[[1]] British Empire Series. Vol. II. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner 4 Co., Limited. London, 1809.
[[1]] South Africa. By W. Basil Worsfold, M.A. London, 1895.
MODE OF GOVERNMENT.
{ Cape Colony } Responsible Government
Three British Colonies { Natal }
{
{ Bechuanaland } Crown Colony.
{ South African } Full internal freedom
{ Republic } within terms of
Two Republics { or } Conventions of 1852-54
{ Transvaal } and 1881-84.
{ Free State. }
{ Basutoland, } Officers under High
{ Zululand, } Commissioner.
{ Tongaland, }
Native Territories {
{ Transkei, } Officers under Cape
{ Tembuland, } Government.
{ Griqualand, }
{ Pondoland. }
Territories of } { Administrator who
the Chartered } . . . . . . . { represents the Directors
Company } { and Secretary of State
} { jointly.
Yet, with all the varied advantages and evidences of substantial progress and prosperity given above, the present war has broken out in a result which could not have been different had the whites of South Africa been dwelling amidst limited areas, restricted resources, few liberties and a crowded population of competitive classes. Some of the reasons for this situation have been pointed out, and they include natural racial differences; a quality which Lord Wolseley described in a speech at the Author's Club on November 6, 1899, when he declared that "of all the ignorant people in the world that I have ever been brought into contact with I will back the Boers of South Africa as the most ignorant;" the inherent desire of the Dutch population for native slave labor and intense aversion to principles of racial equality; mistakes of administration and more important errors of judgment in territorial matters made by the British Colonial Office; a Dutch pride of race born from isolation, ignorance and prejudice and developed by various influences into an aggressive passion for national expansion and a vigorous determination to ultimately overwhelm the hated Englishman, as well as the despised Kaffir, and to thus dominate South Africa. Afrikander Bund Of the elements entering into this last and perhaps most important evolution the Afrikander Bund has been the chief. The formation of this organization really marks an epoch in South African history, and has proved, in the end, to be one of the most effective and potent forces in the creation of the present situation. Nominally, it was organized in 1881 amongst the Dutch farmers of Cape Colony for the purpose of promoting agricultural improvement and co-operation and for the increase of their influence in public business and government. In 1883 it swallowed up the Farmer's Protective Association—also a Dutch organization. Practically, it was a product of the feeling of racial pride, which developed in the heart and mind of every Boer in South Africa as a result of Majuba Hill and the surrender of 1881. The openly asserted influence of their Transvaal brethren, and of this triumph, had prevailed with the Cape Boers to such an extent that the latter were able to compel the rejection of Lord Carnarvon's federation scheme although they did not at the time possess a large vote in the Cape Legislature or a single member in the Government. The same influence created a desire for racial organization, and the result was the Afrikander Bund.
Its chief individual and local promoter was Mr. Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, a man whose record is one of a loyalty to the British Crown which seems, in some peculiar fashion, to have equalled his loyalty to his race. In the beginning of the Bund, and during its earlier years, he could easily harmonize the two principles. How he could do so at a later period is one of the puzzles of history and of personal character. Incidentally, it may be said that Mr. Hofmeyr attended the Colonial Conference of 1887, in London, and contributed to its proceedings the then novel proposition that each part of the Empire should levy a certain duty upon foreign products—above that imposed upon goods produced in and exported to British dominions—and that the proceeds should be devoted to the maintenance and improvement of the Imperial Navy. He also attended the Colonial Conference at Ottawa in 1894, and had, consequently, received all the knowledge of Imperial development and power which travel and experience and association with the rulers of its various countries could afford. He has, since 1881, always declined office at the Cape, and it is, therefore, apparent that the solution of the personal problem must, in his case, be left to the future—with, perhaps, the further intimation that he is looked upon with great suspicion by local loyalists, and is considered to be the owner, or controlling influence, of Our Land, the chief anti-British organ in Cape Colony.
An Imperium in Imperio
From the first the Bund was regarded with suspicion by not only English politicians in the Colony, but by a few of the more sober and statesmanlike leaders amongst the Dutch. They were, however, won over, as time passed, except the President of the Orange Free State. Sir John Brand—he had accepted knighthood from the Queen as an evidence of his British sympathies—absolutely refused to have anything to do with it. "I entertain," said he, "grave doubts as to whether the path the Afrikander Bund has adopted is calculated to lead to that union and fraternization which is so indispensable for the bright future of South Africa. According to my conception the institution of the Bund appears to be desirous of exalting itself above the established Government and forming an imperium in imperio." But, wise and far-seeing as were these views, the Free State President could not hold back his own people from sharing in the movement. Mr. F. W. Reitz, then a Judge at Bloemfontein, afterwards President in succession to Sir John Brand, and, finally, State Secretary of the Transvaal under President Kruger, joined enthusiastically in its organization, and soon had many branches in the Free State itself. Of this period in the history of the Bund, Mr. Theodore Schreiner, son of a German missionary, brother of the Cape Premier and of Olive Schreiner—the bitter anti-British writer—has described an interesting incident in the Cape Times. Mr. Reitz and the Present War He says that in 1882 Mr. Reitz earnestly endeavored to persuade him to join the organization, and that the conversation which took place upon his final refusal was so striking as to indelibly convince him that in the mind of Reitz and of other Dutch leaders it constituted, even then, a distinct and matured plot for the driving of British authority out of South Africa. "During the seventeen years that have elapsed," says Mr. Schreiner, "I have watched the propaganda for the overthrow of British power in South Africa being ceaselessly spread by every possible means—the press, the pulpit, the platform, the schools, the colleges, the Legislature—until it has culminated in the present war, of which Mr. Reitz and his co-workers are the origin and the cause. Believe me, sir, the day on which F. W. Reitz sat down to pen his Ultimatum to Great Britain was the proudest and happiest moment of his life, and one which has, for long years, been looked forward to by him with eager longing and expectation."
Branches of the Bund, within a few years, were established all over Cape Colony and the Free State, and, by 1888, the slow-moving mind of the Cape Dutch had grasped the racial idea thus presented with sufficient popular strength to warrant the holding of a large and general Congress. In his opening address the President spoke of a "United South Africa under the British flag;" but at the meeting held on March 4, 1889, at Middleburg, while much was said about the future Afrikander union, references to Britain and the flag were conveniently omitted. The platform, as finally and formally enunciated at this gathering, included the following paragraphs:
"1. The Afrikander National Party acknowledge the guidance of Providence in the affairs of both lands and peoples.
2. They include, under the guidance of Providence, the formation of a pure nationality and the preparation of our people for the establishment of a United South Africa.