Part 38

From this time forward Kruger's life is so intimately bound up with the history of his country, and even in later years of South Africa, that a study of that history is essential to an understanding of it (see TRANSVAAL and SOUTH AFRICA). In 1864, when the faction fighting ended and Pretorius was president, Kruger was elected commandant-general of the forces of the Transvaal. In 1870 a boundary dispute arose with the British government, which was settled by the Keate award (1871). The decision caused so much discontent in the Transvaal that it brought about the downfall of President Pretorius and his party; and Thomas François Burgers, an educated Dutch minister, resident in Cape Colony, was elected to succeed him. During the term of Burgers' presidency Kruger appeared to great disadvantage. Instead of loyally supporting the president in the difficult task of building up a stable state, he did everything in his power to undermine his authority, going so far as to urge the Boers to pay no taxes while Burgers was in office. The faction of which he was a prominent member was chiefly responsible for bringing about that _impasse_ in the government of the country which drew such bitter protest from Burgers and terminated in the annexation by the British in April 1877. At this period of Transvaal history it is impossible to trace any true patriotism in the action of the majority of the inhabitants. The one idea of Kruger and his faction was to oust Burgers from office on any pretext, and, if possible, to put Kruger in his place. When the downfall of Burgers was assured and annexation offered itself as the alternative resulting from his downfall, it is true that Kruger opposed it. But matters had gone too far. Annexation became an accomplished fact, and Kruger accepted paid office under the British government. He continued, however, so openly to agitate for the retrocession of the country, being a member of two deputations which went to England endeavouring to get the annexation annulled, that in 1878 Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the British administrator, dismissed him from his service. In 1880 the Boer rebellion occurred, and Kruger was one of the famous triumvirate, of which General Piet Joubert and Pretorius were the other members, who, after Majuba, negotiated the terms of peace on which the Pretoria convention of August 1881 was drafted. In 1883 he was elected president of the Transvaal, receiving 3431 votes as against 1171 recorded for Joubert.

In November 1883 President Kruger again visited England, this time for the purpose of getting another convention. The visit was successful, the London convention, which for years was a subject of controversy, being granted by Lord Derby in 1884 on behalf of the British government. The government of the Transvaal being once more in the hands of the Boers, the country rapidly drifted towards that state of national bankruptcy from which it had only been saved by annexation in 1877. In 1886, the year in which the Rand mines were discovered, President Kruger was by no means a popular man even among his own followers; as an administrator of internal affairs he had shown himself grossly incompetent, and it was only the specious success of his negotiations with the British government which had retained him any measure of support. In 1888 he was elected president for a second term of office. In 1889 Dr. Leyds, a young Hollander, was appointed state secretary, and the system of state monopolies around which so much corruption grew up was soon in full course of development. The principle of government monopoly in trade being thus established, President Kruger now turned his attention to the further securing of Boer political monopoly. The Uitlanders were increasing in numbers, as well as providing the state with a revenue. In 1890, 1891, 1892, and 1894 the franchise laws (which at the time of the convention were on a liberal basis) were so modified that all Uitlanders were practically excluded altogether. In 1893 Kruger had to face a third presidential election, and on this occasion the opposition he had raised among the burgers, largely by the favouritism he displayed to the Hollander party, was so strong that it was fully anticipated that his more liberal opponent, General Joubert, would be elected. Before the election was decided Kruger took care to conciliate the volksraad members, as well as to see that at all the volksraad elections, which occurred shortly before the presidential election, his supporters were returned, or, if not returned, that his opponents were objected to on some trivial pretext, and by this means prevented from actually sitting in the volksraad until the presidential election was over. The Hollander and _concessionnaire_ influence, which had become a strong power in the state, was all in favour of President Kruger. In spite of these facts Kruger's position was insecure. "General Joubert was, without any doubt whatever, elected by a very considerable majority."[1] But the figures as announced gave Kruger a majority of about 700 votes. General Joubert accused the government of tampering with the returns, and appealed to the volksraad. The appeal, however, was fruitless, and Kruger retained office. The action taken by President Kruger at this election, and his previous actions in ousting President Burgers and in absolutely excluding the Uitlanders from the franchise, all show that at any cost, in his opinion, the government must remain a close corporation, and that while he lived he must remain at the head of it.

From 1877 onward Kruger's external policy was consistently anti-British, and on every side--in Bechuanaland, in Rhodesia, in Zululand--he attempted to enlarge the frontiers of the Transvaal at the expense of Great Britain. In these disputes he usually gained something, and it was not until 1895 that he was definitely defeated in his endeavours to obtain a seaport. His internal policy was blind, reckless and unscrupulous, and inevitably led to disaster. It may be summed up in his own words when replying to a deputation of Uitlanders, who desired to obtain the legalization of the use of the English language in the Transvaal. "This," said Kruger, "is my country; these are my laws. Those who do not like to obey my laws can leave my country." This rejection of the advances of the Uitlanders--by whose aid he could have built up a free and stable republic--led to his downfall, though the failure of the Jameson Raid in the first days of 1896 gave him a signal opportunity to secure the safety of his country by the grant of real reforms. But the Raid taught him no lesson of this kind, and despite the intervention of the British government the Uitlanders' grievances were not remedied.

In 1898 Kruger was elected president of the Transvaal for the fourth and last time. In 1899 relations between the Transvaal and Great Britain had become so strained, by reason of the oppression of the foreign population, that a conference was arranged at Bloemfontein between Sir Alfred (afterwards Lord) Milner, the high commissioner, and President Kruger. Kruger was true to his principles. At every juncture in his life his object had been to gain for himself and his own narrow policy everything that he could, while conceding nothing in return. It was for this reason that he invariably failed to come to any arrangement with Sir John Brand while the latter was president of the Free State. In 1889, the very year following President Brand's death, he was able to make a treaty with President Reitz, his successor, which bound each of the Boer republics to assist the other in case its independence was menaced, unless the quarrel could be shown to be an unjust one on the part of the state so menaced. In effect it bound the Free State to share all the hazardous risk of the reckless anti-British Transvaal policy, without the Free State itself receiving anything in return. Kruger thus achieved one of the objects of his life. With such a history of apparent success, it is not to be wondered at that the Transvaal president came to Bloemfontein to meet Sir Alfred Milner in no mood for concession. It is true that he made an ostensible offer on the franchise question, but that proposal was made dependent on so many conditions that it was a palpable sham. Every proposition which Sir Alfred Milner made was met by the objection that it threatened the independence of the Transvaal. This retort was President Kruger's rallying cry whenever he found himself in the least degree pressed, either from within or without the state. To admit Uitlanders to the franchise, to no matter how moderate a degree, would destroy the independence of the state. In October 1899, after a long and fruitless correspondence with the British government, war with Great Britain was ushered in by an ultimatum from the Transvaal. Immediately after the ultimatum Natal and the Cape Colony were invaded by the Boers both of the Transvaal and the Free State. Yet one of the most memorable utterances made by Kruger at the Bloemfontein conference was couched in the following terms: "We follow out what God says, 'Accursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark.' As long as your Excellency lives you will see that we shall never be the attacking party on another man's land." The course of the war that followed is described under TRANSVAAL. In 1900, Bloemfontein and Pretoria having been occupied by British troops, Kruger, too old to go on commando, with the consent of his executive proceeded to Europe, where he endeavoured to induce the European powers to intervene on his behalf, but without success.

From this time he ceased to have any political influence. He took up his residence at Utrecht, where he dictated a record of his career, published in 1902 under the title of _The Memoirs of Paul Kruger_. He died on the 14th of July 1904 at Clarens, near Vevey, on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, whither he had gone for the sake of his health. He was buried at Pretoria on the following 16th of December, Dingaan's Day, the anniversary of the day in 1838 when the Boers crushed the Zulu king Dingaan--a fight in which Kruger, then a lad of thirteen, had taken part. Kruger was thrice married, and had a large family. His second wife died in 1891. When he went to Europe he left his third wife in Lord Roberts's custody at Pretoria, but she gradually failed, and died there (July 1901). It was in her grave that the body of her husband was laid. It is recorded that when a statue to President Kruger at Pretoria was erected, it was by Mrs. Kruger's wish that the hat was left open at the top, in order that the rain-water might collect there for the birds to drink.

See J. F. van Oordt, _P. Kruger en de opkomst d. Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek_ (Amsterdam, 1898); the _Memoirs_ already mentioned; F. R. Statham, _Paul Kruger and his Times_ (1898); and, among works with a wider scope, G. M. Theal, _History of South Africa_ (for events down to 1872 only); Sir J. P. Fitzpatrick, _The Transvaal from Within_ (1899); _The Times History of the War in South Africa_ (1900-9); and A. P. Hillier, _South African Studies_ (1900).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, in _The Transvaal from Within_, ch. iii.

KRUGERSDORP, a town of the Transvaal, 21 m. N.W. of Johannesburg by rail. Pop. (1904), 20,073, of whom 6946 were whites. It is built on the Witwatersrand at an elevation of 5709 ft. above the sea, and is a mining centre of some importance. It is also the starting-point of a railway to Zeerust and Mafeking. Krugersdorp was founded in 1887 at the time of the discovery of gold on the Rand and is named after President Kruger. Within the municipal area is the Paardekraal monument erected to commemorate the victory gained by the Boers under Andries Pretorius in 1838 over the Zulu king Dingaan, and on the 16th of December each year, kept as a public holiday, large numbers of Boers assemble at the monument to celebrate the event. Here in December 1880 a great meeting of Boers resolved again to proclaim the independence of the Transvaal. The formal proclamation was made on Dingaan's Day, and after the defeat of the British at Majuba Hill in 1881 that victory was also commemorated at Paardekraal on the 16th of December. The monument, which was damaged during the war of 1899-1902, was restored by the British authorities. It was at Doornkop, near Krugersdorp, that Dr L. S. Jameson and his "raiders" surrendered to Commandant Piet Cronje on the 2nd of January 1896 (see TRANSVAAL: _History_). At Sterkfontein, 8 m. N.W. of Krugersdorp, are limestone caves containing beautiful stalactites.

KRUMAU (in Czech, _Krumlov_), is a town in Bohemia situated on the banks of the Moldau (Vitava). It has about 8000 inhabitants, partly of Czech, partly of German nationality. Krumau is principally celebrated because its ancient castle was long the stronghold of the Rosenberg family, known also as _pani z ruze_, the lords of the rose. Henry II. of Rosenberg (d. 1310) was the first member of the family to reside at Krumau. His son Peter I. (d. 1349) raised the place to the rank of a city. The last two members of the family were two brothers, William, created prince of Ursini-Rosenberg in 1556 (d. 1592), and Peter Vok, who played a very large part in Bohemian history. Their librarian was Wenceslas Brezan, who has left a valuable work on the annals of the Rosenberg family. Peter Vok of Rosenberg, a strong adherent of the Utraquist party, sold Krumau shortly before his death (1611), because the Jesuits had established themselves in the neighbourhood.

The lordship, one of the most extensive in the monarchy, was bought by the emperor Rudolph II. for his natural son, Julius of Austria. In 1622 the emperor Ferdinand II. presented the lordship to his minister, Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg, and in 1625 raised it to the rank of an hereditary duchy in his favour. From the Eggenberg family Krumau passed in 1719 to Prince Adam Franz Karl of Schwarzenberg, who was created duke of Krumau in 1723. The head of the Schwarzenberg family bears the title of duke of Krumau. The castle, one of the largest and finest in Bohemia, preserves much of its ancient character.

See W. Brezan, _Zivot Vilema z Rosenberka_ (Life of William of Rosenberg), 1847; also _Zivot Petra Voka z Rosenberka_ (Life of Peter Vok of Rosenberg), 1880.

KRUMBACHER, CARL (1856-1909), German Byzantine scholar, was born at Kürnach in Bavaria on the 23rd of September 1856. He was educated at the universities of Munich and Leipzig, and held the professorship of the middle age and modern Greek language and literature in the former from 1897 to his death. His greatest work is his _Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur_ (from Justinian to the fall of the Eastern Empire, 1453), a second edition of which was published in 1897, with the collaboration of A. Ehrhard (section on theology) and H. Gelzer (general sketch of Byzantine history, A.D. 395-1453). The value of the work is greatly enhanced by the elaborate bibliographies contained in the body of the work and in a special supplement. Krumbacher also founded the _Byzantinische Zeitschrift_ (1892) and the _Byzantinisches Archiv_ (1898). He travelled extensively and the results of a journey to Greece appeared in his _Griechische Reise_ (1886). Other works by him are: _Casia_ (1897), a treatise on a 9th-century Byzantine poetess, with the fragments; _Michael Glykas_ (1894); "Die griechische Litteratur des Mittelalters" in P. Hinneberg's _Die Kultur der Gegenwart_, i. 8 (1905); _Das Problem der neugriechischen Schriftsprache_ (1902), in which he strongly opposed the efforts of the purists to introduce the classical style into modern Greek literature, and _Populäre Aufsätze_ (1909).

KRUMEN (KROOMEN, KROOBOYS, KRUS, or CROOS), a negro people of the West Coast of Africa. They dwell in villages scattered along the coast of Liberia from below Monrovia nearly to Cape Palmas. The name has been wrongly derived from the English word "crew," with reference to the fact that Krumen were the first West African people to take service in European vessels. It is probably from Kraoh, the primitive name of one of their tribes. Under Krumen are now grouped many kindred tribes, the Grebo, Basa, Nifu, &c., who collectively number some 40,000. The Krus proper live in the narrow strip of coast between the Sino river and Cape Palmas, where are their five chief villages, Kruber, Little Kru, Settra Kru, Nana Kru and King William's Town. They are traditionally from the interior, but have long been noted as skilful seamen and daring fishermen. They are a stout, muscular, broad-chested race, probably the most robust of African peoples. They have true negro features--skin of a blue-black hue and woolly and abundant hair. The women are of a lighter shade than negro women generally, and in several respects come much nearer to a European standard. Morally as well as physically the Krumen are one of the most remarkable races in Africa. They are honest, brave, proud, so passionately fond of freedom that they will starve or drown themselves to escape capture, and have never trafficked in slaves. Politically the Krus are divided into small commonwealths, each with an hereditary chief whose duty is simply to represent the people in their dealings with strangers. The real government is vested in the elders, who wear as insignia iron rings on their legs. Their president, the head fetish-man, guards the national symbols, and his house is sanctuary for offenders till their guilt is proved. Personal property is held in common by each family. Land also is communal, but the rights of the actual cultivator cease only when he fails to farm it.

At 14 or 15 the Kru "boys" eagerly contract themselves for voyages of twelve or eighteen months. Generally they prefer work near at home, and are to be found on almost every ship trading on the Guinea coast. As soon as they have saved enough to buy a wife they return home and settle down. Krumen ornament their faces with tribal marks--black or blue lines on the forehead and from ear to ear. They tattoo their arms and mutilate the incisor teeth. As a race they are singularly intelligent, and exhibit their enterprise in numerous settlements along the coast. Sierra Leone, Grand Bassa and Monrovia all have their Kru towns. Dr Bleek classifies the Kru language with the Mandingo family, and in this he is followed by Dr R. G. Latham; Dr Kölle, who published a Kru grammar (1854), considers it as distinct.

See A. de Quatrefages and E. T. Hamy, _Crania ethnica_, ix. 363 (1878-1879); Schlagintweit-Sakunlunski, in the _Sitzungsberichte_ of the academy at Munich (1875); Nicholas, in _Bull. de la Soc. d'Anthrop._ (Paris, 1872); J. Büttikofer, _Reisebilder aus Liberia_ (Leiden, 1890); Sir H. H. Johnston, _Liberia_ (London, 1906).

KRUMMACHER, FRIEDRICH ADOLF (1767-1845), German theologian, was born on the 13th of July 1767 at Tecklenburg, Westphalia. Having studied theology at Lingen and Halle, he became successively rector of the grammar school at Mörs (1793), professor of theology at Duisburg (1800), preacher at Crefeld, and afterwards at Kettwig, _Consistorialrath_ and superintendent in Bernburg, and, after declining an invitation to the university of Bonn, pastor of the Ansgariuskirche in Bremen (1824). He died at Bremen on the 14th of April 1845. He was the author of many religious works, but is best known by his _Parabeln_ (1805; 9th ed. 1876; Eng. trans. 1844).

A. W. Möller published his life and letters in 1849.

His brother GOTTFRIED DANIEL KRUMMACHER (1774-1837), who studied theology at Duisburg and became pastor successively in Bärl (1798), Wülfrath (1801) and Elberfeld (1816), was the leader of the "pietists" of Wupperthal, and published several volumes of sermons, including one entitled _Die Wanderungen Israels durch d. Wüste nach Kanaan_ (1834).

FRIEDRICH WILHELM KRUMMACHER (1796-1868), son of Friedrich Adolf, studied theology at Halle and Jena, and became pastor successively at Frankfort (1819), Ruhrort (1823), Gemarke, near Barmen in the Wupperthal (1825), and Elberfeld (1834). In 1847 he received an appointment to the Trinity Church in Berlin, and in 1853 he became court chaplain at Potsdam. He was an influential promoter of the Evangelical Alliance. His best-known works are _Elias der Thisbiter_ (1828-1833; 6th ed. 1874; Eng. trans. 1838); _Elisa_ (1837) and _Das Passionsbuch, der leidende Christus_ (1854, in _English The Suffering Saviour_, 1870). His _Autobiography_ was published in 1869 (Eng. trans. 1871).

EMIL WILHELM KRUMMACHER (1798-1886), another son, was born at Mörs in 1798. In 1841 he became pastor in Duisburg. He wrote, amongst other works, _Herzensmanna aus Luthers Werken_ (1852). His son Hermann (1828-1890), who was appointed _Consistorialrath_ in Stettin in 1877, was the author of _Deutsches Leben in Nordamerika_ (1874).

KRUPP, ALFRED (1812-1887), German metallurgist, was born at Essen on the 26th of April 1812. His father, Friedrich Krupp (1787-1826), had purchased a small forge in that town about 1810, and devoted himself to the problem of manufacturing cast steel; but though that product was put on the market by him in 1815, it commanded but little sale, and the firm was far from prosperous. After his death the works were carried on by his widow, and Alfred, as the eldest son, found himself obliged, a boy of fourteen, to leave school and undertake their direction. For many years his efforts met with little success, and the concern, which in 1845 employed only 122 workmen, did scarcely more than pay its way. But in 1847 Krupp made a 3 pdr. muzzle-loading gun of cast steel, and at the Great Exhibition of London in 1851 he exhibited a solid flawless ingot of cast steel weighing 2 tons. This exhibit caused a sensation in the industrial world, and the Essen works sprang into fame. Another successful invention, the manufacture of weldless steel tires for railway vehicles, was introduced soon afterwards. The profits derived from these and other steel manufactures were devoted to the expansion of the works and to the development of the artillery with which the name of Krupp is especially associated (see ORDNANCE). The model settlement, which is one of the best-known features of the Krupp works, was started in the 'sixties, when difficulty began to be found in housing the increasing number of workmen; and now there are various "colonies," practically separate villages, dotted about to the south and south-west of the town, with schools, libraries, recreation grounds, clubs, stores, &c. The policy also was adopted of acquiring iron and coal mines, so that the firm might have command of supplies of the raw material required for its operations. Alfred Krupp, who was known as the "Cannon King," died at Essen on the 14th of July 1887, and was succeeded by his only son, Friedrich Alfred Krupp (1854-1902), who was born at Essen on the 17th of February 1854. The latter devoted himself to the financial rather than to the technical side of the business, and under him it again underwent enormous expansion. Among other things he in 1896 leased the "Germania" ship-building yard at Kiel, and in 1902 it passed into the complete ownership of the firm. In the latter year, which was also the year of his death, on the 22nd of November, the total number of men employed at Essen and its associated works was over 40,000. His elder daughter Bertha, who succeeded him, was married in October 1906 to Dr Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach, who on that occasion received the right to bear the name Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. The enormous increase in the German navy involved further expansion in the operations of the Krupp firm as manufacturers of the armour plates and guns required for the new ships, and in 1908 its capital, then standing at £9,000,000, was augmented by £2,500,000.