CHAPTER XVI
Bethlehem is Captured by the English
It was at this time that I decided to make my way to Lindley, which had been retaken by the English a few days after General Piet de Wet had captured the Yeomanry in that town. The object of my journey was to discover if it were not possible to again seize the place. On the 21st of June I covered half the distance to Lindley, and the following day I arrived within ten miles of the town.
I rode round the town with Piet de Wet the next day, in order to find out our best method of attacking it.
Commandant Olivier had been sent by me that morning in the direction of Kroonstad to oppose a strong English column, which I had been informed was approaching. But my plan must have leaked out in some way or other, for the enemy carefully chose so well protected a route that they gave Commandant Olivier no chance of attacking them. Thus the following morning the English arrived safely at Lindley, and now there was no possibility of capturing the town.
In the meantime President Steyn's laager had moved from the east of Heilbron and joined us. He himself, with the members of the Government, had gone to Bethlehem. General Marthinus Prinsloo was there too; he had resigned his post of Commander-in-Chief of the commandos which guarded the Drakensberg. Commandant Hattingh of Vrede had been chosen in his place, and he also was at Bethlehem.
A difficulty now arose as to Prinsloo's position. The President declared that Prinsloo was nothing more than a private burgher; but Commandant Olivier was not satisfied with this, and asked that there might be an election of a Commander-in-Chief. This request, however, the President refused to grant.
I did not wish the office of Commander-in-Chief to devolve upon myself, for I knew that I did not possess the confidence of the officers. And as some eight miles to the east of Lindley there was telegraphic communication with Bethlehem, I was able to hold a conversation with the President over the wires. I accordingly again asked him to permit an election. But it was all in vain; the President declined to allow an election to take place.
I now took matters into my own hands. I collected the officers together with the object of holding a secret election. Thus I should discover what their opinion of me might be as chief of the Free State forces. I was firmly resolved that should the majority of the officers be against me, and the President should still refuse his consent to an election, that I would send in my resignation, and no longer continue to hold the post of Commander-in-Chief.
Commander-in-Chief Hattingh, Vechtgeneraal Roux, and all the oldest commandants of the Free State, were present at this meeting. The voting was by ballot; and the result was that there were two votes for General Marthinus Prinsloo, one for General Piet de Wet, and twenty-seven for myself.