The Transvaal from Within: A Private Record of Public AffairsFitzpatrick, Percy
History
The Transvaal from Within: A Private Record of Public Affairs
Fitzpatrick, Percy
Jameson's Raid, 1895-1896; Transvaal (South Africa) -- Politics and government -- 1880-1910
is to say to sleep in their offices--a fortnight before the Jameson
raid took place, a significant piece of evidence is that supplied by
the Transvaal Consul in London, Mr. Montagu White, who in a letter to
the London Press stated that on December 16 he received information
as to the plot against the independence of the Republic, and that he
on that date cabled fully to President Kruger warning him of what was
in contemplation, and that the President took the necessary
precautions. Now, on December 14 it was announced in Pretoria that
the President, being greatly in need of a rest and change, was about
to undertake a tour through the country to visit his faithful
burghers. Perusal of the newspapers of the time shows that among the
Uitlanders no significance was attached to this visit. Indeed, the
Uitlander press agreed that it had become painfully evident that His
Honour required a change in order to restore his nervous system. As
nothing can better represent the opinions of the time than the
current comments of the Press, the following extracts from the
Johannesburg _Star_ are given:
In short, His Honour is developing an ungovernable irritability and a
tendency to choleric obsessions, when the word 'Uitlander' is barely
mentioned in his presence, that are causing the greatest concern to
those around him. Only on some such grounds are explicable the raging
exclamations he is reported to have permitted himself to lately use
towards Johannesburg and the cause of reform upon which it is so
earnestly engaged. That His Honour should have been generally
credited with indulging in unconventional vernacular terms concerning
the pronouncedly loyal and hearty reception accorded to him on his
visit to the Rand Agricultural Show, seems to argue a lapse into the
habits of his youngest days, which has a direct significance in the
case of ordinary individuals, and is known by a very familiar name.
That he should tragically declare that only across his bleeding
corpse will the Uitlander ever come into his own, is merely the
extravagant and regrettable melodrama of an overheated mind. The
general desire is quite averse to encountering any stepping-stones of
that kind, and most of all averse to Mr. Kruger's taking any such
place. Our quarrel is with principles and systems, and never yet has
a note of personal vengeance been sounded whilst we have endeavoured
to compass their destruction. It is quite obvious that a little
relaxation from the cares of State, or reversion to more primitive
conditions, a freer communion with Nature--viewed from an
ox-waggon--are eminently desirable to restore His Honour's shattered
nerves.--_December 14, 1895._
AT HIS POST.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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