They were not in accordance with the temper of the time, and the King regarded them as a departure from his sovereign power. He saw in the conduct of the Colonists the misconduct of rebellious and forward-looking subjects. The cheap fallacy that is any opposition to the department of the day, set aside.
The most atrocious slanders were spread abroad about the warfare by the Colonists. It was claimed that poisoned bullets were found in the pockets of the rebels. The Ministers attributed it to the incapacity of the generals, and the army to the mistakes of the politicians.
The cost of the war against the Boers has exceeded $r,ooo.ooo,ooo and there is no end in sight.
CHAPTER I
We could not bear to have a small nation in our way: self-confident and irritable, we saw in them only vermin to be exterminated from the face of our earth. It is true that there were serious symptoms in the social organism and the political outlook in 1895-1900. Our worst enemies cannot deny that we bore the first calamities of this war with a self-control that is creditable to our race.
The English people have always been an honest, clever, and generous people; and at worst, the mistake that is at the root of the problems of the past two years is the mistake from which we have suffered before and from which we have recovered. We have been weakened by a certain lethargy, born of past energy, and perhaps also of too much prosperity: a benign indifference which has not allowed us to examine with intelligence the statements and advice of our advisers, and which has the easy victims made of hare-brained adventurers. It is an old story and will be retold when another century passes.
The costly results of our mistake we are now beginning to dimly see, and we shall soon become again the England which after 1781 rose from its slumber: the alert, strong, silent, self-controlled England which was able.
CHAPTER II
The territories left vacant by the Matabele, the territories now known as the Transvaal, were taken over by the Boers. That the policy of the British Government was a proof of its weakness is hardly true. Gold deposits were discovered in the Witwatersrand and foreign immigration made great progress.
Those among the newcomers likely to gain the greatest influence and wealth were Jews. However, it is not difficult to understand the Boers' reluctance to allow newcomers into the franchise. Rhodes' friends had threatened to reveal the Colonial Office's complicity unless Mr.
The British government as a whole did not want to attack Transvaal's independence; but that mr.
CHAPTER III
But the effect remained, and to the Boers it was another proof of the intention of the English ministry to interfere with their government and undermine their independence. It is undeniable that many of the grievances were unpleasant and would have been remedied by a wise government. That the general administration of the Republic of South Africa was flawed and below the standard of some European countries is true.
He also pointed out that the cost of the Dutch railway and the high price of dynamite had come down considerably. 1 “We do not claim and have never claimed the right to interfere in the internal affairs of the Transvaal. 34;A war in South Africa would be one of the most serious wars that could·.
Above all, they remembered the Jameson Raid of 1895, of the British officials and of. Any misunderstanding and control in the negotiations was welcomed by the capitalists' bodies in South Africa and in England. The president of the Free State and his advisers were also pressing in the cause of peace.
33 before the English ministry, by which the subjugation of the two republics was to be effected by November of that year. We didn't accept everything, but we accepted at least nine-tenths of the whole. The importance of the English dispatches and our war preparations could not be mistaken for the Boers.
It is therefore clear that war was imposed on the Transvaal Government, and the main responsibility for the tragedy must fall on the English Ministers.'. The attitude of the South African and English press during the negotiations was significant.
CHAPTER IV
Difficulties and disasters followed in rapid succession following the bewildered policy of the English ministers. It was an exact reproduction of the dangerous position of our military in the American War of Independence. The spectacle of our unfulfilled hopes and prophecies led us to the absurd conclusion that Boer resistance was limited to the dregs of the population or to foreign mercenaries.
At last the Government and Lord Roberts began to understand that they had completely misunderstood both the character of the Boers and the difficulties of their own position. But the government's third policy was as unsuccessful as the two previous policies. Also at the end of the same month, the demand for unconditional surrender was relaxed.
To enumerate and explain the causes of the failure of our army in South Africa would be a difficult and painful task. It is too early to speak in definite language about the military causes of our failure. But we had to contend with enemies worse than the mistakes of our politicians or the skill and courage of the Boers.
The extent of the task of our troops in South Africa can be seen from the following figures of the areas involved in the theater of war. The duration of war therefore depends on conditions that cannot be defined. Against them are their small numbers and their isolation from the rest of the world.
Despite the optimistic telegrams of correspondents and the hopeful outlook of ministers, it did. The same thing happened in the south-eastern corner of the Orange State.
CHAPTER V
55 It is needless to say that few of the grosser charges brought against the Boers were confirmed or justified. The following case is typical of the careless frivolity with which outrages are produced in South Africa:-. The men who have seen most of the Boers in the field are the most generous in estimating their character.
The Boers allowed us to keep all the tents of the 4th Derbys for our hospital use. The radical fault of the Dutch in our eyes is that they do not like the English. Agriculture is, in the narrow sense of the word, impossible over the largest part of the country.
Much of the country is practically desert, the rainfall is irregular and the climate dry. Allowing that there still remains in the rents of Rand gold to the value of £7oo,oooo,oooo sterling, we shall assume a generous estimate. It is therefore equally certain that the Randen's gold mines will be exhausted in thirty to forty years.
The cost of living is very high, and South Africa is without a doubt one of the most cherished countries in the world. The inhabitants of the cities migrate, while the agricultural population is permanent. In other positions he has shown it, and in other positions he can still show it, in the service of the Crown.
Its second effect was to throw the viceroy into the hands of the loyalist party. The English party in South Africa is primarily a commercial and financial party and many of its leaders are in close alliance with Rand capitalists.
CHAPTER VIII
It is too much to hope that the memories of this unfortunate war will ever disappear from the minds of the Dutch. During the period of military rule we will not only have to keep the Boers in subjection, but the capitalists and the population of the goldfields. The Cape Hollanders' sympathy with the Boers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State is not political, but racial.
This hope must now be definitively abandoned.” Both republics cannot and may never bear a significant share of the costs of the war for many years to come. This estimate is very low, and it is probable that when the full costs of the war are calculated they will amount to The two republics were devastated and very many farms in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal were burned and destroyed.
Many of the smaller towns in the two States were also sacked, and the few irrigation works which existed in the country were probably destroyed. 2so,ooo,ooo, which will fall entirely on the English taxpayer unless we can place part of the burden on the resources of the Transvaal and the Free State. The administration of Transvaal was inefficient, and even bad, but it was cheap.
We may therefore safely assume that the civil administration in the Transvaal and the Free State, carried out according to English methods, will cost no less than. When the submission of the Boers is enforced, there shall be a force of mounted police of ro, ooo meri. That the legal debts of the Hepublics incurred during the war should be assumed by the English Government.
But in the current mood of the British public it is beyond the reach of practical statesmanship to achieve such a result. We have followed the progress of the war, from the disasters of the early months to the first and brilliant successes of Lord Roberts. We have seen the war zone, which was initially enormous, increase with the invasion of the Cape Colony.
Speaking, we have not yet been told the rights for which we went to war.
