The present book had been intended for publication in South Africa before
the end of 1899, with the object of laying bare the wicked and delusive aims
of the Afrikaner Bond combination, to which the Anglo-Boer war alone is
attributable, and to counteract its disastrous influences so far as then
still possible. But until quite lately circumstances had conspired so as to
prevent the writer from leaving the Transvaal, and when he at last obtained
the required passport to Lourenço Marques he was there denied a permit to
visit a colonial port. He therefore sailed for London in order to publish
this book without more loss of time. Though too late to serve as a
deterrent, the contents may be effective towards showing up the really
guilty parties—the instigators and seducers of the deluded Boer nation, and
so pave and widen the avenue of peace and of conciliation between Boer and
Briton who were duped and victimized alike.
The exposure of the actual culprits and originators should also operate
favourably, and in mitigation in behalf of the much less guilty Boers, so as
to dispose the victors to the exercise of magnanimous consideration. In
exposing the villainy of the Dutch coterie in Holland, the writer is far
from impugning the honourable character of that nation, the better part of
whom, when once undeceived, will be the first to reprobate and disown those
arch-plotters who sacrificed the peace of South Africa for personal and
national advantage.
Some other information regarding the Boers and South Africa will be found
interspersed in this study, which will be found of use to the uninitiated
and to intending emigrants to that sub-continent. As the reader proceeds
with the examination of this book it will suggest comparisons and even
analogies which may commend themselves as singularly apposite and
instructive in relation with the study of the presently budding Eastern
question.
C.H. THOMAS
NOTE TO SECOND EDITION
The issue of a Second Edition has afforded an opportunity to correct a
few linguistic blemishes, but the work has only been very slightly revised.
