TOPIC:

Apologies but I did write "in effect" and really meant many British people at the time saw the two Republics as part of the British Empire. I think there would also have been a general view that it was morally right to sell arms to white Protestants to allow them to defend themselves against the troublesome indigenous population. Chamberlain would probably have committed political suicide by stopping arms sales to the Republics as soon as he became Colonial Secretary thereby announcing he intended to have a war with them. Also you could interpret the Webley sales figures provided by Neville as showing somebody did bring pressure on them to stop selling arms to the Transvaal within a year of the Jameson Raid.

Some interesting things found online which illustrate that questions were being asked of Chamberlain and how he responded:

A snippet from "Imperial Atrocities: Skeletons in Colonial Closets"
By Michael Arnold



And a piece from the "Spectator" 11 August 1900, page 2

"In the course of Wednesday's discussion Mr. Chamberlain was also attacked by Mr. Lloyd-George because "the Report of the War Office Contracts Committee showed that favouritism had been shown to a Birmingham firm." To this Mr. Chamberlain replied by declaring that the innuendo was, of course, that the Colonial Secretary was in some way or another connected with the matter. "Now, I wish to say," added Mr. Chamberlain, "that I have no interest, direct or indirect, in Kynoch's or in any other firm manufacturing war materials. I have never interfered directly, or indirectly, with the distribution of these contracts, and I have never spoken to any one in the War Office about them. The hon. gentleman has just stated what is public property,—namely, that my brother is chairman of the company to which he referred. That is perfectly true, but I have never discussed the matter with my brother. I have nothing whatever to do with his private concerns any more than he has anything to do with my public concerns, and it is a gross abuse to attack a public man through his relatives for whom he is not responsible." That is clearly a complete answer as far as Mr. Chamber- lain is concerned, but we cannot help regretting that Mr. Arthur Chamberlain should have cared to become chairman of a company which is necessarily in business relations with the Government. The Colonial Secretary cannot, of course, order his brother out of Kynoch's, and it is grossly unjust to talk as if he could, but it seems to us that it is not expecting too much of Mr. Arthur Chamberlain to say that while his brother is in the Cabinet he should refrain from taking an active part in any company which has large commercial dealings with the Government".

Fascinating thread! Here's my 5c:
- It is certainly true that a section of British intelligentsia attributed the South African War entirely to arch capitalists. The most rabid, and antisemitic, of these was J. A. Hobson, whose "The war in South Africa : its causes and effects" can be read online, if you have the stomach for it.
Hobson's writings inspired Lenin to write "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism" in 1934, and inspired Brecht to write "The Threpenny Novel" the same year. Jeremy Corbyn wrote an approving foreword to Hobson's 1902 book, in 2019.
See archive.org/details/warinsouthafrica00hobsuoft
- However, the War, like the whole of Empire, was (in my opinion) the outcome of a very complex cutural and historical tide. Entrepreneurs certainly benefit from many historical events, and the South African War was certainly full of "opportunity".
- When it comes to small arms, the role of Britain in supplying the Boer forces might be over-stated. The Birmingham arms trade supplied, almost exclusively, (obsolete) Martini Henrys and (virtually useless) .455 Webley revolvers. Though the ammunition for Martinis can indeed be found where Boer wagons have been burnt, I have never found a fired Martini case in a Boer position, despite looking for 55 years. Maybe it's just me. It is my experience from what is on the battlefields that Boer fire-power consisted almost entirely of 7 mm Mausers (from Germany). When Mauser ammunition ran out, Boers used captured British military rifles and military ammunition.

Smethwick wrote: Also you could interpret the Webley sales figures provided by Neville as showing somebody did bring pressure on them to stop selling arms to the Transvaal within a year of the Jameson Raid.

If any pressure was brought to bear on the armaments companies, Vickers Sons & Maxim clearly did not comply. The last, and by far the largest, shipment of VSM pom-poms was dispatched to the Transvaal on 5 Jan 1899. This batch of ten guns accounted for nearly half of the Staatsartillerie's 1-pdr QF arsenal, which, at the outbreak of the war, consisted of 22 pieces.

With regard to attempts to discourage companies from arming the ZAR, MC Heunis notes of Vickers Sons & Maxim: Ironically, after supplying the Boers with what probably became their best known weapon, the British War Office appointed Vickers as agents to try and prevent other suppliers such as Krupp and Schneider from accepting orders from the Boer Republics!


On a lighter note here is a French caricaturist's take on the "secret" armament of the Boer republics by British companies. For many years it was thought that the pom-poms were shipped via France, to conceal their ultimate destination. This suggestion has now been disproved.
To make his point, the artist has labelled the crates: "LIEU DE DÉPART: LONDON / DESTINATION: PRETORIA".
Published as one of a set of twelve postcards in 1900.




2e Tableau. Armement secret du Transvaal / Comme quoi les Boers ne possèdent pas d’armes et ne reçoivent que des machines agricoles / Lieu de départ: London / Destination: Pretoria.
[The Secret Armament of the Transvaal. This shows that the Boers do not have weapons and only receive agricultural machinery. Place of departure: London / Destination: Pretoria].


..

I have just read about the agricultural imports from France and Germany in Conan-Doyle's
"The War in South Africa. It's cause and conduct".

"A long delay followed upon the proposal of the Secretary of the Colonies. No reply was forthcoming from Pretoria. But on all sides there came evidence that those preparations for war which had been quietly going on even before the Jameson Raid were now being hurriedly perfected. For so small a State enormous sums were being spent upon military equipment. Cases of rifles and boxes of cartridges streamed into the arsenal, not only from Delagoa Bay, but even, to the indignation of the English colonists, through Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Huge packing-cases, marked 'Agricultural Instruments' and 'Mining Machinery,' arrived from Germany and France, to find their places in the forts of Johannesburg or Pretoria. As early as May the Orange Free State President, who was looked upon by the simple and trustful British as the honest broker who was about to arrange a peace, was writing to Grobler, the Transvaal official, claiming his share of the twenty-five million cartridges which had then been imported. This was the man who was posing as mediator between the two parties a fortnight later at Bloemfontein".

From Hansard 25 April 1901:

MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)
“I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether all the documents and papers relating to the armaments of the Transvaal Republic, the guns and ammunition ordered and delivered, and the dates when purchased, were found by the British Military authorities in the Boer Government offices on the occupation of Pretoria; and whether, among such papers, there are documents relating to the purchase of automatic guns, rifles, and ammunition from firms in England; and whether he will consent to publish such documents for the information of the House and the public.”

THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE WAR OFFICE (Lord STANLEY, Lancashire, Westhoughton)
“It is not possible to say whether all the documents and papers referred to were found, but considerable information was gained from the records in the Government offices. The orders for war material were to a large extent executed through agents, and therefore the records did not show from what firms the consignments had been obtained in the first instance. I do not therefore consider it would be expedient to publish information obtained from such meagre sources.”

MR. DILLON
“Will the Government undertake to inquire into this matter and let the British public know whence these arms and guns came?”

LORD STANLEY
“I cannot add to my answer, which I have endeavoured to make as full as possible.”

MR. DILLON
“I shall put a further question.”

Seeking to make a connection between posts - the first illustration in Rory's latest excellent post depicts HMS Forte which carried Joe Chamberlain and his wife from Mombasa to Zanzibar during their 1902/03 "Tour of the Colonies" during which they visited the Transvaal, Orange Free State & Natal. She was his third wife - his first two died in childbirth causing Joe to lose his faith and his five children were never expected to attend church (unlike the son of a Methodist lay preacher). His third wife was about 30 years younger than him and was the daughter of a USA Secretary of War. They met when he visited N America with the main purpose of his visit being to sort out fishery problems.