Origin of the Anglo Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.) by C. H. Thomas

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ORIGIN OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR REVEALED

The Conspiracy of the 19th Century Unmasked

By C.H. THOMAS

of Belfast Transvaal formerly Orange Free State Burgher

SECOND EDITION

LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON

27 PATERNOSTER ROW MCM

_Butler & Tanner The Selwood Printing Works Frome and London_

NOTICE

The present book had been intended for publication in South Africa
before the end of 1899, with the object of laying bare the wicked and
delusive aims of the Afrikaner Bond combination, to which the Anglo-Boer
war alone is attributable, and to counteract its disastrous influences
so far as then still possible. But until quite lately circumstances had
conspired so as to prevent the writer from leaving the Transvaal, and
when he at last obtained the required passport to Lourenco Marques he
was there denied a permit to visit a colonial port. He therefore sailed
for London in order to publish this book without more loss of time.
Though too late to serve as a deterrent, the contents may be effective
towards showing up the really guilty parties--the instigators and
seducers of the deluded Boer nation, and so pave and widen the avenue of
peace and of conciliation between Boer and Briton who were duped and
victimized alike.

The exposure of the actual culprits and originators should also operate
favourably, and in mitigation in behalf of the much less guilty Boers,
so as to dispose the victors to the exercise of magnanimous
consideration. In exposing the villainy of the Dutch coterie in Holland,
the writer is far from impugning the honourable character of that
nation, the better part of whom, when once undeceived, will be the first
to reprobate and disown those arch-plotters who sacrificed the peace of
South Africa for personal and national advantage.

Some other information regarding the Boers and South Africa will be
found interspersed in this study, which will be found of use to the
uninitiated and to intending emigrants to that sub-continent. As the
reader proceeds with the examination of this book it will suggest
comparisons and even analogies which may commend themselves as
singularly apposite and instructive in relation with the study of the
presently budding Eastern question.

C.H. THOMAS

NOTE TO SECOND EDITION

The issue of a Second Edition has afforded an opportunity to
correct a few linguistic blemishes, but the work has only been
very slightly revised.

CONTENTS

PAGE
NOTICE V

INTRODUCTION 1

CURSORY HISTORY OF THE BOER NATION 6

PROSPERITY OF BOERS AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND UP TO 1881 16

TRANSVAAL HISTORY--SUZERAINTY 21

TREATMENT OF UITLANDERS, FRANCHISE, VENALITY, BRIBERY 25

MONSTER PETITION, JAMESON INCURSION, ARMAMENTS 37

BLOEMFONTEIN CONFERENCE, BOER ULTIMATUM 43

BOER LANGUAGE 52

THE DUTCH COTERIE, ITS SEAT IN HOLLAND 57

AFRIKANER BOND--OUTLINES AND PROGRAMME 62

PACIFIC POLICY OF GREAT BRITAIN 70

PRESS PROPAGANDA--SECRET SERVICE--TRADE RIVALRIES 72

DISLOYALTY OF COLONIAL BOERS 82

PORTUGUESE TERRITORY--TRANSVAAL LOW VELDT--MALARIA--HORSE SICKNESS 89

CLIMATE AND TOPOGRAPHY 95

BOER PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR 108

ALLIANCE OF ORANGE FREE STATE WITH TRANSVAAL--SUZERAINTY
SQUABBLE--TRANSVAAL ARMAMENTS PRIOR TO JAMESON RAID 115

THE TRANSVAAL DYNAMITE AND EXPLOSIVES MONOPOLY 122

BOER FIGHTING STRENGTH 124

BOER CONSERVATISM, EDUCATION, DUNDEE DOSSIER, ANTI-ENGLISH
PAMPHLET ENTITLED "A HUNDRED YEARS' INJUSTICE" 126

AN OLD FREE STATER'S ADMONITION 137

MODUS VIVENDI SUGGESTED BY OLD FREE STATER 143

MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S POLICY TO AVERT WAR 150

AFRIKANER BOND GUILT IN GRADATIONS 155

RESUME 161

BOERS' NATIVE POLICY 167

ENGLAND'S NATIVE AND COLONIAL POLICY 172

OCCULT OPERATIONS AND AGENCIES 178

RELIGION 184

PHYSIQUE AND HABITS 193

PRESIDENT KRUeGER 207

PEACE ADJUSTMENTS 212

INTRODUCTION

Apart from the progress of the present Anglo-Boer war a world-wide
interest has been excited also upon the question of its actual origin.
Much disparity of opinion prevails yet as to how it was provoked and
upon which side the guilt of it all lay.

English statesmen of noblest character and best discriminating gifts are
seen professing opposite convictions; one party earnestly asserting the
complete blamelessness of their Government, whilst the other, with
equally sincere assurance, denounces the responsible Ministry for having
provoked a most unjust war against a totally inoffensive people, whose
only fault consisted in asserting its love of freedom, and for thus
plunging the entire British nation into blackest guilt deserving
universal reprobation, a blot and stigma upon Her Majesty's reign.

In following the course of the arguments which have led to those
opposing verdicts, one is impressed with the paucity and the clashing
character of the information adduced. The marked reticence on the part
of the British Cabinet in regard to its diplomatic proceedings tends
further to mystify the inquirer, and leaves the bulk of the British
nation in a painful state of suspense without conclusive data for
judging whether the war is really justifiable or not.

Nor do the various pamphlets and Press articles furnish sufficient light
for exploring the maze and producing an approximate unanimity of
conviction.

It is hoped that the succeeding pages will be found to supplement the
material so essential for diagnosing those grave questions with some
degree of certainty, and to locate the guilt more precisely.

Since my youth I have passed nearly forty years in uninterrupted and
intimate intercourse with all classes of Boers, resulting in a sincere
attachment to that people, with no small appreciation of its many good
traits and character. Besides making myself familiar with the earlier
portion of that nation's history, I have had leisure and opportunities
to closely follow up its later interesting phases up to the present
moment. These presented a more perplexing aspect during the last decade,
adding a zest to my endeavours for unravelling them, and happening to
be a good deal in the know I felt that I might not remain quiet.

Being anything but anti-Boer, nor an Englishman, but a foreigner, born
of continental parents and brought up in Europe, these facts should
exempt me from a supposition of bias in exonerating England. It is with
real grief that I must record my convictions against the Boer nation as
solely and entirely guilty, but with this qualification, that its
responsibility is much attenuated by the fact, as I will endeavour to
show, that the bulk of that people has been unconsciously decoyed as
tools of a gigantic intrigue, a conspiracy which was originated some
thirty years ago by an infamous Hollander coterie, and operated since by
its product and engine, the now well-known "Afrikaner Bond Association,"
with its significant motto of "Afrika voor Afrikaners"[1]--its object
being no less than the eviction of all that is English from South
Africa, and to substitute a federation of all South African States into
one free and independent Republic, the affiliation to be with Holland
instead, and Dutch the common and official language, other nations, in
return for afforded aid, to participate in the trade and other
advantages wrested from England.

I only regret that my ability falls so much short for the task of
demonstrating all this in an approved style--for doing justice to the
subject. Its investigation embraces a wider range of details to serve as
evidence than may, upon first thought, be held as relevant; but I
believe that a willing study will show their connection as serviceable
for arriving at an independent and unhesitating verdict.

A very strong and convincing case is indeed needed for remodelling
opinions where there is preconceived Boer partisanship, and where party
spirit or else foreign jealousy have already warped judgment and
established bias.

It would be no small relief to every honest-minded person, especially in
England, to be clear upon the subject that England is free of
guilt--equally so to the soldier who is called upon to fight her
battles. But other objects of no less importance are in view, viz., to
open the eyes of the misguided Boer people to the wicked artifices by
which it has been seduced from friendly relations with England into an
unjustifiable war, to deter the still wavering portion from joining the
ranks of sedition, and, lastly, the grounds for palliation being
recognised, to pave the way to an early termination of the war by
adjustments which could restore mutual goodwill and respect between the
contending parties, and so bring about a speedy return of South African
prosperity and progress.

The writer is fully prepared to give data and names of the incidents
adduced in this paper in support of their authenticity.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Africa for white African citizens.]

CURSORY HISTORY OF THE BOER NATION

The two principal elements of the Boer nation were the settlers of the
Dutch trading company at the Cape of Good Hope, sturdy farmers and
tradesmen belonging to the proletarian class of Holland, and a
subsequent contingent of French Huguenot refugees and their families who
joined as colonists soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I
mention below the names still existing which form a large proportion of
the present Boer nation of Huguenot descent:--

Billion Blignaut Bisseux Delporte
Du prez Du Toit De la Bey Durand
Davel De Langue Duvenage Fourie
Fouche Grove Hugo Jourdan
Lombard Le Roux Roux Lagrange
Labuscaque Mare Marais Malan
Malraison Maynard Malherbe De Meillon
De Marillac Matthee Naude Nortier
Rousseau Taillard Theron Terblanche
De Villiers Fortier Lindeque Vervier
Vercueil Basson Pinard Duvenage
Celliers de Clercq Leclercq Devinare

Men of the best French stock, noted for honour, energy and
perseverance, rather than recant their Protestant faith, abandoned
seigneurial homes, high positions and lucrative callings to carve out
fresh careers, and even to become humble farmers wherever they found
asylums and tolerance, men who became very valuable accessions to the
nations who received them and a correspondingly significant loss to
France. To those two main elements were added sparse accessions from
other nations at later intervals, and also a strain of aboriginal blood,
of which a more or less faint tinge is still discernible in some
families, an admixture which many deplore and others consider as most
serviceable, supplying a subtle piquancy for perfecting the general
stock.

The early Cape Governors aimed at the prompt assimilation of those
French people with their own colonists--to make Dutchmen of them. Among
other drastic enactments to enforce that object, no other language but
Dutch was permitted to be used in public of pain of corporal punishment.
Not a few noble Frenchmen were subjected to that indignity for
inadvertent breaches of that draconian law, but, as conscientious
observers of biblical commands which enjoin subjection to all
governmental rule, they willingly submitted and obeyed. Intermarriages
with their Dutch fellow-colonists further promoted assimilation into one
cohesive community. At the same time the Huguenot faith was transmitted
to their descendants, and had a marked influence in sustaining common
religious fervour and consistency. They did not look for a reward or
compensation for the sacrifices endured, for the sake of faith, by those
refugees, though a gracious providence, as the sequel showed, held in
store a most ample restitution--magnificent heirlooms for their later
descendants, heirlooms which are now unhappily staked in this present
war.

In 1814 a payment of six millions sterling received by the Prince of
Orange closed the transfer of the Dutch Cape settlement to Great
Britain. Immigration of English settlers followed and the area of the
colony soon largely extended. As under the Dutch _regime_, the practice
of slavery had continued until its abolition in 1833 by the ransom
payable by the English Government to the owners of slaves. The Boer
colonists deeply resented that act, and especially the next to
impracticable condition which provided that payments could only be
received in England instead of on the spot. Many were cheated of all
their emancipation money by their appointed proxies or agents, or else
had to submit to exorbitant charges and commissions; a great number
voluntarily renounced all in disgust.

By that time the existence had become known of promising tracts of
country lying north of the Orange River beyond the confines of the
British colonies, and a large number of Boers combined with the
intention of establishing an independent community northwards free from
British restraint.

The British authorities appeared at that time not to fully realize that
that movement was rife with future dangers and complications to their
own colonial interests, that it meant the creation of a nucleus of a
people openly averse to the English, and who would independently carry
out practices in near proximity, especially in dealing with aborigines,
which would seriously compromise them and become a standing menace
against peaceful expansion and civilization.

It was, on the other hand, anticipated that the movement could only end
in disaster, the people being too few to make a successful stand against
the numerous hostile Kaffir tribes. The Government, therefore, refrained
from preventive measures, and confined its efforts to discouraging the
emigration and to reconcile the malcontents. Those efforts, however,
proved fruitless; the people held to their project with resolute
fearlessness and self-confidence, and were even content to sacrifice
their farms and homesteads, their sale being in some cases forbidden by
special enactment.

The terms of "Boer" and "Boer nation" do not convey or mean anything
disparaging, rather the contrary. Boer simply means farmer, as a rule
the proprietor of a farm of about 3,000 to 10,000 acres, who combines
stock-breeding with a variety of other farming enterprises as well,
according to the soil and locality. As a national designation, the term
"Boer" conveys the distinction from the recently arrived Dutchman, who
is called "Hollander." Hollanders, again, delight of late to claim the
Boer nation as their kith and kin, but prefer to ignore the existence of
the French Huguenot factor.

The great "trek," with families and movables, as the emigration movement
is called, occurred in 1836; some families started even before, and
other contingents followed shortly afterwards. After many vicissitudes
and nearly twenty years of wanderings, and a nomadic life attended with
untold hardships and dangers, intermittent conflicts with native tribes,
and at times also contests with British forces, they were eventually
permitted, under treaty with England, to settle down and to constitute
the independent Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics. That was in
1854 and 1852 respectively.

But, until then, progress in the British colonies and peaceful relations
with the several Kaffir nations had at times been sadly impeded by the
aggressive native policy pursued by the Boers after the pattern adopted
from the previous Dutch _regime_, which admitted of slavery, whilst
English law had abolished and forbade that practice as contrary to a
soundly moral method of civilizing natives and inimical to prosperous
and peaceable colonial progress. Broils and wars between Boers and
Kaffirs had been almost incessant, and intervals of peace only proved
their mutually latent hostility. Besides being occasionally engaged in
unavoidable wars with neighbouring tribes themselves, it became
frequently incumbent upon the British military authorities to intervene
in conflicts induced by the Boers, alternately protecting them against
natives and natives against the Boers, and all that at the unnecessary
expenditure of much blood and treasure.

The Boer occupation of Natal was found to be wholly prejudicial to
British interests on aforesaid accounts, and was, besides, contrary to
the express declaration of the Boer emigrants at the time of their
exodus from the Cape Colony, which was that their new settlements should
be located north of the Orange River. Stepping in to the eastward and
claiming part of the littoral constituted a rivalry in conflict with
that understanding, and England therefore considered it within her
rights to expel the Boers from Natal, and to proceed with the
colonization there with British settlers instead. That temporary
occupation of Natal had been fraught to the Boers with most stirring
episodes--some of the most melancholy description, and others
representing records of really unsurpassed heroism, which can but arouse
deepest emotions and admiration in any reader of their history. There
was the treacherous massacre of Retief and Potgeiter and his party by
the Zulu king Dingaan at his military kraal, followed by other wholesale
massacres of men, women, and children at Weenen and other Boer camps in
Natal. Then came the punitive expedition of 450 Boers, armed with
flint-locks only, who utterly defeated Dingaan's most redoubtable impi
of 10,000 warriors, and resulted in the complete overthrow of that Zulu
monarch.

When that punitive Boer commando was about to start upon its mission it
was solemnly vowed to observe a day of national thanksgiving each year
if Divine aid were vouchsafed to accomplish the object. That brilliant
victory had occurred on the 16th December, 1838, and the day has ever
since been religiously observed as had been vowed. The celebrations in
the Transvaal take place at Paarden-kraal, near Johannesburg, and some
other accessible and central camping grounds, where the burghers with
their families congregate in thousands--a sort of feast of tabernacles,
lasting three days, undeterred by the most boisterous weather. The
declaration of independence fell on that same date at Paarden-kraal in
1879, and it was also in December of the succeeding year that the Boers
proved victorious over the British troops in Natal, after which the
Transvaal had its independence generously restored by the Gladstone
Ministry (subject to treaty 1881).

On those anniversaries stirring speeches would be made by the elder
leading men, rehearsing the events of the nation's history so as to
grave them upon the minds of the younger, and to revive the thankful
memories of the elder people. It is only in human nature that
unsympathetic feelings against the English would intrude upon the
thanksgivings on those occasions, especially as it continues yet to be
averred that the British authorities had incited the Zulu king Dingaan
to those massacres. Nevertheless, except in instances of implacable
natures, the predominant sentiments at those gatherings were those of
gratitude to the Almighty and good-will towards all men. After the peace
of 1881, it used to be publicly recognised that the English were
entitled thenceforth to a first place in the nation's friendship, and
that the retrocession put a term to all recriminations applying to
previous dates.

The sequel has shown that soon afterwards another spirit was allowed to
intrude to displace those good and just sentiments, and that without any
reason or provocation and despite a persistently loyal and sincere
attitude of friendship and confidence observed towards the Boers by the,
British Government and the English people in South Africa. As instances
may be cited: (1) England's conceding spirit in assenting to a
modification of the convention of 1881 and agreeing to that of 1884; (2)
genial treatment of the colonial Boers on perfect equality with English
colonists, sharing in the privileges of self-government, the Dutch
language also raised to equal rights with English; (3) most harmonious
relations with the Orange Free State; (4) reduction of transit duties
for goods to the Republics to 5 per cent, and later to 3 per cent.; (5)
unrestricted privilege for the importations of arms and ammunition to
both Republics. In lieu of friendly reciprocity the return began to be
rancorous mistrust and revival of hatred.

In the course of our study to account for this sad and unwarrantable
change on the part of the Boers we will be following the trail of the
serpent and track it right up to its Hollander lair and to its at first
unsuspected product, the Afrikaner Bond.

PROSPERITY OF BOERS AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND UP TO 1881

A period of about twenty-five years following the establishment of the
Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics was marked with much progress
and prosperity in the Cape Colonies and Natal, both Republics also
having cause to rejoice over similar advancement.

The evil influence which aimed at rending good relations between Boer
and English became more apparent after 1881. During the preceding era
the two races actually had been in a fair way towards friendly
assimilation. Mutual appreciation was further stimulated by the
reciprocal benefits arising from trade and economic relations.
Intermarriages became more frequent under such friendly intercourse, a
respectable Englishman being truly prized in those days as a Boer's
son-in-law. The English language also largely advanced in favour and
prestige not only among the Cape Colonial and Natal Boers, but also in
both Republics, and anti-English sentiments were fast being supplanted
by amity and goodwill.

The principal event in the Orange Free State during that period was a
three years' exhaustive war with the Basuto nation, which ended in the
latter's defeat in 1867. Their chief Moshesh then appealed for British
intervention. The Basutos thus came under England's protection, and a
peace resulted which has ever since continued, through British prestige
and authority as well as good government. The Orange Free State gained a
large tract of the territory conquered by that State, but had to
renounce the rest.

Then, in about 1870, came the discovery of the diamond-fields, situated
on the then still ill-defined western limits of the State. According to
a boundary line claimed by Great Britain, those diamond-fields fell
outside Free State territory. That State received L90,000 compensation
for improvements and expenses incurred during its short occupation of
that disputed strip of diamondiferous ground. The diamond-fields at
Jagersfontein and Koffyfontein were subsequently discovered and lie deep
within the confines of the State. President Brand had proved his
sagacity and discretion in concluding the negotiations with England
upon the question of the peace with the Basutos and then again in
submitting to the boundary delimitations, it being contended even yet
that the Orange Free State had the weightier arguments in its favour in
both instances.

The people of that Republic proved however to be the ultimate gainers in
those adjustments; they did not miss the more solid advantages attending
the discovery of the diamond-fields. Believed of the grave
responsibility involved in governing a turbulent population of foreign
diggers, the geographical position of the Kimberley fields secured to
the Free State farmers an almost entire monopoly in the supply of
products; trade also flourished apace, all tending to enrich the
inhabitants and the State revenue as well.

But the Orange Free State derived a permanent advantage, quite unique
and more than compensating the apparent set-back suffered by the loss of
the diamond-field territory and by British intervention in the Basuto
war matter, in that the method of those procedures saddled England with
the responsibility of guaranteeing the internal safety of the State from
those hitherto unprotected borders "altogether at her own cost." The
Keate award completed the British cordon around the Free State,
excepting only in regard to the Transvaal frontier. No need thenceforth
for costly military provisions for the protection of the State--it was,
as it were, walled and fenced in at British expense, and the State
revenue was thus for ever relieved of a very heavy item of expenditure,
which could be devoted to the increase of the national wealth instead--a
peaceful security accompanied with an intrinsic gain constituting a
veritable and permanent heirloom for the people of that State.

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