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.