gold fields of
California, Australia, and Klondyke.
As far as South Africa is concerned, it is only necessary to instance
the diamond fields of Griqualand West when they were directly
administered by the British Government. They then afforded a continual
spectacle of rebellion, rioting, and indescribable uncertainty of, and
danger to, life and property.
In Appendix B. are certain extracts from the evidence of eye witnesses
as to the chaos which characterised the condition of the diamond fields
when under British rule--a condition which differs from that of the
Witwatersrand gold fields as night from day. Reference will be made
later on to the administration of the gold fields of the South African
Republic. For the present it is necessary to glance at certain forces
which had been developed on the diamond fields of the Cape Colony, and
which have introduced a new factor of overwhelming importance into the
South African situation.
[Sidenote: Capitalism.]
The development of British policy in South Africa had hitherto been
influenced at different times, and in a greater or less degree, by the
spirit of Jingoism, and by that zeal for Annexation which is so
characteristic of the trading instincts of the race. It was, however, a
policy that had been conducted in other respects on continuous lines,
and it might be justified by the argument that it was necessary in the
interests of the Empire. But Capitalism was the new factor which was
about to play such an important _rôle_ in the history of South Africa.
The natural differences in men find their highest expression in the
varieties of influence which one man exercises over another; this
influence can either be of a religious, moral, political, or purely
material nature. Material influence generally takes the form of money,
or the financial nexus, as an English writer has termed it. An unusual
combination of this form of influence leads to Capitalism just as an
unusual combination of political influence leads to tyranny, and an
unusual combination of religious influence to hierarchical despotism.
Capitalism is the modern peril which threatens to become as dangerous to
mankind as the political tyranny of the old Eastern world and the
religious despotism of the Middle Ages were in their respective eras.
In a part of the world so rich in minerals of all descriptions as the
Transvaal, it is natural that Capitalism should play a considerable
_rôle_. Unfortunately, in South Africa it has from the very first
attempted to go far beyond its legitimate scope; it has endeavoured to
gain political power, and to make all other forms of government and
influence subservient to its own ends. The measure of its success can be
clearly gauged by the fact that all South Africa is standing to-day on
the brink of a great precipice, and may be hurled into the abyss before
the ink on these pages is dry.
[Sidenote: Mr. Cecil Rhodes]
The spirit of Capitalism found its incarnation in Mr. Cecil Rhodes, who
was able to amalgamate the pressing and conflicting interests of the
Diamond Fields into the one great Corporation of which he is the head.
Although he probably had no exceptional aptitude for politics, he was
irresistibly drawn towards them by the stress of his interests. By means
of his financial influence, together with a double allowance of
elasticity of conscience, he succeeded so far as to become Prime
Minister of the Cape Colony, and was powerfully and solidly supported by
the Africander party. The Africanders believed in him because they were
really and deeply imbued with the necessity of the co-operation and
fusion of the two white races in South Africa, and he, as a loyal
Englishman, but fully possessing the confidence of Colonial
Africanderdom, seemed to them just the very person to realise their
ideal.
To a careful observer the alliance between Africanderdom and Capitalism
was bound to lead to a rupture sooner or later. Deeply rooted and pure
national sentiment as well as burning conviction form the basis of
Africander Policy, and it was obvious that in the long run it would be
discovered that this policy could never be made subservient to purely
financial interests.
[Sidenote: Jingoism.]
But there was another factor. There was that debased form of patriotism
called Jingoism. It is a form of party politics without solid
convictions or real beliefs, which puffs itself out with big words, and
with the froth of high-sounding ideas and principles. It is a policy,
nevertheless, which appeals most strongly to the instincts of
self-interest and to the illegal appropriation of other people's
property. It revels in the lust of boasting, so deeply ingrained in
human nature. In a word, it is a policy which is in direct opposition to
the true spirit of religion, to the altruistic ideals of humanity, and
to that sentiment of humility and moderation which is the natural basis
of all morality.
[Sidenote: Alliance between Capitalism and Jingoism.]
Here, indeed, were the elements of an enduring alliance--an alliance
between Capitalism, with its great material influence, but barren of any
one single exalted idea or principle on the one hand, and Jingoism,
sterile, empty, soulless, but with a rich stock-in-trade of bombastic
ideas and principles, prompted by the most selfish aspirations, on the
other hand.
The one was eminently calculated to form the complement of the other,
thus creating a natural alliance which is rapidly becoming a menace, all
the world over, to the best and most enduring interests of humanity.
This Capitalistic Jingoism is the tree from which it is the lot of our
unfortunate South Africa to gather such bitter fruit to-day.
Mr. Rhodes, with that treacherous duplicity which is an enduring
characteristic of British policy in South Africa, co-operated publicly,
and in the closest relationship, with the Colonial Africanders, while he
was secretly fomenting a conspiracy with Jingoism against the Cape
Africanders and the South African Republics. He already had the
Africanders in the Cape Colony under his sway; his aim was now to gain
the same influence in the South African Republic, with its rich gold
mines--not so much, perhaps, for himself personally as for Capitalism,
with which his interests were so closely identified. In case of success,
he would obtain his personal aim, and Capitalism would be absolutely
despotic in South Africa. With an eye to this end he, with other
Capitalists, began in 1892 to foment a political agitation in
Johannesburg against the Republic. In a place like Johannesburg, where
drink is consumed in great quantities, and where the high altitude and
the stress of business all tend to keep people's spirits in a constant
state of excitability, it was easy enough, with the aid of money, to
bring about a state of political ferment in a very short time,
especially as just that measure of grievances existed to give a colour
of truth to the imaginary ones.
[Sidenote: The National Union.]
Under these conditions the National Union movement originated in 1892.
Its adherents were entirely composed of the creatures and parasites of
the Capitalists, with a few honest fools and enthusiasts who naturally
did not think deeply enough to discern the aim and the trend of this
hypocritical movement.
The Capitalists at this time certainly kept well in the background, in
order that the movement might have the appearance of being a popular
one. The Capitalists of Johannesburg were, however, a theatrical lot,
and the desire to play a prominent _rôle_ was too intense to be
suppressed for any length of time, so that after the lapse of a couple
of years they naturally took the leading part in the _opera bouffe_
agitation which followed.
[Sidenote: Corruption of the Capitalists.]
They began, by means of the lowest and most repulsive methods, to
undermine the Boer policy in order to gain the mastery of the mining
legislation and administration. They had persuaded themselves and the
rest of the world that the Boers were as a body corrupt and tainted, so
they armed themselves, with the power of money in order to overthrow
them.
Lionel Phillips wrote in this spirit on the 16th June, 1894, to Beit in
London:--[30] "I may here say that, as you of course know, I have no
desire for political rights, and believe as a whole that the community
is not ambitious in this respect. The bewaarplaatsen question will, I
think, be settled in our favour, but at a cost of about £25,000. It is
proposed to spend a good deal of money in order to secure a better
Raad, but it must be remembered that the spending of money on elections
has, by recent legislation, been made a criminal offence, and the matter
will have to be carefully handled."
On the 15th July, 1894, he wrote again to the same
correspondent:--[31] "Our trump card is a fund of £10--15,000 to improve
the Raad. Unfortunately the companies have no secret service fund. I
must divine away. We don't want to shell out ourselves."
Here we catch a glimpse behind the scenes, and we observe how the
Capitalists in 1894 had already endeavoured to lower and vitiate our
public life by methods which did not even recoil before the criminal law
of the land, to say nothing of elementary morality.
And did they succeed? Were the people and the Volksraad as corrupt as
they thought, and as they still endeavour to make the world believe?
Their failure is the best and most complete answer to this calumny.
If corruption on a large scale, however, failed to ensure the triumph of
Capitalism over the community, the other trump card of Jingoism still
remained. The pulse of the High Commissioner was felt by Mr. Lionel
Phillips, and what was the answer of Sir Henry Loch, Her Majesty's
representative in South Africa? We extract from the same secret letter
book from which we have already quoted the following letter, dated 1st
July, addressed to Wernher, a member of the influential firm of Wernher,
Beit & Co.:--
[Sidenote: (Sir) Henry Loch's indiscretion.]