CHAPTER VIII

THE TRANSVAAL’S PRESIDENT AND FLAG INSULTED BY THE UITLANDERS

The President of the South African Republic is obliged by law to visit outlying districts as much as possible, in rotation, to ascertain the views, grievances and wants of the public.

The turn of Johannesburg came to receive such a visit. The President went there in order to give the public an opportunity to state to him personally what they wanted in the way of improvements generally. If they had any wants or grievances to be redressed, now was their time to say so, and obtain their desires as far as was just and fair. Was this done?

No! When the President mounted the public platform, he was received with groans and hootings. Paid roughs caused a disturbance, which was taken up by the lower element amongst the crowd, and the President had to escape as best he could from the dastardly roughs, who would not have scrupled to lay their hands upon his person. The sacred, beloved flag of the Republic was torn down and rent to shreds.

_This was the way Johannesburg sought redress for their grievances._

The loyal public were righteously enraged, and had it not been for the conciliatory speeches of the President later on, the Burghers would not have rested until due revenge had been taken for the dishonour done the chief of their Republic and their flag.

But the Government refused to punish the scoundrels; they hoped to win the Uitlanders over by gentleness and forbearance.

The next grand opportunity for the organisation to revile the Government and the people came with the Malaboch war.

A petty chief rebelled, causing general disorder in the Zoutpansberg district, and setting a bad example to the thousands and tens of thousands of natives living in the district. Malaboch had to be subdued and made to obey the laws of the land or the whole native population would soon have been in rebellion. This was done.

Steve went as a volunteer on the expedition (he having privately got the field cornet to commandeer him). He saw with surprise with what consideration the rebels were treated. They were regarded as a civilised nation; and repeated offers of mercy were made them if they would submit. An invitation was sent them to send out their women and children for safety, which was done, thereby prolonging the siege of the native stronghold, as the provisions held out so much longer.

After the submission of the tribe, they were treated with all kindness. They were conducted to Pretoria and well provided for.

To prevent a repetition of the rebellion, and of their retaking possession of their former almost inaccessible stronghold, the native tribe was broken up (as per precedent established by the English administration in former years), and homes given them elsewhere.

The result of all this was that the Government was abused more than ever before. It was affirmed that the grossest cruelties had been perpetrated on the poor, innocent natives; the Boers made slaves of the natives, etc., etc.

The most ridiculous statement of all was that the Boers ravished the native women! Anybody knowing a Boer would know how impossible this is! A Boer shrinks from touching the hands of the dirty, oily, reeking native; how much more would he shrink from _embracing_ a native woman!

As we have said, Steve had been to the Malaboch war himself. He had seen for himself the treatment accorded the natives, and the lying statements published all over the world made him shiver with disgust and anger.

The following year, with the Magoeba campaign, the same thing was repeated all over. The causes were the same, the effects were the same. Sir E. Ashmead Bartlette and others of his stamp (either deceiving, or being deceived by others here) made ridiculous and untruthful statements in the House of Commons, in public speeches, or in the daily papers. All this was the result of the wire-pulling, worked by the secret organisation for ‘painting Boers black.’

Finally, another grand opportunity came for a general carnival of abuse and lies against the Government of the country--the festivities in connection with the opening of the Delagoa Railway.

Not that we mean to state that these were the only times when the Government was abused and libelled; daily opportunities were found to distort facts; an anthill was made into a mountain; a good deed into one of the blackest imaginable. And when no facts could be found to distort, something was invented by some fiendish imagination. But the festivities offered a grand opportunity for exaggerations and distortions.

The Government was made to spend thousands of pounds sterling on favourites, contracts for decorations were given to favourite Hollanders, money was wasted, the Volksraad vote was greatly exceeded, and goodness knows what besides. It is too sickening to enter into all the petty lying faults that were found.

In this way the Government and people of the country had daily to tamely and quietly hear themselves belittled and besmeared with the lying libels of their foes; it was all patiently and quietly borne; they wished for peace, and were always conciliating. This was taken by the opposition as signifying fear and conscious weakness.

Matters went on in this way until December 1895 was reached. Steve was watching the approaching clouds. He could hear the distant thunder. He could see that a storm was coming, gathering force as it approached. A crisis was at hand.

It was coming sooner than he could have wished. He knew it was coming, but he would have liked it to have come a few years later, when the Afrikander race, at the rate they were strengthening now, would be considerably stronger and more able to cope with their opponents. But let it come. We shall do our best to conquer, and if it is God’s will that we should come out victorious, all praise be to Him. And if it be His will, WE SHALL be victorious! If it be His will that we should be conquered, His will be done; we can but die.

The secret organisation had lately taken more visible and definite form. First, a National Union was formed by a few in the secret. The innocent Uitlander public were led by the nose. When a meeting was convened by the self-elected leaders of the so-called Union, the public were only too glad to attend a meeting where some excitement was promised them. They went to hear the inspired spoutings of their self-elected leaders, and cheered where they were expected to do so, or listened indifferently to eloquent advocates, speculators, etc. Many of them were surprised to be told that they really had any grievances. They had always thought they were better off in this country than they had been in their own land; here they earned good wages, paid little or no taxes, and were left alone and in peace; while in their own countries, they earned very little, of which little they had to pay a large percentage in taxes and rates of one kind or another.

But these learned men say we have grievances; they ought to know! And if we really have any wrongs to be redressed, the sooner it is done the better; so hurrah for these philanthropic (?) gentlemen who are going to redress our wrongs. They say we ought to have the franchise, so the franchise we will have, and so on.

It went uphill, it is true; the agents of the organisation found great difficulty to get the public mind wound up to the right pitch, and when they did succeed for an hour or so to get an enthusiastic audience together, it only lasted for that brief hour.

But even for this want of enduring enthusiasm a remedy was found, viz., a committee was appointed who were supposed to represent the Uitlander population, who made up in themselves for all want of public enthusiasm. Gold could do a great deal; besides, the head of the organisation knew the art of _buying_ enthusiasm.

For a time the National Union took a spurt, kept alive by inflaming speeches and circulars; but as soon as a little boom in shares took place, the public would have nothing to do with politics, and again and again the committee found the Union to consist of _themselves_. This would never do; the objects of the Union would never be attained if something was not done soon.

The plans of the parent organisation were nearing completion. Soon it was rumoured that the president of the Union and other members of the secret organisation were preparing to issue a manifesto, by which means they hoped to once more wind up public opinion, and to inflame the hotter Boer haters to the fullest extent. When once the public were excited enough, a meeting would be held, where revolutionary proposals would be made by certain agents, which, it was hoped, would be taken up and supported by the public. This was December 1895.