Footnote 1: The official returns showed that 456 farm-houses had been wholly, and 350 partially, destroyed; and that 60 waggons, 5,715 horses, 111,930 head of horned cattle, and 161,930 sheep had been carried off by the Kafirs. And this apart from the remuneration claimed by the settlers for services in the field, and commandeered cattle and supplies.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 2: Cloete. See note, p. 16.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 3: For the benefit of those who may desire to read the passages in which these opinions are expressed, I append the references. Cloete's opinion is to be found in his "Five Lectures on the Emigration of the Dutch Farmers," delivered before the Natal Society and published at Capetown in 1856. A reprint of this work was published by Mr. Murray in 1899. Sir John Robinson's opinion, which endorses the views of Mrs. Anna Elizabeth Steenekamp as expressed in The Cape Monthly Magazine for September, 1876, is to be found at pp. 46, 47 of his "A Lifetime in South Africa" (Smith, Elder, 1900).[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 4: Cetewayo.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 5: Despatch of November 19th, 1858, to Sir E. B. Lytton.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 6: Sir E. B. Lytton.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 7: Chaka.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 8: The receipt of the despatch in which these valuable recommendations were made was not even acknowledged by the Colonial Office. Frere himself gives the outlines of his proposals in an article published in The Nineteenth Century for February, 1881.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 9: The Crown Colony—not the Protectorate—annexed by the Cape Colony in 1895.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 10: Rhodes's words were: "If we do not settle this [i.e. the question of Bechuanaland] ourselves, we shall see it taken up in the House of Commons on one side or the other, not from any real interest in the question, but simply because of its consequences to those occupying the Ministerial benches. We want to get rid of Downing Street in this question, and to deal with it ourselves, as a self-governing colony."[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 11: June, 1894.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 12: January 28th, 1895.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 13: It is worth noticing that even the presence of the German Marines at Delagoa Bay was counterbalanced—whether by chance or design—by the coincidence of the arrival of a British troopship with time-expired men from the Indian garrison, off Durban.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 14: Afternoon of Monday, December 30th.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 15: "John Bull & Co.," by "Max O'Rell," 1894.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 16: "This is our Afrikander character. The descendants of Hollanders, Germans and Frenchmen inter-married, and are only known at present by their surnames. They form the Afrikander nationality, and call themselves Afrikanders. The Afrikanders are no more Hollanders than Englishmen, Frenchmen, or Germans. They have their own language, own morals and customs; they are just as much a nation as any other."—De Patriot, in the course of an article headed "A Common but Dangerous Error"—the error in question being the assertion that "the Cape Colony is an English colony" (translated and reproduced in The Cape Times, September 3th, 1884).[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 17: Quoted by Du Toit in De Patriot: translation from the English reprint of De Transvaalse Oorlog.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 18: Then Judge, afterwards President of the Free State, and State-Secretary of the South African Republic in succession to Dr. Leyds.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 19: P. 64 et seq. of The Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (Hodder & Stoughton).[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 20: Under the changed conditions of to-day the Boer population is organised in the Transvaal into Het Volk, and in the Orange River Colony into the Oranjie Unie; both practically identical with the Bond in the Cape Colony.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 21: Reprint of a pamphlet (found with the first leaf torn) containing an English translation of De Transvaalse Oorlog, p. 8.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 22: De Transvaalse Oorlog, pp. 7 and 8.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 23: Cecil Rhodes: His Political Life and Speeches. By Vindex; p. 533. Borckenhagen had just died.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 24: Ons Land, reputed to be controlled by Hofmeyr himself, and certainly the recognised organ of the Bond, published a pæan of triumph over the surrender of Dr. Jameson's troopers at Doornkop. "Afrikanderdom has awakened to a sense of earnestness which we have not observed since the heroic war of liberty in 1881. From the Limpopo, as far as Capetown, the second Majuba has given birth to a new inspiration and a new movement amongst our people in South Africa.... The flaccid and cowardly imperialism that had already begun to dilute and weaken our national blood, gradually turned aside before the new current that permeated our people.... Now or never the foundation of a wide-embracing nationalism must be laid.... The partition wall has disappeared ... never has the necessity for a policy of a colonial and republican union been greater; now the psychological moment has arrived; now our people have awakened all over South Africa; a new glow illumines our hearts; let us lay the foundation-stone of a real United South Africa on the soil of a pure and all-comprehensive national sentiment."[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 25: 1896.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 26: Mr. Bodley, in his Coronation of King Edward VII., remarks that of the seventy Balliol scholars elected during the mastership of Jowett (1870-1893) only three had at that time (1902) "attained eminence in any branch of public life." These three were Mr. H. H. Asquith, Dr. Charles Gore (then Bishop of Worcester), and Lord Milner.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 27: The incident is otherwise interesting as affording the first sign of that confidence of the British population in Lord Milner, which, steadily increasing as the final and inevitable struggle approached, earned for him at length the unfaltering support of British South Africa. After the Rand celebrations were over, he was informed that his advice had been put into effect with "very considerable difficulty." The argument which had prevailed was this: "The new High Commissioner is a tested man of affairs; we all look to him to put British interests on a solid basis; and as we do this, let us obey him in a matter like this."[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 28: Apart from the question of the validity of the preamble to the Pretoria Convention (1881), two Conventions—the London Convention (1884), and the Swaziland Convention (1894)—were in force between the South African Republic and Great Britain. The relations of the Imperial Government to the Free State were regulated by the Bloemfontein Convention (1854). This latter and the Sand River Convention (1852), were the Conventions of Grey's time.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 29: These two men, now Colonel Sir Aubrey Woolls-Sampson and Major W. D. "Karri" Davies, had refused to sign the petition of appeal—an act of submission which President Krüger required of the Johannesburg Reformers, before he released them from Pretoria gaol. They did so on the ground that the Imperial Government had made itself responsible for their safety; since they and the other Reformers, with the town of Johannesburg, had laid down their arms on the faith of Lord Rosmead's declaration that he would obtain reasonable reforms from President Krüger for the Uitlanders.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 30: In the question of the Swaziland border, the affair of Bunu, and the continued and increasing ill-treatment of the Cape Boys, the Boer Government manifested its old spirit of aggression and duplicity. All these matters involved Lord Milner in anxious and wearisome negotiations, which, however, he contrived by mingled firmness and address to keep within the limits of friendly discussion.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 31: This short despatch has been given practically in extenso. It was not published in the Blue-books, but it was communicated to the Press some three months after it had been received.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 32: By August the South African garrison had been raised to the very moderate strength of rather more than 8,000 troops.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 33: Sir Gordon Sprigg's long service as a minister of the Crown fully entitled him to this honour; nor was his presence rendered any the less desirable by the fact that Sir Henry de Villiers, the Chief Justice, was also attending the Jubilee in England.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 34: The Schreiner Ministry.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 35: There appears to have been some question as to whether the terms of the President's undertaking bound him to introduce the proposed measure into the Volksraad in 1897, or in 1898. Chief Justice de Villiers held that the latter date was contemplated by the President. But the point is immaterial, since President Krüger denied in the Volksraad, after the dismissal of Mr. Kotzé, that he had ever given an undertaking at all to Chief Justice de Villiers or to anybody else.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 36: Cape Times, March 4th, 1898.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 37: Cd. 369.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 38: He was succeeded in the Colonial Secretaryship by Dr. Smartt, a former member of the Bond, but now a Progressive, and at the same time Sir Thomas Upington, who had resigned from ill-health, was succeeded by Mr. T. Lynedoch Graham, as Attorney-General.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 39: These were prisoners taken in the suppression of the revolt in Bechuanaland in 1897.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 40: The little group of six, of which Sir James Innes was the head—including Sir R. Solomon and four others—voted with the Ministry for the Redistribution Bill, but against it on the "no confidence" motion (with the exception of Sir James himself). Also one moderate Bondsman voted for "redistribution," but went against the Ministry on the "no confidence" motion.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 41: Mr. Rhodes was opposed at Barkly West by a candidate financed from Pretoria.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 42: As translated in South Africa, October 15th, 1898.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 43: In a house of 79, 40 Afrikander and 39 Progressive members were returned. A very careful and reliable calculation showed that, of an aggregate of 82,304 votes polled, 44,403 were cast for Progressive, and 37,901 for Afrikander candidates. More than this, while no Progressive member was returned by a majority of less than 137, three Afrikanders won their seats by respective majorities, of two, ten, and twenty. The Progressives, therefore, were entitled, on their aggregate vote, to a majority of six.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 44: Mr. Rhodes had obtained an interview with Lord Milner for the purpose of laying his views before him. But, it is said, the unwonted sternness of the Governor's expression at once convinced him of the hopelessness of his mission; and he withdrew without any attempt to argue his case. As Rhodes was a man of great personal magnetism, the incident is not without significance.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 45: Both sides were one short of their full strength, but a Progressive, Dr. (now Sir William) Berry, was chosen Speaker of the House.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 46: The second reading of the Navy Contribution Bill, giving effect to Sir Gordon Sprigg's pledge, was carried on December 2nd, 1898, without a division.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 47: The State-Secretaryship was offered first to Mr. Abraham Fischer, of the Free State, by whom it was declined (Memoirs of Paul Krüger, vol. ii., p. 297). The Cape Afrikanders desired the appointment of Mr. Smuts.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 48: On May 7th, 1897, President Krüger had formally requested the Imperial Government to allow all questions at issue between the two Governments under the Convention to be submitted to the arbitration of the President of the Swiss Republic. To this proposal Mr. Chamberlain replied, on October 10th, that the relationship of Great Britain to the South African Republic being that of a suzerain Power, it would be impossible for the Imperial Government to permit the intervention of a foreign Power. On April 16th, 1898, in a despatch embodying the legal opinions of Mr. Farelly, President Krüger claims that the South African Republic is an independent State, and denies the existence of any "suzerainty" on the part of Great Britain. In forwarding this despatch Lord Milner made the apposite comment that the propriety of employing the term suzerainty to express the rights possessed by Great Britain is an "etymological question," and Mr. Chamberlain, replying on December 15th, accepts President Krüger's declaration that he is willing to abide by the articles of the Convention, reasserts the claim of suzerainty, declines to allow foreign arbitration, and demands the immediate fulfilment of Article IV. In a despatch of May 9th, 1899, Mr. Reitz asserts that the Republic is "a sovereign international State"; and on June 13th Mr. Chamberlain replies that he has no intention of continuing the discussion.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 49: Owing to a slight affection of the eye.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 50: "On the Sunday night before Christmas, a British subject named Tom Jackson Edgar was shot dead in his own house by a Boer policeman. Edgar, who was a man of singularly fine physique, and both able and accustomed to take care of himself, was returning home at about midnight, when one of three men standing by, who, as it afterwards transpired, was both ill and intoxicated, made an offensive remark. Edgar resented it with a blow which dropped the other insensible to the ground. The man's friends called for the police, and Edgar, meanwhile, entered his own house a few yards off. There was no attempt at concealment or escape; Edgar was an old resident and perfectly well known. Four policemen came.... The fact, however, upon which all witnesses agree is that, as the police burst open the door, Constable Jones [there are scores of Boers unable to speak a word of English who, nevertheless, own very characteristic English, Scotch, and Irish names] fired at Edgar and dropped him dead in the arms of his wife, who was standing in the passage a foot or so behind him."—FitzPatrick's The Transvaal from Within.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 51: For particulars of these events the reader is referred to The Transvaal from Within.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 52: The petition, with its 21,684 signatures, reached Lord Milner through Sir W. (then Mr.) Greene, the British Agent at Pretoria, on March 27th. It was forwarded by the High Commissioner to England in the mail of March 29th. The same ship, the Carisbrook Castle, carried Dr. Leyds, who was returning to Europe after a visit to Pretoria. Sir W. Greene had returned to South Africa in the same ship with Lord Milner (February 14th), and had stayed at Government Cottage (Newlands) with him for some days, discussing Transvaal matters, before proceeding to Pretoria on February 19th.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 53: C. 9,345.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 54: C. 9,345. See forward, p. 155.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 55: See p. 125.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 56: The Johannesburg Star, April 1st, 1905.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 57: Proceedings of the Select Committee on British South Africa (Q. 4,385).[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 58: For the position of Great Britain from the point of view of international law see some remarks in the note on page 580 (Chapter XII.).[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 59: See pp. 61, 69, and 93.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 60: Mr. Merriman's expression. See his letter to Mr. Fischer at p. 161.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 61: Cd. 369.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 62: Letter of Te Water to Steyn. See forward, p. 162, where this letter is given.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 63: Ibid.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 64: Then under the editorship of Mr. Massingham.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 65: C. 9,345.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 66: All these letters are in Cd. 369.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 67: Cd. 369.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 68: Mr. Hofmeyr.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 69: The original of this letter is now in the possession of Mr. E. B. Iwan Müller, by whom it was published in his work, Lord Milner and South Africa. The translation is that of the Department of Military Intelligence.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 70: 2nd. Lieut. Royal Horse Guards. Exactly one year after the last day of the Conference (June 5th), he (then A.D.C. to Lord Roberts and Duke of Westminster) ran up the British flag over the Raadzaal at Pretoria.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 71: Letter of May 27th (in Cd. 369).[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 72: Lord Milner left Capetown by special train at 8.30 a.m. on Monday, May 29th, and reached Bloemfontein punctually at 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Here he was met by President Steyn and various officials of the Free State; and an address of welcome was presented to him by the Mayor of Bloemfontein upon his arrival at the private house which had been provided for his accommodation during the Conference. At eleven o'clock on the following morning, Wednesday, the 31st, the High Commissioner went to the Presidency, where he was introduced by Mr. Steyn to President Krüger, Mr. Schalk Burger and Mr. Wolmarans. The first meeting of the Conference took place in the afternoon at 2.30, in the new offices of the Railway Department. In the evening a largely attended reception was given by President Steyn, at which Mr. Krüger was present for a short time and Lord Milner for about an hour. The Conference closed on the afternoon of Monday, June 5th, and Lord Milner then paid a farewell visit to President Steyn. The High Commissioner's special train left Bloemfontein on the following morning at 10.30, and reached Capetown at 6.45 on the evening of Wednesday, the 7th, where he was received by a large crowd, including three of the Cape Ministers and a number of Progressive Members of Parliament. President Steyn, who was present at the station on Tuesday morning to see the High Commissioner off, did everything possible for the comfort and convenience of his state guest during the week that he was in Bloemfontein. The proceedings of the Conference, with the High Commissioner's report upon them, are published in C. 9,404.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 73: C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 74: Evidence before War Commission. Cd. 1,791.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 75: See p. 319 (note 2).[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 76: Cd. 1,791.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 77: War Commission, Cd. 1,791.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 78: This was precisely the rôle played by Mafeking, only defensively, not offensively.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 79: Cd. 1,789 (War Commission).[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 80: These were the figures of the D. M. I. "Military Notes" of June, 1898; in the revised "Military Notes" of June, 1899, the estimated total of the Boer force was considerably greater—some 50,000 exclusive of colonial rebels.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 81: All of these extracts will be found in Cd. 1,791.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 82: Cd. 1,789.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 83: Cd. 1,789.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 84: Three battalions, 6 guns, and a company of Royal Engineers were all the troops available for the defence of the Cape frontiers at this time (i.e. June).[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 85: Most of these came by mail boats on July 18th and 25th. Col. Baden-Powell (who was entrusted with the important duty of organising a force for the defence of Southern Rhodesia, and subsequently of raising the mounted infantry corps which held Mafeking) arrived on the latter date.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 86: Expressing approval of the position Lord Milner had taken up at Bloemfontein. See p. 173.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 87: C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 88: C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 89: Ibid.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 90: C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 91: Ibid.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 92: E.g. Mr. Balfour's statement in the House of Commons that the object of the despatch of the special service officers, and the small additions of engineers and artillery was "to complete the existing garrison." The purchase of transport, he said, had been long ago decided upon.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 93: Under State-Secretary of the Transvaal.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 94: Article on "The Mission of Messrs. Hofmeyr and Herholdt" in Ons Land, of July 11th, 1899, as reproduced in the South African News of the same date. This account of Mr. Hofmeyr's proceedings is presumed to have been published with his approval. C. 9,518.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 95: C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 96: Then Mr. Conyngham Greene.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 97: C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 98: C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 99: Ibid.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 100: C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 101: C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 102: On May 15th, 1899—i.e. a fortnight before the Bloemfontein Conference met—five persons alleged to be British subjects were arrested on a warrant, signed by Mr. Smuts as State-Attorney, on a charge of high treason. All of them, except one man—Nicholls, who was innocent—were agents of the secret service. The statement that the men were ex-British officers, and that one of them alleged that he was acting under direct instructions from the War Office, was disseminated through the Press by the Transvaal Government, with the object of discrediting (1) the South African League, and (2) the British Government, in the eyes of the civilised world. The whole of the alleged "conspiracy against the independence of the Republic," thanks to the endurance of Nicholls and the persistence of the Imperial authorities in South Africa, was shown to be the work of the Transvaal police, favoured by the negligence or political bad faith of certain Government officials. The prosecution was abandoned on July 25th. Mr. Duxbury, the counsel for the defence retained by the British Government, in reviewing the case and the proceedings, wrote (August 9th): "It seems abundantly clear, from all the facts which have come to light, that the whole of this disgraceful prosecution found its inception in the minds of Mr. Schutte, the Commissioner of Police, and Acting Chief Detective Beatty.... I must direct your attention to the very grave accusation contained in Thomas Dashwood Bundy's affidavit against Mr. Tjaart Krüger. This gentleman is the son of President Krüger, and is the Chief of the Secret Service department of this State." And of Mr. Smuts he writes: "I believe he was deceived by the detectives, and yet at the same time I fail to understand why, in a matter of such-magnitude, he allowed himself to sign warrants for the arrest of persons charged with such a serious crime as high treason on the strength of an affidavit signed by a detective, who, on the very day such affidavit was signed, had been denounced by the Chief Justice from the Bench of the High Court as a perjurer." C. 9,521 (which contains a full record of the whole affair).[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 103: The words are quoted by Mr. M. P. C. Walter, the editor, in a letter of protest published in the Transvaal Leader of July 7th, 1899. C. 9,521.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 104: Ibid.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 105: The Settlement after the War, p. 218.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 106: Ibid.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 107: Secured by the Intelligence Department. The telegrams thus referred to, in this and the following chapter, have not been published in the Blue-Books. They were published, however, in The Times History of the War. Their authenticity is undoubted. Sir Gordon Sprigg had held a conversation with the Governor on the 13th.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 108: Mr. Fischer was still at Pretoria. C. 9, 415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 109: C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 110: Ibid.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 111: On July 31st, Cd. 369.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 112: C. 9,518.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 113: August 23rd, C. 9,521.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 114: C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 115: "The Uitlander Council is keenly disappointed at the Times' announcement that the seven years' franchise is acceptable to the Imperial Government. We fear few will accept the franchise on this condition, so the result is not likely to abate unrest and discontent, nor redress pressing grievances. Such a settlement would not even approximate to the conditions obtaining in the Orange Free State and the [British] colonies, and would fail to secure the recognition of the principle of racial equality. We earnestly implore you not to depart from the High Commissioner's five years' compromise, which the Uitlanders accepted with great reluctance. The absolute necessity for a satisfactory settlement with an Imperial guarantee is emphasised by the insincerity and bad faith persistently shown during the Volksraad discussion of the Franchise Law."—C. 9,415.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 116: The English outward mail-boat arrived on Tuesday, and the homeward boat left on Wednesday.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 117: Sir W. Greene became a K.C.B. after the war had broken out.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 118: C. 9,518.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 119: C. 9,518.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 120: C. 9,518.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 121: See p. 218 for this letter.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 122: Cd. 547.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 123: Ibid.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 124: Cd. 369.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 125: Secured by the Intelligence Department.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 126: It was known to the Intelligence Department that Krüger's secret agents had been in the Cape Colony for two years before the outbreak of war, and that they had distributed arms in certain districts of the Colony.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 127: Secured by the Intelligence Department.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 128: Cd. 547.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 129: The expression "Ons wil nou Engelse schiet" was actually used. See Thomas's Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed, p. 110.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 130: Secured by the Intelligence Department.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 131: Secured by the Intelligence Department.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 132: C. 9,521.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 133: Then Mr. Conyngham Greene. C. 9,521.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 134: C. 9,521.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 135: Ibid.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 136: The despatch was presented to the British Agent, and telegraphed, through the High Commissioner, to the Home Government. Its diplomatic ambiguity was due to Mr. Fischer's influence.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 137: C. 9,521.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 138: C. 9,521.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 139: C. 9,530.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 140: The despatch of 2,000 additional troops to Natal had been sanctioned on August 2nd, in response to the earnest appeal of the Natal Government. Hence at this time there were (roughly) 12,000 Imperial troops in South Africa. It is noticeable that, although the despatch only reached Lord Milner on the morning of the 9th, the Cape Argus had contained a telegram, giving an account of the troops warned in India and England, on the evening of the 8th.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 141: C. 9,521.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 142: Cd. 43.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 143: C. 9,521.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 144: This despatch was received on September 8th. Cd. 43.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 145: C. 9,521.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 146: Received on September 6th. Cd. 44.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 147: Cd. 18.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 148: p. 251.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 149: Cd. 420. The Blue-book points out that in the original "a well-known nick-name" is used for Mr. S. J. du Toit.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 150: As reported by Reuter.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 151: Cd. 420.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 152: Published in The Times, September 30th, 1899.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 153: In The Nineteenth Century for that month.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 154: The Times, December 15th. Mr. Bryce was taking the chair at the last of a series of six lectures on "England in South Africa," given by the present writer in the great hall of the (then) Imperial Institute.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 155: Cornhill Magazine, July, 1900. "The South African Policy of Sir Bartle Frere." By W. Basil Worsfold.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 156: The reader is referred to p. 5 in Chap. I. for the racial characteristics of the South African Dutch, and to the note on p. 48 in Chap. II. for the political significance of the word "Afrikander," as stated by Mr. S. J. du Toit.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 157: See letters between Lord Milner and Mr. Schreiner in Cd. 43, p. 13.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 158: Psalm xxii. 12.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 159: The Transvaal from Within, p. 287.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 160: This document was among those secured by the Intelligence Department, and published in The Times History of the War.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 161: See p. 77.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 162: In the House of Assembly, August 28th.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 163: One of the earliest measures of precaution which Lord Milner desired was a plan for the defence of Kimberley. But when, on June 12th, the people of Kimberley requested the Government of the Colony to take steps for the protection of their town, the reply which they received, through the Civil Commissioner, was this: "There is no reason whatever for apprehending that Kimberley is, or in any contemplated event will be, in danger of attack, and Mr. Schreiner is of opinion that your fears are groundless and your anticipations without foundation."[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 164: September 24th, 1900.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 165: This was on October 11th, 1899—the day on which the ultimatum expired.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 166: Sir Gordon Sprigg—Mr. Schreiner's Ministry was replaced by a Progressive Ministry in June, 1900.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 167: With this may be compared the fact that in Natal the whole of the local forces were mobilised on September 29th for active service. The dates upon which further units of the Cape local forces were called out are as follows: Uitenhage Rifles and Komgha Mounted Rifles, November 10th; Cape Medical Staff Corps, November 16th; and Frontier Mounted Rifles, November 24th.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 168: The Kimberley and Mafeking Volunteers were called out at the last moment, but actually before the war broke out; but the safety of both these places was imperilled by the refusal, or delay, of the colonial Government to supply them with guns.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 169: Mr. Fischer. See forward, p. 291.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 170: Kimberley.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 171: The Times, February 27th, 1906.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 172: Mr. J. W. Sauer. The reference is (in Lord Milner's words) to Mr. Sauer's "well-meant but unsuccessful mission to Dordrecht, which was immediately followed by rebellion in that district." The facts, as fully disclosed a year later, are these. On November 23rd, 1899, Mr. Sauer held a meeting at Dordrecht to dissuade the Dutch subjects of the Crown in the Wodehouse Division of the Colony from joining in the rebellion. As the result of this meeting a deputation was sent to the Commandant of the Boer invading-force, Olivier, who was at Barkly East, desiring him not to come to Dordrecht. On November 27th another meeting was held (also addressed by Mr. Sauer) and a second deputation of the inhabitants waited upon Olivier. The sequel is revealed in the telegram despatched the following day (November 28th) by the Boer Commandant to the Secretary, the War Commission, Bloemfontein: "... To-day already I received the second deputation from Dordrecht not to come to Dordrecht. This is asked officially, but privately they say that this is also a blind, and that we must come at once...." On December 2nd Olivier was received with open arms at Dordrecht. It was in a district where, in the Boer Commandant's words, "the Afrikanders were rejoicing, and joining the commandos was universal."—Cd. 420, p. 108 and p. 96; Cd. 43, p. 221; and Cd. 261, p. 126.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 173: C. 9,530.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 174: Times correspondent and editor of The Times History of the War. Mr. Amery arrived at the Cape in the second week of September, and was at Pretoria from September 24th to October 13th.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 175: Secured by Intelligence Department.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 176: C. 9,530.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 177: C. 9,530.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 178: C. 9,530.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 179: Cd. 43.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 180: Ibid.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 181: C. 9,530.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 182: Times History of the War in South Africa, vol. i., p. 360. It must be remembered that in the Transvaal all telegrams had been strictly censored from the end of August.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 183: This chapter was in type some weeks before Vol. I. of the Official History of the War was published. Where, however, the Official History amends or supplements figures, documents, etc., given in earlier official publications, the fact is mentioned in a foot-note.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 184: See p. 191.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 185: Cd. 1,789 (War Commission). The Official History of the War in South Africa gives the total on August 2nd as "not exceeding 9,940 men."[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 186: Cd. 1,789. But the Official History gives the British total at the outbreak of war as 27,054 men (as against over 50,000 burghers); of whom 15,811 (including 2,781 local troops) were in Natal, 5,221 regulars and 4,574 local troops were in the Cape Colony, and 1,448 men, raised locally by Col. Baden-Powell, were in Mafeking and Southern Rhodesia.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 187: But the Admiralty were given details of the offensive force on September 20th. (Official History.)[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 188: Cd. 1,789, pp. 15-17.[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 189: Nor was the Intelligence Department less urgent than Lord Milner. "In July of last year [1899], earlier warnings being disregarded, a formal communication was made for the consideration of the Cabinet, advising the despatch of a large force fully equipped, estimated to be sufficient to safeguard Natal and Cape Colony from the first onrush of the Boers."—Sir John Ardagh, in The Balfourian Parliament, 1900-1905. By Henry W. Lucy, p. 10. See also the evidence of the War Commission, and the "Military Notes" issued by the D. M. I. in June (1899).[Back to Main Text]

Footnote 190: In a memorandum of November 20th (furnished to Gen. Forestier-Walker) Gen. Buller, on the eve of starting for Natal, gives as a first paragraph in his "appreciation of the situation" the following remark: "1. Ever since I have been here we have been like the man, who, with a long day's work before him, overslept himself and so was late for everything all day." (Official History, p. 209.)[Back to Main Text]