Part 21 (1/2)
It is very well known that the gentlemen above referred to would, if it were in their power, readily accord the terms asked for in the franchise memorandum recently submitted by the Uitlanders, but they are unfortunately entirely without influence over the President and his party. It is true that-although British subjects by birth-they have chosen to a.s.sociate themselves with the Transvaal Government and are now uncompromising republicans; but there is no fault to be found with that. It may be true also that they aspire to republicanize the whole of South Africa, and free it of the Imperial influence; that would be a cause of enmity as between them and those who desire to preserve the Imperial connection, but it is no ground for reproach. There is one point, however, upon which they in common with nearly all the enlightened Afrikanders throughout South Africa may be adjudged to have fallen short in their duty; it is this, that whilst nine times out of ten they divide upon sound principles, they will not follow that policy to a conclusion; for upon the tenth occasion they will subordinate principle and, at the call of one who may use it unscrupulously, will rally upon race lines alone. It is only too true of only too many that they cannot be got to see that if they would really divide upon principles all danger of conflict would disappear and the solution would be both speedy and peaceful; for it is the division upon race lines that alone raises the distracting prospect of war.
For those who are in this position in the Transvaal it may be allowed that their difficulties are great. They cannot, it is true, complain of lack of warning. They did not, it is also true, after trying their influence and finding it of no avail, cut adrift when they might have done so, and by their example have so stripped the reactionaries of all support that there could now be no question of their standing out; but they may have honestly believed that they would in time succeed, whilst the Uitlanders, judging from a long and bitter experience, felt that they would not and could not. They may say that this is no time to part from those with whom they a.s.sociated themselves in times of peace. Such reasoning may provide an excuse in the Transvaal, but no such plea will avail for those without the Transvaal who have let the day of opportunity go past, and who cry out their frightened protest now that the night of disaster is upon us.
Footnotes for Chapter X
{42} That President Kruger always contemplated controlling the Uitlander population by arbitrary methods was proved by the choice of the site for the Johannesburg fort. This site, on a hill commanding the town, had been reserved by Government from the commencement, and when the accommodation in the old gaol proved insufficient and a new gaol was required it was located on this spot, then a favourite residential quarter of the town. A deputation of officials waited upon the President to urge the placing of the new gaol in a more convenient locality elsewhere. His Honour replied, 'that he did not care about the convenience. He was going to build the gaol there, because some day the town would be troublesome and he would want to convert the gaol into a fort and put guns there before that time came.' That was at least four years before the Raid.
{43} The writer has since learned from Mr. Alfred Beit that the same proposal was made to him by Mr. Graaff in January, 1896, immediately after the Raid, and that it was baited with the promise that if he and Mr. Rhodes would agree to support it the threatened 'consequences' of their a.s.sociation with the Raid would be averted. But they preferred the 'consequences.'
{44} About the middle of 1895 a bad explosion of dynamite occurred in Germany under circ.u.mstances very similar to those of the Johannesburg accident. An inquiry held by the German authorities resulted in the finding that the explosion must have been due to some fault in the dynamite, and an order was issued to destroy the remainder. The officials charged with this duty found, however, that the owners, antic.i.p.ating some such result, had removed it. It was eventually traced as having been s.h.i.+pped from Antwerp to Port Elizabeth and thence consigned to the Transvaal in November, 1895. The Johannesburg explosion occurred in February, 1896. No competent or independent inquiry was held, although about 100 people were killed and many more injured.
{45} The gaoler-Du Plessis-in the fulfilment of his promise lost no opportunity to hara.s.s them into submission, by depriving them of one thing after another, knowing that they would ask for nothing except as a right. As an instance, the spirit-lamp with which they made their tea was taken from them on the pretext that no combustibles were allowed under the prison regulations, and upon a remonstrance being made by Mr. Conyngham Greene to Dr. Leyds the latter replied that it was necessary on account of the risk of fire. For about eight months, therefore, water was to be-and of course was-their only drink. Only once during the thirteen months did Du Plessis appear to 'get home.' It was when he proposed that the two should be separated and sent to out-of-the-way gaols, widely apart and distant from all friends. Without doubt the conditions told seriously upon their health, but as both men were endowed with exceptional physique and any amount of grit they were still able to take it smiling.
{46} It is described as the Witfontein case. See page 100.
{47} When the case came up again in due course a decision was given by Mr. Gregorowski, the new Chief Justice, which was regarded by the plaintiff's advisers as a reversal of the first judgment, and the practical effect of which was to bring the case under the operations of Law 1 of 1897-that is to say, to put the plaintiff 'out of court.' Mr. Brown has appealed to the United States Government for redress.
{48} See Appendix K.
CHAPTER XI.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
So the year dragged on with its one little glimmer of light and its big black clouds of disappointment, and it was Christmas-time when the spark came to the waiting tinder. What a b.l.o.o.d.y bill could the holidays and holy days of the world tot up! On the Sunday night before Christmas a British subject named Tom Jackson Edgar was shot dead in his own house by a Boer policeman. Edgar, who was a man of singularly fine physique and both able and accustomed to take care of himself, was returning home at about midnight when one of three men standing by, who as it afterwards transpired was both ill and intoxicated, made an offensive remark. Edgar resented it with a blow which dropped the other insensible to the ground. The man's friends called for the police and Edgar, meanwhile, entered his own house a few yards off. There was no attempt at concealment or escape; Edgar was an old resident and perfectly well known. Four policemen came, who in any circ.u.mstances were surely sufficient to capture him. Moreover, if that had been considered difficult, other a.s.sistance could have been obtained and the house from which there could have been no escape might have been watched. In any case Edgar was admitted by the police to have sat on the bed talking to his wife, and to have been thus watched by them through the window. It is not stated that they called upon him to come out or surrender himself, but they proceeded immediately to burst in his door. Hearing the noise he came out into the pa.s.sage. He may or may not have known that they were police: he may or may not have believed them to be the three men by one of whom he had been insulted. There is not a word of truth in the statement since made that Edgar had been drinking. It was not alleged even in defence of the police, and the post-mortem examination showed that it was not so. A Boer policeman named Jones (There are scores of Boers unable to speak a word of English, who nevertheless own very characteristic English, Scotch, and Irish names-many of them being children of deserters from the British army!) revolver in hand burst the door open. It is alleged by the prisoner and one of the police that as the door was burst open, Edgar from the pa.s.sage struck the constable on the head twice with an iron-shod stick which was afterwards produced in Court. On the other hand Mrs. Edgar and other independent witnesses-spectators-testified that Edgar did not strike a blow at all and could not possibly have done so in the time. The fact, however, upon which all witnesses agree is that as the police burst open the door Constable Jones fired at Edgar and dropped him dead in the arms of his wife, who was standing in the pa.s.sage a foot or so behind him. On the following morning, the policeman was formally arrested on the charge of manslaughter and immediately released upon his comrades' sureties of 200.
As gunpowder answers to the spark so the indignation of the Uitlander community broke out. The State Attorney to whom the facts were represented by the British Agent in Pretoria immediately ordered the re-arrest of the policeman on the charge of murder. The feeling of indignation was such among British subjects generally, but more especially among Edgar's fellow-workmen, that it was decided to present a pet.i.tion to her Majesty praying for protection. British subjects were invited to gather in the Market Square in order to proceed in a body to the office of the British Vice-Consul and there present the pet.i.tion, but in order to avoid any breach of the Public Meetings Act they were requested to avoid speech making and to refrain in every way from any provocation to disorder. Some four or five thousand persons gathered together. They listened to the reading of the pet.i.tion and marched in an orderly manner to the office of the British Vice-Consul where the pet.i.tion was read and accepted.
This was the first direct appeal to her Majesty made by British subjects since the protests against the retrocession eighteen years before. Not very many realized at the time the importance of the change in procedure. There could be no ”As you were” after the direct appeal: either it would be accepted, in which event the case of the Uitlanders would be in the hands of an advocate more powerful than they had ever proved themselves to be, or it would be declined, a course which would have been regarded as sounding the death-knell of the Empire in South Africa. The time was one of the most intense anxiety; for the future of the Uitlanders hung upon the turn of the scale.
It was late one night when those who had been called to Pretoria to receive the reply of her Majesty's Government returned to the Rand. The real reply then was known only to three men; it was simply, point blank refusal to accept the pet.i.tion. There were no reasons and no explanations. It was done on the authority of Sir William Butler, the Commander-in-Chief in South Africa and acting High Commissioner; for Sir Alfred Milner was at that time in England, as also was Mr. Conyngham Greene. But the faith was in these men that it could not be true, that it could not have happened had Sir Alfred Milner not been absent, and thus came the suggestion to 'explain it away.' On the following day British subjects on the Rand learned that a breach of diplomatic etiquette had been committed, that the pet.i.tion should never have been published before being formally presented to her Majesty, and that thus it would be necessary to prepare and present another in proper form. The pet.i.tion was redrawn and in the course of the following weeks upwards of 21,000 signatures were obtained by that loyal and enthusiastic little band of British subjects who form the Johannesburg branch of the South African League.
In the meantime other things had been happening. Messrs. Thomas R. Dodd and Clement Davies Webb had been arrested under the Public Meetings Act for having organized an illegal meeting in the Market Square, Johannesburg, for the purpose of presenting the pet.i.tion to the British Vice-Consul. They were released upon bail of 1,000 each. Whether this was a fair example of the judicial perspective in the Transvaal, or whether it was a concession to the feelings of the Boers it is impossible to say, nor does it much matter. The fact is that for the crime of killing a British subject the bail was 200; and for the crime of objecting to it the bail was 1,000. This action only added fuel to the fire and a public meeting was immediately convened to be held in a circus building known as the Amphitheatre. Meetings are permitted under the Act provided they are held in an enclosed building. The object of the meeting was to record a protest against the arrest of Messrs. Dodd and Webb. A great many of the more ardent among the British subjects were of opinion that the time for protests and pet.i.tions was past, and they would not attend the meeting. A great many others feeling that it was more or less a formality leading to nothing else, did not trouble to attend. Not one of those who did attend had the least suspicion of any organized opposition. The following dispatch from the High Commissioner to the Secretary of State for the Colonies sufficiently describes the sequel:-
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CAPE TOWN, April 5, 1899.
SIR,-I have the honour to forward herewith the certified and attested copies of affidavits which form an enclosure to Mr. Wyberg's letter, transmitted to you in my dispatch of the 28th March, but which did not reach me in time to catch the last mail steamer.
From these affidavits, the number of which and the manner in which they confirm one another seem to me to leave no doubt of their general trustworthiness, it appears:
1. That early on the morning of Sat.u.r.day, the 14th January, the foremen in charge of the various camps along the Main Reef Road were instructed to tell a certain number of their workmen to be at the Amphitheatre in Johannesburg at 2 p.m., where they would be addressed by an official of the Public Works Department, Mr. P.J. Malan (Hoofd van Afdeeling Wegen).
2. That the affair had been planned beforehand, and that Acting Road Inspector Papenfus and others systematically visited the various camps on that morning in order to beat up recruits, and that inquiry was made in some cases to ensure that the persons sent should be 'treu,' i.e., Boer or Afrikander workmen who might be expected to take the side of the Government. The Russian workmen were not asked to go.
3. That the men were paid two hours earlier than usual, and that those men who were ordered to go were told, if they could not get Government carts, they should hire and recover afterwards.
4. That in some cases, as that of the Boksburg section, the men were conveyed the greater part of the way by Government carts.
5. That when the men arrived at the Amphitheatre, about 2 p.m., a man who was either Mr. Bosman, Second Landdrost's Clerk, or Mr. Boshof, Registrar of the Second Criminal Court, and perhaps both of them, told them to go to the Police Station.
6. That on arriving at the Police Station, they were addressed by Mr. Broeksma, Third Public Prosecutor, and told they were there to break up the meeting when he gave them certain signals.