! HE ! R ! ! H ABO ! ! ! HE JAM ESO N RAID

J O HN HA! S HAM MON D

A S R ELA! E D ! O

A L L E ! N E I R E L A N D

' B O S ! O N 7 M A RSHA L L J O N E S CO M PAN ! M D C C C C X V H I COP! GH! 1 1 8 RI , 9 B! MARSHALL J O N ES COMPA N !

All right: reserved

By permifiio n of

! he N orth American Review

PRIN ! ED IN ! HE ! N I! ED S! A! ES OF AMERICA

B! ! HE ! N V ! ! P C M B D G M . I ERSI RESS , A RI E , ASS P re fac e

! HE contents o f th is volume appeared in the August and September numbers of the “ !

1 1 8 . North American Review, 9 Following thei r publication I received so many requests that a more permanent form should be given to the material that

I have had this little volume issued . I wish to express my indebtedness to His

Eminence Cardinal Gibbons , to the Hon .

Ho n . . . William H . Taft , to the E M House , to President Arthur T . H adley, and to the

. . fo r Hon Oscar S Straus , their permission to print the letters which they have been good enough to send me in regard to “ The ! Truth About the J ameson Raid . I take the occasion also to acknowledge “ the courtesy of the North American Re view ! in allowing the republication of the articles . O ! S M M O D J HN HA HA N .

t er 1 1 8 . Oc ob , 9

[ V ] n c 1 8 . W t n . C . O t . 2 1 ashi g o , D , 4 , 9

e M y d ar M r . Ha m m o nd

am e r to e r t t ur e r m and I v y glad h a ha yo cl a , cal , moderate statem ent O f the inj ustice and outrage of th e Kruge r Gove rnm ent is to b e publishe d in a fo rm w hich w r e ill e ach the p eople of the Un it d S tat es . It is of the u tm ost im port ance to Show th e re al groun d fo r the action of En glan d in fighting the Boe r War and in p roducing the p resent conditio n of p ros

e rit ne an d t the er e e . p y , happi ss, loyal y of Bo p opl I t is w e ll to have the facts cl early brought o ut to w the tt tu e Ge rm n w w as e e sho a i d of a y , hich of a pi c w t he r re n e re and n e and the i h fo ig policy b fo si c , high purpose of those w ho w ere the first m over s tow ar ds th e ree m the r n and w e ur e e m i f do of T a svaal , hos co s is l th r nent y j ustifi e d by e esult . ! ur e r n ere o s v y si c ly ,

M AF! . W . H . T

! C r n e en e 0 C r e St 8 . a di al s R sid c , 4 N ha l s m r c 1 1 t e O t . 1 6 8 . Bal i o , , 9

D ear M r . Ham m o nd :

In these days w hen History is be ing m ade so fast “ ! your bookle t ! he Truth About the Jam e son Raid w ill be app re ciate d by stu dents w ho are investigating the int rigues w hich flour ishe d in so m any parts of the w r re u to the W r War an d w e o ld p vio s o ld , hich hav be en looke d upon as part of th e p repar at ion fo r the p resent struggle to se cure w o rld dom ination by the Centr P w e r al o s . Faithfull ur y yo s ,

CARD . I BB S . G N J O , Ar chbi h o s p of Ba ltim o r e .

[ vi ] ! e n er t N ew en C nn . al U iv si y, Hav , o !

fie ct 1 1 8 . Pre ent O . sid s Of c , 4 , 9

e r r m m o n M y d a M . Ha d “ ! he art icles o n ! he Tr ue Sto ry of the Jam e son ! h e w M r . re n w r tten o n t Raid , hich I la d has i basis of n rm t n w o u e urn e are Of extrao r i fo a io hich y hav f ish d , dinar n te re t e t r w t no t n o n the y i s . Th y h o ligh , o ly circum stan ces w hich p rece de d an d follow e d the r aid ! t e but o n the r ter Pre ent Kru er i s lf , also cha ac of sid g s and n re t o n the nte rn t n policy , i di c ly also i a io al policy r w t e t the m tt er of Ge m any as a hole . This las asp c of a e em re new e nt ere t t I t o ne the giv s th d i s oday . is of m an y pi ece s of history w hich th row light o n the attem pt of ' the G erm an em p eror t o establish a new w orld hege m n no t an tu w r em re an d o u e o y , if ac al o ld pi ; y hav done good se rvice in con tr ibu tin g the t est im ony of an e e w tne o er t r y i ss t this chap t of his o y . Ve r n ere y si c ly, ne R! H! R ADLE! ( Sig d ! A T . H .

N e ! r t w C e t . 1 1 o k i y , S p 5 , 9 8 .

M d ar r m y e M . Ha m o nd :

w nt to ho w m u en e re n in th I a say ch I joy d adi g, e rt m er n e ew ur rue t r No h A ica R vi , yo T S o y of the ! m e n It m n t e Ja so Raid . is ost i er st ing and m ost in rm n and o u e ren ere t n r fo i g , y hav d d a dis i ct se vice in clarifyin g t his im po rt ant incid ent in i nte rnational rela tio nshi n p . I say a disti ct service be cause th e gen e r al im p ression so far as this country is conce rne d w as e tr m en tal to r t r d i B i ish fai play . ! ur r t tem ent t ff r in w o g aphic s a of his a ai , hich yo u t m rt nt rt urn e an ook so i po a a pa , f ish s additional evi [ vii ] ! dence of the Kaise r s unconscion able m e thods and of r r n e r e r n the Ge rm an kult u of f au d a d p v sio . I hop e that these articl e s w ill be furth e r distribute d in rm no t n in t unt r b ut in G re t book fo , o ly his co y a r n B i tai . n ere ur Si c ly yo s ,

SCAR ! RA! S . O S . S

N r w ! t ct . 1 1 1 1 e C O 8 . o k i y, , 9

r r Ha m m o nd D ea M . :

I am glad that yo u are givi ng t o the p ublic ! he ! r e r th e m e n T u S to y of Ja so Raid . I t w as o ne the m t r m t n en t in t r of os d a a ic i cid s his o y , an d its conse quence s have bee n of such far - re achi n g im port an ce that th e w o rld w ill b e e ager to know th e t fac s . n ere ur Si c ly yo s ,

HO! S E .

viii J ! h e ! ru th Ab o u t th e J am e so n R aid

B! J OHN HA! S HAMMOND

AS R ELA! ED ! O ALLE! NE IRELAND

! HE amazing revelations of German in trigue which within the past few months have come from points as fa r apart as

Buenos Aires and Constantinople , as Petro grad and Tokyo , have stirred in my mem ory the recollection of a certain telegram signed by the same William , King of im Prussia and German Emperor , whose pudent and mendacious emissaries have se t the mark o f indelible infamy o n the brow o f their Imperial accomplice . “ From Wilhelm , Imperator , Rex , Ber : lin to President Kruger , Pretoria , South b African Repu lic , so ran the address , and thus the message :

I tende r yo u my sinc e r e c o ngratul atio ns th at w ith o ut app e aling t o th e h elp o f frie ndly Po w e rs yo u and yo ur p e o pl e h ave b e en succ e ss [ I ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T ful in o pp o sing w ith yo ur o w n fo rce s th e a rm e d b ands th at h ave bro ken into yo ur co unt ry to stu th e e a e in e sto r n o r e r and in di rb p c , r i g d , m aintaining th e indep e n den c e o f yo ur co untry n agai st att acks fro m w itho ut .

Like many o f the German documents which have recently come to light, this message is clothed in language which im parts to it a flavor o f innocence and of sympathy . It is not until the surrounding circumstances are carefully examined that the telegram can be assigned its proper place in the dark record of German diplo macy . American citizens played a p rominent part in the events referred to in the Kaiser ! s - telegram , and the account of an eye witness may prove o f more than passing In terest at this time . The story carries the reader to

South Africa , where , in the heart of a pastoral country, nature has buried thou sands o f feet below the sunburnt plain the ! world s greatest store of gold . I may begin my narrative with a meeting held by five hundred Americans in Johan nesb u r o f g, the mining city the Transvaal ,

1 8 . in December , 95 What we had met to decide was whether o r not we should give

[ 2 ] ! HE J A M E S O N RA I D o ur support to a Revolution which was then brewing against the Boer oligarchy .

I was a little late in getting there and , when I entered , the meeting was in dis ! order . Some of President Kruger s spies had managed to gain admittance , and the disturbance they made was so great that the — an Chai rman , Captain Mein American and manager o f the celebrated Robinson mine —was about to announce an adjourn ment . I walked rapidly up the aisle , mounted the platform , and secured a hear ing . I told the rowdies that if they made any more trouble I ! d have them thrown out . Then I explained the exact situation u which confronted s. Our grievances were so well known that there wae , no need for me to enlarge upon them ; all I had to do was to take the sense of those p resent and—every class of Amer ican was represented o n the single ques tion whether the point had no t been reached to which the signers of the Declaration o f Independence referred when they said

all e e r e n e a S e w n at m an xp i c h th h , th n a re m o r e s o se to suffe r w e e s ki d di p d , hil vil ' a re suffe a e an to t t em se e s r bl , th righ h lv by ab o lishing th e fo rm s to w hich the y are a ccus B o n n f a u t o m ed . ut w en a a o se s and , h l g tr i b [ 3 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T usu a o ns ursu n n a a th e sam e Ob rp ti , p i g i v ri bly j c et evince s a de sign to r e duc e th em und e r a so ute D e s o t sm it is t e t it is t e b l p i , h ir righ , h ir u to t o w O ff su Go e nm en and to d ty, hr ch v r t , ua f r e pro vide new G rd s o th ir future se curity .

Nothing is to be found in the Declara tion of Independence limiting this prin ci l e p by latitude , by longitude , or by cir c um stance : it was a clean -cut heredita ry issue , to be faced by us Americans then and there . ! The efforts o f President Kruger s secret agents , among whom there were many Ger mans , had been directed for a long time to heading o ff the Revolution by sowing dis sension in the ranks of the mining com t muni y, and there was some danger that in these attempts might succeed . The genio us plan was followed o f telling the American and other non -British immi grants that the whole affair was nothing but an English plot to induce us to spend our money and to shed o ur blood in order that the country should be brought under the B ritish flag . For the Americans the whole thing hung o n the question o f the flag ; and I knew very well that there was but o ne way to secure

[ 4 ] T H E J A M E S O N RA I D

American support fo r the Revolution and at the same time to establish o u r action as a genuine internal revolt having no o b j e c t ulterior to that o f destroying the nar h h th e h h o f row Boer oligarc y, t en at eig t its malign and corrupt power, and of setting up in its place a truly representative de c r n m o acy o the American model . So I made it clear th at if the worst came to the worst and we were driven to resort to violence , it was under the Boer flag that we would fight, and that we should have at least the sympathy Of many p rogressive young Boers who were as disgusted as we were with the infamous condition - into which the country had been brought by Paul Kruger and h is Dutch and German satellites , and had declared that they would not bear arms against the Joh annesburgers if the city were attacked . “ I concluded my speech by saying, I will shoot any man who hoists any flag but w as the Boer flag, an announcement which vigorously applauded . Out of more than five hundred Ame ricans present a ll but five voted to take up arms against Kruger ; and immediately on the adjournment o f the meeting we organized the George Wash [ 5 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T ingto n Corps and pledged ourselves to the

Revolutionary cause . w as h o w What the Revolution about, it failed , how the leaders , including myself , were sentenced to death , how the death o f penalty was commuted , how our point view was vindicated by the Boer War and by England ! s measures after the country came under the B ritish flag is what I pur pose to tell in the following pages . When news o f the J ameson Raid ap p e are d in thousands o f papers in all parts 1 of the world on Tuesday, December 3 , 1 895, the general impression was created that a swashbuckling Englishman had at tempted to overthrow the Government o f the South African Republic in order to add its territory to the British Empire . It was not unnatural that this view of the situ a tion should have aroused a widespread feeling of indignation , and that an almost unani mous expression of sympathy with the Boers should have marked the p ress com ment in the United States and on the Con tine nt o f Europe . The outbreak of the South African War four years later revived in the public mem o f ory the forgotten incident the Raid , [ 6 ] ! HE J A M E S O N RAI D furnished prejudice or ignorance with fresh material for an anti -B ritish p rOp a - ganda , gave to pro Boer sentiment a new a nd o f fi vigorous lease life , and con rmed in their opinion those who had seen in the J ameson Raid nothing but a brutal act of aggressive imperialism . Nothing could be more grotesque than the effort which w as made to interpret — the Johannesburg reform movement o f which the Jameson Raid was no more than — a deplorable incident as an expression o f ! England s imperial policy . It was not the enlightened imperi alism of England but the benighted provincialism of Kruger which created in South Africa that pro

t o f - in found discontent, that bit er sense justice which drove the population of Johannesburg to seek through the agency of an internal revolution those simple , democratic rights which had been denied alike to their respectful petitions and to their constitutional p rotests . As I was one o f the four members of the Reform Committee sentenced to death by Kruger ! s specially imported “ hanging ! G re o ro w ski judge , g , it will be readily believed that I retain a very lively re co l [ 7 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T

o f lection those exciting times . Where my memory flags I c an fortunately refresh it ! by reference to my wife s little volume , ! ! — A Woman s Part in a Revolution a diary unfaithful only when its authoress fails to record the unwavering support and the devoted efforts which she brought to the a id and comfort of us Americans during events which might well have unnerved a w h o woman was soon to become a mother . I went out to South Africa in 1 893 as consulting engineer to the firm of B arnato

- B rothers , one of the largest mine owners

in the Transvaal ; but within a year M r .

Cecil Rhodes , at that time Prime Minister f o si tl o n of Cape Colony, o fered me a p of wider scope and interest in connection with

-nthe general development of the mineral M N “ deposits in Rhodesia controlled by the

B ritish South Africa Company, and the mines at Johannesburg of the Goldfields of

South Africa , of which he was the M anag

ing Director and the moving Spirit . This f o fer I was glad to accept, as I knew Rhodes to be a man of large views and progressive as methods ; and his reputation , great it was in throughout the B ritish Empire , was nothing greater than in the staunch backing [ 8 ] T H E JA M E S O N RA I D b e afforded to men who earned his con

fide nce . My early work in the Transvaal was such a s falls to the lot of any consulting engineer in the gold -fie lds ; and I was too bu sy investigating the practicability of — deep -level mining a possibili ty then gen e rally regarded as too remote for serious consideration — to pay any attention to local political conditions . But as my field Of observation broadened and my daily routine gave me an increasing familiarity with the economic problems of gold -mining in the Transvaal the conviction was forced upon me that the difficulties which the in dustry faced were not due to any o f those technical obstacles which engineers are em ployed to overcome but to obstructions deliberately placed in the way of the min ing community by the Boer Government . The circumstances cannot be rightly un de rsto o d unless the reader has before him certain fundamental facts about the capital i'sts , the mining population , and the Boers the chief groups concerned in the brief but dramatic occurrences which involved a large body o f Americans in an abortive revolution on the other side of the globe .

[ 9 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T The idea that “ capitalist ! and “ rascal are interchangeable terms is o ne originally advanced by the anarchists , later taken by

W . 1 1 . . 2 the I W , and Since 9 sedulously employed by many blatant politicians in the United States . The question addressed to capitalists seeking protection from the American Government for their legitimate business interests in Mexico has been What are you doing down there ? No ! one asked you to go there ; and if you don t ! ? ! ! like it, why don t you get out ou re ! only down there to make money anyhow . The same question was asked the capital ists who p rovided the money which raised the Transvaal from the position of a bank

- rupt State , dependent upon cattle grazing o f and primitive agriculture , to that a wealthy country entering with every pros pe e t of success upon a career of modern development . Leaving o n o ne Side the broad issue between those w h o describe as honest and praiseworthy a nd those who stigmatize as dishonest and contemptible the employ ! ment of capital to make the world s re ! sources available for the world s use , the f case o the Transvaal is peculiar in this ,

[ 1 0 ]

T H E T R U T H AB O U T

been invested in a score of countries . I so can testify that, far as my own experience i goes , I have never met a cap talist whose attitude towards war was not that o f the

average man , namely, that it was the last and most desperate expedient for the

remedy of intolerable abuses . To this rule the capitalists o f the Transvaal were no exceptions ; and it was only when long-con tinue d misgovernment had been crowned by an open challenge from the Boers to rise and fight for our rights if we thought no t they were worth it, it was until Presi dent Kruger had declared that the reforms ilw e had petitioned fo r would be granted

only over his dead body, that the mine Owners began to turn thei r thoughts in the

direction o f revolt . The character of the mining population o f Johannesburg has been misunderstood when it has not been deliberately m isre p co nce resented . The popular American p tion of a new mining community is largely ! based upon o u r recollection of Bret Harte s

heroes . For an imaginative and sensation loving people it was both easy and agree able to transfer to South Africa the wild life o f Red Gulch and to fill the stage Wi th

[ 1 2 ] T H E JA M E S O N RA I D

a lawless and violent mob which , in the inte rvals between working their claims and murdering one another, found time to drink , to gamble and , occasionally, to sleep . Nothing could be less like the humdrum routine o f the Rand Johannesburg was much more like a wealthy manufacturing town than a traditional mining camp .

There were , indeed , no miners , as the word was understood o ut West in the fifties ; and our gold mines could be described with greater accuracy as gold factories . The personnel o f the mines consisted o f a few dozen mining engineers , a few score highly skilled mechanics , a few hundred white — ch icfl miners y American , Scotch , Welsh , and Cornish —and many thousands of Kaffir laborers . The life was such as might be found in hundreds of long-settled communities in

a . the Eastern St tes B ankers , business men , mining engineers , physicians , surgeons , with their wives and children , made up the “ ! society o f the place ; and as these pro fe ssio nal men , but especially the mining engineers , were of the highest standing in m unifice nt their several fields , and received

[ 1 3 ] T H E T R UT H AB O U T

o ur salaries , social existence lacked neither elegance nor culture . What lent an a d ditio n al charm to o ur leisure was the c o n stant stream o f distinguished visitors which passed through the town . It was not a “ mere question o f Little Lords looking fo r Big Game — to quote my wife ! s ph rase but of statesmen , scientists , authors , ex l o re rs o n p , colonial administrators , their o r way to from Europe , America , India ,

Australia , China , the Cape , and Rhodesia .

M rs . H ammond and I are agreed that i ne ther in London nor in Paris , neither in ! no r New ork in Washington , have we found a social life which better deserved the praise of being brilliant . It was a brilliance , too , which owed everything to the personalties of the men and women and nothing to the extraneous elements o f pomp and circumstance . Before passing to another subject I wish to lay particular emphasis on the fact that from the richest capitalist to the s w e ll -paid mechanic the white population was a do ! m e stic group , living not in bachelor s quarters but in homes . o f The population the Transvaal was , at o f o f the time which I speak, made up about

[ I 4 ] T H E JA M E S O N RA I D

blacks and about whites , the Boers numbering not more than In the hands of the Boers —that sa o f o ne - is to y, in the hands less than tenth of the population — was concentrated the o f whole power the government, and all political rights . The real situation in the Republic centered around the circum o ne - stance that Boers , paying tenth o f the taxes , exercised a complete and ex e lusive sway over white immi

- grants , who paid nine tenths of the taxes without having a word to say as to how taxation should be levied or its proceeds expended . The Boers were by no means o f one mind as to the justice or the expediency of o ne this system . On the side was a large majori ty o f the Boers ( the reactionary o r d a e r r pp party! with Paul Kruge at its head , which held very tenaciously to the view to that having, by fair p romises , attracted the country an immense flow of capital , and this capital being invested in immovable t p roper y, such as land , buildings and ma fi chinery, it was unnecessary to ful ll pledges made to a population which could leave the o f country only at the price financial ruin ,

[ 1 5 ] T H E T R U T H AB O UT

and which , in order to avoid that ruin , would remain and submit to any degree o f oppression and misrule . t On the other side was a small minori y, headed by General Joubert . The attitude of this minori ty was faithfully represented in a speech made before the Upper Cham o f ber the Transvaal Legislature in August,

1 8 a . . o c 95 , by M r Jeppe , a Boer The casion was the presentation Of a Petition signed by Uitlanders ( the name

' given by the Boers f to the immigrant population ! p raying that political re p re se ntatio n might be granted to them . In : the course of his speech M r . Jeppe said

s e t o n h a s e e n r a a s n e Thi p iti b , p ctic lly, ig d It co n by th e entir e p o pul atio n O f th e Rand . t ains th e n am e o f th e m illio nair e c apit alist o n th e sam e a e a s at o f th e m ne r a O f th e p g th i , th t r o w ne r O f h alf a district next t o th at O f a cle k . l An d it e a s It e m ace s a so a l n a o na e s . br l ti liti b r , t o o th e S natu e s o f so m e w h o a e e e n , ig r h v b o n in s o unt r w h o no w no o e a e r b r thi c y , k th r f th an an s Re u b ut w o m th e l aw re l d th thi p blic , h r n h e new a s a s st a e s . e n t o o a re t g d r g r Th , ,

e a e se t e fo r o o . e co m e rs . Th y h v t l d g d Th y a e u o anne s ur o ne o f th e w o n e rs h v b ilt J h b g, d o n a f h e o e a o f th e a e . e w t s g Th y h l il , th y p y - u f at l e ast thre e q a rt e rs o th e t axe s . N o r a re e e so ns w h o e o n to a su se en a e th y p r b l g b rvi t r c . [ 1 6 ] T H E JA M E S O N RA I D

Th ey co m e fro m co untri e s w h e re th ey fre e ly e r se o t a ts can ne e b e ex ci d p li ic l righ , w hich v r - n lo ng deni e d to f r e e b o rn m e . f m t o th e r e sen t l aw D a re w e re e r th e p , w hich first exp e cts th em to w ait fo r fo urt e en e a s and e en en e e s se to no n ? y r , v th pl dg it lf thi g It is a l aw w hich de ni e s all rights eve n t o th eir r ntr at b e children b o n in this c o u y . Wh w ill c o m e o f us o r o ur childre n o n th e day w h en w e sh all find o urse lve s in a m ino rity O f p e rhap s o n e in w ent w o u a s n e en am o n st t y, ith t i gl fri d g th e o t e n ne e en am o n t o se w h o w e n h r i t , g h ill th e us e w s e to b e r o t e s b ut w e t ll th y i h d b h r , by o ur o w n act m ade th em strange rs in th e Re Old as h e w o r is h a an a tem u c . t s p bli ld , y t pt like o urs eve r succe e d e d fo r lo ng ? The foregoing statement by a Boer mem ber o f the Boer Legislature presents only o f the political side the Uitlander case , and it must be supplemented by a recital o f the grievances o ut of which the political agitation arose . It is essential that the reader should understand that the Reform movement in the Transvaal was the direct outcome o f the conviction that so long as the whole political and administrative ma chinery o f the country was controlled by the Boers no remedy would be found for the f abuses from which we su fered . I am positive that if Kruger had been

[ 1 7 ] T H E T R U T H A B O U T content to give Johannesburg decent gov e rnm e nt the demand for political rights would have been postponed for many years and , indeed , might never have been made . Nor was it a question o f a number o f B ritishers using the grievances as an excuse for bringing the country under the B ritish o f flag, for there was a large number Amer ic ans on the spot, who at no time could have had much sympathy with such a pro o n o f gramme , and who , account the recent trouble between England and ! the United V States over the enezuelan boundary, were strongly averse to giving the Reform move ment an exclusively English complexion , Our grievances may thus be summa rized ; and they must be interpreted in the light o f the fact that the Uitlanders had pur chased from the Boers more than o ne - half s of the land of the Tran vaal , that they owned more than nine - tenths o f the prop e rt - y, that they p aid more than nine tenths o f all the taxes raised in the country, and that in spite o f the squandering o f its revenues the Transvaal Government had accumulated in its Treasury more than six millions o f dollars . f - I . We su fered from a high death rate

[ 1 8 ]

T H E T R U T H AB O U T and which were farmed o ut with the object ! o f f filling the pockets o Kruger s favorites . Of these monopolies o ne o f the most bur de nso m e was that which compelled us to purchase our dynamite from a single p rivi l e e d firm g , which paid a royalty to certain o f members the Transvaal Government . N o t only were we forced to pay about three million dollars a year tribute in the form o f excess profits to the holder Of the monopoly, but the quali ty o f the dynamite was so poor that fata l accidents were of common occurrence .

5 . The railroad policy of the Transvaal was so framed as to enable the ra ilroad monopoly to charge extortionate freight rates . Johannesburg was connected with - the Cape Colony Free State railroad , over o f which most our supplies came , by a line fifty miles long under the control o f the Netherlands South Africa Railway Com l pany, whose shareho ders were entirely

German , Dutch , and Boer . So high was the freight schedule o n this line that it was cheaper for us to unload o ur consignments re - at railhead of the Cape Line , load them o x- into wagons , and so take them to Johan ne sb ur g across the drifts , or fords , by which [ 20 ] T H E J A M E S O N RA I D

alone the Vaal River could be crossed . In order to deprive us o f this means of getting ourselves out of the clutches of his rail road monopoly, Kruger closed the drifts

1 1 8 . i on October , 95 But in do ng this he - over reached himself . His action was in clear defiance o f his treaty obligations to England ; and after consultation with the Government o f Cape Colony ( which pledged itself to support England with men and money if it became necessary to enforce her treaty rights ! the British Gov e rnm e nt informed Pretori a that the drifts must be reopened and must remain open . In response to this ultimatum Kruger rescinded his order .

6 . In the interest of the liquor monopoly the Boer Government allowed an unlimited amount o f chea p and fiery spirits to be sold fli Ka rs. to the There was , in consequence , a great deal of drunkenness among our laborers ; and as the liquor dealers were allowed to sell this wretched stuff at the mouth o f the mines to men about to go down the shafts , there was much loss of t life and of proper y from this cause .

7. President Kruger and his Executive Council exerted a constant pressure upon [ 2 1 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T

the judges of the Transvaal Supreme Court, the only barrier which stood between the Johannesburgers and the rule of an un 1 bridled despotism . In 897 the condition became so scandalous that the Boer judges themselves closed the court , declaring that it was impossible to administer justice under the coercion to which they were subjected by the executive .

8 . The Boers asserted the right to draft for service in their wars against the natives those very Americans to whom they denied the right o f citizenship . It was through a little ruse on my part that this right to con script Americans was never enforced . I called a meeting one night to which I in vite d the managers and other American offici als of the mines under my manage ment . The meeting was supposed to be a o ne secret , but we took care to have p resent an Am e fican whom we knew to be a paid spy o f the Boer Government . We passed a unanimous resolution that we would resist all efforts o f the Boers to send us to the fi front to fight the Kaf rs , and that if , in face o ur of protests , we were drafted , our first f shots would be fired at the Boer of icers . This resolution was duly reported by the [ 22 ] T H E J A M E S O N RA I D

s no f contemptible American py, and e fort was ever made to conscript us . In this we o f were more fortunate than the B ritish , whom a number were forced into the Boer

Army . To this brief survey of our grievances I must add a few words about a man whose cultivated mind and legal talents were em ployed by Kruger to furnish the finesse which was entirely foreign to his o w n char acter . The a greeable but sinister person Le d o f . s ality Dr y , the Transvaal State

Attorney, was almost as well known as that o f his Boer master . I mention him here because it was a matter of common knowledge that he was the go -between of 2 Kruger and the Kaiser . On J anuary 7, 1 8 95 , Kruger, speaking at a banquet in ! “ o f : honor the Kaiser s birthday, said I shall ever promote the interests of Ger many the time has come to knit ties of the closest friendship between Germany and the South African Republic . Le ds Shortly after this Dr . y went to Berlin —to have his throat examined ! and he was in Berlin when the Kaiser sent the telegram of which I have already spoken . [ 23 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T

That p a rt o f the Kaiser -Kruger plot which related to keeping the Uitlanders in o f Le d . s a state simmering revolt, Dr y handled with skill and success . The other ! part, Germany s proposal to send troops to the Transvaal at the time of the J ameson

Raid , went to pieces when England mobil iz e d her flying squadron after the pub lic atio n - o f the Kaiser Kruger telegram . Kruger never forgave the Kaiser for this

- back down . He confided to a friend the opinion that there was no profit in dealing with a monarch who a llowed his foreign policy to b e dictated b y his grandmoth er . During 1 895 general conditions i

Transvaal went from bad to worse . Boers became ever more arbitrary and o v bearing ; and their intentions showed up very clearly when they began to construct forts dominating the city of Johannesburg . One deputation after another was sent to

Kruger to state our grievances , but with o ut effect . Finally he told one deputation that he would make no promises of any kind , and he brought the interview to a “ close by saying : If yo u want your grie v ! anc e s redressed , why don t you get guns ! and fight fo r wha t you call your rights ?

[ 24 ] ! HE J A M E S O N R A I D i We took him at h s word . This brings me to the story Of the J ame so n an Raid , episode about which there has always been much confusion in the public mind . The reason why the full facts were not brought to light by the two Official — investigations of the circumstances o ne held in Cape Town and the other in Lon — do n was that one o f the conditions on which the four lea ders of the Johannesburg f end of the a fair , and others arrested at that time , had thei r death sentences commuted , was a solemn pledge to the Boer Govern ment that for three years they would re main silent upon all questions relating to

Transvaal politics . Before this pledge had expired , all interest in the Raid had been swamped by the outbreak of the South

African War , and in the meantime the Boers had spent hundreds o f thousands of dollars ( B ritish and American dollars ! in a world -wide p ropaganda of m isre p re

se ntatio n . As soon as it became clear that an internal Revolution Offered the only way o ut of o u r fi dif culties , a secret Committee was formed fo r the purpose of securing arms and Of working out the deta ils of our plan . This

[ 25 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T

Committee consisted o f Colonel Frank — a o f Rhodes brother Cecil Rhodes , and o ne of the noblest men I have ever met Fitz P atrick Lionel Phillips , Percy , - m Wools Sampson , George Farrar , and y

self . Our general scheme was to get some

thousands of guns into Johannesburg, and to then , on some dark night, take Pretoria , the Boer Capita l about thirty - five miles

north of Johannesburg , seize the arsenal , o ff carry Kruger with us , and to negotiate at leisure for the redress Of our grievances and for those constitutional changes which would make the Transvaal a Rep ublic based upon a reasonable franchise l ap ! g Am o plicable to all its white inhabitants . the tasks allotted to me was to arrange for

the importation of arms , for the taking of

Pretoria and the capture of Kruger . o f In view what actually happened , this sounds like a very wild undertaking ; but I am satisfied that if it had not been for the ! o ( premature m vement o f Dr . J ameson s force ( which I will describe later! we would have had a successful and bloodless

Revolution , and that the Union of South lAfric a would h ave been formed without

[ 26 ]

T H E T R U T H AB O UT

whom the most active were Mr . Gardner o f Williams , manager the famous De Beers diamond mines at Kimberley ; M r . La bram , a mining engineer of a deservedly high reputation , and myself . They were imported from Europe , consigned to Kim to berley, and were then sent by rail Johan ne sb u rg concealed in oil tanks or in coal trucks . After much anxious thought and many b e long discussions , a plan was arranged ad tween Cecil Rhodes , Dr . J ameson ( ! ministrator o f the Chartered Company s territories bordering the Transvaal on the o f west! , and the members the secret com m itte e , whose names I have given above .

dictato r f e th e Ch a r Rhodes , as virtual fi A te re d Company, was to order J ameson to concentrate on the border a force o f mounted men , fully equipped , ready to ride into Johannesburg if and when called upon . A letter was given to J ameson by the reform leaders , explaining the conditions under which the revolutiona ry plot had origi : nate d . It contained the following sentence “ I t is under these circumstances that we feel constrained to call upon you to come !

o ur . to aid , should a disturbance arise here

[ 28 ] T H E J A M E S O N RA I D

This letter was left undated , and it was agreed that it was to be used only for the purpose of justifying J ameson in the eyes of his directors and o f the B ritish author ities , if he should actually enter the Trans a nd th a t h e sh o uld o n n o a c c o u nt c r o ss vaal , th e b o r d e r u nl ess a nd u ntil h e h a d r e c e ive d fr o m m e ( as r ep r ese nting R h o d e s o n th e o n e h a nd a nd th e J o h a nn esb ur Co m m itte e , g o n th e o th e r! a sp e c ific r e q u est to c o m e in . Of all the scenes of that period none is more clearly imprinted o n my memory than that o f J ameson shaking hands with me in the p resence of Rhodes as a solemn pledge that ' he would not cross the border until I gave him the Signal . The exaction o f this promise was based o n : a two considerations First, that the p peal to J ameson should come from a p o p u lation already in a state of active Re vo l u tion ; second , that as we on the spot could alone judge of the exact moment best suited for the rising, so we alone could determine the need for J ameson ! s entry and the hour when it should occur . Several tentative dates were fixed for the revolt, but these had in turn to be postponed o n account of th e slowness with which our arms were

[ 29 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T

o f being smuggled in . About the middle 1 8 December , 95 , messages began to arrive from J ameson Showing th a t the delay was o n getting his nerves , and by Christmas Day we had become so alarmed by the possi b ility that J ameson might get out of hand f that we sent two men , by di ferent routes , each of whom delivered to him our —em phatic p rotest against any unauthorized move by him ; and he was wa rned both from Cape Town and from Johannesburg that if he disregarded his instructions we Should all be involved in disaster .

In the meantime , the Boers began to suspect that something was o n foot . On December 2 8 President Kruger received o f a deputation Americans . Among them was M r . Hennen Jennings , the distin uish e d g mining engineer , who , though he w as as anxious as the rest o f us to secure reforms , was not convinced that peaceful means had been exh austed . Kruger asked the deputation : “ o n If a crisis should occur , which side shall I find the Americans ? ! “ On the side o f liberty and good govern !

w as . ment , the answer “ ! o u a are all like , shouted Kruger ,

[ 3 0 ] T H E J A M E S O N RA I D

“ tarred with the same brush ; you are ! British in your hearts . 0 On Monday, December 3 , I was sitting fi in my of ce in the Goldfields Building, the o f r C headquarters the Refo m ommittee , when I received a visit from one o f Kru ! ger s intimate associates , a man named o f Sammy Marks , for some whose enter p rises I was consulting engineer . He was im m e di nervous and excited , and began ately to discuss the rumors abroad . After we had talked fo r some time o n the general situation , the door opened and a clerk came in and handed me a slip of paper . On it “ was written , J ameson has crossed the ! border . I was thunderstruck . I can only be thankful that S ammy M arks was too much occupied with his o w n thoughts f to notice the effect o the shock . It was clear to me that what he wanted was to find out h o w far we had gone in arming ourselves . I knew that at that time we had less than fifteen hundred rifles and practically no artillery ; but I knew also that if this fact ! got to Kruger s ears , after he had heard of ! J ameson s incursion , Johannesburg would be instantly attacked and that o ur whole

[ 3 1 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T

plan would go to pieces . My conversation with Sammy M arks ran in this fashion : “ Well , Hammond , it looks as though we ! were going to have bloodshed . “ ! ! I should n t be surprised . ! They say you ve got in rifles . ! ! o t I don t know how many we ve g , but ! ! ! I don t think it s as many as that . And how about artillery ? Is it true ! ! you ve go t thirty guns ? “ ! ! ! ! Oh , no That s an exaggeration , I m ! sure .

In a few minutes M arks left . I had him a s trailed , and , I had foreseen , he went straight o ff by Special train to Kruger . I learned later that he had told th e President that we had at least rifles and 3 0 guns ! By th e time M arks was o n his way to Pretoria the news of J ameson ! s Raid had spread among th e Johannesburg leaders . f r The situation called o instant action . The secret committee was expanded into a larger body, known as the Reform Com m itte e h , which wit in a few hours included in its membership about seventy -five o f the most p rominent men o n the Rand . The committee published in the J o h a nnesb urg [ 3 2 ] ! HE JA M E S O N RA I D

S ta r 1 of Tuesday, December 3 , the follow ing notice :

N o tice is h e reby given th at this co mmitte e 1 a e e s to th e N a o na ! n o n an fe sto dh r ti l i M i , and reite r ate s its de sire to m aintain th e inde ende nce o f h R u ! h ac a p t e ep blic . e f t th t rum o rs ar e in co urse o f circul atio n to th e e ffe ct ! th at a fo rce [J am e so n s] h a s cro sse d th e Be chuanal and b o rde r r e nde rs it ne c e ssa ry to t ake a ctive step s fo r th e de fe nc e o f J o h anne s u an h re e a o n o f ! h e co m b rg d t e p s rv ti o rde r . m itte e e arn e stly d e sire s th at th e inh abitants sho uld r e frain fr o m t aking any a ctio n w hich c an b e c o nside re d as an o ve rt act o f ho stility n against th e Go ve r m e nt .

o ur Our hand had been forced , and position w as critical in the extreme We am had arms for perhaps men , but ! munition sufficient only fo r a few hours

fighting . In face of a Boer attack we should have been helpless . Many of the mines had closed down , and we had to fear serious trouble from the thousands of na tive s thus suddenly rendered idle . The Government police having left the town o ur in a body, first task was to organize our own police , so that there should be no dis

d It re c ul e d o ur r v nce Issue o n De cemb e r 26 . ap it at g ie a s d h w e w n e d ! he firs d em nd w as fo r t he es and s e w .

tat at a t “ t a t ablishm e nt o f t he Re ubl c as rue Re ubl c und er Co ns p i a t p i , a ti l t urio n t o b e fram ed by rep resentatives o f t he who e p eo ple . [ 3 3 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T

order . Everyone worked with a will , and by noon on the last day of 1 895 we had se t o n foot all the measures within our power to relieve the situation . In order to emphasize the true quali ty o f o ur position , I hoisted a Boer flag over the

Goldfields Building, where all the meet ings of the committee were held ; and we all , then and there , swore allegiance to it .

Events now moved with great rapidity . 1 On the evening of December 3 , two dele gates from the Boer Government ( the so called Olive B ranch Delegation ! reached

Johannesburg . The first effort of the dele atio n g was to treat with us as individuals .

We were , however , well aware of the dan ger involved in the success of such tactics . It was not in our cap aci ty as individuals that we were assembled , but as a body o f representative the Johannesburg people . o n We insisted this point, and it was at last yielded by the delegation . A long conference with the Reform Com m itte e followed . The Boer delegates stated that the Government was prep ared to grant us p ractically every demand o f the N at io nal Union Manifesto ; but , on being pressed for details , they admitted that

[ 3 4 ]

T H E T R U T H AB O U T went o ut in company with the man bearing the Proclamation . He has told me that when he informed J ameson o f the lack o f arms in Johannesburg, J ameson said , “ ! ! That s all right ; I don t need any help ! from Johannesburg . This conversation w as confirmed to me by J ameson the fol lowing year in London . 1 8 6 On J anuary 4 , 9 , Sir Hercules Rob inson reached Pretoria and at once began those negotiations in which , as it seemed to us , he was more anxious to mollify the Boers than to see justice done to the Uit landers . ! o n 2 In the meantime , J anuary , Jameson s troopers had been surrounded by Boer C ro n e forces under Commandant j , and had ff surrendered . The e ect of this on the action o f the Johannesburgers can be under stood only if the reader bears constantly in mind that during the whole of the ne o tia tio ns g between the High Commissioner , the Boer Government, and the Reform Committee th e fa c t w a s c o n c e a le d fr o m us th a t u nd e r th e te r m s o f sur r e nd e r th e lif e o f J a m e so n a nd o f e a c h m e m b e r o f hisj o r c e w as g ua ra nte e d . That this concealment was extended also to the High Commis

[ 3 6 ] T H E J A M E S O N RA I D sio ne r is proved by the following telegram from the High Commissioner , read to us by Sir J acobus de Wet , the B ritish Diplo matic Agent in Pretori a :

It is urge nt th at yo u sho uld in fo rm th e p e o ple o f J o h anne sburg th at I co nside r th at if th e y l ay do w n th eir a rm s the y w ill b e acting o a and o no a and t at e do no t l y lly h r bly , h if th y co m ply w ith my reque st th ey w ill fo r fe it all ! cl aim to sym p athy fro m He r Maj e sty s Go v e rnm e nt and fro m British subj e cts thro ugho ut th e w o r a s th e live s o J a e so n a n th e ld, f m d ris o ne rs a r e no w r a ctica ll n h e ir h a s p p y i t nd . In face of such an appeal there was nothing for us to do but to accept the High ! Commissioner s advice . We therefore gave up o ur arms and waited anxiously to see what steps Sir Hercules would take to meet a situation which he thus described in a telegram to M r . Joseph Chamberlain on

January 7 .

I h ave j ust re ce ive d a m e ssage fro m th e Re fo rm Co mm itte e re so lving to co m ply w ith dem an d o f So uth African Republic to l ay do w n th eir arm s ; th e p e o pl e placing th e m se lve s a nd th e ir inter e sts unr e se r ve dly in my h a nds in full est co nfide nce th a t I w ill se e j ustice do ne

th e m .

Our confidence was certainly misplaced .

[ 3 7 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T 8 On J anuary he telegraphed to M r . Cham “ b e rl ain : I will confer with Kruger as to redressing the grievances o f the residents ! o f Johannesburg ; and later the same day :

“ ! I intend to insist o n the fulfilment o f promises as regards p risoners and consider o f 1 ation grievances . On J anuary 4 he left Pretoria for Cape Town ; and on the 1 6th , in reply to an urgent telegram from

M r . Chamberlain about the redress of the b e Uitlander grievances , wired , in part , “ the question of concessions to Uitlanders !

i . e . was never discussed between us , between him and President Kruger . The Boers were very quick to perceive the indi fference o f the High Commissioner and to draw their own conclusions from it . On J anuary 8 and 9 sixty- four members o f the Reform Committee , including myself , were arrested and taken to the Pretoria j ail . On the 26th all were released on bail except

Lionel Phillips , George Farrar , Colonel itz P atrick m Frank Rhodes , Percy F , and y

- self . Of the p risoners , twenty three were n Englishmen , sixteen South Africans , ni e

Scotchmen , six Americans , two Welshmen , o ne two Germans , and each from I reland ,

Australia , Canada , Switzerland , Holland , and Turkey . [ 3 8 ] T H E JA M E S O N RA I D It would be absurd at the present time to enlarge upon the discomfort and ill health we suffered through being confined in the heat of summer in an overcrowded and unclean prison hitherto used for Kaf fir h d o f s. I a a violent recurrence the dysentery which I had contracted a few months earlier in the ! ambesi country ; but , through the indefatigable exertions of M r s. H ammond , I was allowed to live n u der guard in a cottage at Pretoria ; later , o n fit f y thousand dollars bail , to return to fi my home in Johannesburg, and , nally, my physical condition having grown steadily worse , to go to the lower altitude and cooler o f climate Cape Town .

Our trial was originally se t for April 24 . As the day drew near and my health showed o f no signs of imp rovement, the anxiety my wife , my friends , and my medical advisers showed itself in their united efforts to in duce me to stay where I was , amid the com forts o f a seaside home . The American

Secretary of State , the late Richard Olney, went so far as to cable the Boer Govern ment on my behalf ; but I felt that both on grounds o f personal and of national honor I should be in place with the other pris

[ 3 9 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T oners to face whatever Fate had in store fo r us . An incident which greatly added to the fears of my friends w as the action o f a few irreconcilable Boers who declared their in tention o f lynching us before we got to court . For this purpose they took to Pre toria a heavy wooden beam from which five Boers had been b ange d by the B ritish in 1 8 1 6 ! This th reat was reported to me by p rivate telegrams from Boer friends of mine in Pretori a .

The trial actually commenced on April 27. Sixty-four o f us had been arrested and we were all present when the indictment was

o ne . read , except man , who was ill Our ffi position was a di cult one . A foreign judge had been imported to p reside , a man who is reported to have boasted , before he even reached Pretoria , that he would make short work of us . The jury was , of course , made up entirely of Boers . Of our con vic tio n not one of us had the slightest doubt . o f We were all accused High Treason , but there were several other counts o f a less

to ~ eve r ~ serious nature . It was very clear y body that of the Sixty -three prisoners a large number had been followers rather than

[ 40 ] ! HE JA M E S O N RA I D fi leaders . Our rst concern was , therefore , to arrange , if it Should prove possible , that only those o f us who had been generally recognized as the heads o f the revolt should r incur the risk of the extreme penalty . Afte a good deal of private discussion between o ur counsel and the State Attorney, it was agreed that four o f us would plead guilty to High Treason and that t h e other pris oners would be allowed to plead guilty to the minor charges . There was an under in standing also that , view of the pleas , the State Attorney would no t urge the Court to inflict exemplary punishment . What the Boers were to gain as a quid p ro quo was that all thei r politica l dirty linen would not be washed at a long trial which would be reported by every important paper in the world .

The trial lasted only a few hours , and almost till the last moment everything went as well as we could have expected . Dr .

Coster , a Hollander , the State Attorney, made his formal address , asking simply that we should be punished according to law . o f M r . Wessels , our counsel , made an elo

o ur . quent plea in defense , and took his seat We all thought that the judge would then [ 4 1 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T sum o ur up the case for the jury ; but, to consternation , the State Attorney sprang to his feet and claimed the right to address the

Court . He then launched into a most violent attack upon us , and demanded that in passing sentence the Cou rt should set aside the comparatively mild Statute Law o f the Transvaal and should apply the o ld

- Roman Dutch Law, under which death is the only penalty provided for High Trea im son . The Court, after hearing this passioned appeal , adjourned until the fol lowing day . I may borrow from an account written by o ne Fitz P atrick of the prisoners , Sir Percy , the description o f the scene in court when the sentences were imposed :

! h e usual que stio n as to w h eth e r th e re w e re any r e a so ns w hy sent enc e o f de ath sho uld no t b e p asse d up o n th em h aving b e e n put and th e usual r e ply in th e ne gative h aving b e en re ce ive d in th e m st o f s e n e t a t w as o n , id il c h ly disturb e d by th e bre aking do w n o f p e rso ns in a r o us ar s o f th e a Offi a s ur e s v i p t h ll— ci l , b gh r , and th e ge n e ral public sent en c e o f de ath fi n L n P i w a s asse s o . o e s n e p d , r t Mr i l hill p , xt R o n Co o ne o e s t e n o n . Ge o e l l h d , h Mr rg Fa a n as o n Ham m o a d . ! h n . rr r, l tly Mr d e b e aring o f the fo ur m en w o n fo r th em uni [ 42 ]

T H E T R U T H AB O U T The first consequence of this agitation was that o n May 3 0 all the prisoners who had not been sentenced to death were o f fe re d their liberty if they would Sign an appeal for clemency, and pay each , f an o fer which was accepted , except by M r . - re Wools Sampson and M r . Davies , who fused to Sign any appeal . As soon as this w as matter out of the way, the Transvaal authorities took up the question o f what should be done with the four leaders . The first offer made to us w as that we should each p ay a fine o f and write letters to President Kruger thanking him for his magnanimi ty These terms we absolutely to f declined consider , although the sca fold o u r for execution had been erected , and all other preparations made with much ostentation . After a good deal of bargaining we were released on June 1 I o n payment of each ( K r ug e r h a ving to g o w ith o ut his c e r tific a te o f m ag na nim ity! and on o ur undertaking to keep out of Transvaal politics for fifteen years . Colonel Frank Rhodes refused to make this pledg e and accepted instead a sentence of fifteen years ! banishment .

[ 44 ] T H E J A M E S O N RA I D

so So ended the revolt, far as we Johan s r e r ne b u g s were concerned . Time has amply vindicated our cause . In 1 897 the grievances which had led to the Revolution were still unredressed , and , fi in consequence , a general nancial collapse of the Transvaal was in sight . The Gov e rnm e nt o f the South African Republic , alarmed at the prospect o f the mines shut ting down and the moneyed element in the a country taking its departure , appointed Commission o f Boer officials to inquire into de c l ar o f f . the state a fairs Its report, after ing that “ the mining industry must be held fi as the nancial basis , support, and mainstay ! o f o n the State , upheld almost every point the complaints we had made in our repeated petitions ; and suggested remedies . But the Transvaal Legislature rejected these re co m m e ndatio ns , and Kruger stigmatized the

o f s . Chairman the Commi sion , M r Schalk Exe cu Burger , a member of the Transvaal tive Council , as a traitor for having signed the report . After two years of prot racted ne go tia tions with the B ritish Government o n the o f subject the grievances , Kruger issued an ultimatum to England , and the Boer War

[ 45 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T followed . If final proof is sought of the ! justice of the Uitlanders cause , it is to be found in the fact that after the Boers had been conquered and their territories a brought under the British flag, Engl nd immedi ately granted to the Boers all the civil , political , and religious rights which , in the day of their power , the Boers had denied to British , American , and other nationals . The wisdom of such a policy of fair treatment and equal justice has been a made m nifest in the Great War , in which , fi ghting Side by side with the British , the

I rish , and the Americans , are to be found Boer generals and thousands of Boer vo lun teers , whose only desire is to uphold the honor of that flag which so recently they had regarded as the emblem of tyranny . When the Boer War was drawing to a close and the B ritish Government was working out the plan o f a general settle ff ment of South African a airs , I happened to be in London . A dinner was given me by my valued friend , the late Earl Grey, who afterwards became Governor -General o f

Canada . Among the other guests were many o f the British Colonial statesmen then gathered in London for the Coloni a l Con

[ 46 ] T H E J A M E S O N RA I D

ference . In responding to the toast of my health I spoke of the South African situa tion , and urged the view that only by gen e ro us treatment of the vanquished Boers could a South African Commonwealth arise out o f the ashes of the conflict . From the warmth with which this opinion was re c e ive d , and from later conversations with a number of those present, I am encouraged to believe that my voice was no t without its share of influence in determining that mag nanim o us policy which has since welded

South Africa into a united Empire . As I look back after twenty years upon the events I have described , my conscience justifies the part I played in them . Given the same conditions , I would again act as

I then acted , and should again be sustained by the firm conviction that I was striving to the best of my ability to maintain and to extend those imperishable p rinciples o f fair -play which are in a peculiar sense the heritage of the B ritish Empire and of the

United States . o f The moral quality an action cannot, e of course , be made to d pend upon the effects which flo w from it ; but it is pre c ise ly from such effects that we properly [ 47 ] T H E T R U T H AB O U T estimate the wisdom or folly of a political decision . It is not, therefore , without a good deal of satisfaction that I observe how events have justified the views o f the Johannesburg Committee and the decision of the B ritish r 1 8 Gove nment, in 99, to join issue with President Kruger o n the broad qu e stion of justice and fair treatment fo r the whole population of the Transvaal . The consequences o f that view and of that decision were the Boer War and the final establishment o f the Union o f South Africa as a democratic State within the

B ritish Empire . The debt which the world owes in this matter to the Johannesburg Reformers and to the B ritish Government can be brought home to the reader by stating what would have happened if the Johannesburgers had remained supine under the yoke of Kruger ism and England had remained deaf to the cry of her oppressed sons . Who can doubt that if the Boer War h a d 1 8 not broken out in 99 , Germany would have arranged that it should break o ut in 1 9 1 4 ? But reflect what a totally di fferent affai r this would have been . In the inter

[ 48 ] T H E J A M E S O N RA I D ve ning years Germany had built strategic i roads in her South West Afr can territory, as a military threat to the whole B ritish position from Cape Town to the head waters o f the Nile . Recent disclosures enable us to see the vast extent and the infamous nature o f ! Germany s African ambitions . She was to build up an enormous legion o f black so l diers , an inexhaustible reservoir of cannon fodder . With her strategic roads , with her disciplined host of native levies , with the - co u ra aid of a well armed , skillful , and g e o us Boer army, Germany would have struck a blow in South Africa in 1 9 1 4 which would have overwhelmed all p o s sible opposition o n the p art o f the B ritish

- South Africans and the pro British Boers , and would have given her that world victory which she so nearly secured by the suddenness of her attack upon Belgium and

France . Her treasury would have been re p l e n ish e d with the gold o f South Africa ; naval bases at Durban and Cape Town would have placed her submarines within easy striking distance of every sea route south of the equator ; the resources o f the South

[ 49 ] T H E J A M E S O N RA I D

r American Continent would no longer h av . been at the disposal o f her enemies ; th < participation o f India and Australia in th c e war would have b en seriously hampered . m ucn th e It is not too to say , then , that

Boer War , by removing the possibility of a formidable German military and naval base in what is now the Union of South

Africa , contributed in no small measure to the app roaching German defeat which is to rescue the world from a Teuton over lordship .

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