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

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

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Step by step, by means of strenuous and disinterested exertions,
employing prestige and encouragements, by legislation and otherwise, a
breach was effected which bids fair to break down that caste-fenced and
chained thraldom, and to raise over a hundred millions of her humble
subject sisters from unnatural degradation to occupy the honourable and
responsible rank assigned by the Creator to woman as man's social help,
meet for him, and to whom honour is due as to the weaker vessel.
Millions of women have already found emancipation and recognition of
their right position, to man's reciprocal joy and to the felicity of
their families. Their sons and daughters in turn now form armies to
complete the mission of liberty so zealously inaugurated by their
beloved Empress, their own peculiar star of India.

Maybe this and similar earnests evinced during that noble Queen's reign,
among which the shelter afforded to the Jewish people, will come into
remembrance in mitigation of visitations deserved by the nation for its
previous complicity in the hideous traffic in African souls of men.

It throws a light upon the credulity and simplicity of the bulk of the
poor deluded peasant Boers when, in the face of most genial rule and
almost an excess of liberty and privileges, Bond artifice could succeed
in conjuring up contrary notions, and to poison them into the monstrous
belief that they, the Boers, were an oppressed people, whose downfall
was designed by rapacious England, and that no other remedy existed for
preserving independence, religion and homes than to expel that wicked
English people from African soil. This is, then, what Bond artifice
effected in the absence of actual cause and in order to dissimulate its
own nefarious objects. It was the work of twenty years' sedulously
applied deception and calumnious machinations.

The Hollander coterie has at last succeeded in its ardently desired
purpose of pitting the Boer nation against England, and to bring about
the present war. What is even more astounding is the success of those
villainous artificers upon intelligent partisans of the Boer cause
outside of Africa and in England even.

OCCULT OPERATIONS AND AGENCIES

Will it be considered the mere fancy of enthusiasts, which admits the
thought of occult forces of a sinister kind set in array to overturn
beneficent dispensations, that the evil one, the father of lies, has
been active in all this marring of peace? Had that personage or evil
principle, if this term is more acceptable, not scored with his
malignant skill of deception 6,000 years ago, and been walking up and
down his domain ever since, intent upon undoing redemptive provisions
and counteracting all endeavours to ameliorate the miseries of humanity?
His malice would seem discernible against the Boer nation, the people
who continued in the simple faith which had been kept by their ancestors
despite the persecutions heaped upon them in France and by the oppressor
of Holland; he must have viewed with growing rage the designs of a
gracious Providence surrounding that very people with the blessings of
security and peace and accumulations of unparalleled riches, all
construable as in compensation for the sacrifices so willingly submitted
to by their forefathers and for their own fidelity to the faith. Would
he tamely brook that--and not bend on all his artifices to reverse those
provisions and to divert those rich dispensations in favour of his own
devotees instead, or else rather cause them to be devoured by wasting
war? He has so far succeeded in instigating the Boer nation to acts
which involve the forfeiture of their special heirlooms. He would also
thwart the programme of the world's nations for the civilization of
Central Africa, and would gratify his malice against the people to whom
is largely attributable the spread of governmental principles of equity
and liberty. He would seek to stamp with failure those hitherto
successful and self-rewarding methods, and so strike an effective blow
against their further adoption as being goody-goody, weak and
inefficient.

We see civilized humanity congested with over-population, excess of
energy and of production and suffering from a plethora of capital, the
entire condition rife on the one hand with prodigal waste and on the
other fraught with the cruel want of toiling and jostling millions
vainly fighting for space and the most modest means of
existence--conditions which presage an inevitable and universal crash
unless checked by a Malthusian or else by a beneficent and humane
remedy. We know the right remedy for at least staving off the impending
universal crisis lies in the manifold opportunities of creating outlets.
These exist to the full in the vast fallow regions of Africa, and in the
scope for industries and commerce in Asia and elsewhere. Each
well-devised colonizing scheme, every railway built, and every other new
investment would afford improved employment and relieve the general
strain; every true convert gained by the spread of Christianity would
become an obedient and reliable unit towards the menaced stability of
authorized Governments. We see capital impelled to vast enterprises, as
it were by secret forces;[13] we are aware of the activity of nations
singly and in co-operation in promoting and sustaining such projects.
All those efforts and outlets would serve as safety-valves for the
discontent of the ill-provided masses, and their success would render
them governable at a lesser cost, and even admit the reduction of
standing armies and other objects treated by the recent Peace Conference
at the Hague. The essential thing, indeed, is peace, and that in turn
would consolidate security and progress. But the enemy is interested
exactly the other way. His ascendancy is coincident, not with the
mitigation of the conditions of human existence, but in accentuating the
misery of the masses, driving them to desperation and to embrace illogic
and deceptive maxims of socialism and violent anarchy. It is with those
forces that he intends to uproot and usurp divinely instituted authority
expressly set up to repress evil and to protect person and property. He
wants by licence and not liberty to hasten the advent of that murderous
political power prophetically depicted with the statue standing upon
feet of clay and iron: supreme authority vested in the world's
proletariat in unstable and uncohesive union with militarism, Satan
himself the actual lawless animator.[14] As to the scope for outlets in
the East, it is more restricted to industries and commerce, but those
enterprises, however brilliantly promising, are fraught with the risks
incidental to hostile rivalries and political complications, while in
Africa the openings are at least as vast and inviting immigration on a
huge scale as well, but all with much greater security, inasmuch as the
spheres of operation are definitely apportioned to various nations, and
where in the nature of things the success of each would be promoted by
joint-solidarity, and thus afford a guarantee for the peaceable and
prosperous development of the whole continent. Our common enemy would
fain frustrate it all with his Afrikaner Bond device, and then finally
gloat over the accomplished ruin of his deluded Boer victims.

Africa has for some thousands of years been the enemy's favourite and
undisturbed haunt for his gory orgies, for the hecatombs of millions of
immolated victims each year, the teeming recruiting preserve for his
contingents.

Is he likely to surrender it all to an invading beneficent operation?
Will he not rather continue a most determined and desperate resistance
and oppose the most advanced of his subtle devices? The malignant power
of his agencies is ever and anon manifest--if restrained in one
direction his sway is doubly asserted in another. While the Boer war is
proceeding a diversion upon a large scale is being effected in Asia
which may result in deferring progress in Africa, or history may be
brought to repeat itself by the production of some African Attila or
Grenseric or a Saladin or another Moselikatse or Mahdi, whose
overrunning hordes will efface all the good work thus far done and
restore conditions in accord with his murderous sway, whilst at the same
time revelling over the ominous developments looming in Europe and
America for the production of giant strikes and other imminent
socialistic outbursts which could all be prevented, or at least staved
off for a long time, if the existing immense spheres for civilizing
outlets could only be peaceably utilized.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 13: One of those enterprises is the railway which is to
connect the Cape with Cairo.]

[Footnote 14: Pro-Boer Propaganda is persisting in designating England
as answering to that prophetic image destined to signal destruction.]

RELIGION

The old voortrekkers who emigrated from the Cape Colony all belonged to
the Dutch Reformed Protestant persuasion. With very little learning, the
Bible, catechism, and the orthodox "psalm and hymn-book" constituted
their sole means for building up their faith. The scope of their
education was likewise limited to these simple aids during their
chequered wanderings for nearly twenty years, proving ample, however, in
preserving themselves and children from the tendencies of receding into
barbarism. The Bible was the recognised reference and guide in private
and public affairs, and it is so still. It is, indeed, notable with what
wisdom and prudence those simple people managed to frame their treaties
with native potentates, their conventions with the Portuguese and the
British Governments, and, finally, in compiling their own constitutions.
Their experiences teem with incidents of extreme sufferings, dangers,
and reverses, and also with many signal deliverances, which all
operated in deepening religious fervour and dependence upon the
Almighty.

Their vicissitudes led them to make analogous comparisons with ancient
Jewish history. This practice resulted in some erroneous conceptions,
notably in regard to their relations with aborigines and general native
policy, as referred to in previous chapters. It also imperceptibly
fostered sentiments confounding legality with grace, and the by-product
of that subtle corrupting leaven which is apt to see a splint in the eye
of another whilst unmindful of the beam in one's own.

Upon the whole, the religious status of the Boers may be fairly compared
to that of the old American pilgrim fathers, only much less intolerant,
fairly strict sabbatarians, and jealous in maintaining national and
individual morality. About forty years ago a small group seceded from
the Dutch Reformed Church and formed a separate connection under the
name of "Enkel gereformende Kerk" (simply reformed Church), more
generally known under the sobriquet of "Doppers." This cult is identical
with the parent Church, and differs only in a somewhat stricter church
discipline and the rejection of the hymns from the common psalm and
hymn-book upon the ground that many of them are tainted with dangerously
anti-scriptural doctrine.[15] These Doppers are really very worthy
people, but noted for their strong conservatism and adherence to old
habits and customs, even in the matter of dress. President Krueger is one
of their prominent members and so is General Piet Cronje.

The devotional habits of the Boers form one of their national
characteristics. The family collect at dawn for morning worship, led by
the parent or else by the tutor--it consists of a hymn,
Scripture-reading, and prayer--similarly before retiring at night,
devout grace before and after each meal. These practices are not relaxed
when travelling with their wagons or when in the field. On Sundays an
extra (forenoon) service is added. Strangers and travellers receiving
hospitality are always courteously and unostentatiously admitted to
those family devotions. One may thus meet with one or more wagons camped
in the wilderness and find a cluster of men, women, and children
engaged in happy devotions and singing psalms or hymns in the familiar
old "Herrenhut" melodies, or one may come upon a scene where men just
returned to camp, begrimed and still perspiring from a day's hunt or
battle, join with husky voices an already assembled group in the
customary service.

Such practices of piety cannot fail to have a salutary effect upon the
young, nor can it be with justice said that the bulk of the people are
inconsistent in their conduct, though formality and insincerity are
sadly frequent enough, and in late years a decadence in seriousness and
an increase of frivolity instead have marked the present epoch,
especially among those who are exposed to the pernicious influences and
contaminations incidental to town life. The old Free Stater mentioned
before expressed the expectation that the present war and trials will
tend to check that declension, and in that way prove to have a
compensating character for good. During my frequent travels it had been
my privilege as a guest to make the acquaintance of numerous truly
Christian Boer families, both well-to-do and poor. On one occasion I had
to accept the hospitality at a farmhouse of one named Brits,[16]
nicknamed "vuil" or dirty Brits. This was an old blind widower; his
household was composed, besides himself, of an old brother, also a
widower, and the family of a son-in-law. After the evening meal the
service was led by the blind man, the daughter reading some chapters in
the Bible indicated by him. The two old men and I occupied separate cots
in one small side room. Happening to wake up at dawn the following
morning, I saw those old men sit up facing each other, with their feet
upon the floor, and begin their morning hymn of praise, after which the
house resounded with younger voices from the other end with a similar
song. I do not call to mind any special untidiness at that poor blind
man's house to warrant his sobriquet; my recollections are, on the
contrary, of the happiest, and I mentally called him clean Brits, clean
every whit. In another part of the country I was privileged to meet with
a family, which included a grown-up blind daughter,' who had St. John's
Gospel in raised letters. While reading with her fingers her upturned
face would shine with joy when repeating some of the salient, consoling,
and sustaining verses. And how common are the records among those simple
Boers of happy and triumphant death-bed scenes of old and young,
softening the grief of the bereaved believers. Frivolous education and
advanced surroundings are accountable for a certain waning of the
original habits of serious piety; this is to some extent more the case
among the Cape Colonial and Orange Free State Boers, the declension
appearing greatest with those residing in or in close proximity to
towns. Among the men of exemplary and consistent piety in the Transvaal
are conspicuous: President Krueger, State Secretary Reitz,
Commandant-General Joubert, General Piet Cronje, and others holding
highest positions, and also many of the Volksraad members, including the
late General Kock.

Upon the occasion when the Transvaal Executive, with the assembled
Volksraads, finally determined upon war, and the momentous matter had
been considered of handing over the passports to Mr. Greene, the British
agent, just before signing them, President Krueger was observed occupied
in silent prayer for a few moments, while many of the others bowed their
heads similarly engaged, after which the documents were firmly
completed. When the first commandoes were about to depart for the field,
the President addressed a farewell to the burghers, assuring them that
God's aid could confidently be implored for their just cause; he also
quoted part of the Verse, "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall
lose it," intending it as an exhortation for the timorous, warning them
of the greater danger incurred by retreat or flight than when
maintaining a manful stand. (The reader will know that the above
quotation does not complete the verse, the rest being, "But whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake or for the Gospel shall preserve it.")

It points to the operation of most persevering and subtle agencies and
potent illusions that could mislead and carry away the chief men and the
most intelligent of the Boer nation so far as to engender the erroneous
convictions which caused them to court the present war and to consider
it just. As to the bulk of the people, they are in turn led astray by
their leaders' example and opinions as victims of the general delusion.

These convictions, together with the acceptance of Afrikaner Bond
doctrines, have developed into quite a national infatuation, a kind of
Boer Koran, invested with similar fanaticism. Analogies are assumed as
existing between the case of the Israelites brought by Moses through the
wilderness, and led by Joshua into the conquered possession of their
promised Canaan. Following those prototypes, Paul Krueger is held as
having guided the Boer nation thus far through the mazes of political
troubles, and so also is General Joubert,[17] now their leader in the
conquest, South Africa in its entirety being considered as rightfully
belonging to them. The Orange River stands for Jordan, dividing as yet
the possessions of the people, and the analogy only needs completion by
a Pisgah for President Krueger. That such hallucinations have taken deep
root appears from the fact that the wife of President Krueger dreamt of
the accomplishment of such a typical history, and that her husband had
died at an early stage of the conquest. Such complete faith is attached
to the prophetic import of that dream that the President was prevailed
upon to permit its publication in full detail some time in November
last. The President's death was anticipated within two months after. (I
am far from referring to those incidents in a mocking mood, but rather
to show the intense sincerity of Boer convictions, confounding the
Christian's exalted calling with one which is temporal; and I fancy that
those very Boers, if equally well instructed, might sadly eclipse some
of us who have the privilege and also the responsibility of enjoying
correct teaching.)

The writer has endeavoured to represent in a true light both the
character of the Boer nation and its responsibility in regard to the
origin of the present deplorable war. The reader will be able to judge
whether that people is wilfully guilty, or whether the circumstances
admit of generous, mitigating condonement, always considered apart from
that horrible Hollander element which has been the root and instigating
cause of all the evil.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 15: Some readers will recognise the significance, the
protective competence, the keen and reliable instinct which enable
untutored believers to discern and detect doctrinal leaven insidiously
concealed in the garb of worship.]

[Footnote 16: At Modder River, on the road between Bloemfontein and
Kimberley.]

[Footnote 17: At the time, December, 1899, when this was intended for
publication.]

PHYSIQUE AND HABITS

We have noted in former pages that the Boers' ancestry some two
centuries ago was composed of about two-thirds of sturdy Dutch peasants,
artizans, etc., while the other third consisted mostly of French
Huguenots.

It is known that the immigrant class, though generally somewhat poor,
are uniformly men and women endowed with an adventurous, self-reliant
spirit and with unimpaired health. Naturally none but robust persons
were permitted to join the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope.

We see in that combination the patient, resolute quality prevailing in
Holland and the more ardent, vivacious, and chivalrous character found
with the French people. The Huguenot refugees belonged undisputably to
the cream of that impulsive nation--intellectual, educated, and
fearless--whilst both portions were pervaded with deep-rooted religious
fervour and habituated to moral and temperate lives.

Those combined qualities and habits would naturally be transmitted to
the progeny; prosperity and splendid climatic conditions tended still
further to develop a virile physique of first order. The moral and
physical standards were maintained by the practice of men and women
marrying early in life, and by occupations which required the people to
pass most of their time in the open. Educationally, there was
unavoidably some retrogression, but there is always plenty of scope in
the existence of colonists in a new country for the exercise of a
vigorous mind in the study of nature, in overcoming difficulties and in
cultivating the faculty of resourcefulness.

Whilst missing the intellectual benefits of advanced civilization, the
people escaped the dangers of its vitiating tendencies, thus preserving
a healthy mental calibre as well as robust physical health. In addition
may be mentioned a very notable fecundal power, which accounts for the
phenomenally rapid increase of the people. All those conditions have
continued to be maintained with the successive generations up to now.

Those who joined in the exodus north of the Orange River in 1835 and the
years following comprised the most indomitable and best endowed of that
stalwart race. Twenty years of a nomadic life after that and until they
got somewhat settled down served to weed out the weaklings among them;
since then their mode of life accorded well to keep up the highest
physical standard, not pampered with many comforts, inured to hardships
and to out-of-door exercise, with a diet consisting very largely of meat
and venison, coupled with energetic exercise of mind and body (the women
sharing in the less arduous duties). All this constituted a regimen and
training which did not fail to keep the people in a constant condition
of high efficiency and equipoise for the performance of tasks and for
surmounting difficulties needing more than usual strength, endurance,
and fortitude.

The rough labour all over South Africa is done mostly by Kaffirs and
other coloured people. A Boer farmer will have from two to ten or more
Kaffirs (men and women) employed for out-of-door work and for domestic
drudgery. Often absent from home on hunting trips and sometimes on
commando, the men entrust their work on such occasions (as is now the
case during the present war) to the care of their wives and daughters,
assisted by some younger sons, if the family includes any, or else
simply with the aid of Kaffir servants. Sometimes they are without any
such help, when they take a pride in doing it alone.

Girls as well as boys learn to ride on horseback when quite young. It is
quite a usual thing to see women riding astride fashion, collecting
sheep and cattle, or driving their horse carts and spiders (carriages),
unattended by males, over distances of over twenty and thirty
miles--women spanning in ox-teams to their travelling wagons, driving
them with long whips on journeys occupying one or more days. During the
Kaffir wars the Boers used to trek (travel) in bodies with their wagons,
which would serve to form a laager or fort, their families and
belongings being placed in the centre. During an attack the women would
attend to the men's wants, reload their rifles, and even take a more
active part in repelling the enemy, many of them being also crack shots.
The above-stated efficient and hardy habits with men and women apply
more to the people in the two Republics, and particularly so to those of
the Transvaal, while the Colonial Boers on the whole have had no such
experience, but instead have lived in uninterrupted peace and comfort
for generations, and may be classed with farmers of any other
well-governed and protected country or colony. The Boer farmers in the
northern portions of the Cape Colony, however, approximate to those of
the Orange Free State in hardy habits and ability to fend for themselves
when in difficulty. But with the Transvaal Boers the training incident
to wars, hunting, and nomadic movements has been more sustained, and
they are thus in best form and fitness of efficiency compared with all
the rest.

In the Orange Free State nearly every man above fifty years of age has
had the experience of the three years' Basuto war in 1865-67, and almost
all above forty are very expert huntsmen and crack shots. Quite a good
number have also taken part in the Transvaal war against the English in
1880; the rest have been trained by the elder veterans, and, though not
so well seasoned, are good horsemen, expert with the rifle, and
competent in the field. As to the Transvaalers, the men have all had
plenty of field practice before the previous war with England and since,
in subduing formidable Kaffir rebellions, the last being the operations
against the Magato chief, which terminated just before the outbreak of
the present Anglo-Boer war.

Besides this, game had continued longer in abundance in the Transvaal,
and is still hunted with success in the northern low veldt and in the
adjacent Portuguese territory. Added to this, the young Boers in the
Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal have been
encouraged to attain proficiency in rifle practice and competence in the
field, ostensibly for the gratification of keeping up old traditions,
but in reality to be prepared for the struggle against England meditated
by the Afrikaner Bond.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10