131 The only surviving child of a widow.
132 Later, General Sir Thomas Durand Baker, K.C.B.
133 Now General Sir Frederick Maurice, K.C.B.
134 He wore only a small loin-cloth on his gigantic body.
135 Later, General Woodgate, mortally wounded at Spion Kop, in the Boer War.
136 Major-General Sir George Colley, killed in action 1881.
137 Field-Marshal Lord Wolseley.
138 General Sir William Butler, G.C.B.
139 Later he asked to remain on till November 1878, in order to complete thirty years’ service, and thus get the full pension of 20s. per diem.
140 She was rescued by a missionary.
141 The name given to a little post from the fact that in 1836 a Colonist of that name with 24 Hottentots had been surprised there by Gaikas, and after a brave resistance killed without one man escaping. It was not known for many months what had become of the party, in spite of a protracted search ordered by Sir Harry Smith. Eventually a belt worn by Macomo was recognised as having belonged to the deceased Hottentot leader, and later his Bible was repurchased from the Gaikas, with a pathetic note on the fly-leaf that the detachment was surrounded, their ammunition nearly exhausted, and they must soon be killed.
142 When the German legion, enlisted towards the conclusion of the Crimean War, was about to be disbanded, all who cared to go to South Africa were sent out, to the great advantage of the Colony. They were industrious, hard-working, and successful gardeners, giving their old country names to prosperous villages, such as Wiesbaden, Hanover.
143 I wrote to the Military Secretary of Rupert Lonsdale, in the following December: “Brave as a lion, agile as a deer, and inflexible as iron, he is the best leader of Natives I have seen.”
144 The Colonial papers attributed Brabant’s reverse to Colonel Wood having for some reason failed to support him. Our Burghers only laughed at the local papers, but it was republished in the Times.
145 The High Commissioner, writing on the 15th August 1879, after pointing out the important bearing which the position of the Flying Column in Zululand had on the safety of Natal and the Transvaal from January to July, said: “I would beg to call attention to the excellent Political effects of the dealings of these two officers with the Colonial forces, and with the Colonists in general. Up to 1878 there had always been amongst the Colonists something of a dread of the strict discipline which was, as they thought, likely to be enforced by a Military officer were they to serve under him, and a great distrust of Her Majesty’s officers generally to conduct operations against the Kafirs. This feeling has now, I believe, disappeared amongst all who served under General Wood and Colonel Buller.”
146 The growers which hang from and interlace the forest trees.
147 Now Lieutenant-General Lord Grenfell, G.C.B.
148 Now Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Warren, K.C.B.
149 The Gaika was the legitimate Head of his section of the tribe, but was deposed by General Sir George Cathcart in 1852, and imprisoned for a time, his younger brother, Siwani, being made Chief.
150 Bowker was one of eleven children not one of whom was under 6 feet, and three of his brothers were 6 feet 3 inches. Like many others of those serving with us, he had seen his cattle driven off, and had known his relations and friends murdered by Kafirs; but he had a high type of mind, as is indicated by the following story. In a petty skirmish in 1864 he was fired on by a Basuto, who missed him but killed his horse. Bowker fired on the Basuto as he ran, and broke his arm. The man fell, but when Bowker approached stood up stoically to meet the death he anticipated. Bowker bound up his arm and let him go, thinking no more of the matter. Many years after, when Bowker was travelling with his wife in a waggon in Basutoland, buying cattle, he halted at a kraal at sundown, and as usual the Basutos crowded round him. He noticed one man who stared at him closely and then disappeared, but came back within an hour, with all his family, bearing on his head a bundle of firewood, a sheep, and some milk and vegetables, saying, “I offer these gifts to the man who broke and mended my arm.” The firewood could not have been worth less than half a crown, as the country is treeless, and the only fuel is the manure of cattle.
151 Now Major-General Laye, C.B.
152 Now Sir James Sivewright, K.C.M.G. of Tulliallan, N.B.
153 Now General Lord Grenfell, G.C.B.
154 Ex-private soldier, 73rd Regiment.
156 The place of teaching.
157 Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge, K.C.B., K.C.S.I.
158 General Woodgate was mortally wounded at Spion Kop, Natal, January 1900.
159 This letter refuses the assistance on account of Military risks.
160 Messrs. T. White & Co., Outfitters, Aldershot.
161 Rope made of ox hide.
162 I measured the track next morning, and found I had taken the wheel to within 5 inches of the scarped outside of the hill.
163 I had been appointed Political Agent for North Zululand and Swaziland in October.
164 Son of my friend, General Sir Daniel Lysons.
165 A light four-wheeled American carriage.
166 Extract from a letter from Lord Chelmsford to Colonel Evelyn Wood:—
“Maritzburg, 10th December 1878.
“You have done wonders with the Dutchmen, and I am quite sure the High Commissioner will be as much obliged to you from a Political point of view as I am from a Military one.—Chelmsford.”
Sir B. Frere to the Secretary of State for the Colonies:—
“Maritzburg, 23rd December 1878.
“I have but little doubt but that the firm, conciliatory, and judicious treatment of these gentlemen by Colonel Evelyn Wood will have an excellent effect, not only locally, but generally throughout the South-eastern Transvaal districts.—B. Frere.”
167 Coldstream Guards, serving in Frontier Light Horse; he was Aide-de-Camp to Sir Hope Grant at Aldershot in 1870–1871.
168 Now Major-General Sir C. Clery, K.C.B.
169 He wrote: “I was sorry not to see your name in Orders for some reward, for all your good service, and for the help you have given me, but it is only deferred. Your loyal and excellent work will not, and shall not, go unrewarded, if I have anything to say to it.”
170 Reported as killed in Bambaata’s rebellion, June 1906.
171 These were fired by Lord Chelmsford’s troops returning from Sirayo’s district to the wrecked camp. Our Senior officers asked my opinion, what was the probable cause, and I said guns fired after dark indicated, I apprehended, an unfavourable situation.
172 It appeared later I had greatly under-estimated the Zulu force, imagining it was the Makulusi regiment only, but the High Commissioner learnt from his agent, and reported to the Secretary of State, not only was the Makulusi routed and dispersed, but that the Nodwengu and Udloko regiments shared in their fate. Later, Sir Bartle Frere wrote: “The Zulus are greatly impressed with the skill with which this force (Colonel Wood’s) has been handled, and are afraid it may push on to the Inhlazatze, and threaten the Royal Kraal.”
173 They were drawn from the Border Zulus I enlisted at Luneberg in November, and attached to battalions, 6 to each company; their powers of hearing were extra *ordinary; they could see farther than we could with field glasses,—their vision was surpassed only by the telescope. They lived near the battalion cooking fires, and were the cause of considerable difficulty with respect to their clothing. I could not buy soldiers’ greatcoats in Africa, but it was the dumping ground of cast-off full dress uniforms of the British Army, and I obtained from Maritzburg old Cavalry tunics, those of the Heavy Dragoon Guards being the only ones into which the Zulus could squeeze their bodies, and in these it was only the top buttons that would meet.
174 The nervous Chief who feared I was going to arrest him in September.
175 Sir Bartle Frere eulogised my agent, Captain Macleod, and me for our “temper, judgment, and patience” in getting Uhamu over from his brother; and a Zulu agent told Bishop Colenso, and Sir Bartle later, that Cetewayo’s altered tone was due to the defection of Uhamu.
176 General Woodgate, mortally wounded at Spion Kop.
177 Both killed in action a fortnight later.
178 Now Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge.
179 Lately Colonel Commanding a battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment; now on Staff in India.
180 Horses are linked by a headrope being passed through the head collar, and then through that of the next horse.
181 They both received the Victoria Cross.
182 The death of Piet Uys was a great loss to us, and Lord Chelmsford supported the earnest representations I made in his favour, as did also Sir Bartle Frere, who knew a great deal about him. He was intensely Patriotic, and had done not only good service to No. 4 column, but to South Africa, for although he had opposed the Annexation, the justice of which he denied as regards his countrymen, he admitted its necessity in the interests of the country at large, and he lent all his great influence, in opposition to many of his oldest and dearest friends, in pressing on the attention of his countrymen their duty in combatting our savage foes. He had armed, equipped, mounted, and provisioned his numerous family at his own expense, bringing all his sons into the field. He had persistently refused to accept pay for himself, or for any of his relatives, who, after his death, declined to accept the arrears of pay which I offered. He constantly acted as Arbitrator in compensation cases for damage done in the operations to the property of Dutchmen, and no decision was ever questioned by the sufferers, or by myself, who had to decide on the claim. When one of his own farms was accidentally damaged, he would not allow it to be reported. I asked for 36,000 acres of Government land to be set apart for his nine children, and was supported in my request by the High Commissioner, whose last official letter before leaving Natal some months later was to urge on the Colonial Office the importance of giving effect to my recommendation; but I doubt if it would ever have been carried into effect had I not been afforded the opportunity of stating the case personally to Her Gracious Majesty the Queen, who ensured the provision being made.
183 When the latter joined me, not very long before, I had a very favourable report of him from the Assistant Military Secretary, Colonel North Crealock, and my experience during the few days in which he worked under my command fully justified it.
184 I tell now the manner of Robert Barton’s noble end, although it was fourteen months later that I obtained the details. He had shown not only distinguished courage, but in actions great humanity, and in the previous January nearly lost his life in trying to take a Zulu prisoner, the man firing his gun so close to Barton as to burn the skin off his face.
When, on receipt of Colonel Buffer’s warning, he descended the mountain, he trotted on westward, followed by the men of the Irregular Squadron who had been with me at the eastern end, and who, before I returned, had gained the summit without further loss. As they reached the western base of the mountain, some of the Ngobamakosi regiment headed them, and they tried to cut their way through, but, after losing some men, retraced their steps eastwards, and, though many fell, Barton got safely down over the Ityenteka Nek.
When I was with Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Eugénie, in May 1880, on the Ityatosi River, I asked Sirayo’s son, Melokazulo,185 who was a mounted officer of the Ngobomakosi tribe, if he could tell me whether any of his men had killed my friend, whose body had never been found. He said, “No; for I followed you, although you were not aware of it, and, when failing to overtake you, I turned back, I was too late to overtake those who were going eastward, and the pursuit was taken up by mounted men of the Umcityu regiment. I know a man named Chicheeli, who was a mounted officer of the Umcityu, and I believe saw what took place.” I said, “Send for him,” to which he replied, “He won’t come unless you send for him. He will believe Lakuni.”186 Chicheeli came, and talked quite frankly, giving me a still higher opinion of the powers of observation of the savage than I already had. After describing the coat and other clothes that Barton wore, he said, “The White man was slightly pitted by smallpox.” Now I had lived at Aldershot for two years in daily intercourse with Robert Barton, and at once said, “Then it is not the man I mean.” Chicheeli, however, declined to be shaken from his statement, and repeated that the marks on his face were slight, but that there was no doubt that he had had smallpox. Opening my portmanteau, I took out a cabinet-sized photograph and a magnifier, and, examining the face closely, I then perceived that what I had for two years taken to be roughness of skin was really the marks of smallpox, which Chicheeli had noticed as he stood over the dead body.
Chicheeli told me that on the Ityenteka Nek he followed several White men and killed them, one man, as he approached, turning his carbine and shooting himself. When he, with several others, got down on the plain, 7 miles from the mountain, he overtook Captain Barton, who had taken Lieutenant Poole up on his horse. He fired at them, and when the horse, being exhausted, could no longer struggle under the double weight, the riders dismounted and separated. Chicheeli first shot Lieutenant Poole, and was going up towards Barton, when the latter pulled the trigger of his revolver, which did not go off. Chicheeli then put down his gun and assegai, and made signs to Barton to surrender. I asked, “Did you really want to spare him?” “Yes,” he replied; “Cetewayo had ordered us to bring one or two Indunas down to Ulundi, and I had already killed seven men.” Barton lifted his hat, and the men were close together when a Zulu fired at him, and he fell mortally wounded; and then, said Chicheeli, “I could not let anyone else kill him, so I ran up and assegaied him.” I said, “Do you think you can find the body?” “Yes, certainly,” he said; “but you must lend me a horse, for it is a day and a half.”187 I sent Trooper Brown, V.C., with him next day, and, with the marvellous instinct of a savage, he rode to within 300 yards of the spot where fourteen months previously he had killed my friend, and then said, “Now we can off-saddle, for we are close to the spot,” and, casting round like a harrier, came in less than five minutes upon Barton’s body, which had apparently never been disturbed by any beast or bird of prey. The clothes and boots were rotten and ant-eaten, and tumbled to pieces on being touched. Brown cut off some buttons from the breeches, and took a Squadron Pay book from the pocket filled with Barton’s writing, and then buried the remains, placing over them a small wooden cross painted black, on which is cut “Robert Barton, killed in action, 28th March 1879,” and then he and Chicheeli buried the body of Lieutenant Poole.
185 Reported as having been killed in Bambaata’s rebellion, 1906.
186 This was my name among the Zulus. The word describes the hard wood of which Zulus make their knobkerries, or bludgeons.
187 Equal to 60 miles.
188 One of my ponies had carried me 94 miles in fifty-four hours, without corn, getting only the grass he could find when knee-haltered.
189 Where Vryheid now stands.
190 When in December 1878 I was endeavouring to get Dutchmen to join, some queried my impartiality as Arbitrator in deciding claims for captured cattle—the South African form of prize money,—and I rejoined, “I’ll not take any for my personal use.” I gave my share towards erecting a memorial to Piet Uys in Utrecht, and all the soldiers of the column contributed.
191 Gun placed on raised ground, thus firing over the parapet.
192 Now Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge, K.C.B.
193 General F. Slade, C.B., lately Inspector-General, Royal Artillery.
194 We paced it afterwards—195 yards.
195 Now General Laye, C.B.
196 Zulu Chiefs told me in 1880, when they saw our tents struck at 1.15 p.m., they made certain of victory, believing we were about to retreat, and they were greatly depressed by our stubborn resistance.
197 A very light waterproof of the day, advertised: “To be carried in the pocket.”
198 Locally called the Upoko.
199 Lately Commanding a district in the United Kingdom.
200 Lord Chelmsford to the Secretary of State for War:—
“Entonjaneni, 7th July 1879.
“I cannot refrain from bringing again to your special notice the names of Brigadier-General Evelyn Wood, V.C., C.B.,... whose service during the advance towards Ulundi from the advanced Base, and during the recent successful operations near Ulundi, have been invaluable.
“Brigadier-General Wood, although suffering at times severely in bodily health, has never spared himself, but has laboured incessantly night and day to overcome the innumerable difficulties which have had to be encountered during the advance through a country possessing no roads.”
201 My Zulu name.
202 Much has since been done in this direction. The parents of soldiers wounded on service are now relieved from painful anxiety by weekly telegraphic reports.
203 Lord Penzance’s Royal Commission on Army Promotion. August 1876.
204 Military Life of H.R.H. Duke of Cambridge, by Colonel Willoughby Verner, page 62: “I intend to send Brigadier Wood, he being the best Commander of those in South Africa. His name is in every one’s mouth, from Bugler up through all Ranks, as the man of the War....”
Despatch from Lieutenant-General Thesiger to the Secretary of State for War:—
“King William’s Town, June 26th, 1878.
“I am of opinion that his (Colonel Evelyn Wood) indefatigable exertions and personal influence have been mainly instrumental in bringing the war to a speedy close.”
206 Now Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge, K.C.B., K.C.S.I.
207 Now General Slade, C.B., Royal Artillery.
209 A cow is equal to £3, and a calf 30s.
210 Killed at Ulundi, 4th July 1879.
211 The War Minister, apprehensive of criticism in the House of Commons, declined to allow me to draw any, even half-pay as a Colonel, for the six months I was absent from the Command.
212 They had broken up their laager at Leo Kop that morning.
213 Rope by which oxen pull a waggon.
215 I had thought much during the weary hours spent on the post-cart between Maritzburg and Newcastle of the Military Situation, and of the Duke of Wellington’s views expressed in his letter to Viscount Castlereagh, dated the 1st of August 1808. “... You may depend, I shall not hurry the operations, or commence them one moment sooner than they may be commenced, in order that I may acquire the credit of success.” And again, a year later, in a letter written at Badajos to Marshal Beresford, he insists “above all on a determination in the Superiors to obey the spirit of the orders they receive, let what will be the consequences.”
In addressing privately the Secretary of State for War many months later, referring to this period, and the conduct of Detachments employed at Majuba, I wrote: “The depressing effect of the Majuba affair on officers and men at Camp Prospect lasted for some time, but we should undoubtedly have taken the Nek about the end of March; and I think such a victory would have been a gain to all, English, Dutch, Kafirs, and to Humanity generally, and that it would have been cheaply purchased, even had you lost your generals and a large number of troops. I confess I am disappointed at some of the criticisms on my duty in England. It is assumed by many that the generals in command of troops should disregard the orders of the responsible advisers of the Crown, if such orders are distasteful to him and the troops.”
Mr. Childers, who always treated me with the greatest consideration and kindness, in replying on the 21st July, thus expressed his views: “I do not think you need be in the least way unhappy about Newspaper criticisms. Everyone knows you are guided by Instructions from home, which the telegraph makes now more detailed than ever.”
In a letter to my wife, dated the 4th May, endeavouring to console her for the vexation she felt at the unsparing criticisms on my conduct, I wrote: “My life has been spent in worrying the Boer leaders about the murderers of Messrs. Elliott and Barbour. You ask me how much of the feeling in England was known to me? I reply, I always anticipated a great outcry, for I have read History, but such outcry will, I hope, never influence me in Public events. I could not go beyond the clear words of the Instructions I received. So long as I serve out here I shall loyally carry out, not only the words, but the spirit of the orders of the Ministry, if that body is led by Gladstone or Stafford Northcote. We are all astonished here at the Praise and Blame measured out to me on the subject. I should utterly despise myself if I allowed personal feelings to sway me in a matter of Life and Death. I wished to fight, not because I am willing to purchase reputation by expending our soldiers’ lives, but because I believed, and believe that by fighting, the peace of this country could be assured, as it will not be now. I am as vexed at the Praise as I am at the Blame, which is so freely accorded to me. Do not distress yourself, Dearest; I value my own sense of duty much more than the opinion of anyone.”
216 Telegram from Secretary of State for the Colonies to Major-General Colley:—
“16th February 1881.
“Your telegram of the 13th. Inform Kruger that if Boers will desist from armed opposition we shall be quite ready to appoint Commissioners with extensive powers, and who may develop scheme referred to in my telegram to you of 8th inst. Add that if this proposal is accepted, you are authorised to agree to suspension of hostilities on our part.”
217 From Sir Evelyn Wood to the Secretary of State for the Colonies:—
“Newcastle, 13th March, 9.50 a.m.
“Kruger sending Reuter’s 22nd February message, with Mr. Gladstone’s statement that steps to avoid bloodshed will be taken, asks how far my instructions go. I have replied I am still awaiting your orders, and shall be at Prospect to-day.”
218 The Boers did not haul down their flags at sunset.
219 I thought I was the only British officer in Heidelberg, but Colonel Fortescue, K.R.R. Corps, came in that evening from Lydenburg, as he mentioned to Mr. Butcher, M.P. for York, and myself when we were riding in Hyde Park in 1900.
220 With reference to the Boers’ conduct, I suggested another appeal to arms.
From Sir Evelyn Wood to the Secretary of State for the Colonies:—
“19th April.
“I should allow them to reoccupy Nek. We are quite ready. This will give a decisive military result, and the happiest result for the country. I guarantee we dislodge them.”
221 Extract from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Sir Evelyn Wood:—
“1st November.
“I am quite satisfied with the result of your visit to Umbandeen, which will no doubt have been very useful, and I think you have done all that was possible in the circumstances to settle Zulu affairs.—Kimberley.”
222 Mr. Brand told them at the Nek, unknown to me, that if they gave way he was confident the British Government would not curtail the Transvaal.
223 My Dissent was published in Blue Book, Transvaal Royal Commission Report, Part I., C. 3114, pages 34 and 56–66, issued in 1882, but a subsequent edition issued soon afterwards omitted my Dissent, which I therefore republish.
Sir Evelyn Wood, while concurring generally with the views of his colleagues, feels bound to record the grounds of his dissent on certain points, at the end of which Dissent he has signed the report.
Dissent.
As regards the question treated in paragraph 16, viz. the trial of those accused of murder during the late hostilities, Sir Evelyn Wood desires to place on record, that, in a telegram of the 30th March, he gave an opinion adverse to the trial of these persons, either by Boers or by ordinary process, and recommended the creation of a Special Tribunal: eventually, however, the Commission recommended the course which was adopted.
2. With reference to the territorial question, Sir Evelyn Wood is unable to concur with his colleagues in the arguments which led them to recommend the abandonment of the Scheme of Separation of Territory agreed to at Lang’s Nek. Paragraphs 44 to 53, of this report, give the arguments of the Boer Leaders against the separation of any territory East of the 30th degree of longitude.
These objections must have been just as evident to the Leaders, when treating with Sir Evelyn Wood at Lang’s Nek, as when treating with the Commission at Newcastle. At Lang’s Nek, they acquiesced in the principle of separation of territory; that they did so is, Sir Evelyn Wood thinks, a proof that they preferred peace, with the proposed separation, to a continuance of war.
To contend afterwards that the Royal Commission ought not to decide contrary to the wishes of the Boers, because such decision might not be accepted, is to deny to the Commission the very power of decision that it was agreed should be left in its hands.
In paragraphs 53 and 54, the majority of the Commission hold that sentiment was the mainspring of the late outbreak, and imply that none of the peace stipulations antagonistic to this feeling can be enforced, without detriment to the permanent tranquillity of the country. Sir Evelyn Wood cannot concur with even the premisses of his colleagues, and he is convinced the approximate cause of the late outbreak was a general and rooted aversion to taxation.
His colleagues appear to have received the statements of the Leaders as expressing the feelings of their followers. In Sir Evelyn Wood’s opinion, the views of the Triumvirate should have been accepted with reserve; and he could not attach the same value that the majority of the Commission did, to the Leaders’ account of Boer sentiments. As it was, his colleagues arrived at their conclusions on this question in Newcastle, before the Commission had entered the Transvaal, and practically before they had any opportunity of learning the wishes of the inhabitants, except through the mouths of the Leaders.
As Sir Evelyn Wood cannot accept the conclusions of his colleagues, based on the arguments of the Boers, still less can he accept those they have arrived at in paragraphs 56 and 57, on the aspect of the Native question. It is argued that by concessions to the Boers on the Territorial question, the Commission would obtain large powers for the British Resident, and also gain the consent of the Boers to conditions not contained in the peace agreement, viz.:—
The creation of a Native Location Commission; the right of Veto on Native Legislation; and the settlement of the disputed boundary of the Keate Award territory;—all of which will, the majority of the Commission think, form the best guarantees for the protection of all Native interests.
Schedule 2 of the Agreement of the 21st March 1881 left to the Commission to define, and to the British Government to determine, what powers should be assigned to the Resident, and what provision should be made for the protection of Native interests, while Schedule 3 made complete self-government subject to Suzerain rights.
It is not apparent to Sir Evelyn Wood that in the Convention any powers greater than those justified by the peace agreement have been so assigned to the Resident: and the creation of a Native Location Commission: the power of veto on Native Legislation: and the settlement of the Keate Award question, appear to him to be matters so directly affecting Native interests, as to be entirely within the scope of the Agreement of the 21st March: however, be this as it may, he cannot believe that any power the Government or the Resident may derive from the Convention will prove as beneficial to the Natives as would the existence of British Rule Eastward of the 30th degree of longitude.
It is admitted that all the Eastern natives would prefer the retention of British Rule in this country, and also, that it would benefit them; it is, however, argued that these are the Natives best able to protect themselves.
To a certain degree this is correct, but we have recently destroyed the military power of the Zulu nation, and have disarmed the people.
In the interests of the Transvaal, but at England’s expense, we subdued Sikukuni, and we have checked the acquisition of firearms by all Natives.
Sir Evelyn Wood maintains, therefore, that the Eastern tribes are not so capable of defence as to be independent of our protection; and while admitting they are not so defenceless as are those on the Western border of the Transvaal, he submits that the arguments of his colleagues prove more conclusively the importance of protecting the Natives on the West, than the desirability of withdrawing protection from those on the East side of the Transvaal.
Sir Evelyn Wood’s colleagues admit the desirability of retaining the Eastern territory under British Rule, and the substantial benefit to the Natives living therein and to the Eastward of it; but they argue that those in the West, who, by their position are unavoidably excluded from our protection, would have suffered loss by missing those favourable conditions which have been secured to them by the Convention. The value of the said conditions must be a matter of opinion until tested by time; and the necessity for making concessions to obtain them is not, Sir Evelyn Wood submits, apparent: but whichever may be the more accurate view, in summing up numerically the interests concerned, the question cannot be confined to those named, but should be considered to extend indirectly to all the natives in South-East Africa.
Sir Evelyn Wood agrees with his colleagues in thinking that the grounds for retaining the country East of the Drakensberg, are less cogent than those for retaining the whole territory East of the 30th degree, and he admits that the relatively small number of the Transvaal natives, East of the Drakensberg, does not alone justify the proposed rectification of boundaries, but he cannot follow his colleagues in the rest of their argument, and thinks that, while studying how best to balance the interests of Boers and Natives, they have overlooked, what was to him, the most important factor in the question, viz.:—the interests of the English Colonies in South Africa. The proposal for a separation of territory proceeded from Her Majesty’s Government. In the month of March, when the negotiations at Lang’s Nek were approaching completion, Sir Evelyn Wood submitted to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, what he considered would be (for British and Native interests) the most suitable boundaries for the Transvaal in case we left it.
The Commission being opposed to the retention of the territory lying to the Eastward of the 30th degree of longitude, Sir Evelyn Wood suggested as a compromise, the retention of the District which lies to the East of the Drakensberg: but it was far less in the interests of its native population that the smaller measure was suggested, than for the sake of tranquillity in Swaziland, Zululand, and Natal. His colleagues have balanced the Eastern and Western Native question, by a comparison of numbers, but a glance at the map will show how very much more important it is to our Colonies to have quiet on the Eastern than on the Western borders. Separated as we now shall be by the Transvaal from the Eastern Natives, it will be impossible for us to exercise over them the influence for peace due to our paramount position in the country.
It is from this cause, he thinks, trouble to England may arise, and this is the consideration which has led him to dissent from his colleagues on the Territorial question.
3. As to the question of belligerency, touched on in paragraphs 107 and 108, it should be borne in mind that although, by the Agreement of the 23rd March, immunity was granted to both the Leaders and to their followers, yet this did not apply to those “who had committed, or were directly responsible for acts contrary to civilised warfare.” This is apparent from Schedule 4, of the Agreement of the 21st March, in which the Leaders engaged to co-operate with the British Government in bringing such persons to justice. Sir Evelyn Wood is therefore unable to agree that there was any question of amnesty in such cases, though the attitude of the Boers, no doubt, precluded the possibility of obtaining evidence.
4. In paragraphs 121 and 122, the question of compensation for damages due to war is considered, and the liability of the Boers, under the terms of the peace agreement, is questioned by one member of the Commission.
Sir Evelyn Wood, who negotiated the agreements of the 21st and 23rd of March, holds them to mean that the Royal Commission was empowered to settle questions of compensation for acts which were in its opinion not justified by the necessities of war, and also questions of compensation for acts fairly subjects for compensation.
In support of this view he stated that, during the peace negotiations, he had quoted, as an instance, the case of a Kafir whose crops had been consumed by the Boer Forces on Lang’s Nek. This act was evidently justified by the necessities of war, but nevertheless in this case, as in that of all subjects of the Queen commandeered against their will, the justice of compensation was alike evident.
5. The next point on which Sir Evelyn Wood desires to touch, is the question of Sub-residents mentioned in paragraph 139.
While concurring with his colleagues that it was desirable to interfere as little as possible with the internal affairs of the Transvaal State, he was, however, of opinion that, in a country as large as France, it could not be expected any one individual, however active, would become acquainted with the real state of feeling of the Natives, and of their treatment by the Boers; and he considered that complaints, however just, would rarely, if ever, reach Pretoria. As regards the Natives external to the State, he held it would be impossible for a British officer resident in Pretoria to ascertain, without aid, their complaints, wishes, and intentions, or to exercise that peaceful influence over them so desirable in the interests of South Africa.
6. Lastly, on the question of remitting the expense of the successful war with Sikukuni, Sir Evelyn Wood dissented from the opinion of his colleagues. Until Sir Garnet Wolseley subdued Sikukuni, no Government was able to obtain taxes from his people, and he occasioned the Boer Government constant trouble and expense; the last expedition, under President Burgers, having reduced the Republic to the verge of bankruptcy.
When we last collected taxes in the country, the people were well disposed and paid cheerfully. Seeing, therefore, that the Boers are about to reap the benefits, both financial and peaceful, brought about by the war, it seemed to Sir Evelyn Wood but just that the Transvaal State should give some return to England for the expense incurred.
EVELYN WOOD, Major-General.