Boer personalities P - S

In the 'eighties, a Judge of, and subsequently President of, the Orange Free State. Later on he succeeded Dr Loyds as State Attorney of the South African Republic, becoming eventually President Kruger's State Secretary, and it was in the latter capacity that he penned the ultimatum in Oct 1899, which immediately preceded the Beer invasion of British territory in South Africa. He was at one time regarded in the Transvaal as having progressive tendencies, though without sufficient strength to influence the President. But his ostensible attitude was probably merely the veil to temporarily obscure that hostility to England which he had expressed more than twenty years before the Boer War, when he allowed that he aimed at the expulsion of the British from South Africa. As Secretary of State in the Transvaal Mr Reitz was deep in Mr Kruger's confidence, and his previous association with the Free State could not fail to be of the utmost value to the astute President of the SAR in supporting his intrigues with the Orange Colony. In 1900 Mr Reitz published a pamphlet which contained an ex parte statement of the case for the Boers against Great Britain, in which he prophesied that "Freedom shall rise in South Africa as the sun out of the morning clouds, as freedom rose in the United States of North America. Then shall it be from Zambesi to Simon's Bay, Africa for the Afrikander". At the Peace Conference at Vereeniging, Mr Reitz was one of the most difficult of the Boer representatives. He held out for continuing the war as long as possible; then suggested such concessions as ceding the Witwatersrand to Great Britain, or, alternatively, acknowledging a British Protectorate. Ultimately, however, he signed the Articles of Peace, but in the North American Review of November 1902, he wrote frankly that he did so in his representative capacity, and not as an individual, apparently retaining a mental reservation that was not morally bound to abide by the terms to which he had affixed his signature. After the Boer War Mr Reitz joined the Irreconcilables in Europe, and, later on, undertook a lecturing tour through America to raise funds for the Boers. He denounced the British conduct of the campaign, and accused Lord Milner , Mr Chamberlain , and other British Ministers of bad faith in their interpretations of the peace terms, particularly on the question of amnesty. At Brussels he complained that the English with their habitual bad faith were spreading false reports designed to show that Generals Botha, De la Rey, and De Wet were not acting in perfect harmony with Mr Kruger's party, with whose opinions, so ably declared by Mr Reitz, it was desired to identify the Glorious Trio in the eyes of Europe. So venomous was the attitude of Mr Reitz that Mr Chamberlain referred to him when addressing the Boer Generals at the Colonial Office in these words: "We want to be friends, but the friendship must be on both sides, and when anyone gives us reason to believe that he will not be friendly if he returns to South Africa, we will do our best to prevent him from returning". Mr Reitz sailed for the United States in his forlorn hope in Sep, 1902, and began his agitation with the article in the North American Review previously alluded to. His plan was to embark on a lecturing tour, denouncing Britain and her Ministers, which he did with inexcusable recklessness, and so violent were his denunciations both in the States and in Europe that they called forth remonstrances even in the columns of the pro-Boer journals. The career of the ex-State Secretary was throughout very much assisted by his mental attainments. Amongst his associates in the Transvaal he shone as a speaker, and as a writer. One of his contributions to Afrikander literature was Vijftig Uitgesogte Afrikaanse Gedigte, a volume of fifty songs in the Taal, containing translations from Burns and other British poets. Mr Reitz was sufficiently astute to understand how much depended upon the question of language in South Africa. The Taal, ungrammatical, and possessed of no literature, could not held its own against the English tongue, and recognising the supreme importance of this question he eloquently advocated at the Congress at Coutrai (Aug, 1902) the adoption of the more polished language of the Hollanders in the curriculum of schools for the Boer children. It cannot be claimed that Mr Reitz has advanced the Boer cause in any way since he left Dclagoa Bay for Europe. He was eventually allowed to return to his estates in the Orange River Colony. His sons had all studied in Europe, and all fought in the Boer war, one of them being wounded and taken prisoner.

He was born near Winburg in 1857 the son of Mr M Steyn and the daughter of Commandant Wessels.  He was educated in Bloemfontein, Holland and London.  His legal expertise led to his appointment as State Attorney for the Free State, 1889-1893.  He was later appointed to be First Puisne Judge, 1893-1896.  In 1896, he became State President of the Orange Free State, aged 39.  In 1897 a Joint-Federal Council was appointed (consisting of five members from each Republic) to discuss questions of mutual importance, and it was then arranged that the franchise should be granted indiscriminately to burghers of both States, both States agreeing to stand by each other in the event of war.  As a result of this agreement Mr Steyn played a prominent part in the Conference at Bloemfontein in 1899 and acted as mediator between President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner.  When war was inevitable, he joined his commando in the field.  When Bloemfontein fell to the British in March 1900, he joined General de Wet's commandos and took part in all three De Wet hunts; the first into the Transvaal, where he encouraged the Transvaal forces in the Eastern Transvaal, and the second and third hunts to invade the Cape Colony.  He was nearly captured near Bothaville in November 1900 and in Reitz in July 1901.  Towards the end of the war he became very ill.  The illness prevented him from signing the peace treaty.  After the war he made a partial recovery.  He died in 1916 and was buried at the Vrouemonument (Women's Memorial) in Bloemfontein.

He was born in the Orange Free State in 1857, three years after the Republic had come into existence. He received little systematic education until, at the age of twelve, he was sent to Grey College at Bloemfontein. Later on, through the influence of Judge Buchanan, he went to Holland to study law, afterwards proceeding to London, where he was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple. Returning to South Africa he practised for a few years in the Free State; became Attorney General, and was raised to the Bench in 1889, where he remained until 1895, discharging his judicial functions in a careful and conscientious manner, and holding himself aloof from politics. In that year Mr Reitz resigned the Presidency, and Mr Steyn offered himself as a candidate, defeating his opponent, Mr J G Fraser (at that time Chairman of the Volksraad) by an overwhelming majority. For many years the Orange Free State had been rightly regarded as a model Republic, with liberal laws, and quite sufficiently progressive for the needs of the burghers. Public questions were really only matters of domestic policy until President Kruger began to inspire the Free Staters with his ambitions schemes to weave all South Africa into one whole Afrikander nation. Mr Steyn could not resist participating in such a dream, and in accordance with an understanding come to with the Transvaal before the Bloemfontein Conference of May, 1899, when the Presidents of both Republics met Lord Milner, Mr Steyn threw himself wholly into the conflict which Mr Kruger had precipitated, and with the Free State forces remained in the field long after his leader had fled to Europe. After the capture of Bloemfontein and the destruction of the Waterworks Mr Steyn fled with his commandos, shifting his capital to Kroonstad, Heilbron, and other places. In May, 1901, his burghers were losing heart, and thought it was time to consider a better means of attaining their ends than by the arbitrament of the Mauser. But Mr Kruger and the Boer delegates in Europe conveyed great hopes of a satisfactory end of the long struggle, and Mr Steyn, although not relying upon foreign intervention, gave orders for the war to continue. Meanwhile Mr Steyn had joined General De Wet , and in his flight before the British forces he was taken prisoner, having seriously injured his spine. In consideration of this, and also as he was suffering from his eyes, he was allowed to proceed to Europe to join his wife, who was a Scotch lady, and his children. But already his health had completely broken down under the hardships of war, and he was so weak as to be unable to walk. The fortitude with which he had faced the dangers of the field, the enormous sacrifices he had made, and his firm adherence to Mr Kruger's policy combined to make him very nearly an object of adoration amongst the Boers in Holland and the Hollanders themselves. Messrs. Fischer and Wessels met the ex-President at Southampton, and induced him to trans-ship at once for the Hook of Holland, in order that he might avoid the friendly welcome that the British were ready to extend to one who was so recently a brave and gallant fee. Arriving in Holland Mr Steyn was conveyed at once to Scheveningen, where President Kruger visited his faithful ally—or, as some might say, his victim. But so weak was Mr Steyn that his doctor would only countenance a very brief interview. He expressed the belief that the Boers would recover politically what they had lest for the time being, but his health did net permit of his being actively associated with such a consummation. On the other hand, he eventually returned to the Orange River Colony to devote himself to the mere peaceful pursuit of farming near Kroonstad.