| Reitz | Francis William | | | Born in Swellendam in 1844, he was educated at the South African College and was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1867. When he returned to the Cape, he started a law practice. In 1874 he accepted the position of Chief Justice of the Orange Free State. He continued to hold his position as Chief Justice until 1888 when he was elected State President. He resigned in 1895 on the grounds of poor health. In 1897 he moved to Pretoria, where he was admitted as an advocate, and was later appointed Judge of the Supreme Court. When Dr Leyds left for Europe, he became State Secretary and drafted the ultimatum to Britain which led to the outbreak of the Boer War. During the war he remained in the field and was a signatory to the peace treaty. When the war ended, he lived for a while in the US. In 1910 he became President of the new Senate of the Union of South Africa, a position which he held until 1929, when he retired to the Cape. He died in 1934. 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. | Boer Forces |
