APPENDICES.

THE WAR AND ITS ISSUES: FROM VARIOUS

STANDPOINTS.

APPENDIX I.

FROM THE STANDPOINT OF THE LOYAL CITIZEN OF DUTCH DESCENT.

THE YOUNG AFRICANDER.

The following is a report of a speech, delivered on the 6th June, 1900, at a meeting at the Paarl, Cape Colony, of the Guild of Loyal Women of South Africa, by Mr. Advocate Wessels, one of the leaders at the bar of Pretoria, who defended the Reform prisoners at the trial in Pretoria in 1896.

Sir Pieter Fauré (late Minister for Agriculture) introduced Mr. J. Wessels, himself an Africander, and well acquainted with Transvaal affairs.

The Mayor also introduced Mr. Wessels, paying a high tribute to that gentleman's past efforts in the Transvaal for South Africa's welfare.

Mr. Wessels said:

I hardly thought when as a schoolboy I spent my holidays in your beautiful town I would one day be asked to address you on the subject of loyalty to the Crown. In those days there was little, if any, race hatred. One never heard of those visionaries who speak of an independent South Africa free from all British control. In those days everything was peace and happiness. Without peace there could be no happiness, and without happiness life was not worth living in any country. If I should be somewhat serious this morning, I feel sure the ladies will forgive me. The subject is such that it will not permit of any but serious treatment. I know that seriousness in a speaker is by many regarded as a great bore,

but the subject will not bear much levity. As I understand the Guild, it was the intention of those that founded it that when the women of South Africa should influence their children in such a way that these would firmly understand that it was an honour and advantage to be a citizen of the British Empire. (Applause.) When I ask you to consider it an honour to belong to the British Empire, I would not for one moment suggest that it is a disgrace to be an Africander. On the contrary, I would ask you to be proud of the fact that you are Africanders, and never to attempt to pose as English women, for when we Africanders attempt this we only make ourselves contemptible. (Hear, hear.) There are two cardinal precepts that I would have you bear constantly in your minds. The first is that an Africander is every whit as good as an Englishman, and the second is that an Englishman is every whit as good as an Africander. (Applause.) I am an Africander, and I am proud of it. I am proud of the fact that I have Dutch, French, and German blood in my veins. This is just the very reason why I respect the Englishman's pride of birth. We have every right to be as proud of our ancestors as the English have to be proud of theirs. (Hear, hear.) There is, however, one bad quality which has become very prevalent amongst us Africanders, and that is the quality of conceit. It is especially noticeable in the rising generation of Africanders. I would not have you think for one moment that the Englishman is void of this vice, but I think that the young Africander is aggressively conceited where he has but little reason to be so. The young Africander reminds me of the fable of the frog that felt so confident that it could rival the bull in size, that it blew itself out until it burst. The young Africander states have tried to rival Great Britain as a military power, and like the old Greek's frog they have also burst. (Laughter and applause.) The young Africanders in the Transvaal and Free State gradually came to believe that they knew everything better and could do everything better than any Englishman. They thought that because they, or rather their fathers, could hit a bottle at 200 yards there was no limit to their capacities. Straight shooting became to them the be-all and end-all of virtue. (Laughter.) Education, culture, industry, commerce and skill in good government were as nothing compared with skill in hitting the bottle. (Renewed laughter.) To suggest to the young Africander that he was not omniscient and omnipotent was to be a traitor to one's race. To tell the Kruger oligarchy at Pretoria that it was quite impossible to prevent the active and intelligent majority of the community from obtaining a voice in the future government of the State, was enough to be jeered at and called a fool. They were strong enough to control that, and "om die Engelsche uit die land te schiet." To tell them that it was quite impossible for them to withstand the might of the Empire if they provoked the British so as to come to blows, was sufficient to show yourself a coward. To criticise the

Africander and show him that his inflated ideas were foolish was a natural offence. Yet that same class of Africander would listen with rapturous delight if Mr. Ernest Hargrove painted his own people as blood-thirsty tyrants. To hear an Englishman deny his countrymen and say that the Empire was going to ruin because it would not listen to the Bond, met with violent applause; but for an Africander, one of themselves, to point out their folly and to caution them that if they persisted in their foolish course, ruin would stare them in the face, was a sin that merited the contempt of every Africander. This conceit had brought ruin to many a Transvaal, Free State and Colonial home. I beg and pray of you to teach your children to be proud of their race and teach them that they are quite as good as others, but do not teach them that they are better. Conceit is born of ignorance, and ignorance is the best and surest guide to utter perdition. Widen the range of your children's knowledge and teach the young Africanders to look beyond the Limpopo to the broad world, where Anglo-Saxons, Germans, Frenchmen and Russians are in constant rivalry to civilise mankind. When he begins to realize what goes on in the wide world he will feel proud that he is a British subject-a subject of perhaps the greatest Empire the world has ever seen. (Hear, hear.) He will see that, go where he will, he may meet with the scowl of jealousy, the glare of hatred, but never with the shrug of contempt. (Loud applause.) Why is that? The complete answer is interesting but extremely complex. This great fact he will, however, quickly notice. Millions of British subjects are ruled in divers parts of the world with an army which compared with those of even the smaller European States is insignificant. If he be wise he will ask himself how is this huge Empire able to maintain itself with so small an army? How is it that over these large and populous tracts of country the Empire requires so small an army to maintain the Pax Britannica? In Germany and the other great States of Europe there are millions of soldiers to maintain the social order, and consequently militarism is rampant. In the British Isles and wherever there is British rule the social order is maintained by an almost insignificant army. The British Empire is thus not ruled by force, but by something else. What is that something else? There can be no doubt that this something else is the British love of freedom. (Applause.) Whereever the British flag floated there we find equality and tolerance. (Hear, hear.) No part of the Empire feels the goad of tyranny; there is therefore no inducement to break away; hence no large army is required to compel obedience and maintain the integrity of the Empire. On the contrary, so jealous is each State of the national honour, and so keen to secure the safety and integrity of the Empire, that directly one member is threaten d we see the whole world in commotion, and we see citizens rushing to its aid from the icy regions of Canada to the sunny plains of Australia. The British Empire differs from the Empires of old and from those of to-day

in that it has been built up not so much by conquest as by a peaceful, industrial and commercial expansion. No Alexander, no Cæsar, no Napoleon founded the British Empire. France, Spain, and Holland possessed not very long ago Empires nearly as great, if not as great, as the present British Empire. Where are their Empires now? How was it that Great Britain had maintained her Empire whilst the other nations had lost nearly all their vast extra-European possessions. The chief reason is because the British Empire had never been exploited for the benefit of a certain class or clique in Great Britain, but for the benefit of all. If to-day the noblest and wealthiest peer of the realm were to land in Table Bay, from the moment he set foot on Colonial soil he had no greater rights in this Colony than you or I. (Applause.) Each state or colony of the British Empire ruled itself, and was master of its own destinies within its own sphere. A Canadian had no right to interfere in the affairs of Australia; an Australian had nothing to say in the Cape Colony, and the Cape Colonist had the right to control the affairs of the Cape Colony. Beyond the borders of the Cape Colony he had no right of controlling the policy of the whole Empire. (Hear, hear.) Within the limits of this Colony the voice of the majority in the Legislature is the voice of the people for the time being. The Bond, for instance, is at present the ruling party in this Colony. Unfortunately, the Bond is not satisfied with having supreme power in this Colony, it desires to rule the whole of South Africa. Such is its conceit and ambition, that it deems this insufficient and seeks to rule not only South Africa, but the whole Empire. It is to my mind a curious phenomenon to hear the Bond shouting that the whole British Empire is going to ruin because Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, Canadians, Indians, Australians and the larger part of South Africa do not agree with their wild hallucinations. (Hear, hear.) Excuse this digression. I think you will agree with me that the British Empire is sui generis, that it does not hang together by force, that its watchword is Political Equality, Freedom of thought and Freedom of speech, and that under its wide shield every man is the master of his own destiny.

There is one other important fact. It is a fact very often overlooked but it is, nevertheless, to my mind, very important. The British Empire is composed of men of all nationalities. It is a Cosmopolitan Empire. Men of French, Dutch, English, Scotch, Irish, and Asiatic descent are all embraced within its wide folds. Being, therefore, an agglomerate of nations and races there is no reason for any one to feel that his national pride is being trampled on. Everyone's language is respected and no one is interfered with in his religion, whilst every member has a voice in public affairs. (Applause.) Take Germany, Russia or any large European power, and what do we find? The Germans had conquered and partitioned Poland, they had annexed Schleswig-Holstein, and wrested

from France Alsace and Lorraine. In all these conquered territories the inhabitants were compelled by order of the Kaiser to think and speak in German. You could not even dare to sell on the market a pound of butter in the Danish language. German alone is the language of the Parliament, the public offices, and the schools.

Most people wanted some material advantage for their loyalty. The subjects of the British Empire have the advantage of a ready protection wheresoever they might be. No region was so remote that the arm of the Empire could not reach it. Great Britain has so great a navy that she can always see that law and order is maintained and that no foreign nation dare trample on the rights of her subjects. Ons Land has this morning come out boldly with its policy. It wants the complete independence of South Africa. The British flag shall no longer protect its shores, or at the most it may obtain the voluntary concession of a right to protect. But do these people realize what the position of the Cape would be if it were not a portion of the British Empire? Do they know that it would be exposed to the first naval power that came along, and that it is not impossible to conceive that the shrieking members of the Bond might become the subjects of some Asiatic sea power like Japan. (Laughter and applause.) It was therefore not only an honour, it was an advantage to be a member of the British Empire. Can you understand how anyone could wish to exchange his right of British citizenship for the privilege of being ruled over by President Kruger and his family? Advisedly I add his family, for anyone intimate with political life in the Transvaal would know that the family of Paul Kruger had a greater influence there than the grandsons of the Queen have in the territories of the British Empire. To many there is a fascination in the word "Republic." They think you have but to baptise any form of government with the name "Republic," and then Freedom immediately sets her throne there. Unwise men! If they will make themselves acquainted with the history of Venice and the Italian Republics they will soon find that the word "republic" does not always spell freedom. If by republic we mean political equality, freedom of thought, and freedom of language and religion, then the British Empire is verily the greatest Republic in the world, and its Sovereign its permanent president. (Applause.) But, ladies, if by Republic we mean a narrow and selfish oligarchy, then heaven defend us from Republics.

I do not wish to vex you with present-day politics, but one cannot help referring, though cursorily, to the controversial politics of the day. Had it not been for the conceit of the young Transvaaler and the young Free Stater-their ignorance, blindness, and obstinacy-we should not have seen South Africa bathed in blood, and we should not have seen two Republics cease to exist. You have heard how the members of the Bond Congress at Graaff-Reinet regret the war. I do not believe that they can regret the war more than I do. I did all in my power to persuade