Proceeding the General went on to refer to an article of the 'Volkstem', the Ministerial organ of Pretoria. The 'Volkstem', he said "had for long been crowing King, King, but the sun will rise when the cock will cease to crow. (Laughter.) The Government has now issued regulations under which we may not speak, but, friends, bear in mind, and the 'Volkstem' must know, that we have not yet a Popedom, and we are not yet in Russia, for you will search in vain for the truth in a newspaper." — (We would very much like to know the opinion hereanent of the Backveld newspaper organ in which we read of this meeting. — Author.) — "Friends, a newspaper can do a lot of harm, and much of the condition in which our country finds itself may be attributed to the 'Volkstem' — that Government adulator ('de regeering se vetsmeer' document).

"Whereas our people could freely express their views, the Government now wants to prevent an expression of their bitter feelings over the land-robbery now engaged in at German South West." (At this stage, an egg thrown from the back of the crowd fell uncomfortably near the speaker and aroused some angry remarks in the crowd, but the speaker continuing said: "Never mind, friends, I have another coat. The Government talk of calling out volunteers only; but many children were surreptitiously torn away from their mothers, and many were taken against the will of the parents. I am ready to bow under the law, but not when it is broken by the Government. Our law authorizes us to defend our borders, not to wage war outside." After some more quarrels, interruptions, blows and fights in several parts of the crowd, the police arrested a Burgher. But some men who surrounded the police rescued the prisoner and, it was said, assaulted a policeman.)

Proceeding with his speech after the interruption, General De Wet said: "We can never thank the English sufficiently for their gift of self-government under a free constitution approved by His Majesty the King; but it was not implied thereby that we should go and commit a theft." More interruptions, during which it became impossible for the speaker to continue. In the turmoil cheers were given for General De Wet, who, resuming at length, remarked: "You fellows, along the wire fence, the Lord have mercy on you when I turn my back. You will be responsible if blood flows in this meeting to-night. As I have had a better up-bringing I am keeping the people back from tackling you. I have not been brought up in what they call Waaihoek at Bloemfontein. It was not General Botha's place to get this country to snatch chestnuts out of the fire for England. They bluff us with the statement that the coolies* might be asked to come and take German South West Africa for themselves. Well, let it be so. They will be in their proper surroundings there amongst the Hottentots. And if it amounts to that, Kafirs armed with assegais can be sent against them, for as it now happens the Kafir has got to work for the coolie in Natal."

— * Contemptuous South African term for British Indians. —

After more disturbances, the General said he was not so certain that the police were doing their duty, and he would have to report them to the Government. These men were paid out of his pocket and the pockets of other Burghers, but the people got no protection from them. And when in self-defence an Afrikander remonstrates with the hooligans, he is arrested. He thought there was a Magistrate present, and can they not get protection?

Assistant Magistrate Cronin then ascended the carriage and said: "I expect you all to give the Burghers a fair opportunity to speak."

Concluding General De Wet said: "It was not a question of Hertzog v. Botha. The burning point was German South West Africa. The reason why the people were unarmed was because the Government did not trust them. Things being so, they should not be surprised that the people had no confidence in the authorities. Many had guns but no cartridges; how then could the country be expected to defend itself?"

Mr. Paul Schutte moved the resolution which was put to the meeting, protesting against the expedition to German South West Africa. "At this time," says the Dutch paper that reported these proceedings, "the throats of the interrupters, not being made of steel, had become so hoarse and weak that their interruption was ineffective, except, perhaps, when they dealt out blows."

Mr. Paul Schutte said, in moving the resolution, that the hand of God was pressing heavily on the land: poverty, misery, and the drought finishing the people. Was it not dangerous for the Government to embark on such an undertaking without the backing of the unanimous will of the people?

Mr. Serfontein (presumably one of the two members of Parliament of that name) said he was going to speak the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

He said he would give documentary proof that a map has been forged; he did not know by whom. It is said that Nakob is in Union territory, yet according to the original Government map, that place was on German territory. "There is the map," he said, apparently flaunting it, "satisfy yourselves."

Proceeding he said: "General Tobias Smuts had declared that he knew the Government decision was against the wishes of his constituents, yet he wanted to support the Government in favour of the war. General Beyers, who knew all the circumstances, denies that Nakob is in Union territory. In these circumstances, how can we, as Christians, ask God to guide us in the undertaking?"

Professor Postma and the Rev. Mr. De Klerk, the two next speakers, quoted the Bible to show that to proceed against German South West Africa was forbidden by Providence. Mr. Furstenburg, who followed, called on the Burghers to maintain the high character of their people. After a few words of thanks from General Kemp to the audience for their attendance, the 1,000 Burghers, amid interruptions, signified their objection to the expedition by standing on one side. This act closed a most exciting meeting.

One of the opponents, the paper says, smacked a Dutch lady on her mouth and caused it to bleed. She coolly turned round and gave him such a heavy blow with her fist that he collapsed, saying in the purest English accent as she did so: "It takes but one woman to fight a Britisher." Another of the interrupters had to be taken to the hospital.

Commandant Els and Mr. Rocco de Villiers, the "Free" State lawyer, on their way to the meeting, had a mishap with their motor-car, fifteen miles distant, so that they reached Potchefstroom on foot, after the meeting.

"Three cheers for our brown people," shouted one of the disturbers. "You have forgotten the coolies," retorted a Dutch lady.

After the meeting, the opposition formed itself into a procession and marched through the town. They also delivered short speeches confirming what had been done at a previous meeting of townspeople, which supported the expedition. They booed General De Wet and his followers, and dispersed after giving cheers for Generals Botha and Smuts and singing the National Anthem.

One item on the programme of the meeting was an address which should have been presented to General Beyers, the ex-Commander-in-Chief, but as for some reason or other he was not present, the address was sent to him instead. It congratulated him on his resignation, a step which the signatories were sure he would never regret, as it was in accord with the peace-loving and the most pious part of his people, who resent the "capture" of German South West Africa. Further, they thanked him for coming to address them and hoped he would deliver a speech that would shut the mouths of mischief-makers who accused him of being a German agent.

A similar drama was enacted at Johannesburg during the following week, when General De Wet carried his campaign of protest into the stronghold of the sections in favour of the Government expedition. His meeting at the Lewis Cinema was only in progress a few minutes when bricks, etc., came through the fanlights, and the lights went out. The meeting was adjourned to Church Square, where supporters of the Government gained the upper hand and overpowered the "neutral" party so completely that General De Wet, Mr. Serfontein and Rev. Mr. Postma could not be heard. Cheers were continually given for the King, for Generals Botha and Smuts, and the speeches were drowned by the patriotic airs sung by the throng, and the meeting proved a complete fiasco.



Chapter XXIII The Boer Rebellion

Arm, arm, Burghers; we never had more cause! The Goths have gathered head; and with a power of high-resolved men, bent to the spoil, They hither march amain, under conduct Of Manie, son to old Gerit Maritz, Who threats in course of his revenge, to do As much as ever Black Bambata did.



The following telegram was published by the South African Government: —

== October 13, 1914.

Ever since the resignation of General C. F. Beyers as Commandant-General of the Citizen Force, there have been indications that something was wrong with the forces in the north-west of the Cape Province, which were placed under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel S. G. Maritz.

The Government at once arranged to send Colonel Conraad Brits to take over the command from Lieutenant-Colonel Maritz.

On the 8th instant Colonel Brits sent a message to Maritz to come in and report to him. To this message Maritz replied in a most insolent manner that he was not going to report to anybody. All he wanted was his discharge, and Colonel Brits must come himself and take over his command.

Colonel Brits then sent Major Ben Bouwer to take over the command.

An Ultimatum

On arrival at Maritz's camp, Major Bouwer was taken prisoner with his companions, but personally was subsequently released and sent back with an ultimatum from Maritz to the Union Government to the effect that:

Unless the Government guaranteed to him before ten o'clock on Sunday morning, October 11, that they should allow Generals Hertzog, De Wet, Beyers, Kemp, and Muller to meet him where he was, in order that he might receive instructions from them, he would forthwith make an attack on General Brits's forces and proceed further to invade the Union.

Major Ben Bouwer reported that Maritz was in possession of some guns belonging to the Germans, and that he held the rank of General commanding the German troops.

He had a force of Germans under him in addition to his own rebel commando.

He had arrested all those of his officers and men who were unwilling to join the Germans, and had then sent them forward as prisoners to German South West Africa.

Major Bouwer saw an agreement between Maritz and the Governor of German South West Africa guaranteeing the independence of the Union as a republic, ceding Walfish Bay and certain other portions of the Union to the Germans, and undertaking that the Germans would only invade the Union on the invitation of Maritz.

Major Bouwer was shown numerous telegrams and helio messages dating back to the beginning of September. Maritz boasted that he had ample guns, rifles, ammunition, and money from the Germans, and that he would overrun the whole of South Africa.

In view of this state of affairs the Government is taking the most vigorous steps to stamp out the rebellion and inflict condign punishment on all rebels and traitors. A proclamation declaring martial law throughout the Union will appear in a Gazette Extraordinary to-day.*

— * "U. G. No. 10-'15", pp. 22-24. — ==

This treachery was more fully described by a Cape Attorney — a subaltern in the Citizen Force under Maritz — in the following letter to the 'Transvaal Leader':

== "We arrived at Kakamas," he writes, "after a long and wearisome trek through Bushmanland, a company of about eighty, consisting mostly of raw farmer youths.

"We remained in camp for about six weeks, and, in the first week of October, orders came from Maritz for 200 troops, comprising the Calvinia, Clanwilliam, and Kenhardt men, to strike camp and trek toward the German border.

"Two days later the remaining men in camp, consisting of the Kakamas members of the Defence Force, some Kakamas Volunteers, and our own troop, altogether about 300 men, likewise trekked in that direction. After two days' riding, we came to a farm called Blokzijnputs, where we met the first 200 men.

"The village of Keimoes was crowded with German troops; our men and officers were walking and talking among them on the friendliest possible terms, and the German and the old Transvaal Republican flags were flying side by side.

"In a very short time we were made fully aware of the position. The act of treachery which led up to it was being freely discussed by everybody, and then I realized that 'we' — I say 'we', for I never for one second doubted that most of our men would refuse to turn rebels — had been caught like rats in a trap.

"But a further shock awaited me. About half an hour after our arrival we were summoned to fall in before Maritz, who then addressed the crowd.

"He first spoke about the Government wishing to force him over the border with a lot of untrained and unarmed youngsters, and went on to say that he refused to sacrifice their lives.

"After a bitter attack on the characters of Generals Smuts and Botha, he denounced the British Empire as a whole, and wound up by declaring himself an out and out rebel.

"He stated that he was going to fight against the Union and Imperial Governments for the independence of South Africa, and called upon all who were unwilling to follow him, or 'had the English feeling in them', to stand on one side.

"Ten Loyal out of Six Hundred"

"This speech was followed by a short speech in German by the representative of the Governor-General of German South-West Africa.

"Then followed a scene which can never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. All our men started to shout, cheer, and throw up their hats — all except ten of us, who stood there looking, I suppose, more dead than alive. Just imagine, out of 600 men actually trekking towards the border to invade German territory only ten refused to turn rebels.

"However, after recovering somewhat, we approached our captain (Beukes) and told him we were not going to join Maritz, and asked him to see that we were not sent to Windhuk. This Maritz had given us to understand was the only alternative to joining him."

The writer proceeds to state that after being kept prisoners for some time they were set free forty miles from a Union troop frontier post. — 'Central News'.*

— * See also Appendix to the "Report of the Select Committee on Rebellion", S.C. 1-'15. — ==

In the "Free" State

General De Wet organized large commandos and took possession of the town of Heilbron, held up a train and captured Government stores and ammunition, some prominent Burghers being among his active supporters; so much so that, a week later, when President Steyn was endeavouring to get him to Bloemfontein, in order to persuade him to discuss terms of peace with General Botha, he had no fewer than 3,000 men under him.

General De Wet publicly unfurled the rebel banner in October, when he entered the town of Reitz at the head of an armed commando. Some of his men assaulted the postmaster, who was in the act of telegraphing the news to the capital, and destroyed his instruments. The guerrilla General addressed an open-air meeting, which he ordered the Magistrate to attend. When that official "refused to attend a rebel meeting" General De Wet sent six men to compel him, and to use violence if necessary.

Having thus forcibly secured the attendance of the Magistrate, he proceeded to unbosom himself as follows: "Ladies, gentlemen, and burghers, I have asked you to come together here to explain to you my position."

Then turning to the Magistrate, he said: "Magistrate, I want you to get a shorthand writer to take down every word that I am going to say, because whatever I may do in future I can never commit a greater act of rebellion than I have already committed. I am going through to Maritz, where we will receive arms and ammunition, and from there we are going to Pretoria to pull down the British flag and proclaim a free South African republic. All those who side with me must follow me, and those who side with the Government must go to it. I signed the Vereeniging Treaty and swore to be faithful to the British flag, but we have been so downtrodden by the miserable and pestilential English that we can endure it no longer. His Majesty King Edward VII promised to protect us, but he has failed to do so, and allowed a Magistrate to be placed over us who is an absolute tyrant, and has made it impossible for us to tolerate it any longer. I was charged before him for beating a native boy. I only did it with a small shepherd's whip, and for that I was fined 5s.* (Here the Magistrate interrupted him and asked him whether he did not plead guilty. He admitted that he had pleaded guilty, and ordered the Magistrate to keep quiet, and he would allow him to say as much as he liked when he had finished speaking, and if he would not hold his tongue he would make him hold it.)

— * General Smuts, after this, christened the rising as "the Five Shilling Rebellion". —

"But," continued General De Wet, "after the Magistrate had delivered judgment, instead of reprimanding the boy and ordering him in future to be obedient and do his duty, he looked at the Native as if he would like to give him a kiss. The Magistrate is a brother-in-law of a man for whom I have the greatest respect and who is very dear to me (President Steyn), and for that reason I will give him another chance, otherwise I would have taken him prisoner and handed him over to the Germans. The Magistrate's father was one of the staunchest pillars of the church, and if he were alive to-day he would be heart and soul with me in this movement, and condemn the dastardly act of robbery which the Government are going to commit.

"The ungodly policy of Botha has gone on long enough; the South African Dutch are going to stand as one man to crush this unholy scandal. Some of my friends have advised me to wait a little longer until England has received a bigger knock, but it is beneath me and my people to kick a dead dog. England has got her hands full enough. I hate the lies which are continually being spread to the effect that thousands of Australians, Canadians and Indians can be sent to fight us. Where will England get them from? She has enough to fight her own battles.

"I am going through the town to take the following six articles, viz., horses, saddles, bridles, halters, arms and ammunition, and if anybody should refuse to hand to my men these articles, if they should be found in their possession, I will give him a thrashing with a sjambok. I now order the storekeepers to go and open their shops and I will select men to go round and take whatever I require apart from the above articles, and they will give receipts for what they take; and if they do not open their shops willingly I will open them in another way. My advice to you English is to remain quiet in your houses and not interfere with my men, and if you don't, beware when I come back! I have got my eight sons and sons-in-law here with me, and the only people left on my farm are my wife and daughter. Anybody can go and see if they like, and I request the Magistrate to give them any help they may require, if he will do so."

Mr. Wessel Wessels, a famous "Free" State politician, having taken possession of Harrismith in the name of General De Wet, was alleged to have had the audacity to send letters to Chief Ntsane Mopedi, of the Harrismith district, and to the Paramount Chief of Basutoland, informing them that, with the assistance of the Germans, the Boers were going to drive away the English and re-proclaim a Dutch Republic in South Africa; and requesting those chiefs to remain neutral while the annihilation of the English was in progress. Only in case the English should arm the Indians, were they to mobilize their warriors (the Basutos) on the side of the Boer-German combination.

Dit is ver weg na Tippererie, Dit is ver om te gaan; Dit is ver weg na Tippererie, Om my hart se punt te zien. Goen dag, Pikadillie Vaarwel, Lester-squeer; Dit is ver, ver weg na Tippererie Maar my hart le net daar. "Tipperary" in Cape Dutch.

The Dutch, like other people, also had a prophet. Many stories were told since the outbreak of the war by the seer, Van Rensburg, and among other visions credited to him he was said to have dreamt of the impending "removal of the British yoke from the necks of Afrikanders", and the forthcoming expulsion from South Africa of the English people and their flag, with the aid of Germany.

Whatever might be said about what the prophet Van Rensburg had foretold in other respects, the prophecies attributed to him in regard to the European War resemble other war prophecies (credited to French, Russian, and German women), in that the wish, it seems, is often father to the thought.

The lower middle-class Boers attach great weight to the guesses of native bonethrowers. It is strange sometimes when a Malay charmer is prosecuted for imposing on the public to find Dutch witnesses giving evidence of the healing powers possessed by the accused and emphasizing the absurdity of prosecuting a man who benefited them and their relatives more than many a certificated medical man.

Moreover, the forecasts credited to Van Rensburg seemed to have found ample corroboration in the cabled newspaper accounts of the rapid advance of the armies of General Von Kluck through Belgium towards Paris, and in the minds of such gullible patriots as the South African Boers this telegraphic war news acted like manure on a fertile field.

== The Seer Van Rensburg*

— * "U.G. No. 10-'15". —

The seer was Nicolas van Rensburg, of Lichtenburg, a simple and illiterate farmer. He was a prophet not without honour in his own country. On many occasions he had given proof positive of the possession of extraordinary powers of prevision, so men said and believed. It would be out of place here to give examples of the many telepathic forecasts (or happy guesses) with which he was credited. It is certain that he had a great hold on the imagination of thousands of his people. During the Anglo-Boer War some commandos, when Van Rensburg was in their lager, neglected all precautions. If "Oom Niklaas" declared that the English were not in the neighbourhood, it was a waste of energy to post sentries and keep a look out.

His reputation had, strangely enough, not diminished since the war. This was perhaps due to several causes. He had never attempted to exploit his "gift" and impressed most of those who came in contact with him with his apparent sincerity. If he duped others, it seemed he also duped himself. Moreover, and this was perhaps the secret of his continued success, his "visions" were invariably symbolic and mysterious; they possessed an adaptability of character that was truly Delphic. Indeed, his hearers were compelled to put their own interpretation upon his visions. The seer seldom pretended to understand or explain them himself.

General De la Rey took a great interest in the seer, who had belonged to his commandos during the Anglo-Boer War. Van Rensburg again had the greatest admiration for General De la Rey, and had frequently hinted to his circle that great things were in store for the General. One of his visions had been well known to General De la Rey and his friends for some years. The seer had beheld the number 15 on a dark cloud, from which blood issued, and then General De la Rey returning home without his hat. Immediately afterwards came a carriage covered with flowers.* What these things portended, Van Rensburg could not say. He believed that they signified some high honour for the General. . . .

— * General De la Rey was accidentally shot on the night of September 15. The last house he stayed in was No. 15, and the funeral train that brought his body to Lichtenburg had a carriage full of floral tributes. —

When the war at last broke out, the effect in Lichtenburg was instantaneous. The prophecies of Van Rensburg were eagerly recalled, and it was remembered that he had foretold a day on which the independence of the Transvaal would be restored. One officer actually called up his men to be in readiness on Sunday, August 9, as that would be the day on which the prophecy would be fulfilled. After this, too, certain individuals could be seen daily cleaning their rifles and cartridges in order to be ready for THE DAY. Several men in this district claimed to be in regular communication with German South-West Africa before August, 1914. Within a week of the declaration of war between England and Germany the district was further profoundly stirred by the news (now become generally known) that a great meeting of local burghers was to be held at Treurfontein on August 15, and that certain local officers were commandeering their burghers to come to this meeting armed and fully equipped for active service. . . .

The meeting was to be addressed by General De la Rey, and it was generally believed that the assembled burghers would march on Potchefstroom immediately after the meeting.

The prophecies of Van Rensburg had a great deal to do with the excitement which had been produced locally. The strange vision of the number 15, which had long been common knowledge, was now discussed with intense interest. The 15, it was said, signified August 15, the day of the meeting. That would be THE DAY, which had been so long expected — the day of liberation. Van Rensburg was now the oracle. His prophecies with regard to the great war had been signally fulfilled. Germany was at grips with England, and her triumph was looked upon as inevitable.

The day had arrived to strike a blow for their lost independence. Van Rensburg assured his following that the Union Government was "finished". Not a shot would be fired. The revolution would be complete and bloodless.

Between the 10th and the 15th the plotters in Lichtenburg were actively preparing for the day. There is evidence that German secret agents were working in concert with them. The 15th would mark the beginning of a new era. When doubters asked how they could be so certain that the 15 signified a day of the month — and of the month of August in particular — they were scornfully if illogically told that "in God's time a month sooner or later made no difference."

The Government had been informed by its local supporters of these alarming preparations. It was quite clear that an attempt was to be made on the 15th to start a rebellion. Everything would depend on the meeting which was to be addressed by General De la Rey. General De la Rey's position in the Western Transvaal was unique. He possessed an unrivalled influence and was looked up to as the uncrowned King of the West. His attitude at the meeting would sway the mass of his adherents and decide the question of peace or war.

General Botha summoned General De la Rey to Pretoria some days before the meeting, and was able to persuade him to use his best endeavours to calm the excited feelings which had been aroused and to use his influence to see that no untoward incidents should occur.

On Saturday, the 15th, the great meeting was held. About 800 burghers were present. General De la Rey addressed them and explained the situation in Europe. He exhorted his audience to remain cool and calm and to await events. After the address "a strange and unusual silence" was observed. A resolution was passed unanimously expressing complete confidence in the Government to act in the best interests of South Africa in the present world-crisis. The address seemed to have had a very good effect. The burghers appeared to have taken their leader's advice to heart, as they dispersed quietly to their homes. ==

All danger of a rebellious movement had apparently been averted, but only for a time.

The Potchefstroom 'Herald' tells a story of what it describes as "the inner history of a damnable plot", and of how near Potchefstroom* was to falling into the hands of the rebels through the treachery of Beyers and his accomplices on the night of September 15, which was the date on which the late General De la Rey was killed.

— * The old capital of Transvaal where General De Wet and General Kemp held the dramatic meeting on October 2, 1914. —

== It is unquestionable (says the 'Herald') that Beyers, who was forced to admit that he was on his way to Potchefstroom when the accident happened, was to have started an attempt to overthrow the Government with the aid of the men, over 2,000 in number, who had just finished their period of three weeks' training in the Active Citizen Camp at Potchefstroom. Both he and Kemp had resigned their positions, and, knowing the treacherous mission upon which he was setting out that night as the emissary of the German enemy, little wonder was it that at Langlaagte Beyers cowered with fear, and lost his nerve entirely, because he thought his own arrest was at hand.

Continuing the account, the paper says: On the morning parade on Tuesday morning the rebel Colonels Bezuidenhout and Kock had each addressed their men in an attempt to imbue them with a spirit of revolt against their own Government. All the Dutch-speaking Afrikanders were advised not to volunteer for German South-West; that was the job of the Englishman. The officers plainly said that they had no intention of doing their duty: they had other fish to fry. And they permitted the few volunteers who stood out in spite of them to be jeered at by the "neutrals". The disgrace of that early morning parade scene must for ever be upon the traitors concerned. It was certain that dastardly influences were at work, but thanks to the sterling loyalty of certain men from among the Dutch population, the plans of the conspirators were more or less known, and arrangements were made to checkmate them. All honour to these true patriots who took a big risk for the safety of the country.

That evening a meeting of Britishers took place in Potchefstroom to discuss the situation (says the 'Herald'), and it was agreed that its seriousness was such as to necessitate direct communication with General Smuts, which was duly carried out. For one thing, practically all Britishers were unarmed. How critical was the position, or how near Potchefstroom was to complete disaster, was not then fully realized. On that night, too, there was another and more sinister meeting in the town. It was at a certain house in Berg Street, where a number of residents, male and female, who can be named, expected the arrival of the chief conspirator. Then, too, at the Defence Force headquarters Kemp had stored a quantity of ammunition that was altogether out of proportion to the requirements of his district, and during the week there had been frequent communications with the Lichtenburg "prophet". Beyers had arranged to reach the Defence Force at 3 a.m., where motor-cars waited.

Later he was to have marched upon the town with all the armed men he could bring under his influence, knowing full well, by previous arrangement, that he could rely on the aid of rebels within Potchefstroom itself. So intense was the feeling of danger in camp that night that loyal officers slept with loaded revolvers at hand and all the spare ammunition under the beds. The Union Jack was to be supplanted and the new Republic was to be declared with the Vierkleur flying — or would it have been the German flag? That was the morning of September 16, and as showing the concerted character of the traitorous plans, it should be noted that the proclamation signed by the Governor-General of German South-West Africa, the "scrap of paper" used as a sop for the Boers, was dated for the self-same day.

Plot Providentially Thwarted

But the motor-car tragedy in the dark at Langlaagte was the second blow to this criminal plot (continues the paper), and when Beyers, trembling and unnerved, spoke through the telephone at midnight on September 15, telling of the fatal shot, and that his journey had been cut short, those who had waited in the camp and in the town knew that, for the time being at any rate, the little game was up. Kemp, of course, at once tried to withdraw his resignation, but luckily General Smuts gave the snub direct. Already the names of local men to be terrorized, and even shot, were in the mouths of the irreconcilables — skulking cowards for the most part — of whom more must yet be written in the interests of public morality.

That night Potchefstroom might easily have fallen into the hands of the rebel crew, sharing the fate of the Free State towns or worse, and loyalists, both English and Dutch, must thank an ever-watchful Providence for being saved from a position of ignominy and humiliation. ==

If all this be true,* and the Government had been informed of it, one cannot understand why General Beyers, with his fingers steeped in treason, was let loose upon the community to poison the loyalty of the Dutch along the country-side and to complicate the task of the Government. It seems that he should have been detained that evening, and thereby, having been turned from the path of suicide, other lives would also have been saved. When one considers the amount of harm that he was able to do subsequently, it is staggering to think what the task of the loyalists would have been had his plans been reinforced by the success of this night plot. It would have given a link of tremendous power to the rebel movement throughout the country if they had captured the stores, munitions, and a ready army that awaited General Beyers's arrival at Potchefstroom. The fact that some Burghers were found organizing rebel commandos in the "Free" State and Transvaal even after the capture of General De Wet and the drowning of General Beyers ought to show the prevailing Backveld spirit up to the early months of 1915.

— * The 'Herald's' story has since been confirmed by the Government Blue Book on the Rebellion. —

When the rebels were tried in Pretoria and elsewhere in January and February, Burghers crowded the law courts and rose to their feet, as if in token of their fellow-feeling with the prisoners, each time a rebel was placed in the dock. At Pretoria, this vaunting demonstration seems only to have been ended by the announcement of the Magistrate that if they did it again he would have to clear the court. It is not stated, however, whether the prisoners duly acknowledged the sympathy thus shown with a bow from the dock. One member of Parliament (not a rebel) is said to have swaggered into the Bloemfontein court and, after shaking hands with the prisoners, conversed with them in an audible tone.

Nothing better illustrates the unsatisfactory nature of the South African military appointments than the Press report that the English artillerymen who served under Maritz were in constant danger of their lives, and that, realizing this fact, they were compelled sometimes to keep their machine guns trained on their comrades. The poor men must have had an awful time, literally "sleeping with one eye wide open".

When Colonel Maritz at length threw off the mask and openly proclaimed his treachery, he put these artillerymen under arrest and handed them over to the Germans as prisoners of war.

Of course, if the Government of the Union was as well administered as was the Cape Government before it, such things would have been impossible, because only tried men with military experience would have been appointed to the command of the Union Forces — men whose loyalty was beyond reproach — that is to say, if high official appointments went by merit and not by favour. A professional lawyer like General Beyers would have been the last person to get a position which should have been given to a trained soldier, of whom there are many in the country. But as his appointment took place at a time when some English officials were politely removed from high positions to make room for influential Dutchmen, and in certain cases useless posts, such as "Inspector of white labour", and inspector of goodness-knows-what (all of them carrying high emoluments), were created for political favourites, General Beyers's appointment caused no surprise, as the "pitchfork" had already become part of our Government machinery. But how such a man as Manie Maritz became a Colonel in the Colonial Defence Force is one of those things which, as Lord Dundreary would say, "no fellah can understand".

The man is not only said to have rebelled during the South African war, but he is also said to have escaped to German South Africa to evade the consequence, and that he only returned to British South Africa when the Boers got their constitution. And when British officers like Colonel Mackenzie and Colonel Lukin apparently acquiesce in an appointment that places them on a level with a man like that, the voteless black taxpayer who has no control over these appointments cannot be blamed for feeling perplexed at the turn events are taking.

Here is an expression of this perplexity: The old chief Tshabadira asked the Government Secretary in 1913, at Thaba Nchu, "How many kings have we? Is there an English King and a Dutch King, each trying to rule in his own way? And since we cannot very well follow both, which one are we to obey?" Dutch and English colonists have ruled the Cape for forty years and no such questions were ever asked.

If General De Wet were to be tried by a court of native chiefs, who followed "the wheels of administration" during the past five years, they would in all probability decide that the British Government, to which he pledged his allegiance, and the semi-Republican Government against which he rebelled are two entirely different bodies. They would possibly reason that he pledged his allegiance to a Greater Britain — or to localize it, to a Greater Cape Colony, not to a Greater Transvaal.

The Cape Colony is often reproached because native taxpayers within its boundaries have votes and help their white neighbours to elect members of Parliament. But strange to say, when a revolutionary mob seized the South African railways in 1914, it was the railway men of the much-abused Cape who, in spite of the native vote, dragged the Government out of a serious situation. Similarly when these high officers of the Defence Force in Transvaal and Orange "Free" State rebelled and joined the Germans with their commandos, the Dutchmen of the Cape (presumably because "they vote side by side with the Kafirs") denounced the treachery in unmistakable terms. The South African party at the Cape beat up its followers to the support of the Government, and the voice of the Cape section of the Dutch Reformed Church rang from pulpit and platform in denunciation of disloyalty and treason. But in the Northern Provinces, where white men are pampered and guarded by the Government against the so-called humiliation of allowing native taxpayers to vote, there the rebellion, having been regarded with seeming approval, gained a marvellous impetus.

And the strangest of all these things is how men with bank balances like the Dutchmen of Transvaal and the Orange "Free" State could fail to appreciate the debt they owe to the British Navy, by which the commercial routes from South Africa to the outer world are kept open to them, when practically the whole world is ablaze.

The banner of revolt having been unfurled, the "Free" State towns of Reitz, Heilbron, and Harrismith being in the hands of "Free" State rebels, martial law was proclaimed, and General Botha, as forecasted in the native letter quoted in a previous chapter, assumed command of the Union Forces and squelched the upheaval. Altogether the rebellion cost South Africa some of the finest of its young men. Dutch, English, coloured and native families suffered the loss of their sons in the flower of their youth, including among many others, prominent South Africans, such as Mr. W. Pickering, the general secretary of the Kimberley mines, and Mr. Justice Hopley of Rhodesia, who each lost a son.

One loss which the Natives, judging by articles in their newspapers, will not easily forget is that of Captain William Allan King, the late Sub-Commissioner of Pretoria. He was shot by a rebel, on November 23, near Hamaanskraal, whilst helping a wounded trooper. In his lifetime his duties brought him in touch with employers of labour in the Pretoria Labour District and with Natives from all over South Africa. A non-believer in the South African policy of least resistance, he was without doubt the ablest native administrator in the Transvaal Civil Service, and as such the vacancy caused by his death will be very hard to fill. He was an expert on Native matters, and no commission ever sat without his being summoned to give evidence before it.

The Natives called him "Khoshi-ke-Nna", which means "I am the Chief". A firm but just Englishman, with a striking military gait, he would have been an ideal leader of the native contingents had the offer of native help been accepted by the Union Government.

The casualty list on both sides exceeded one thousand. Over ten thousand rebels were imprisoned, of whom 293 leaders will be tried, the rest being detained up till the end of the trouble.

After various encounters with the Union forces under General Botha, General De Wet suffered a series of heavy defeats. Many of his followers surrendered, and his son was killed on the battlefield. He tried to escape to German South West Africa, but was overtaken and captured in Bechuanaland, with fifty followers, including his secretary, Mr. Oost, formerly editor of a Pretoria weekly paper.

Considering his initial bounce and bluster, General De Wet's surrender was a particularly tame affair. Said the captive to the captor: "I seem to know you — are you not Jordaan?" "Yes, General," replied the captor. "I saw you at Vereeniging where we made peace." "Very well," rejoined the captive, "I must congratulate you on your achievement. It was very smart. Anyway, I am glad that I am taken by you and not by an Englishman."*

— * Gen. De Wet was tried and sentenced by the Special court to six years' imprisonment and a fine of 2,000 Pounds. —

General Kemp succeeded in eluding his pursuers by means of forced marches across the Kalahari desert, and effected a junction with Maritz in German South West Africa; but after only a few weeks' taste of German rule he returned to the Union and surrendered with his commando and all arms, evidently satisfied with British rule. Some of his men were wearing German uniforms. The prophet Rensburg, carrying a big umbrella, also surrendered with him.

General Beyers was the first to succumb. Cornered by the loyal forces, he was driven up against the Vaal River in flood. With his pursuers on the one side and the raging torrent on the other, he was drowned in an ill-starred attempt to escape across that treacherous river. Parties were sent out to drag the river and search for the body, and a reward of 50 Pounds was offered to the finder. Mrs. Beyers left Pretoria in a special train with a coffin on board, to join the search party. She was accompanied by a few relatives and friends, including one doctor of medicine and one minister of religion. They travelled along the Johannesburg-Kimberley line as far as Maquasi, near the river, where they received tidings of the recovery of General Beyers's body. It was found by a Dutch farmer, who promptly claimed the 50 Pound reward.

A telegram to Pretoria brought back a reply from General Smuts stating that it was inadvisable to convey the body to the capital at the time, so he was buried by the parson on the veld to the accompaniment of lightning flashes which blind the eye, and salutes of loud peals of African thunder, which shake the earth in a manner that is known only to persons who have spent a summer in the interior of South Africa.

It is said that the late General insured his life so heavily before the outbreak that representatives of the several insurance companies concerned had to meet after his death and consider the matter of their liability.

The remainder of the story of the "Five Shilling Rebellion" is soon told. After the proclamation of martial law the Premier assumed the supreme command of the Union forces and called out all the citizens — the whites to arms and the blacks as drivers and manual labourers at the front. Some Boers who could not give a satisfactory excuse disobeyed the call, and were sentenced to terms of imprisonment with hard labour under the Defence Act. Thus backed by the overwhelming support of the various peoples of the Union of all creeds and colours, the Prime Minister made a clean sweep of the rising, and in less than two months the Rt. Hon. Louis Botha was once again master of the situation from the shores of the Indian Ocean in the east to the Atlantic coast in the west. And when the rebel leaders were cogitating over the situation in durance vile, the Prime Minister was sending a message from German South West Africa, on February 26, asking Parliament to deal leniently with the rebels.

Keise qusa Tipereri, Kgam'se gaqu ha; Keise qusa Tipereri Artie ti gxawo si mu. Hamnci gqo Pikadili. Hamnci Gqo Lester Skuer Keise qusa, qusa Tipereri Mar, ti xawo nxeba ha. "Tipperary" in Qoranna.*

— * This language is also spoken by the Namaquas and some of the tribes in German South West Africa. —



Chapter XXIV Piet Grobler

Lecture delivered by Mr. Sol T. Plaatje before the "Marsh Street Men's Own" Literary Society in the Lecture Room of their Institute, Hoe Street, Walthamstow, on February 26, 1915.

Keep me in chains? I defy you. That is a pow'r I deny you! I will sing! I will rise! Up! To the lurid skies — With the smoke of my soul, With my last breath, Tar-feathered, I shall cry: Ethiopia shall not die! And hand in hand with Death, Pass on.

I shall not curse you. But singing — My singing fatefully ringing Till startled and dumb You falter, the sum Of your crime shall reveal — This do I prophesy . . . O Heart wrung dry, Awake! Startle the world with thy cry: Ethiopia shall not die! Otto L. Bohanan.*

— * In the Kalahari language, BOHANAN means: 'Be combined'. —



The gentleman whose name forms the title of my lecture is a lawyer, a grand-nephew of the late President Kruger and, till lately, a member of the Union Parliament. He represented the Dutch constituency of Rustenburg, a district whose Burghers were responsible for a kind of administrative native land arrangement in the Transvaal Republic. This arrangement, the result of a petition from Rustenburg, made it compulsory for native landowners in the Republic to register their farms in the names of white people. In accordance with it, Natives who bought land had to register it in the name of the Minister of Native Affairs. But as such Ministers did not always command the trust of the Natives they resorted to the expedient of registering their farms in the names of some European friends, missionaries or otherwise. Some European gentlemen thus became the registered owners of land belonging to Natives, giving the Natives receipts for the money and documents explaining the nature of the transaction. Other Europeans, including missionaries, were not so scrupulous. They gave the Natives no receipt, so that after their death the properties of these Natives passed into the estates of the deceased. The following case is an example.

The native peasants on a Transvaal farm found themselves in such a dilemma after the death of General Joubert, late Superintendent of Natives of the Transvaal Republic. The black "owners" had no document showing that they were the real owners of the farm and that General Joubert's name was only registered to meet the requirements of the Volksraad. In such circumstances they received notice from his executors to leave the General's farm. They appealed to the law-courts and adduced verbal evidence in support of their purchase and ownership of the farm; the sale had been a public one. Besides, according to their ideas, it needed no documentary evidence, since they were legally in possession. The Court, after listening to the evidence concerning the sums paid by individual Natives of the tribe, of the total sum paid for the farm, and of the legal reason why the title bore a white man's name, held that however unfortunate was the position of those Natives if their story was true, it could only give judgment in terms of the title deeds. Thus Natives who were originally dispossessed of their land by conquest, and who swore to having purchased in hard cash land in their own country from the conquerors, were now for the second time, so they stated, dispossessed and turned off that land all owing to the complicated registration under this "Besluit" from Rustenburg.

After the British occupation in 1900, the Courts held that the "Besluit" and its practices did not have the force of law, and Natives took advantage of the ruling to transfer their properties to their own names; but in 1913, Mr. Piet Grobler, M.L.A., moved and succeeded in getting the Natives' Land Act carried in the Union Parliament, which has placed the Natives of the whole country in a more terrible plight than were the Natives of the Transvaal Republic before the war.

Since he took his seat in the Union Parliament, Mr. Piet Grobler, like Mr. Keyter of Ficksburg, has given the Natives no rest. He first made his power felt in 1911, when General Smuts introduced a Bill to consolidate the marriage laws of the four Provinces. Mr. Grobler then moved a fatal colour clause which had the effect of killing the Bill, for the Ministry, on finding that the Bill could only be carried with the assistance of the Unionists, preferred to drop it rather than divide the Boer majority; and hence, thanks to Mr. Grobler, the chaotic confusion still obtains in the South African marriage laws.

This gentleman, in 1913, led the attack in Parliament on Sir Richard Solomon, the Union's representative in London, for not keeping his mouth shut when he is among British foreigners, and for daring to suggest British emigration to South Africa. As stated above, Mr. Grobler demanded, among other things, that the Government should introduce "during this session" (1913) a law to stop the purchase and lease of land by Natives, and the Natives' Land Act of 1913 was the result of the demand — a measure whose destructive severity forced the Natives to sue for Imperial protection against the South African Parliament.

When the present European War broke out, Mr. Grobler was among the Parliamentary clique of representatives whose Christian principles forbade them to vote for an armed expedition against their friendly neighbours, the Germans. They said that, in Deuteronomy 19:14, God specifically warned the Boers against moving the landmarks of their neighbours. But strange to say, the religious scruples of these pious objectors never revolted against removing the landmarks of their native neighbours and of appropriating, not only their land and their labour, but even the persons of these neighbours. The Natives, according to Mr. Luedorf, a German evangelist among the Bechuana, witnessed the Boer trekkers maltreating conquered Natives and taking their children as slaves. Children who were unable to walk to their serfdom being gathered in a heap and burnt alive. This, says Mr. Luedorf, caused the Natives to exclaim: "Mzilikasi, the Matabele King, was cruel to his enemies, but kind to those he conquered; whilst the Boers are cruel to their enemies and ill-treat and enslave their friends."*

— * "The Boer States" (Keane), pp. 137-138. —

Now, Mzilikasi had no Bible, but the Boer has the Bible and professes to honour it. But his Bible, being of a flexible sort, it did not prevent a certain clique of Boers from taking up arms against the Government of which Mr. Lloyd George (a gentleman who staked his reputation and risked his life in his fearless protests against the annexation of the Boer Republics) was a prominent member; and against the Liberal Government, which, as compensation for the mere change of flags, made them a nice little present in the shape of the two old English Colonies of South Africa and the undisturbed permission to rule all that is therein. Mr. Piet Grobler, the author of most of our miseries, reached the climax of his career when, after voting against the Union expedition to German South West Africa, he not only persuaded British subjects not to volunteer for service in the expedition, but himself joined a force, as alleged by the South African papers to hand by the latest mail, to shoot down the King's loyal subjects. He was taken prisoner by General Botha's forces at the head of a rebel commando, presumably whilst on the way to join the Kaiser's forces in the German Colony. He is thus one of the members of the Union Parliament who forfeited their seats by breaking the Parliamentary oath and participating in the recent rebellion.

Mr. Solicitor Grobler's ideas about the sacredness of an oath are curious and original. Every member of the Union Parliament, before taking his seat, has to subscribe to the following oath of allegiance "before the Governor-General, or some person authorized by him", usually a Judge of the Supreme Court:

== I, M. . . . M. . . . do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King George V, his heirs and successors according to law. So help me God. ==

Mr. Grobler, it is said, was caught red-handed in the treasonable act of leading a force of fifty armed rebels against the Government, and for his breach of the oath he was taken prisoner. Last week, whilst his trial was still pending, he applied for bail, and in support of his application, he pleaded that he was anxious TO ATTEND TO HIS PARLIAMENTARY DUTIES. Here is a bit of Boer candour for you!

The honourable and learned member is further stated to have pleaded that his district provided the largest proportion of rebels and he was anxious to be in Capetown when Parliament opens this afternoon,* in order to be able to represent their case when the Legislature discusses the rebellion. That is South African logic in a nutshell. The Judge, however, took a rational view of things and dismissed the application.

— * The S. A. Parliament opened on the afternoon of the same day as the Lecture. —

There may be motives other than those stated by the incarcerated member of Parliament actuating his desire to get to Capetown.

Every member of Parliament who absents himself without leave forfeits 2 Pounds a day out of his Parliamentary emoluments, so that Mr. Grobler's continued confinement in prison would entail a serious financial deficit. This was not the only instance in which anxiety of this kind was betrayed by recipients of Government bounties in South Africa. There are a large number of well-to-do Boers who draw annually hundreds of pounds from the Union Treasury, salaries which a paternal Government taxes the poorly paid labourers of South Africa to provide. This is particularly the case in the Transvaal. There, princely salaries are paid for filling such superfluous posts as that of "Inspector of White Labour", "Field Cornet", and kindred offices. The Field Cornet of each sub-district of the Transvaal is a very important gentleman, as is evinced by the intense labour attached to his office. The duties of this "hard-worked" functionary consist of the checking of the Parliamentary voters list of his ward, once every two years, and of acting as chief canvasser and election agent for the Ministerial candidate, who, however, is usually returned unopposed; and for these onerous duties he is rewarded by an ungrateful Government with the "beggarly" salary of 260 Pounds a year.

Besides these, there are sundry little sinecures, equally remunerative, to which well-to-do Dutch farmers, who are the more generally preferred, aspire; and each fills his role with acceptable dignity and a serious sense of responsibility. Consequently, there is more gnashing of teeth on the farm over the loss of one of these appointments than over the failure of a whole year's crop.

Several of these nominal "members" of the Union Civil Service were said to have taken up arms and joined the rebellion. According to the South African papers, the wife of one of them applied to the defence office for the salary of her husband. When it was pointed out to her that her husband was at that time engaged in fighting against the forces of the Defence Department, she coolly told the official that that had nothing to do with his private affairs, i.e., the income from the Government. In regard to the faithfulness of the class of officials just mentioned, I cannot refrain from drawing the attention of my audience to the fact that, as the electoral supporters of the Cabinet, they guided the policy of the Union Government during the past five years, and they are the type of legislators in whose tender care the Imperial Government would fain entrust the liberties of the voteless Natives without even the safeguard of a right of appeal.

Personally I am not revengeful, and would wish Mr. Grobler every success in his defence; the Transvaal native taxpayer, on the other hand, earns an average wage of 20 Pounds per annum: out of this he pays taxation on the same scale as the white labourer who earns 25 Pounds a month; in addition, he pays a native tax of 3 Pounds 4s. per year, presumably as a tax on the colour of his skin, for no white man pays that. This extra tax, apparently, is in order that Transvaal Field Cornets and members of Parliament should more easily draw their pay. In return for all these payments, and as a result of Mr. Grobler's legislative efforts, the Transvaal native taxpayer got the Natives' Land Act of 1913; and I am afraid that HE will not be very sorry to know that some one else enjoys the 400 Pounds per annum hitherto received by Mr. Grobler, together with his free first-class travelling ticket over the South African railways.

British pioneer officials, in Africa and elsewhere, have for generations been left in charge of mixed communities of white Colonials and black Natives and other immigrants. In spite of occasional human lapses, they have ruled these communities successfully throughout the past century, and maintained the high administrative reputation of the English in Africa, Asia and other parts of the globe. The dominant race in South Africa, on the other hand, may be fit to govern themselves, but their dealings with us show them to be wholly unfit to rule the native races. There is no more glaring illustration of this weakness than the conduct of the rebel Boers and the loyal Boers during the present war. According to my latest information from different centres of South Africa, native peasants were horsewhipped into the enemy's service as soon as the standard of rebellion was unfurled. There can be no reason to doubt the veracity of my information when the Press reports have clearly shown that even a white skin has ceased to be a protection against illtreatment. At least one loyal Magistrate and a postmaster were violently assaulted by General De Wet's Burghers, so the official dispatches say. Those shopkeepers who hesitated to open their stores to the rebels were sjambokked as were the ordinary Natives, and the Mayor of a "Free" State town was also flogged.

After the proclamation of martial law General Botha marshalled the loyal Boers throughout the country. These loyal Burghers, taking advantage of the presence of martial law, committed all kinds of excesses against loyal coloured civilians. These atrocities not only took place away in the Backveld, but sometimes in Capetown and Kimberley, the centres of African civilization; there black men were frequently tied to the wagon-wheels and lashed by the loyal Boers, and some of these coloured victims, I am told, have been cruelly done to death.

Of course, if the particular Burgher who dealt the death-blow can be identified he will be prosecuted, but that will not resuscitate the victims. It will only add misery to the innocent family of the offender. But the fact remains that during the South African War, South Africa was a huge military camp, yet the unarmed Natives, many of whom were then in the enemy's service, suffered nothing but kindness at the hands of Imperial troops, and there never was any conflict between the military and native civilians. And it but reveals the unfitness for self-government of the dominant race out there that the Natives, who sympathize with the Government, should be exposed to violence immediately the loyal Burghers are armed. That is the condition of life under true South African ideals.

Having had the ear of the Union Government since the federation of the South African States, Mr. Piet Grobler and other men of his way of thinking have been largely responsible for the repressive native laws that have found their way into the statute book of the Union. If the Natives of the other three Provinces had votes like those of the Cape Province, they would help to return sober-minded members to Parliament who are not inimical to the public welfare, instead of which they have been represented in the South African Parliament by budding subalterns of the German Army in South-West Africa. But since the Imperial Government in its wisdom when granting a Constitution to South Africa saw fit to withhold from the blacks their only weapon of protection against hostile legislation, viz., the power of the ballot, they surely, in common fairness to the Natives and from respect for their own honour, cannot reasonably stand aside as mere onlookers while self-condemned enemies of the Crown ram their violent laws down the throats of the Natives. The Imperial Government by the obligations of its overlordship and its plighted word to the Natives, at the time of the federation, is in duty bound to free the unrepresented Natives from the shackles of these laws, or otherwise, declare its guardianship of the interests of the Natives to have ceased, and counsel these weaker races to apply elsewhere for relief.

* * * * *



Epilogue

Oh, hear us for our native land, The land we love the most: Our fathers' sepulchres are here, And here our kindred dwell; Our children, too; how should we love Another land so well? Wreford.



After partaking of hot cross buns at the family table of a dear old English family the day before yesterday (Good Friday), I went to Walthamstow, and there heard a moving discourse delivered by the Rev. James Ellis on the sufferings and death of Christ for the redemption of mankind.

At my abode this morning, after receiving such tokens of friendship as Easter eggs and artistic picture cards, I attended an Easter service at the London University Hall and heard the little choir of four voices rendering mellifluous anthems to the glory of God. At the invitation of the Rev. R. P. Campbell this afternoon I went to Lloyds Park to tell the P.S.A. there about a South African Easter and to deliver at the same time the native message to the British public.

In the evening I went to the City Temple, where I listened to an intellectual Easter sermon, by the Rev. R. J. Campbell, on the triumph of Christianity, and heard the uniformed choir artistically sing doxologies to the risen Christ.

As I recall these services, I am transported in thought to St. Martin's Church in the heart of the "Free" State, 6,000 miles away, where thirty-seven years ago, as an unconscious babe in my godmother's arms, I went through my first religious sacrament, performed by an aged missionary who made the sign of the cross on my forehead and on my breast. I think also of another church on the banks of the Vaal River where, over twenty years ago, another missionary laid his white hands on my curly head and received my vow to forsake the Devil and all his works. I know that in these two places, as well as in all other native churches and chapels throughout South Africa, native congregations have this day been singing in their respective houses of worship and in a variety of tongues about the risen Christ. But thinking also of the lofty spires of the Dutch Reformed churches in the South African towns and dorps, I am forced to remember that coloured worshippers are excluded from them. Still, in these churches as well, Dutch men and Dutch women have this day been singing of the triumphs of the risen Christ. Yet to-morrow some of these white worshippers, in the workshops and in the parks, will be expressing an opposite sentiment to that conveyed in their songs of praise, namely, "Down with the verdoemde schepsels" (damned black creatures) — the Natives — for whom also, these white worshippers say, Christ died.

The Infant Christ, when King Herod sought to murder Him, found an asylum in Africa.

The Messiah, having been scourged, mocked, and forced to bear His cross up to Golgotha, and sinking under its weight, an African, by name Simon of Cyrene, relieved Him of the load.

To-day British troops are suffering untold agony in the trenches in a giant struggle for freedom. In this stupendous task they are assisted by sable Africans from the British, French, and Belgian colonies of the Dark Continent, thus fulfilling the Biblical prophecy, "From Africa (Egypt) I have called my son." But other Africans, again, are debarred by the South African Constitution on account of their colour from doing their share in this war of redemption. This prohibition surely carries the conviction that the native complaint against the South African Constitution is something more than a mere sentimental grievance.

The newspapers are telling us of "a growing spirit of justice in South Africa"; but in the face of what is happening to-day, the Natives are wondering if the word 'justice', in this newspaper allegation, is not a misprint for 'hatred', for up till as late as 1914 whole congregations have been arrested on leaving some of their farm chapels on "Free" State and Transvaal farms. They had their passes in their pockets, but the police contended that they had no special permits, signed by the landowners on whose farms the chapels are situated, to attend divine service at the particular places of worship on that particular day, and the courts upheld this contention. Up to five years ago no such sacrilegious proceedings interfered with the Sunday attendances of native worshippers in the same country, so that there is no mistake as to the kind of spirit that is "growing in South Africa".

* * * * *

When a man comes to you with stories about a "growing spirit of justice in South Africa", ask him if he knows that in 1884 there was a great debate in the Cape Parliament as to whether Natives should be permitted to exercise the franchise, and that the ayes had it. Ask him, further, if he thinks that such a proposal could ever be entertained to-day by any South African Parliament. If he is honest, he will be bound to say "no". Then ask him, "Where is your growing spirit of justice?"

* * * * *

In 1909, a South African Governor made a great speech in which he declaimed against the South African policy of pinpricking the blacks.

In 1911, another South African Governor authorized the publication of regulations in which, by prohibiting the employment of coloured artisans on the South African mines, the pinpricks were accentuated.

In 1913, a South African Governor signed the Natives' Land Act which made the Natives homeless in South Africa. Whereas the Government have announced their intention not to disfranchise the South African rebels, judging from the present legislative tendency we fear that, unless the Imperial Government can be induced to interfere, it is not improbable that should the rebels return to power after the general election

In 1916, there will be horrible enactments in store for the blacks.

* * * * *

In 1906, His Majesty's Government gave the Transvaal Colony self-government under a constitution which included a clause placing the voteless native taxpayers under the special protection of the Crown.

In 1907, His Majesty's Government likewise gave the Orange River Colony (now Orange "Free" State) self-government under a constitution which contained a similar provision. At this time the Governor of Natal, as representing the King, was Supreme Chief of the Zulus in that Colony. The Natives lived happily under these protecting reservations, and the white people had no complaint against the just restraint of the Imperial suzerainty.

In 1909, His Majesty's Government passed the Union Constitution, sweeping away all these safeguards. In that Act they practically told South Africa to do what she liked with the Natives in these three Colonies and South Africa is doing it. Where, then, is this "growing spirit"?

* * * * *

During the South African War in 1901, the Imperial Government informed the Federal (Dutch) Government that no peace terms could be considered which did not extend to the native races the same privileges — the rights of the franchise — which are enjoyed by the Natives of the Cape Colony.

In 1902, the British Imperial and Dutch representatives signed the Peace terms at Vereeniging. In these, the rights of the coloured citizens were postponed till after the old Republics had responsible Government. Responsible Government has since been granted, and has in turn been succeeded by the Union. But when the Imperial Parliament,

In 1909, considered the Act of Union, English and Dutch South Africans came over and represented to the Imperial authorities that there would be a striking demonstration (or words to that effect) against the federation, and even against South Africa's relation to the Mother Country if native rights were as much as mentioned in the Constitution; and the South African Native Franchise has now receded as far off as the Greek calends. So where is that "growing spirit of justice"?

* * * * *

When you speak of converting Mohammedans, let the question be asked: "What must Mohammedans think of those whose religion having said 'In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread,' they nevertheless uphold the policy of rulers who pass regulations debarring one section of the community from following an honest occupation in their native land? And what impression must be created in the minds of black converts who are subjected to discriminations, including prohibitions that were not in existence five years ago?"

And if in spite of beautiful voices that I have heard this Easter Sunday singing anthems concerning the triumph of the kingdom of love the British flag continues to defend the policy of repression and colour hatred in South Africa, then I fear that the black victims of this policy, many of them converted to Christianity through your efforts, might very well class your Easter anthems and their great teaching with the newspaper canard relative to a "growing spirit of justice in South Africa"; for our bitter experience proves that spirit to be at best but a dwindling one.

Two years ago I was alarmed by the impious utterances of a coloured man whose friendship I valued. He being influential among our people, I gently remonstrated with him lest through his action many of our people become unsettled in their faith. This was his explanation: He was going along an East Rand suburb at eleven o'clock one Sunday morning when the bells were ringing. He saw a number of people entering a Dutch church, and as he was far from home he mingled with them, intending to spend the hour at worship instead of continuing his walk. But no sooner was he inside than the usher jostled him out of the church, hailed a policeman and handed him in charge, so that he spent the next hour in the charge office instead of at chapel. On the Monday morning he was convicted by the East Rand Magistrate and fined 1 Pound for trespassing on a private place, to wit, a church. And that was a Dutch Reformed church, the State Church of South Africa. Others had reproached him before me for such utterances, he said, but he will have "no more of our religious mockery with its theoretical 'Come unto Me' and its practical '1 Pound or a month with hard labour'."

John Ruskin, writing on 'State Intervention', says:

== "When a peasant mother sees one of her careless children fall into a ditch, her first proceeding is to pull him out; her second, to box his ears; her third, ordinarily, to lead him carefully a little way by the hand, or send him home for the rest of the day. The child usually cries, and very often would clearly prefer remaining in the ditch; and if he understood any of the terms of politics, would certainly express resentment at the interference with his individual liberty: but the mother has done her duty." ==

Ruskin goes further and depicts the calamities of a mother nation which, like a foxhunter, complies with the request of its daughter nations "to be left in muddy independence."*

— * 'Political Economy of Art': Addenda (J. E., Section 127). —

Let us appeal to you, in conclusion, to remember that the victorious Christ "has gathered your people into a great nation, and sent them to sow beside all waters and multiply sure dwellings on the earth. . . .

"Let not the crown of your pride be as a fading flower. But be equal to your high trust: reverent in the use of freedom, just in the exercise of power, and generous in the protection of the weak."

* * * * *

This has been the most strenuous winter that the writer has ever experienced: a dark, dreary winter of almost continuous rains, snowflakes, cold, mud and slush. Reading of the severity of English winters at a distance, I never could have realized that the life I have lived in England during the past four months was possible. An existence from which the sun's rays are almost always obliterated by the inclement weather, by snow and by fog. I cannot describe the sensations caused by the dismal gloom of the sunless days — a most depressing life — especially in December, when it would suddenly turn dark, compelling one to work by gaslight when the clocks indicated that it was high noon. Not till then did I realize why some people are said to worship the sun. I find that I have unlearned my acquaintance with the larger planets and heavenly bodies (a knowledge acquired since boyhood) because the winter fog and clouds have continually hidden the moon and stars from view.

* * * * *

But now that the country is throwing off its winter cloak and dressing itself in its green, gorgeous array; now that King Day shines in all his glory through the mist by day, and the moon and stars appear in their brilliancy in the evenings; now that, as if in harmony with the artistic rendering of Easter anthems by your choirs, the thrush and the blackbird twitter forth the disappearance of the foggy winter with its snow, sleet and wet; now that the flocks of fleecy sheep, which for the past four months have been in hiding and conspicuous by their absence, come forward again and spread triumphantly over the green as if in celebration of the dawn of the new spring; now that the violet and the daffodil, the marguerite and the hyacinth, the snowdrop and the bluebell, glorious in appearance, also announce, each in its own way, the advent of sunny spring, we are encouraged to hope that, "when peace again reigns over Europe", when white men cease warring against white men, when the warriors put away the torpedoes and the bayonets and take up less dangerous implements, you will in the interest of your flag, for the safety of your coloured subjects, the glory of your Empire, and the purity of your religion, grapple with this dark blot on the Imperial emblem, the South African anomaly that compromises the justice of British rule and seems almost to belie the beauty, the sublimity and the sincerity of Christianity.

Shall we appeal to you in vain? I HOPE NOT.



[ Map was inserted here. ]



Report of the Lands Commission

An Analysis

To attempt to place the different people of the country in water-tight compartments is very attractive in a general way, but it is bound to fail.

You have got a comparatively small European population — a million and a quarter — and something like half a million mixed race, and then you have got between four and five million of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country.

Any policy that aims at setting off a very small proportion of the land of the country for the use and occupation of the very vast majority of the inhabitants, and reserving for the use and occupation of a very small minority of the inhabitants the great majority of the land of the country, is a policy that economically must break somewhere. You can start and move in that direction to a certain extent, but you will be driven back by the exigencies of a law that operates outside the laws of Parliament — the law of supply and demand.

This theory of segregation is to some minds attractive, but the forgotten point is that you need the Native. You cannot segregate him because you need him. If you drive him out of his existing life and occupation, you run a great risk that you will lose many of your Natives. Hon. W. P. Schreiner, K.C., C.M.G., (High Commissioner for the Union of South Africa, Ex-Premier of Cape Colony,) before the Lands Commission.

If we are to deal fairly with the Natives of this country, then according to population we should give them four-fifths of the country, or at least half. Hon. C. G. Fichardt, M.L.A.

The best way to segregate the races would be by means of a boundary fence along the main line of Railway from Port Elizabeth, straight through to Bloemfontein and Pretoria, to Pietersburg, putting the blacks on one side and the whites on the other side of the Railway line.* M. J. M. Nyokong, before the Native Affairs Commission.

— * This would give about one-third of the Union to the four and a half million blacks, the one and a quarter million whites retaining two-thirds. —



During the past two years while the Empire was involved in one of the mightiest struggles that ever shook the foundations of the earth, South Africa was wasting time and money in a useless and unprecedented attempt at territorial segregation betwixt white and black. Judging by the recently published Report of the Lands Commission, however, she has failed ignominiously in the task.

Whenever, on behalf of the Natives, the hardships disclosed in this book were mentioned, the South African authorities invariably replied that these hardships would cease as soon as the Commission submits its Report. This has now been done. General Botha laid the Report on the table of the house on May 3, 1916, and intimated as he did so that "the Government propose to take no immediate action upon the recommendations, but will give the country twelve months to consider the Report and the evidence." Meanwhile the eviction of Natives from farms continues in all parts of the country, and the Act debars them from settling anywhere, not even in Natal, although Natal witnesses (like the Chairman of the Commission) have definitely claimed the exemption of their Colony from this form of Union tyranny.

It is a Report of many parts. A good deal of it is instructive and much of it is absurd. Most of the Commissioners and many of the witnesses have expressed themselves with a candid disregard for the rights of other people.

Government publications, at least, should be beyond question; thus, old Government archives give correct histories of native tribes for 500 years back, because their compilers invariably sought and obtained reliable evidence from Natives about themselves. But this Commission's Report (to mention but one instance among several inaccuracies) tells us, on page 27 of U.G. 25-'16, of "the original inhabitants of Moroka ward who had lived in Bechuanaland under the Paramount Chief Montsioa (sic). Their original chief was Sebuclare" (!)

No Barolong tribe ever had a chief by this name. The fact is, that Governments of to-day frequently publish unreliable native records, for they are mainly based on information obtained from self-styled experts, who, in South Africa, should always be white.

Again, it is not explained why the Commission publishes, in a permanent record, particulars of encumbrances on native farms such as we find on page 29 of the same volume. Is it to damage the credit of the native farmers? Supposing some of the hypothecations given in the "list of mortgaged native-owned farms in the Thaba Ncho District" were wiped off before the Report was issued, will it be fair to the native owners to read, say in 1999, that their farms are mortgaged for those amounts?

In the published evidence given before other Commissions questions put to the witnesses are usually printed along with the answers. This has not been done in the present instance, and consequently some of these replies are so clumsily put that the reader cannot even guess what the witness was answering. If the questions had also been printed, the whole Report might have been illuminating. It is interesting, for instance, to read what was apparently a lively dispute between the Commissioners and one witness — Mr. J. G. Keyter, M.L.A., the arch-enemy of the blacks and one of the promoters of the whole trouble — as to what is, or is not, the meaning of the Natives' Land Act. Indeed the various definitions and explanations of the Act, given by the Commissioners and some of the witnesses, contradict those previously given by the Union Government and Mr. Harcourt. And while the ruling whites, on the one hand, content themselves with giving contradictory definitions of their cruelty the native sufferers, on the other hand, give no definitions of legislative phrases nor explanations of definitions. All that they give expression to is their bitter suffering under the operation of what their experience has proved to be the most ruthless law that ever disgraced the white man's rule in British South Africa.

The Report and the evidence at any rate bear out the statement set forth in this book, namely, that the main object in view is not segregation, but the reduction of all the black subjects of the King from their former state of semi-independence to one of complete serfdom.

The Commission's Awards

The population of South Africa is very commonly overestimated. As a matter of fact there are in South Africa about one and a quarter million whites and four and a half million blacks. According to the Census of 1911, the exact figure is a million less than the population of London, — viz., 5,973,394 — scattered over an area of 143,000,000 morgen — nearly ten times the size of England. A morgen is about 2 1/9 English acres.