Part 10 (2/2)
”There is no doubt about it that had we marshalled our forces and crushed the enemy then and there, we should have removed a dangerous thorn from our side. But we were too magnanimous, and we shall have to pay for it.
”And now to tell you, in as few words as possible, what has happened since.
”In 1885 gold was discovered in this country, and as with the goldfields of America, thousands flocked to partic.i.p.ate in the wealth to be obtained. Towns sprang up in every direction, and Johannesburg became a golden city, the heart of the mining industry. Here, at the present day there are some 100,000 of us more or less, and in the whole of the Transvaal there are quite 180,000 Uitlanders, or outsiders, as we are called. We found the mines, we have opened them, and it is our money which has worked them and erected the splendid stamps with which to crush the ore.
”I may tell you that we are a cosmopolitan lot, for amongst us are all nationalities; and in addition we are a strictly business cla.s.s of men.
We have come here to make money, and we invest it in the mines or in the country, for the Transvaal teems with natural riches. Here beneath our feet we have the gold-bearing quartz, and close at hand there are excellent coal-mines. There is iron ore in abundance, with coal alongside it to work it with. Lead, copper, and other metals are to be found in plenty, and if that were not all, the land has not a rival for grazing purposes. It is the best corn-producing country known, and in addition it is blessed with a wonderful climate, which at this alt.i.tude makes it a splendid health resort.
”But do you think our friends the Boers recognise all these things?
Certainly not. They always were and always will be, in the main, ignorant and illiterate farmers, stubbornly opposed to progress. Even the best amongst them have, till quite recently, been unable to write an ordinary letter, and all the public appointments, save the president's chair and the seats in the all-powerful Volksraad, are filled by salaried clerks recruited from the Afrikanders of Dutch stock, or from the Dutchmen of Holland itself.
”These men are under the president and his autocratic government, and I will, if I can, explain exactly what has happened to cause all the bad blood between us and our Boer masters.
”Ever since that fatal peace of 1881 the Boer has shown an open contempt of the Englishman. His arrogance has pa.s.sed the bounds of belief, especially in the case of the younger generation, in whom the same ideas have been instilled.
”We have never got on well together. There has been no sympathy between us, and while we see them leading indolent lives and spending money recklessly, we know that that same money comes from our own pockets, that we, the workers, pay through the nose for the privilege of staying here and managing the mines, while they look on and live in ease and luxury.
”The Republic has an income of some five-and-a-half millions per annum.
Think of it! Five-and-a-half millions, when only twenty years ago there was but 12 s.h.i.+llings 6 pence in their coffers. And of this vast sum five millions are paid by us, the Uitlander population, while the 70,000 Boers contribute only half a million.
”We should not mind the amount so much, though everything we eat or drink, or require for the working of our mines, is taxed to the highest; but what we do grumble at, and what is fast helping to hurry on a disruption between us, is the fact that we have no voice in its expenditure. We slave and pay, and they loaf and spend the money recklessly, investing huge sums in arms and ammunition and defensive works, and in keeping up a staff of foreigners with which to train their gunners.
”There is no Government here. It is a corrupt oligarchy, with such autocratic powers and under such a stubborn and autocratic president that even the judgments of the courts can be tampered with.
”'Why should you expect citizen rights and representatives in our Volksraad?' Kruger says when approached on the subject of our grievances. 'You, who came here unbidden to disturb our peace, and come only with the object of making fortunes and returning home.'
”For years now we have striven for an amicable settlement. It is a vital question with all of us, for we do not forsake the country after making money; we invest our wealth here, and we have solid interests for which we have good cause to fight.
”We even organised a Reform Committee and smuggled in arms. But all our hopes were dashed by the Jameson raid. That was a fatal mistake. We wished to press our claims for voting-powers, but not by force. Our weapons were only for defensive purposes. A few, however, were for upsetting the present Government by a show of arms, and for this purpose invited the gallant but reckless doctor to come in with his forces to their aid, promising to meet him.
”Of course you know he came too soon, riding right away from the Rhodesian border. We were not even agreed to meet him, and he and his force suffered defeat at the hands of the Boers. It was a gallant but an extremely foolhardy movement.
”Since then our grievances have increased. Numbers of necessaries are monopolies, for which we have to pay a tremendous price, and on top of all two new laws have been pa.s.sed. One, the Press Law, makes it impossible for us to air our grievances in the papers; and the other, the Alien Expulsion Law, decrees that any foreigner who by word or deed disturbs the peace of the country shall be expelled without appeal to the courts.
”It is monstrous! In no other place in the whole of the civilised world are Englishmen treated so shamefully. We have done all that is possible, and now we have appealed to our Government, who are carrying on negotiations with Pretoria.
”And meanwhile the Boer population is becoming more and more openly hostile. They evince it in every possible action, and they do not hesitate to show that they are armed to the teeth, while we are completely without weapons. But do you think all this agitation will end in peace? Do you think that autocratic, pig-headed Kruger will give in in the slightest? No, my lads, he will not, I am a.s.sured. He cares nothing for us. Our needs, our grievances, are little to him, and only serve as a pretext for a rupture with England. He is as sly as a fox, and has more ambition than any single individual in this world. For many long years he has waited for a day when the British Lion shall be engaged in some European war, and then, and only then, has he been prepared to drive us out, and throw off the suzerain power of England, that hated power which destroys his sense of independence. But he does not stop there. A united Africa, a vast republic with Paul Kruger as its first president or king, is what he aims at; and to bring that about he is on the eve of defying the might of our great empire. He has the guns and ammunition, the money lies in abundance beneath our feet, and the men he will obtain by harping on that independence for which all are sworn to lay down their lives. Once the fire is kindled, a gigantic and terrible blaze will sweep over the land, Englishmen who have married Boer wives and settled here will find themselves opposed to their own country, throughout Africa there will be treachery, the bad blood of the Dutch population will be roused, and many of Her Majesty's subjects will go over to the Boers.
”They do not realise this in England. They think that a few thousand troops will be sufficient should the emergency arise. But they will not be. Of that I am certain, for we are face to face with the biggest and most dangerous conspiracy that we have ever been called upon to meet.
It will be a struggle for supremacy in Africa, and England will have to put out all her strength. Should she fail--and I trust and firmly believe that she will not--it will be the first step down on the ladder, which in the end will mean the dismemberment and the downfall of the most glorious empire that the world has ever seen.
”But we shall see. If we suffer reverses at first we shall learn by them, and I prophesy that this coming war will bring out England's manhood and unanimity. Her sons will flock from the remotest corners of the world, her colonies will vie with one another to help her, and from every sh.o.r.e, from every spot which harbours an Englishman all eyes will be turned towards the great white mother.
”My lads, I am not romancing. I am telling you this in sober earnest.
We are a slow and unemotional race, but we are true, and we are dogged, even more so than the Boers, and if real danger confronts the nation, woe to those who have attacked her. We shall want a lot of beating, and we've yet to find the ones who can do it.”
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