“There is no doubt about it that had we marshalled our forces and crushed the enemy then and there, we should have removed a dangerous thorn from our side. But we were too magnanimous, and we shall have to pay for it.
“And now to tell you, in as few words as possible, what has happened since.
“In 1885 gold was discovered in this country, and as with the goldfields of America, thousands flocked to participate in the wealth to be obtained. Towns sprang up in every direction, and Johannesburg became a golden city, the heart of the mining industry. Here, at the present day there are some 100,000 of us more or less, and in the whole of the Transvaal there are quite 180,000 Uitlanders, or outsiders, as we are called. We found the mines, we have opened them, and it is our money which has worked them and erected the splendid stamps with which to crush the ore.
“I may tell you that we are a cosmopolitan lot, for amongst us are all nationalities; and in addition we are a strictly business class of men. We have come here to make money, and we invest it in the mines or in the country, for the Transvaal teems with natural riches. Here beneath our feet we have the gold-bearing quartz, and close at hand there are excellent coal-mines. There is iron ore in abundance, with coal alongside it to work it with. Lead, copper, and other metals are to be found in plenty, and if that were not all, the land has not a rival for grazing purposes. It is the best corn-producing country known, and in addition it is blessed with a wonderful climate, which at this altitude makes it a splendid health resort.
“But do you think our friends the Boers recognise all these things? Certainly not. They always were and always will be, in the main, ignorant and illiterate farmers, stubbornly opposed to progress. Even the best amongst them have, till quite recently, been unable to write an ordinary letter, and all the public appointments, save the president’s chair and the seats in the all-powerful Volksraad, are filled by salaried clerks recruited from the Afrikanders of Dutch stock, or from the Dutchmen of Holland itself.
“These men are under the president and his autocratic government, and I will, if I can, explain exactly what has happened to cause all the bad blood between us and our Boer masters.
“Ever since that fatal peace of 1881 the Boer has shown an open contempt of the Englishman. His arrogance has passed the bounds of belief, especially in the case of the younger generation, in whom the same ideas have been instilled.
“We have never got on well together. There has been no sympathy between us, and while we see them leading indolent lives and spending money recklessly, we know that that same money comes from our own pockets, that we, the workers, pay through the nose for the privilege of staying here and managing the mines, while they look on and live in ease and luxury.
“The Republic has an income of some five-and-a-half millions per annum. Think of it! Five-and-a-half millions, when only twenty years ago there was but 12 shillings 6 pence in their coffers. And of this vast sum five millions are paid by us, the Uitlander population, while the 70,000 Boers contribute only half a million.
“We should not mind the amount so much, though everything we eat or drink, or require for the working of our mines, is taxed to the highest; but what we do grumble at, and what is fast helping to hurry on a disruption between us, is the fact that we have no voice in its expenditure. We slave and pay, and they loaf and spend the money recklessly, investing huge sums in arms and ammunition and defensive works, and in keeping up a staff of foreigners with which to train their gunners.