South Africa -- History; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Causes
"His Excellency's Ministers are one in their earnest desire to do all in
their power to aid and further a policy of peaceful progress throughout
South Africa, and they cannot but regard it as an unwise propagandism,
hostile to the true interests of the Empire, including this Colony as an
integral part, that every possible occasion should be seized by the
League and its promoters for an attempt to magnify into greater events
minor incidents when occurring in the South African Republic, with a
prospect thereby of making racial antagonism more acute, or of
rendering less smooth the relations between Her Majesty's Government or
the Government of this Colony and that Republic."
Race hatred is, however, not so intense in South Africa as to enable a
body with this propaganda, aiming at revolutionary objects, to obtain
much influence in this part of the world; and one continually asks
oneself the question--"How is it that a body so insignificant, both in
regard to its principles and its membership, enjoys such a large measure
of influence?" The answer is that this body depends upon the protection
and the support of Her Majesty's Government in England, and that both
its members and its organs in the Press openly boast of the influence
they exercise over the policy of Her Majesty's Government. This
Government would ignore such assertions, but when it finds that the
ideas and the shibboleths of the South African League are continually
echoed in the speeches of members of H.M. Government, when it finds that
blue books are compiled chiefly from documents prepared by officials of
the South African League, as well as from reports and leading articles
containing "malignant lies" taken from the Press organs of that
organisation, thereby receiving an official character, then this
Government can well understand why so many of Her Majesty's right-minded
subjects in this part of the world have obtained the impression that the
policy advocated by the South African League is supported by Her
Majesty's Government, and is thus calculated to contribute to the
welfare and blessing of the British Empire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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