The project of alliance between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State had
been mooted before 1890. After that came conferences between the respective
Presidents and delegates for closer union as it was then styled. Mr. John G.
Fraser, one of the noblest and most distinguished Orange Free State
statesmen, was conspicuous among the few opponents. His arguments against
federation were so logical and conclusive that it seemed for a while that
the idea would have to be renounced. Among other grounds adduced against
that alliance was the fact that England possessed claims of suzerainty over
the Transvaal, and, the Orange Free State itself being entirely independent,
the incongruity and incompatibility were obvious of joining a vassal State.
There was trouble if not danger lurking behind it, if such two States were
to join in an actual federation. Whatever was desirable for mutual advantage
might be attained without offensive and defensive alliance. The two
Governments, however, knew how to manipulate matters. The closer union
scheme was carried through before the Jameson incursion, and soon after that
event an offensive and defensive alliance completed the federation. The
Afrikaner Bond then had advanced another important stage.
Mr. John G. Fraser's persistent objections to federation, upon the ground
that the Transvaal stood under British suzerainty, had given that question a
prominence operating against the Afrikaner Bond project, viz., that of
gaining a strong Power as ally to its cause. It was felt that no Power
could, with decency, enter into a connection with that State while such a
claim was maintained. To overcome that obstacle the Transvaal Government
proceeded to raise a controversy with England, taking up the position of
repudiating the claim of suzerainty, and averring the complete independence
of the State, subject only to the one clause re treaties with foreign
nations. Another object would be gained, viz., of diverting England from
Bond aims by that and similar controversies. To make a show of sincerity
about it all, the opinions (foregathered, of course) of certain eminent
jurists in England and Holland were obtained, who refuted the claim in
elaborate disquisitions and with that readiness of apparent conviction so
peculiar to some advocates' affected faith in their clients' cause. Thus
England was decoyed into a protracted tournament of words and phrases
without any practical result, but gratifying and inspiring no doubt to
certain well-paid soi-disant champions of the principle defined as the
"perfection of justice," who revel in a display of forensic erudition,
which, however, only illustrates to the unedified lay mind how speech is
adaptable to veil inward conviction, and how a mass of rhetoric can be
employed to justify the breach of simple and well-understood engagements.
It
continues to be clumsily insisted upon in official and paid Press organs how
the need of providing Transvaal armaments became realized only with that
Anglo-capitalistic plot of 1895-96 against Boer independence, and that, in
fact, Dr. Jameson was worthy of the Boer nation's lasting gratitude for
opening their eyes to their helplessly unarmed and unprepared condition up
to that time. In those papers it is declared with unblushing inexactness how
the Transvaal at that epoch possessed only two hundred and fifty inefficient
and ill-equipped artillerists, with only a few cannons of various antiquated
types, and how the burgher element had, up to that time, continued unarmed
and in unsuspecting insecurity. To stamp these misstatements as false, it
needs only to be considered that from the time of the Boer trek in 1835-38
every Boer had been a hunter and guerilla soldier possessed of the best
firearms then extant, ready at any sacrifice to provide still more effective
weapons as inventions in arms of precision in turn progressed. His passion
to be well armed only equalled that of his love for land. From 1881 every
Transvaal and Orange Free State Boer without exception had, and was obliged
to have, his Martini-Henry rifle. The Government arsenals were supplied with
reserves of that up to recently unsurpassed weapon and with large stores of
ammunition. The authorities supplied that rifle at £4 each, and even gratis
in the case of indigent burghers. At the frequent reviews (wapenschouwingen)
each burgher had to appear mounted, with his Martini-Henry rifle and thirty
rounds ammunition. To maintain proficiency in rifle practice, prizes and
honours were distributed at Government expense in each ward, whilst there
was plenty of private emulation encouraged among young and old in the
science of sharp-shooting, the Governments of both Republics contributing
ammunition at below cost price.
In
about 1893 the Transvaal Government introduced about 10,000 new rifles of
the Guede pattern, firing a steel-pointed bullet, but the issue did not
become general, as the Martini-Henry rifle continued to be held more
effective for game and for war. The Mauser rifle was only provided, after
long hesitation and much diffidence, for its rapid-firing quality in war,
whereas for game it is still considered inferior to the larger bored
Martini-Henry.
On
the occasion of the Jameson incursion, the Transvaal had in readiness
extensive parks of the most modern quick-firing Maxims and Nordenfeldts of
various calibres, and breech-loading field artillery of the Krupp make. The
Orange Free State hurried to their assistance with similar artillery, each
burgher armed with a Martini-Henry rifle. Besides all that, there was the
dynamite and explosives factory equipped to manufacture all sorts of modern
ammunition as it does now, and this is why President Krüger described that
factory as one of the corner-stones of Boer independence. In the face of
these facts it is a most singular departure to say that the Transvaal only
thought of arming when becoming alarmed for the future by the Jameson
attempt, and that statement could only have been intended to mislead the
uninformed at a distance. "Qui s'excuse s'accuse" is applicable in this as
well as in other ruses for hiding those sinister Bond aims and to pose as
the guileless and victimized Boer nation. It was just the other way about—it
was England who was unprepared and exposed to imminent risk of aggression on
the part of the Boer combination.
What had amazed and actually exasperated many Boers was the ludicrously puny
attempt made by Jameson and the Johannesburg revolutionary concert. It was
at the time thought that the invasion of some 700 men was only a first
installment, and that much larger developments were in preparation to attack
the State. It was for that reason that only a few batteries of artillery
were despatched at a late moment to Doornkop under Commandant Trichaart to
operate against Jameson's party, while the bulk was held in reserve with an
extensive mobilization of burghers to resist other supposed opposition of an
altogether more formidable but yet undefined character. When nothing further
transpired, the feeling uppermost with the people was unbounded derision at
that impotent fiasco, and a loathing contempt for the cowering Johannesburg
rabble who betrayed and sacrificed the insensate doctor. It was loudly
asserted that the combined forces of the two Republics were competent to
resist an invasion a hundred times stronger than the one so foolishly
attempted; but, with cooler counsels, it was resolved to adopt the appealing
attitude of the deeply injured party who miraculously and providentially
escaped a great national peril. Upon these lines the raid incident afforded
an immense advantage to Afrikaner Bond tactics, and an impulse to Bond
propaganda which enormously increased Boer partisanship, inflicting at the
same time a fatal check upon the diplomacy of England and upon the essential
peace-preserving
measures for safeguarding her South African interests. The circumstances,
however, served to embolden many hitherto undecided sympathisers into openly
declared and vehement Boer partisans, revealing the singular spectacle,
among English people even, of a morbid cult apparently ready to sacrifice
their nation just to vindicate their judicial dicta about Boer innocence and
to parade their own darling sense of shocked and violated national honour.
Quite other and more emphatic terms apply to the revolting sewerage such as
the socialistic platform and other purulent nurseries for breeding wilful
and hypocritical abettors, at so much a score, of misguided and
treason-hatching Afrikanerdom.
