As
has been shown, the conditions of the two Boer Republics, with High Dutch as
the official language, lent themselves to favour the immigration into those
States of educated Dutchmen (Hollanders, as they are styled, to distinguish
them from the old-established Boer Dutchmen). These were indeed
indispensable, as none of the Boers possessed the competence in High Dutch
requisite for the conduct of the more important portion of the clerical work
in the administration. The professional branches were recruited from Holland
likewise, in natural sequence. They were men of high attainments and
possessed of energy and astuteness and of various qualifications—doctors,
lawyers, editors, clergymen, teachers. Those who did not receive Government
appointments quickly found lucrative positions in their vocations. The scope
increased as time went by and as those States developed with the growth of
the populations and the establishment of numerous towns and villages,
especially after the discovery of the diamond-fields in 1870. Every year
brought fresh contingents from Holland, including also the commercial class,
artisans, and even servants of both sexes, and agriculturists. Preserving a
constant intercourse with their native country, those Hollanders also
maintained cohesion and clanship among themselves in their newly-adopted
homes. Nor did Holland fail to realize the great advantages accruing to that
country and its people from the new South African outlets—regular preserves
with almost unlimited scope for further extension and for increasing
permanent, profitable connections. A formidable barrier presented itself in
the gradually ascendant tendencies of the English language and English
trade, with corresponding neglect of the Dutch factors. Regretful
forebodings aroused energetic efforts to check rival interests. The prize
was too valuable, and increasing each year in importance. A dyke needed to
be erected to stem the English encroachments and to preserve and consolidate
the Hollander position of vantage. The ablest men in Holland and South
Africa exercised themselves with that task with an ardour impelled by
jealous hatred against the English and intensified by successive revelations
of more startling discoveries of gold and other mineral wealth in the
Transvaal. It was then, about thirty years ago, that a well-informed,
influential and unscrupulous coterie in Holland devised the fell projects
which developed into that potential association since known as the Afrikaner
Bond.
The building of the Transvaal railway lines brought other large accessions
of educated Hollanders, and as they were completed some thousands more were
added to serve as permanent staff. Dutch influence was thus attaining
strength to assert and consolidate its interests with an expanding impulse.
The monopolized railway company promoted immigration from Holland by largely
increasing the salaries to such of the staff who were married. The Transvaal
Government, under the advice of their educational chief, Dr. Mansfeld,
provided similar premiums to secure married teachers from Holland and by
raising the salaries of married Hollander officials already placed. The
Hollander population attracted to the Transvaal since 1850, and which did
not number above 500 in 1870, had increased by 1898 to fully 12,000,
representing, as ranged with the Boers, by far the largest factor of
educated intelligence, attached to and dependent upon the Government and its
staunch allies. The men received full burghership as a rule soon after
arrival, exempt from the formalities and probation prescribed by law.
Holland being the locality of the inception, I may say the ingestion, of the
Afrikaner Bond, one's thoughts are apt to retrace, by way of contrast, that
little nation's creditable past. The view presents those dykes, monuments of
labour's heroism; then that glorious resistance against the mighty
persecutor of religion, those unsurpassed performances in the arena of
culture, arts, and sciences, and that long epoch of success in exploits of
colonization, finance, and commerce.
"But view them closer, craft and fraud appear; Even liberty itself is
bartered here."—Goldsmith. [5]
One notes the placid landscapes intersected by those still but deep-flowing
rivers and canals, scenes so conducive to mental exercise—the Dutch patriot
mourning over the transition of former national prestige to present
condition of decadence presaging complete national submersion, but at the
same time courageously employing his fertile brain in devising far-reaching
projects of remedy over distant perspectives so as to stem that tide of
decadence and declension and to erect a firm barrier against that menace—to
gain (by inspiration from the titular genius of commerce and craft so
conspicuous in that famed art representation[6] exhibited in his Bourse) a
dazzling prize for his nation by one fell swoop and, so to say, with folded
arms, just by pitting against the English his almost forgotten and
long-neglected clan, the Boer nation, inciting them to usurp Great Britain
in South Africa, Holland sharing the spoils. See here the master mind
exulting in the conception, gestation, and birth of the Afrikaner Bond
conspiracy; note the Hollander patriot's glitter of satisfaction at the
vista of realizing the restoration of Holland to a position excelling its
former glory, of a moribund language revived to significance, and of
witnessing besides a sweet vendetta operated upon England, the old enemy and
despoiler of his nation, to compass the humiliation and disintegration of
the British Empire. Patience, dear reader; preserve judicial composure.
Evidence is following on the heels of the charge.
FOOTNOTES:
5. This is of course not directed against the nation as a whole. See also
notice, page vi. O[6i]l painting in the Amsterdam Exchange building
representing Mercurius.
