Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner: The Records of an Eventful Life (Vol. 2 of 2)Suttner, Bertha von
History
Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner: The Records of an Eventful Life (Vol. 2 of 2)
Suttner, Bertha von
Peace; Suttner, Bertha von, 1843-1914; Women -- Austria -- Biography
Yours faithfully
G. B. Clark
But in this Transvaal affair I must also let the _altera pars_ have its
say. The English nation, so vilified on the Continent because of the
Boer War, was not as a whole (as many liked to assert) led into this
campaign merely by the passion for gain and through love of warfare.
Noble motives—as is usually the case in every war—animated the majority.
The desire is to “give freedom,” to make wrong into right, to serve the
fatherland; life itself is sacrificed. The object and aim may be
praiseworthy; only it is unfortunate that the method is so unholy and
vicious. I received the following letter from the sister of the Minister
of Cape Colony:
Stockton, April 18, 1900
Madam:
Because of the high honor in which I bear you and the deep sympathy
with which I read _Die Waffen nieder_, I send you this letter, written
by a Cape Dutch woman, sister of Mr. Schreiner, Prime Minister of Cape
Colony. I do not know if you are well enough acquainted with Cape
politics to be aware of the full significance of the fact that he came
into office as leader of the Afrikander Bond.
That his sister should write as she does about this war should surely
come as a startling revelation to many people on the Continent who are
so sorely misjudging my beloved country.
She will answer for you as to the motives of those Cape Dutch who are
holding by the Union Jack. For those of my own country I, living in
the heart of England, daily in touch with the lower, middle, and upper
middle classes, affirm to you, as before God, that no wish for
conquest and no lust for gold weighs anything at all with us.
We are giving the lives of our best beloved—giving them by
thousands—to right wrong, to destroy oppression of our
fellow-subjects, both white and black, to put an end to a very unjust
and most corrupt form of government. Also to prevent our Colony of the
Cape, Natal, Rhodesia, and Bechuanaland, conquered by our blood and
treasure at various times, from being wrested from us.
This is the simple truth. We should like high-minded people abroad to
know and recognize that truth. But if it may not be, we can only still
repeat the old battle cry of our forefathers, “May God defend the
right!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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