To the Editor of the ‘Cape Times‘
Sir,-My attention has only just now been drawn to the manifesto of Mr. Reitz, State Secretary of the Transvaal, to the Orange Free State burghers, as published in the Cape Argus 19th inst.
In this shameful and shameless document, Sir Alfred Milner, Mr. Chamberlain, the British Cabinet, the Queen of England, and the British nation are declared to be murderers, robbers, breakers of treaties, etc.; and the responsibility for the present war between the Republics and England is sought to be laid on their shoulders in a wealth of scurrilous and mendacious statement.
I feel impelled to write the following lines, not to discuss matters which have passed beyond the pale of argument, but to throw a little personal historic light on the question as to who is responsible for the present war, which may serve to show that not England, nor England’s Queen, nor England’s Government, are the real originators of the same.
I met Mr. Reitz, then a judge of the Orange Free State, in Bloemfontein between seventeen and eighteen years ago, shortly after the retrocession of the Transvaal, and when he was busy establishing the Afrikander Bond. It must be patent to every one that at that time, at all events, England and its Government had no intention of taking away the independence of the Transvaal, for she had just " magnanimously ‘ granted the same; no intention of making war on the Republics, for she had just made peace; no intention to seize the Band gold-fields, for they were not yet discovered. At that time, then, I met Mr. Reitz, and he did his best to get me to become a member of his Afrikander Bond, but after studying its constitution and programme I refused to do so, whereupon the following colloquy in substance took place between us, which has been indelibly imprinted on my mind ever since’
Reitz: ‘ Why do you refuse ? Is the object of getting the .people to take an interest in political matters not a good one ? ‘
Myself: ‘Yes, it is; but I seem to see plainly here between the lines of this constitution much more ultimately aimed at than that.’
Reitz: ‘ What ? ‘
Myself: ‘I see quite clearly that the ultimate object aimed at is the overthrow of the British power, and the expulsion of the British flag from South Africa.’
Reitz (with his pleasant, conscious smile, as of one whose secret thought and purpose had been discovered, and who was not altogether displeased that such was the case): " Well, what if it is so ? ‘
Myself: ‘ You don't suppose, do you, that that flag is going to disappear from South Africa without a tremendous struggle and fight ? ‘
Reitz (with the same pleasant, self-conscious, self-satisfied, and yet semi-apologetic smile): ‘Well, I suppose not; but even so, what of that?‘
Myself: ‘ Only this, that when that struggle takes place you and I will be on opposite sides; and what is more, the God who was on the side of the Transvaal in the late war, because it had right on its side, will be on the side of England, because He must view with abhorrence any plotting and scheming to overthrow her power and position in South Africa, which have been ordained by Him."
Reitz: ‘ We'll see’
Thus the conversation ended, but during the seventeen years that have elapsed I have watched the propaganda for the overthrow of British power in South Africa being ceaselessly spread by every possible means ‘the press, the pulpit, the platform, the schools, the colleges, the legislature - until it has culminated in the present war, of which Mr. Reitz and his co-workers are the origin and cause. Believe me, sir, the day on which E. W. Reitz sat down to pen his ultimatum to Great Britain was the proudest and happiest moment of his life, and one which had for long years been looked forward to by him with eager longing and expectation. He and his co-workers have for years past plotted, worked, prepared for this war; and the only matters in connection with it in which they are disappointed are, firstly, that they would rather the war had come several years later, so that their anti-British propaganda might more fully have permeated the country; secondly, that they would liked to have declared war against England at a time when she should be involved in some great struggle with a foreign Power, instead of at a time when she is free to give all her attention to South Africa; and, lastly, they are disappointed in finding out that English soldiers can fight.
It is true that an active factor in bringing about this war has been the existence of the Gold-fields of the Band, not, however, as asserted, because England covets them, and has determined to seize them, but because the wealth drained from them has enabled the Republics to become military powers of a strength far out of proportion to their population, and thus has led F. W. Reitz and Co. to think that their dream of a Pan-Afrikander Republic and the ousting of the British flag may become a reality. Hence their declaration of war against England rather than grant just political rights to the inhabitants, whom that same wealth has led to settle down in the Transvaal, and whose presence and numbers, however useful to the Dutch Republics towards the production of wealth to be used for the setting forward of their political aims, might, if they became possessors of the franchise, prove damaging to the success of the scheme of the great Pan-Afrikander Republic. Although I have been obliged in this record of an historic reminiscence to mention the Afrikander Bond, I do not wish to be supposed to be attacking that body as it exists in the Cape Colony at the present time, or to accuse it of backing Mr. Reitz up in his declaration of war against the British Empire. Its leaders claim that it and they are loyal to England. So be it! My object is to show that, not the British Government, but the Republics - led by Kruger, Reitz, Steyn, and their co-workers - have been steadily marching on towards this war, and consciously plotting for it, ever since the ‘ magnanimous ‘ retrocession of the Transvaal by England, and even before the Witwatersrand Gold-fields were discovered.
I am, etc.,
Theo. Schreiner.
Riversdale, October 31,1899.
