The War in South Africa, Its Cause and ConductDoyle, Arthur Conan
History
The War in South Africa, Its Cause and Conduct
Doyle, Arthur Conan
South African War, 1899-1902; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Causes
'I am convinced,' he says, 'that Kruger's influence completely changed
the character of the Afrikander Bond--an organisation which I believe
Hofmeyr started at the Cape with the legitimate purpose of securing
certain political privileges, but which, under Kruger's henchmen--Sauer,
Merriman, Te Water, and others--raised unrest in the Cape Colony.
'This successful anti-British policy of Kruger created a number of
imitators--Steyn, Fischer, Esselen, Smuts, and numerous other young
educated Africanders of the Transvaal, Orange Free State, and the Cape
Colony, who, misled by his successes, ambitiously hoped by the same
means to raise themselves to the same pinnacle.
'Krugerism under them developed into a reign of terror. If you were
anti-Kruger you were stigmatised as "Engelschgezind," and a traitor to
your people, unworthy of a hearing. I have suffered bitterly from this
taunt, especially under Steyn's _régime_. The more hostile you were to
England the greater patriot you were accounted.
'This gang, which I wish to be clearly understood was spread over the
whole of South Africa, the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and the
Cape Colony, used the Bond, the press, and the pulpit to further its
schemes.
'Reitz, whom I believe to have been an honest enthusiast, set himself up
as second sponsor to the Bond and voiced the doctrine of this gang:
"Africa for the Africanders. Sweep the English into the sea." With an
alluring cry like this, it will be readily understood how easy it was to
inflame the imagination of the illiterate and uneducated Boer, and to
work upon his vanity and prejudices. That pernicious rag, Carl
Borckenhagen's "Bloemfontein Express," enormously contributed to
spreading this doctrine in the Orange Free State. I myself firmly
believe that the "Express" was subsidised by Kruger. It was no mystery
to me from where Borckenhagen, a full-blooded German, got his ardent
Free State patriotism.
'In the Transvaal this was done by the "Volksstem," written by a
Hollander and subsidised by Kruger; by the "Rand Post," also written by
a Hollander, also subsidised by Paul Kruger; and in the Cape Colony by
the "Patriot," which was started by intriguers and rebels to their own
Government, at the Paarl--a hot-bed of false Africanderism. "Ons Land"
may be an honest paper, but by fostering impossible ideas it has done us
incalculable harm. It grieves me to think that my poor people, through
want of education, had to swallow this poison undiluted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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