14. That Broeksma, Third Public Prosecutor, and Lieutenant Murphy, of the Morality Police, actually assisted in breaking chairs, and encouraged the rioters.
I have, &c.,
A. MILNER,
Governor and High Commissioner.
With affairs of this kind stirring up race hatred and feeling among the class from whom the juries have to be selected, what chance was there of securing an impartial trial of the policeman charged with the murder of Edgar? The Acting British Agent Mr. Edmund Fraser in his dispatch of December 23 tells what he thought of the prospect before these affairs took place. 'As to the ultimate charge to be brought against the policeman, the State Attorney was doubtful whether the charge had not better be one of culpable homicide, for the reason that in the presence of a Boer jury his counsel would have a much easier task in getting him off under a charge of murder than for culpable homicide. But the chances of a Boer jury convicting him at all are so small that I said I should not assent to either charge until I had seen what rebutting evidence the Public Prosecutor brought.'
But this was not all. Immediately after the murder of Edgar, Mr. J.S. Dunn the editor of the Critic newspaper, recited the facts of the case as they were known to him and passed some severe strictures upon Dr. Krause, the First Public Prosecutor, who was responsible for determining the charge against policeman Jones and fixing his bail in the first instance. The steps now taken by Dr. Krause no doubt were within his legal rights, but they do not appear to a layman calculated to ensure justice being done. Before proceeding with the murder trial Dr. Krause took criminal action against Mr. Dunn for libel, and in order to prove the libel he, whose duty it was to prosecute Jones for murder, entered the witness-box and swore that under the circumstances as known to him he did not consider that Jones had been guilty of murder, and had therefore faithfully performed his duty in charging him with the minor offence and releasing him on bail. Further, he called upon the Second Public Prosecutor to testify in a similar strain; and finally he directly and deliberately associated with himself as witness on his side the man Jones himself who was charged with the murder. All this ostensibly to prove a paltry libel which could have been dealt with quite as effectively and infinitely more properly after the trial for murder had taken place; indeed it is incontestable that the verdict in the murder trial should properly have been relied upon to a large extent to determine the gravity of Mr. Dunn's offence. It had appeared to the British population that the chance of an impartial trial, with the jury drawn exclusively from the burgher class, was sufficiently remote without any proceedings so ill considered as these. The result fulfilled anticipations. In due course the constable Jones was indicted for culpable homicide and acquitted; and the presiding judge (Mr. Kock, who as already described had claimed a judgeship as a 'son of the soil') when discharging the prisoner said, 'With that verdict I concur and I hope that the police under difficult circumstances will always know how to do their duty.'
After the preliminary examination of Jones the Acting British Agent had written to the Acting High Commissioner (December 30, 1898): 'I will only remark that the enclosed report ... seems to show that the Public Prosecutor (Krause), who has been deeply offended by the slur cast upon his judgment through the orders from Pretoria to keep the accused in prison instead of out on bail, was more inclined to defend than to prosecute and showed an extraordinary desire to incriminate either the British Vice-Consul or the South African League for what he termed contempt of court in connection with the publication of certain affidavits in the Star.'
That was indeed the position. In this as in the Cape Boys case (the Lombaard inquiry) the aim of the prosecution appeared to be to prove that the British Vice-Consul had investigated and reported cases of injustice suffered by British subjects; and the establishment of such proof seemed to be considered a sufficient and triumphant answer to the original complaint. Such action drew the following spirited protest from Mr. Emrys Evans to the British Agent: 'He (Krause) seems generally to suppose that I have no right to do anything in the way of assisting British subjects, and that my action as Vice-Consul is nothing more nor less than officious meddling.' That well describes the position of Great Britain's representative in the Transvaal, and it has been the same for so many years that among the Uitlanders it creates no feeling of surprise; but imagine the representative of—let us say—the United States being so treated!
While these matters were proceeding an opportunity occurred to raise fresh funds for the Uitlander Education Council. The scheme had been perilously near collapse on several occasions, but by a little generous and timely help actual abandonment had been averted. The possibility of a return of better times had been foreseen by some of those interested in education, and the appeals which were made in the months of February and March resulted in raising a fund of over £100,000. The companies were also applied to for assistance in the form of annual grants for maintenance; and guarantees were given amounting in all to about £16,000 a year. A final effort was made by the Government party and the allies of Dr. Mansvelt, the Superintendent of Education, to show that the Government had made ample provision for the education of English-speaking children, and that the Uitlanders' scheme was unnecessary. Even Mr. Reitz, the State Secretary, it is to be regretted, undertook a public defence of the system which he has frequently expressed his disapproval of; but the more favourable construction which he endeavoured to place upon the law was immediately removed by a plain statement from the President to the exact contrary effect.
The Uitlanders consider that, if the intentions of the Government were as good as they desire them to be thought, firstly, they should not object to have the conditions permanently established and not leave them liable to alteration at the sweet will of the Superintendent, as they are to-day; and secondly, as there has been nothing to hinder the carrying out of benevolent intentions—had they existed—there is no reason why there should be five or six thousand Uitlander children without any facilities for education in their own language except such as are provided by private enterprise or charity. And this is so; notwithstanding the expenditure by the State of nearly a quarter of a million per annum, ostensibly upon education, nine-tenths of which sum is contributed by the Uitlander population.
The spirit in which the State aid is given and the aim which the Government have in view are entirely revealed in the conditions, a brief reference to which will be sufficient.
The Government capitation grant of £4 per annum may be earned on the conditions:—