MODE OF GOVERNMENT.{ Cape Colony } Responsible GovernmentThree British Colonies { Natal }{{ Bechuanaland } Crown Colony.{ South African } Full internal freedom{ Republic } within terms ofTwo Republics { or } Conventions of 1852-54{ Transvaal } and 1881-84.{ Free State. }{ Basutoland, } Officers under High{ Zululand, } Commissioner.{ Tongaland, }Native Territories {{ Transkei, } Officers under Cape{ Tembuland, } Government.{ Griqualand, }{ Pondoland. }Territories of } { Administrator whothe Chartered } . . . . . . . { represents the DirectorsCompany } { and Secretary of State} { jointly.
Yet, with all the varied advantages and evidences of substantial progress and prosperity given above, the present war has broken out in a result which could not have been different had the whites of South Africa been dwelling amidst limited areas, restricted resources, few liberties and a crowded population of competitive classes. Some of the reasons for this situation have been pointed out, and they include natural racial differences; a quality which Lord Wolseley described in a speech at the Author's Club on November 6, 1899, when he declared that "of all the ignorant people in the world that I have ever been brought into contact with I will back the Boers of South Africa as the most ignorant;" the inherent desire of the Dutch population for native slave labor and intense aversion to principles of racial equality; mistakes of administration and more important errors of judgment in territorial matters made by the British Colonial Office; a Dutch pride of race born from isolation, ignorance and prejudice and developed by various influences into an aggressive passion for national expansion and a vigorous determination to ultimately overwhelm the hated Englishman, as well as the despised Kaffir, and to thus dominate South Africa.Afrikander BundOf the elements entering into this last and perhaps most important evolution the Afrikander Bund has been the chief. The formation of this organization really marks an epoch in South African history, and has proved, in the end, to be one of the most effective and potent forces in the creation of the present situation. Nominally, it was organized in 1881 amongst the Dutch farmers of Cape Colony for the purpose of promoting agricultural improvement and co-operation and for the increase of their influence in public business and government. In 1883 it swallowed up the Farmer's Protective Association—also a Dutch organization. Practically, it was a product of the feeling of racial pride, which developed in the heart and mind of every Boer in South Africa as a result of Majuba Hill and the surrender of 1881. The openly asserted influence of their Transvaal brethren, and of this triumph, had prevailed with the Cape Boers to such an extent that the latter were able to compel the rejection of Lord Carnarvon's federation scheme although they did not at the time possess a large vote in the Cape Legislature or a single member in the Government. The same influence created a desire for racial organization, and the result was the Afrikander Bund.
Its chief individual and local promoter was Mr. Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, a man whose record is one of a loyalty to the British Crown which seems, in some peculiar fashion, to have equalled his loyalty to his race. In the beginning of the Bund, and during its earlier years, he could easily harmonize the two principles. How he could do so at a later period is one of the puzzles of history and of personal character. Incidentally, it may be said that Mr. Hofmeyr attended the Colonial Conference of 1887, in London, and contributed to its proceedings the then novel proposition that each part of the Empire should levy a certain duty upon foreign products—above that imposed upon goods produced in and exported to British dominions—and that the proceeds should be devoted to the maintenance and improvement of the Imperial Navy. He also attended the Colonial Conference at Ottawa in 1894, and had, consequently, received all the knowledge of Imperial development and power which travel and experience and association with the rulers of its various countries could afford. He has, since 1881, always declined office at the Cape, and it is, therefore, apparent that the solution of the personal problem must, in his case, be left to the future—with, perhaps, the further intimation that he is looked upon with great suspicion by local loyalists, and is considered to be the owner, or controlling influence, ofOur Land, the chief anti-British organ in Cape Colony.
An Imperium in Imperio
From the first the Bund was regarded with suspicion by not only English politicians in the Colony, but by a few of the more sober and statesmanlike leaders amongst the Dutch. They were, however, won over, as time passed, except the President of the Orange Free State. Sir John Brand—he had accepted knighthood from the Queen as an evidence of his British sympathies—absolutely refused to have anything to do with it. "I entertain," said he, "grave doubts as to whether the path the Afrikander Bund has adopted is calculated to lead to that union and fraternization which is so indispensable for the bright future of South Africa. According to my conception the institution of the Bund appears to be desirous of exalting itself above the established Government and forming animperium in imperio." But, wise and far-seeing as were these views, the Free State President could not hold back his own people from sharing in the movement. Mr. F. W. Reitz, then a Judge at Bloemfontein, afterwards President in succession to Sir John Brand, and, finally, State Secretary of the Transvaal under President Kruger, joined enthusiastically in its organization, and soon had many branches in the Free State itself. Of this period in the history of the Bund, Mr. Theodore Schreiner, son of a German missionary, brother of the Cape Premier and of Olive Schreiner—the bitter anti-British writer—has described an interesting incident in theCape Times.Mr. Reitz and the Present WarHe says that in 1882 Mr. Reitz earnestly endeavored to persuade him to join the organization, and that the conversation which took place upon his final refusal was so striking as to indelibly convince him that in the mind of Reitz and of other Dutch leaders it constituted, even then, a distinct and matured plot for the driving of British authority out of South Africa. "During the seventeen years that have elapsed," says Mr. Schreiner, "I have watched the propaganda for the overthrow of British power in South Africa being ceaselessly spread by every possible means—the press, the pulpit, the platform, the schools, the colleges, the Legislature—until it has culminated in the present war, of which Mr. Reitz and his co-workers are the origin and the cause. Believe me, sir, the day on which F. W. Reitz sat down to pen his Ultimatum to Great Britain was the proudest and happiest moment of his life, and one which has, for long years, been looked forward to by him with eager longing and expectation."
Branches of the Bund, within a few years, were established all over Cape Colony and the Free State, and, by 1888, the slow-moving mind of the Cape Dutch had grasped the racial idea thus presented with sufficient popular strength to warrant the holding of a large and general Congress. In his opening address the President spoke of a "United South Africa under the British flag;" but at the meeting held on March 4, 1889, at Middleburg, while much was said about the future Afrikander union, references to Britain and the flag were conveniently omitted. The platform, as finally and formally enunciated at this gathering, included the following paragraphs:
"1. The Afrikander National Party acknowledge the guidance of Providence in the affairs of both lands and peoples.
2. They include, under the guidance of Providence, the formation of apure nationalityand the preparation of our people for the establishment of a United South Africa.
3. To this they consider belong—
a. The establishment of a firm union between all the different European nationalities in South Africa.
b. The promotion of South Africa'sindependence."
Dutch and English not Harmonious
There was also a clause of gratuitous impertinence towards the Imperial country—through whose grant of absolute self-government in 1872 the Bund was now beginning to aim, with practical effort, at the racial control of the Colony—in the declaration that "outside interference with the domestic concerns of South Africa shall be opposed." Under the general principles of the platform these "domestic concerns" meant, of course, the relation of the different States toward each other, and the growing rivalry of Dutch and English in matters of Colonial Government, as well as the old-time question of native control and the newer one of territorial extension on the part of Cape Colony. So long as President Brand lived and ruled at Bloemfontein there remained, however, some check upon the Bund as well as upon President Kruger. If he had opposed the Bund actively, as he certainly did in a passive and deprecatory sense, the result might have been a serious hindrance to its progress. Brand's policy was to, indirectly and quietly, keep the Cape Colony and the Free State in harmonious and gradually closer co-operation instead of promoting that closer union of the two republics which was one of the ideals of the Bund leaders. He refused to accept Kruger's proposal of isolating their countries from the British possessions, and thus promoting the policy which, without doubt, had, since 1881, been shaping itself in the latter's mind. But, in 1888, Sir John Brand died, and was succeeded by F. W. Reitz. The influence of the new régime became at once visible in the platform above quoted, and in the whole succeeding policy of the Free State. It now assumed a more and more intimate alliance with the Transvaal, and frequently, during these years, the question of a union of the two countries was discussed. In 1896 Reitz resigned and accepted the State Secretaryship of the Transvaal—a position analogous in personal power, though not in the matter of responsibility to the people, with that of a Colonial Premier. Mr. M. T. Steyn became President of the Free State and the triumvirate of Kruger, Steyn and Reitz formed, with Mr. W. P. Schreiner and Mr. J. W. Sauer, in the Cape Parliament and Afrikander Bund, a very strong Dutch combination. Just where Mr. Hofmeyr stood it is hard to say now, but the probabilities are that, he was pretty well acquainted with the plots and schemes of these leaders.
Mr. Cecil Rhodes to the Front
Meanwhile Mr. Cecil Rhodes had come to the front in mining, in speculation, in wealth, in financial organization, in politics, and in a great policy of Empire expansion. He had studied South Africa from the Cape to the Zambesi as few or no Englishmen have ever been able to do. He understood its Governments, its peoples and its racial complexities with the innate thoroughness of genius or of a woman's intuition. To him the looming menace of the Afrikander Bund was as clear AS it had been to President Brand, and, from the time when lie entered the Cape Parliament in 1880 and became Premier in 1890 until his retirement from the latter post in 1895, his whole heart and ambition was devoted to preventing Dutch expansion and to checkmating the new Dutch organization with its clever manipulators at Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Cape Town. To this end he founded the famous British South Africa Company, and, by acquiring control over the vast areas of Mashonaland and Matabeleland, effectually checked Dutch expansion to the north of the Transvaal. With this in view he urged upon British statesmen the annexation of Bechuanaland, a huge strip of country to the west of the same Republic; and supported with his influence the annexation of Zululand on the south-east coast, into which many Boers had trekked and for the possession of which they had an intense ambition as opening the way to the sea. His reasons seldom appeared on the surface, and some of them were not fully comprehended in South Africa itself until long after their accomplishment. But there is no doubt that as Mr. Rhodes' power at the Cape became felt, as the great interests of the Chartered Company grew more manifest in their importance to the Empire, and as the wealth and ability of its Chairman became a factor in London as well as in the Colony, so also his influence at the Colonial Office was enhanced.
Rhodes' Policy of Conciliation
At the same time he developed this line of action for many years in conjunction with a policy of public conciliation toward the Dutch everywhere. If, eventually, a system of kindly co-operation could be evolved and the principles of the Afrikander Bund rendered comparatively harmless by the winning over of its strongest men at the Cape to his side, and to the continuous expansion of British power in the common interest of a United South Africa, so much the better. If he failed in this he did not, however, propose that the Empire should some day find itself face to face with the problem of a thin line of English settlement—mixed with Dutch—along the sea-coast, in rivalry or conflict with a united Afrikander nation holding all the keys of the interior to the north and stretching from the Delagoa region on the east to the German possessions on the west. Hence his continuous acquisition of territory, and hence the present position of the two republics—surrounded by British soil except for the small strip of Portuguese possessions to the east of the Transvaal. Hence, also, his hope that as British power grew in South Africa the Bund would eventually see the futility of its effort to make the whole country a Dutch republic, and would meet his policy of conciliation at least half way. Between 1890 and 1895, when the Jameson Raid and his resignation of the Premiership took place, Mr. Rhodes' speeches teemed with expressions of friendliness toward the Dutch, of appreciation of their rights in South Africa, of sympathy with all legitimate aspirations, of appeals for co-operation. In his Ministry, from time to time, he managed to include leaders of the roll such as W. P. Schreiner, J. W. Sauer, T. N. G. Te Water, and so prominent a Boer supporter of later days as J. X. Merriman. But it seems to have become gradually apparent to his mind that conciliation was practically useless; that the influence and power of the Afrikander movement was daily growing stronger; that Kruger had become too great a force with the Dutch of the Cape for him to be checkmated by friendly demonstrations or appeals; and that the oppression of the Uitlanders in the Transvaal was a growing evidence of Boer unity and arrogance just as the increasing electoral strength of the Cape Boers was a proof of their developing power.England's Ignorance of the SituationAnd, above all, he was aware that while this web of inter-state Dutch conspiracy was building up the Afrikander Bund into a great anti-British force, England was profoundly ignorant of the whole matter and was resting in the belief, expressed by passing travellers and presented by the usual number of superficial political theorists, that the Dutch and English of South Africa were not only dwelling together in amity, but were developing increased sympathy, and that the Uitlander trouble, of which vague reports were beginning to reach the British public, was more or less the creation of a transition period of development and would soon settle itself.
To meet the dulled vision of the British people, to settle the Transvaal issue without war between the Republic and the Empire, to play with President Kruger at his own game and overthrow him by an internal rebellion, Rhodes approved the general idea of the Jameson Raid and of external assistance to the people of Johannesburg. The policy was carried out rashly and prematurely by his deputy, the Uitlanders were not ready and did not redeem their promises, it failed and he had to retire from office. But one important result was achieved. The eyes of the British public were in some measure opened to the seriousness of the situation in South Africa. Mr. Chamberlain and the members of the Imperial Ministry no doubt knew something already of the general position from private advices—if in no other way—and it was for this reason that they stood by Mr. Rhodes when the Raid came before a Parliamentary Committee for investigation. They had not, of course, known of the Raid itself or supported its aggressive action. The code of honor, personal and political, is too high amongst British statesmen to permit of anyone but a sensational journalist or an unusually violent partisan accepting such a supposition for a moment. But they did understand the motive and were not prepared to punish the self-confessed originator, although obliged to allow the legal punishment of the active participators. Mr. Rhodes could not defend himself, and Mr. Chamberlain could not publicly support him in connection with the matter, without avowing their belief in the disloyalty of a portion of the population of Cape Colony and their knowledge of a secret conspiracy shared in by the chiefs of two nominally friendly republics. The former would have involved the making of unwise charges which, in the nature of things, could hardly have been proved, and if proved would have done more harm than good; the latter would have meant a war which it might still be possible to avert.
Efforts and Conciliation not Successful
Mr. Hofmeyr, the nominal leader of the Bund in Cape Colony, might at almost any time during recent years have become Premier and, through his reputation for moderate views, might, perhaps, have done good service to the cause of compromise and conciliation. On the other hand, it is doubtful whether he could have succeeded in this respect when Mr. Rhodes, between 1890 and 1895, failed. The latter did everything that man could do to hold the racial elements together and checkmate the Kruger influence, and it seems probable that Hofmeyr could not in the end have resisted the power of Pretoria over the Afrikanders any more effectively than did Mr. W. P. Schreiner in the two years preceding the outbreak of war. His Ministry would have been a Bund Government just as that of Schreiner is to-day; his principal co-workers would have been instruments of Kruger in much the same degree as members of the Schreiner Cabinet have been; and his participation in the general Afrikander movement, or conspiracy, or whatever it may be called, would have been more dangerous than that of Mr. Schreiner because his loyalty has always been asserted, and would have been used, consciously or unconsciously as a cloak for the action of his colleagues and friends.Kruger's Auspicious OpportunityIn 1898, however, Mr. Schreiner took office; the Bund was triumphant at the polls in Cape Colony and in Parliament; and had a weak Government or vacillating Colonial Secretary been in power in London, Mr. Kruger's day would have indeed come. He undoubtedly built upon this latter possibility and upon his personal experiences of Mr. Gladstone, Lord Kimberley and Lord Derby. To demand, even in the days of Transvaal weakness, had been to receive, and now, with the Uitlander population under the heels of an ironclad law and of enactments allowing them less liberty than was given the Kaffir; with great guns guarding Pretoria and commanding Johannesburg—coupled with the consciousness of other and more extensive military preparations; with the policy of the Imperial Government hampered by the rash aggressiveness of the Jameson Raid; with the Orange Free State in close defensive and offensive alliance and its President a mere tool in his own hands; with clever advisers and unscrupulous helpers such as Reitz and Leyds; with the certainty of European sympathy, the expectation of American support and the hope of active interposition on the part of France, or Russia, or Germany; with the Cape Colonial Government in tacit sympathy with his aims and in occasional active support of his policy; with the assurance of an extensive support from the Boers of the Colony itself; it is not surprising that President Kruger entered the lists at the Bloemfontein Conference with great confidence, and ultimately faced the might of Britain with assurance that the weakness of a British Ministry, the power of a European combination, the interposition of the United States, or some other providential aid, would secure the abrogation of that British suzerainty which was the bane of his life and the chief apparent element in preventing the supremacy in South Africa of the Dutch race in general and the Transvaal Republic in particular.
Chamberlain's Strong Policy
But he knew not Mr. Chamberlain or the changed conditions of British thought. He did not realize that the days of indifference to the Colonies had passed away, and that the Colonial Office had become one of the greatest posts in the British Government and had been deliberately selected by one of the most ambitious and able of modern statesmen as a suitable field for achievement and labor. He had no idea that the retention and extension of British territory was no longer a party question, and that the days of Granville at the Foreign Office had as completely passed away as had those of Derby at the Colonial Office. His very knowledge of British political life and its see-saw system was turned into a source of error through the rapid developments of an epoch-making decade. It must have been a shock to him to find that an insult to the Imperial Government in the form of his ultimatum was looked upon as an insult to a dozen other British Governments throughout the world, and that the invasion of the soil of Natal and Cape Colony was regarded as an assault upon the interests of Canada and Australia as well as of Great Britain. The days of weakness had indeed departed, and despite all the conciliatory slowness and caution of Mr. Chamberlain during weary months of controversy the iron hand was concealed beneath the glove of velvet and there was nowhere a thought of surrendering that right of suzerainty which preserved and ensured British supremacy in South Africa. The inevitable war has now come—the struggle which the Gladstone Government shrank from in days when the Boer Power was weak, and which Sir George Grey spoke of in its wider sense when he declared, in 1858, after the abandonment of the Orange River State, that "many questions might arise, in which it might be very doubtful which of the two Governments the great mass of the Dutch population (in Cape Colony) would obey."
Uitlander's Many Grievances
Its more immediate cause has not been the chief reason, though, of course, the more prominent and pronounced. The position of the Uitlander was bad enough, and the facts which have been drilled into the public mind and explained in the dispatches of Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Alfred Milner are sufficiently explicit. Since 1895 the hundred thousand aliens—chiefly British subjects—established in Johannesburg and at the mines have been subjected to every restriction of liberty which is conceivably possible. None of the rights of self-government pledged in the Conventions of 1881 and 1884 have been given them or rendered possible in any succeeding period worthy of consideration. The press had been gagged and public discussion prevented; the Courts had been made subservient to the Boer Volksraad and the money raised in taxes applied upon armaments directed against Great Britain and the Uitlander. No attention had been paid to industrial development or financial security and the drink traffic amongst the natives had been openly encouraged. No protection had been given to individual Englishmen and their families by the Boer Police and education had become a matter of Dutch language and Dutch methods. Roman Catholics were excluded from even the faintest chance of obtaining the franchise and monopolies were publicly sold to Hollander favorites and adventurers. Heavier and heavier burdens of taxes have been laid upon the Uitlanders—poll tax, railway tax, road tax, miner's claims, digger's license, prospector's license. An enactment made in 1894, in addition to the five years' residence required of adult aliens, declared that the children of such, though born in the Transvaal, must wait fourteen years after making claim for the right to vote. The respectable, educated Hindoo merchants had been classed with and treated with the same contempt as the indentured coolies. These things were surely cause enough for Mr. Chamberlain's intervention, and more than cause for his sustained effort to obtain equal rights for British men.
Causes of the War
Nominally, therefore, the failure to modify these grievances and abuses of the Uitlander was the cause of the condition out of which war came. Practically, the cause was in the distant past, in the character of the Boer, the development of his peculiar history, the British mistakes of 1836, 1852 and 1877, the aggressive Dutch pride of recent years, the historical hatred of the English, the growth of military resources in the Transvaal, the evolution of the Afrikander Bund, the determination to create a Dutch South Africa. The means for success, even to the most utterly ignorant and intensely vain Dutchman, were not apparent until the gold mines of the Witwatersrand paved the way and the revenues of the little State rose in the following ratio from $889,000 in 1885—the year preceding the discoveries—to nearly $25,000,000 in the year 1897:
1886 ............... $1,902,165 1892 ............... $6,279,1451887 ............... 3,342,175 1893 ............... 8,513,4201888 ............... 4,422,200 1894 ............... 11,238,6401889 ............... 7,887,225 1895 ............... 17,699,7751890 ............... 6,145,300 1896 ............... 22,660,9701891 ............... 4.835.955 1897 ............... 24,432,495
Misappropriation of Taxes
For an assumed Boer population of little more than 200,000, the expenditure of this large sum would have been difficult under ordinary and honest conditions of government. Nothing, practically was expended upon the Uitlanders, from whom the revenue came, and nothing upon the 800,000 Kaffirs in the country. Nothing was spent upon the development of natural resources, and but little upon the extension of railways, etc. Of this $120,000,000, in round numbers, it might be fair to allow $3,000,000 per annum for ordinary purposes of administration and development during the twelve years, or one million per annum more than had been spent by the Free State in any year of the same period. It would then be reasonably safe to assume that the remaining $84,000,000, and the acquired indebtedness of $13,000,000, have been spent upon fortifications, armament, subsidies to foreign papers and politicians and salaries to Hollander adventurers. It is in this connection a curious fact that the imports to the Transvaal in 1898 were over a hundred millions in value, with no recorded exports—except gold, of which the production in 1897 was over $85,000,000. These imports must have consisted very largely of ammunition and military supplies, as the Boers are not a people who use extraneous products or luxuries. Of course, the Uitlanders were responsible for a portion; but the great bulk must have been made up of articles very different from the usual commodities of peaceful commerce. Such was the state of affairs, in a brief summary, which led up to the diplomatic crash between Mr. Chamberlain and President Kruger, to the negotiations conducted by Sir Alfred Milner and the two Presidents, and to the invasion of the British Colonies on the eleventh of October, 1899.
LT.-COL. T. D. B. EVANS, Canadian Mounted Rifles in South Africa. LT.-COL. F. L. LESSARD, Commanding Royal Canadian Dragoons in South Africa. LIEUT. JAMES C. MASON, First Canadian Contingent in South Africa. LIEUT.-COL. A. M. COSBY Commanding 48th Royal Highlanders, Toronto, and his two sons in the Second Contingent in South Africa--Lieut. F. Lorne Cosby and Norman W. CosbyLT.-COL. T. D. B. EVANS,Canadian Mounted Rifles in South Africa.LT.-COL. F. L. LESSARD,Commanding Royal Canadian Dragoons in South Africa.LIEUT. JAMES C. MASON,First Canadian Contingent in South Africa.LIEUT.-COL. A. M. COSBYCommanding 48th Royal Highlanders, Toronto, and his two sonsin the Second Contingent in South Africa—Lieut.F. Lorne Cosby and Norman W. Cosby
COLONEL BADEN-POWELL. GENERAL FRENCHCOLONEL BADEN-POWELL.GENERAL FRENCH
One of the most striking and perhaps important historical features of the South African crisis of 1899 was the sentiment of sympathy expressed by other parts of the Empire and the co-operation offered, or given, by the Colonies in the ensuing conflict. The number of men who actually participated from Canada, or Australia, or New Zealand was not great. But the possibilities of aid shown by the enthusiasm in despatching the Contingents, the keen interest taken in the origin and nature of the war, the sudden recognition of Colonial responsibilities for the defence of the Empire, and the fresh and vivid appreciation of the vast Imperial burdens of Great Britain, were exceedingly and vitally important. Some three thousand men went from Canada and over five thousand from the Australian Colonies and New Zealand. Ceylon contributed Contingents and troops were offered by the Malay States, Lagos, Hong Kong, the West Indies and the leading Princes of India. When it was found that colored forces could not well be accepted the various native Governments of India proffered money, armament and horses; while Lumsden's Horse was raised and equipped amongst the white population.
Australians and Canadians in the Soudan
The history of the sudden movement which resulted in the sending of these Contingents from the Colonies is most interesting. To participate in the defence of the Empire was not, it is true, an absolutely new thing. In 1885 New South Wales had sent some troops from Sydney to share in the Soudan campaign for the relief of Gordon and they had duly received their baptism of hardship and disappointment. They left Australian shores amid scenes of wild enthusiasm and under the initiative of Mr. W. Bede Dalley, an eloquent Irishman who was then Acting-Premier of New South Wales; and they were received in a similar manner on their return. At the same time there had been carping criticism of the action taken, a certain amount of political discontent amongst the Radical element in the Colony had existed, and in some measure a reaction took place after the war was all over. There were not wanting bitter opponents of Imperial unity to prophecy that it was the last force which would ever leave Sydney to fight the battles of Britain. But there were other Colonies in Australasia besides New South Wales and, even there, the little wail of the pessimist was soon neutralized. Dalley died shortly afterwards, though he had lived long enough to receive the blue-ribbon of political honour—a place in the Imperial Privy Council; and to be given after his death a commemorative tablet in St. Paul's Cathedral and a lasting place in British history. At this time, also, Canada sent a small force ofvoyageursor boatmen, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel F. C. Denison, to help Wolseley's troops in their difficult expedition up the Nile. But it was neither a Government action nor one which the public had thought much about, and it consequently wielded little influence, although the Canadians did their duty well and received the warm approbation of Lord Wolseley.
Canadians in the Wars With the United States
Of course, the country had fought for the Crown in days of war with the United States, and in 1812-14 nearly every able-bodied man in the British Provinces had stood beside the scattered line of British regulars in defence of their hearths and homes. They were doing then what 10,000 Cape Colonists and 5000 of the men of Natal are doing in the present war. But it was, of course, a struggle upon Canadian soil just as the little rebellions of 1837 in Upper and Lower Canada, the Red River troubles of 1870, the Saskatchewan rebellion of 1886, or the Fenian Raids of 1866, had been. So far as Canada was concerned, therefore, no real precedent existed for the Imperialist demonstrations of 1899. Large numbers of Indian troops—chiefly Sikhs and Ghoorkas—had, it is true, been brought to Malta in 1878 by Lord Beaconsfield and Europe in this way electrified by a revelation of unexpected British military resources; while similar Contingents had been used against Arabi in Egypt and during the expedition up the Nile. In a naval sense too, the Australian Colonies had led the way in contributing to the Imperial defence system of the seas by paying for the maintenance of a British fleet on the Australasian station from 1887 onwards. But this exhausts all possible comparisons, or partial precedents, and to those who know the Canadian sentiment of a few years since regarding Imperial armaments and the assumption of increased defensive responsibilities the present situation seems very striking.
Change of Sentiment in the Dominion Since 1885
I had something to do with the movement for Imperial Federation which commenced in the Dominion in 1885, and, with many others, shared in the missionary work done during succeeding years. It is without hesitation, therefore, that I assert the greatest of the early obstacles, experienced by the advocates of closer union with Great Britain, to have been the fear of compulsory participation in wars of all kinds and in all parts of the world with which, perhaps, Canadian interests might have little connection and Canadian feeling no particular sympathy. The change of sentiment since then has been very great. It had already been shown in other ways by such official action as the granting of a tariff preference to the Mother-Country, in 1898, of twenty-five per cent. The war with the Boers, it should be also remembered, was a Colonial war in which British subjects had been attacked as they had for years been insulted and menaced and in which the general supremacy of the Crown in an important part of the Empire was threatened. Moreover, the liberties and equality of position asked for by the Uitlanders in the Transvaal were of a kind which Great Britain and Canada had a century since given to the French population of British America with the greatest eventual success. The diplomatic contest was, therefore, watched with continuous interest in Canada, and local talk of volunteering for the front was only checked by a mistaken feeling that if war came it would be but a small and insignificant struggle.
The Premier and Parliament
But amongst military men there was a strong undercurrent of desire to raise some kind of volunteer force for active service. In this connection Lieutenant-Colonel S. Hughes, M.P., was particularly enthusiastic. He introduced the subject in Parliament, on July 12th, while negotiations were still pending between President Kruger and Mr. Chamberlain. The result was that, despite the fact of Queensland having already offered troops and his own expression of opinion that five thousand men would readily volunteer in Canada, it was thought best not to take any immediate action, and the Premier, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, expressed the hope and belief that in view of the absolute justice of the Uitlanders' claims, recognition would eventually be given them and war averted. On July 31st more definite action was taken, and the following Resolution moved in the House of Commons by Sir Wilfrid Laurier and seconded by the Hon. G. E. Foster in the absence, but with the approval of, Sir Charles Tupper as Leader of the Opposition, was carried unanimously:
"That this House has viewed with regret the complications which have arisen in the Transvaal Republic, of which Her Majesty is Suzerain, from the refusal to accord to Her Majesty's subjects now settled in that region an adequate participation in its Government.
"That this House has learned with still greater regret that the condition of things there existing has resulted in intolerable oppression and has produced great and dangerous excitement among several classes of Her Majesty's subjects in Her South African possessions.
"That this House, representing a people which has largely succeeded, by the adoption of the principle of conceding equal political rights to every portion of the population, in harmonizing estrangements and in producing general content with the existing system of government, desires to express its sympathy with the efforts of Her Majesty's Imperial authorities to obtain for the subjects of Her Majesty who have taken up their abode in the Transvaal such measure of justice and political recognition as may be found necessary to secure them in the full possession of equal rights and liberties."
Popular Enthusiasm
The members, after passing the motion, sprang to their feet and sang "God Save the Queen" amid a scene of striking enthusiasm which was duplicated a little later in the Senate. Following this expression of feeling Colonel Hughes endeavored, upon his own responsibility, to raise a regiment for foreign service and in doing so naturally came into collision with the head of the Militia—Major-General E. T. H. Hutton. The result of this enthusiastic rashness was, of course, failure in the attempt though at the same time, he was able to afford a distinct indication of the general feeling in favour of something being done should war break out. Leading papers took up the subject and favoured the sending of a force in case of necessity and, on October 2d, a few days before the war began, a large and representative meeting of Militia officers was held in Toronto and the following Resolution passed with unanimity and enthusiasm on motion of Lieutenant-Colonels George T. Denison and James Mason: "That the members of the Canadian Military Institute, feeling that it is a clear and definite duty for all British possessions to show their willingness to contribute in the common defence in case of need, express the hope that, in view of impending hostilities in South Africa, the Government of Canada will promptly offer a contingent of Canadian Militia to assist in supporting the interests of our Empire in that country." On the following day the Prime Minister was interviewed at Ottawa, and expressed the opinion that it would be unconstitutional for the Militia, or a portion of it, to be sent out of Canada without the permission of Parliament, and that it would take some weeks to call that body together. Sir Wilfrid Laurier declared[1] that "there is no doubt as to the attitude of the Government on all questions that mean menace to British interests, but in this present case our limitations are very clearly defined. And so it is that we have not offered a Canadian Contingent to the Home authorities." Meantime, however, the matter had been under consideration, all the independent offers to serve from individuals or regiments had been duly forwarded to the Colonial Office, and each had received the stereotyped reply that while negotiations were in progress no further troops were required.
[1] TorontoGlobe, October 4, 1899.
Forces Sent with Great Enthusiasm
Public sentiment soon proved too strong for what might have been in other circumstances a legitimate constitutional delay. On September 27th Sir Charles Tupper, in a speech at Halifax, offered the Government the fullest support of the Conservative Opposition in the sending of a Contingent, and on October 6th telegraphed the Premier to the same effect. The British Empire League in Canada passed a Resolution declaring that the time had come when all parts of the Queen's dominions should share in the defence of British interests, and the St. JohnTelegraph—a strong Liberal paper—declared on September 30th that "Canada should not only send a force to the Transvaal, but should maintain it in the field." The MontrealStarsought and received telegrams from the Mayor of nearly every town in the Dominion endorsing the proposal to dispatch military assistance to fellow-subjects in South Africa. Mr. J. W. Johnston, Mayor of Belleville, represented the general tone of these multitudinous messages in the words: "It is felt that the Dominion, being a partner in the Empire, should bear Imperial responsibilities as well as share in Imperial honors and protection." The TorontoGlobe—the leading Ontario Liberal paper—also supported the proposal, and soon the country from Halifax to Vancouver was stirred as it had not been since the North-west Rebellion of 1885—perhaps as it has never been in the sense of covering the entire Dominion.
The Opposition Which Occurred
There was, inevitably, some opposition, and it was largely voiced by the Hon. J. Israel Tarte, Minister of Public Works in the Dominion Government. It was not a note of disloyalty; it was simply the expression of a lack of enthusiasm and the magnifying of constitutional dangers or difficulties. No one in Canada expected the French Canadians, amongst whom Mr. Tarte was a party leader, to look upon the matter with just the same warmth of feeling as actuated English Canadians; and very few believed that the absence of this enthusiasm indicated any sentiment of disloyalty to the Crown or to the country. The people of Quebec had not yet been educated up to the point of participation in British wars and Imperial defence; they were, as a matter of fact, in much the same position that the people of Ontario had been in ten or fifteen years before. The influences making for closer Empire unity could never in their case include a racial link or evolve from a common language and literature. The most and best that could be expected was a passive and not distinctly unfriendly acquiescence in the new and important departure from precedent and practice which was evidenced by the announcement, on October 12th, that a Canadian Contingent had been accepted by the Imperial Government and was to be dispatched to South Africa. There was no active opposition to the proposal except from a section of the French-Canadian press edited by Frenchmen from Paris, and from a Member of Parliament who resigned his seat as a protest and was afterwards re-elected by acclamation—both parties deeming it wisest to treat the matter as of no importance. Mr. Tarte eventually fell into line with his colleagues, but with the public announcement that he did not approve the principle of sending troops abroad without Parliamentary sanction; that he had obtained the Government's approval to an official statement that this action was not to be considered as a precedent; and that he thought the only way to adequately meet similar situations in future was by definite and permanent arrangement with the Imperial authorities and representation in Imperial Councils. Upon the subject as a whole his attitude was certainly logical and loyal, but in effect it was untimely, unpopular and unnecessary. And the continued utterances of his paper—La Patrie, of Montreal—were of a nature calculated to irritate loyal sentiment and arouse serious misapprehension amongst French Canadians.
However, the feeling of the country generally was too fervent to permit of this obstacle having anything more than an ephemeral and passing influence. And any opposition which might exist amongst French Canadians assumed an essentially passive character. Toward the end of October an already announced pledge from an anonymous friend of Sir Charles Tupper's to insure the life of each member of the Contingent to the extent of $1,000, was redeemed, and on October 24th the following message was received through the Secretary of State for the Colonies: "Her Majesty the Queen desires to thank the people of her Dominion of Canada for their striking manifestation of loyalty and patriotism in their voluntary offer to send troops to co-operate with Her Majesty's Imperial forces in maintaining her position and the rights of British subjects in South Africa. She wishes the troops Godspeed and a safe return." The first Contingent of one thousand men steamed down the St. Lawrence from Quebec on October 30th, after farewell banquets to the officers and an ovation from immense crowds in the gaily decorated streets of the "Ancient Capital." For weeks before this date little divisions of 50, or 100, or 125 men had been leaving their respective local centres amidst excitement such as Canada had never witnessed before. St. John and Halifax, on the Atlantic coast, were met by Victoria and Vancouver, on the shores of the Pacific, in a wild outburst of patriotic enthusiasm. Toronto and Winnipeg responded for the centre of the Dominion, and at the Quebec "send-off" there were delegations and individual representatives from all parts of the country. Every village which contributed a soldier to the Contingent also added to the wave of popular feeling by marking his departure as an event of serious import, while Patriotic Funds of every kind were started and well maintained throughout the country. It was, indeed, a manifestation of the military and Imperial spirit such as Canadians had never dreamed of seeing, and for many months the words upon every lip were those of the popular air, "Soldiers of the Queen." To quote the Hon. F. W. Borden, Minister of Militia and Defence, at the Quebec Banquet on October 29th: "This was a people's movement, not that of any Government or party; it emanated from the whole people of Canada, and it is being endorsed by them as shown by the words and deeds of the people at all points where the troops started from." The Earl of Minto, as Governor-General, in bidding official farewell to the troops on the succeeding day, expressed the same idea, and added, in words of serious importance when coming from the Queen's Representative and bearing indirectly upon the much-discussed question of alleged Government hesitancy in making the first offer of military aid, that:
An Act of Loyalty
"The people of Canada had shown that they had no inclination to discuss the quibbles of Colonial responsibility. They had unmistakably asked that their loyal offers be made known, and rejoiced in their gracious acceptance. In so doing surely they had opened a new chapter in the history of our Empire. They freely made their military gift to the Imperial cause to share the privations and dangers and glories of the Imperial army. They had insisted on giving vent to an expression of sentimental Imperial unity, which might perhaps hereafter prove more binding than any written Imperial constitution."
THE LONDON CONTINGENT OF THE CANADIAN TRANSVAAL REGIMENT. MAJOR D. STEWART ON THE LEFTTHE LONDON CONTINGENT OF THE CANADIAN TRANSVAAL REGIMENT.MAJOR D. STEWART ON THE LEFT
GROUP OF OFFICERS CANADIAN TRANSVAAL CONTINGENT. PLATE IGROUP OF OFFICERS CANADIAN TRANSVAAL CONTINGENT. PLATE I
Canadians, Australians and British Comrades
The principal officers of the Contingent were its Commander, Lieut.-Colonel W. D. Otter, who had seen active service in the North-west Rebellion, Lieut.-Colonel Lawrence Buchan, Lieut.-Colonel O. C. C. Pelletier, Major J. C. MacDougall and Major S. J. A. Denison, afterwards appointed to Lord Roberts' Staff. The troopshipSardinianarrived at Cape Town on the the 29th of November, and the Canadians were given a splendid reception—Sir Alfred Milner cabling Lord Minto that: "The people here showed in unmistakable manner their appreciation of the sympathy and help of Canada in their hour of trial." The Regiment was at once sent up to De Aar, and later on to Belmont, the scene of Lord Methuen's gallant fight. From here a portion of the Canadian troops took part in a successful raid upon Sunnyside, a place some distance away, where there was an encampment of Boers. A number of the enemy were captured, but the incident was chiefly memorable as the first time in history, as well as in the war itself, when Canadians and Australians have fought side by side with British regular troops. Meanwhile public feeling in Canada seemed to favor the sending of further aid, and its feasibility was more than shown by the thousands who had volunteered for the first Contingent over and above those selected. But it was not until some of the earlier reverses of the war took place that the offer of a second Contingent was pressed upon the Home Government. On November 8th, however, it was declined for the moment, and a week later Mr. Chamberlain wrote the following expressive words to the Governor-General:
"The great enthusiasm and the general eagerness to take an active part in the military expedition which has unfortunately been found necessary for the maintenance of British rights and interests in South Africa have afforded much gratification to Her Majesty's Government and the people of this country. The desire exhibited to share in the risks and burdens of empire has been welcomed not only as a proof of the staunch loyalty of the Dominion and of its sympathy with the policy pursued by Her Majesty's Government in South Africa, but also as an expression of that growing feeling of the unity and solidarity of the Empire which has marked the relations of the Mother Country with the Colonies during recent years."
Additional Contingents Sent
On December 18th events in South Africa and the pressure of loyal proffers of aid from Australia and elsewhere induced the Imperial Government to change its mind, the Second Contingent was accepted, and once again the call to arms resounded throughout Canada. The first Regiment had been composed of infantry, the second was made up of artillery and cavalry. Eventually, it was decided to send 1,220 men, together with horses, guns and complete equipment, and they duly left for the Cape in detachments toward the end of January and in the beginning of February. A third force of 400 mounted men was recruited in the latter month and sent to the seat of war fully equipped and with all expenses paid through the personal and patriotic generosity of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, the Canadian High Commissioner in London. In addition to "Strathcona's Horse" another independent force of 125 men was offered in similar fashion by the British Columbia Provincial Government and duly accepted at London and Ottawa, while a movement was commenced to proffer an organized Dominion Brigade of 10,000 men, if required. Little wonder, when such a popular spirit was shown, and when the anxiety to enlist and the influence used to obtain a chance of going to the front were greater than men show to obtain positions of permanent financial value, that Lord Roberts, shortly after his appointment to South Africa, should have cabled his expression of belief that: "The action of Canada will always be a glorious page in the history of the sons of the Empire. I look for great things from the men she has sent and is sending to the front." Meantime even the slightest opposition to the policy of aiding the Empire had died out—in fact, its assertion would have been dangerous, or at least unpleasant, and when Parliament met early in February the Government announced its intention of asking a vote of two million dollars for expenses in the despatch of the Contingents and for the payment after their return, or to their heirs, of an addition to the ordinary wage of the British soldier. This brief description of Canada's action during an eventful period may be concluded by a quotation from the speech of the Hon. G. W. Ross, Prime Minister of Ontario, at a banquet given in Toronto on December 21st to Mr. J. G. H. Bergeron, P.M., of Montreal—a French-Canadian who also expressed in fervent terms what he believed to be the loyalty of his people to the British Crown. Mr. Ross declared in emphatic and eloquent language that:
"Canada and the Empire"
"It is not for us to say that one or two Contingents should be sent to the Transvaal, but to say to Great Britain that all our money and all our men are at the disposal of the British Empire. It is not for us to balance questions of Parliamentary procedure when Britain's interests are at stake, but to respond to the call that has been sent throughout the whole Empire and to show that in this western bulwark of the Empire there are men as ready to stand by her as were her men at Waterloo. It is not for us to be pessimists, but to have undying faith in British power and steadily to maintain the integrity of her Empire. He hoped that the present strife might soon pass, and that at its close Canadians will feel that they have done their duty to the flag that has protected them and under whose paternal Government they have prospered in the past. Their motto should be 'Canada and the Empire, one and inseparable, now and forever.'"
Throughout Australasia, from the commencement of the crisis, there was great interest taken in the question. The press and the public discussed its phases with ever-increasing sympathy for the British cause and the liberties of the Uitlanders. There has always been in recent years much good feeling between these Colonies—partly from the development of trade, partly from Australian admiration of Cecil Rhodes, partly from the common ties of life in a tropical or semi-tropical climate, partly from the keen and mutual interest felt in Gordon during his last lonely campaign in the deserts of Northern Africa, partly from such incidents as the proffer by the Rhodes' Ministry of financial aid to the Australian Governments during the banking crises of 1893. The relation in sentiment and practice has, in fact, been much closer than that between Canada and the Cape, although the desire to help in time of need could hardly be greater. During the earlier period of the controversy public meetings were held to discuss its details in the various capitals of Australia and New Zealand, and resolutions passed somewhat in the terms of the following motion, proposed by Sir Henry Wrixon, M.L.C., seconded by the President of the Chamber of Commerce, and accepted with enthusiasm by a great gathering in the Melbourne Town Hall, on May 16, 1899:
"Twenty-one thousand British subjects in the Transvaal having petitioned the Queen through the High Commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner, to extend her protection to them, to cause an inquiry to be held into their grievances, to secure the reform of abuses, and to obtain substantial guarantees from the Transvaal Government and recognition of the petitioners' rights, this meeting desires to record its sympathy with their fellow-countrymen in the Transvaal, and hopes that Her Majesty may be pleased to grant the prayer of her subjects."
Australia's Sympathy
With the progress of events this feeling of sympathy grew stronger, and culminated in a wave of military and loyal enthusiasm such as few had thought possible and none had considered probable. In July the Governments began to consider the subject of active participation in what seemed to be an impending struggle, and troops were offered to the Imperial authorities in the following order: Queensland on July 11th, Victoria on July 12th, New South Wales on July 21st, New Zealand on September 28th, Western Australia on October 5th, Tasmania on October 9th, South Australia on October 13th. The first offers were declined, for the time being, on the ground that it was hoped war would be averted and that, meanwhile, it was not desirable to assume an openly hostile attitude. The Legislature which first moved actively in the direction of organization was that of New Zealand, and the speeches of its leaders on September 28th indicate the general view taken by the people themselves. The Premier, the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon, declared that "the Colony shared the privileges of the Empire, and ought to share its responsibilities." The Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. W. R. Russell, supported the action of the Government strongly, and declared that "the Colony was loyal at heart to the Imperial idea. It was not merely the sending of a few men, for the power of England was more than enough to cope with the trouble. He hoped the British flag would float over South Africa, and that another empire like India would be formed in that part of the world. The present proposal would do more to consolidate the Empire than any speeches of politicians."A Meeting of the Colonies of AustraliaMeanwhile an agitation commenced in Australia proper for a federal, or united, contingent, and culminated on September 28th in a meeting of the Military Commandants of the various Colonies at Melbourne. Victoria was represented by Major-General Sir Charles Holled-Smith, K.C.M.G., C.B.; New South Wales, by Major-General G. A. French, C.M.G.; Queensland, by Major-General H. Gunter; Western Australia, by Colonel G. H. Chippendall; Tasmania, by Colonel W. V. Legge; South Australia, by Colonel J. Stuart. A plan was carefully evolved and submitted to the respective Governments, but was frustrated at the last moment by the hesitancy of the recently formed Ministry in New South Wales. Mr. W. J. Lyne had not long since defeated the Right Hon. G. H. Reid in the Legislature, and did not seem to know his own mind upon this new subject; or else he was seriously afraid of a possibly hostile Labor vote. At any rate, he refused to move in the matter until Parliament met again, and gave reasons not dissimilar to those adduced in Canada by Sir Wilfrid Laurier for the brief delay which afterwards occurred at Ottawa. On October 5th it was announced that the Queensland offer of troops, made some three months before, had been accepted, and that the voluntary proffer of service by some seventy-five Mounted Rifles from New South Wales, who happened to have been drilling at Aldershot, had also been considered favorably by the War Office. On October 10th this latter body marched through the streets of London on its way to the front with bands playing and banners fluttering to the breeze, and amid a reception which the city seldom accords to events of less importance than a state visit of the Queen or the departure of an army. It was not the little line of mounted men in the characteristic uniform of the Australasian trooper that caused a manifestation of almost unprecedented popular enthusiasm from the densely crowded streets of the metropolis; it was the fact that this tiny force represented a living loyalty in the breasts of Colonists in great countries all around the globe. Naturally such a "send-off" had its effect in Australia, and a week later the MelbourneArguswas able to say with patriotic enthusiasm regarding the universal desire to aid the Mother Country that:
Australia's Appreciation of England's Protection
"The event shows to the world that the Empire, as a whole, will stand and fall together. Nothing appears to have impressed our critics more than the ease with which 10,000 men could be withdrawn from India and landed at the scene of action, and the Canadian and Australian demonstrations indicate also that there are still larger reserves (though not so complete) to draw upon. And we in Australia know that the feeling is reciprocal. We realize that, while we are ready to make real sacrifices for Great Britain if she requires them, the Mother Country would exhaust her last man and her last shilling to guard our Austral shores from insult or injury. Saturday week will be one of the memorable days in the history of the Empire. It will imply that British victories in future will not be merely insular, but that the Colonies, by sharing the perils, will earn a right to share also the triumphs of the flag."
Various Contingents Leave for Africa
As in Canada, every little town and village and country centre contributed its quota of enthusiasm and recruits, from end to end of the island-continent, throughout little Tasmania and in beautiful New Zealand. The latter Colony was the first to get its troops away, and on October 21st they sailed from Wellington amid scenes of wild enthusiasm and in the presence of 25,000 people. The Governor, the Earl of Ranfurly, briefly addressed the Contingent, and, during the Premier's speech, when he asked the significant question: "Shall our kindred in the Transvaal be free?" there was a tremendous shout of "yes" from thousands of throats. A few days later the Governor received a cable from the Colonial Secretary expressing the gratification of Her Majesty's Government at home and the appreciation of the people generally. The Queensland troops left on October 28th under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Ricardo, and Brisbane, for the time being, was the home of immense masses of people and the scene of banquets, speeches and unlimited enthusiasm. From Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth the various other Contingents sailed about the same time and amid scenes such as the pen finds it hard to describe in cold type. It was literally a wave of patriotism in which the Governors and Premiers—Lord Brassey and Sir George Turner, of Victoria, Earl Beauchamp and the Hon. W. J. Lyne, of New South Wales, Lord Tennyson and the Right Hon. C. C. Kingston, of South Australia, Sir Gerard Smith and Sir John Forrest, of Western Australia—simply represented in their speeches the feeling of the people, and were supported in doing so by Opposition Leaders and by every important element in their respective Colonies; even the Labor organizations having fallen into line where, in some cases, they had been antagonistic. The SydneyDaily Telegraphdeclared, in this connection that "the remarkable demonstrations in the two great cities of Australia (Melbourne and Sydney) on Saturday must have convinced the most callous soul of the deep-seated hold which the idea of Empire has upon the people.... In offering troops to Great Britain for service in South Africa the underlying feeling is that we are part of the Empire whose supremacy in one part of the globe is threatened." Lord Brassey, in addressing the Victorian and Tasmanian Contingents on October 28th at Melbourne, clearly and eloquently voiced the same sentiment:
"It was not through apprehension for the peace and security of Australia, nor through the influence of Governors, or Ministers, or a few men in positions of power, of wealth and responsibility. It was under the irresistible impulse of popular feeling that the resolve was taken to offer Her Majesty the services of her citizen soldiers dwelling beneath the Southern Cross. On the shores of South Africa you will wheel into line with the Canadian Contingent. All this marks an epoch, I would rather say a turning-point, in British history. It speaks of the firm resolve of the people of the Empire on which the sun never sets to stand together, and in the hour of stress and strain to rally round the old flag. It is a noble and wise resolve. It makes us from this time forward absolutely secure against foreign aggression."
The Empire a Unit
The total force thus despatched numbered 1480 officers and men, and included 386 from New South Wales, 258 from Queensland, 250 from Victoria, 213 from New Zealand, 104 from South Australia and 80 from Tasmania, besides the troop of Lancers from Aldershot. In connection with the latter body, which, of course, was the first of the external Colonial volunteers to arrive at Cape Town, theCape Timesof November 3d declared that they "come to us as a symbol of something greater and deeper and more durable than any display of military power or of patriotic ardor. Their presence represents in concrete form the Imperial idea, never before expressed with such forcefulness and vigor." As in Canada, Patriotic Funds were everywhere started, and before long hundreds of thousands of dollars were subscribed for the aid of sick and wounded or of possible widows and orphans. Incidents of striking generosity were many. Mr. R. L. Tooth, of New South Wales, subscribed $50,000; a South Australian gentleman gave $5,000 for the purchase of horses; a Victorian officer gave $5,000 for the equipment of new troops; a citizen of Sydney gave $15,000 toward sending out a force of Bush-riders, and another contributed $25,000 for the same purpose. By the middle of January, 1900, the various Patriotic Funds had assumed large proportions—that of Sydney, N.S.W., being $115,000; Brisbane and Queensland, $80,000; New Zealand, $300,000; Melbourne, $50,000. Meantime the first reverses of the war had occurred in South Africa, and the feelings of the people been greatly and deeply stirred by the news. Second Contingents were at once offered by all the Colonies, and upon this occasion the effort to combine them as one federal body was successful.
Large Funds Raised in the Colonies
The general sentiment was well expressed by a motion of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, on December 20th, which was proposed by the Premier and seconded by the Leader of the Labor party. It expressed the pride of the Colony in the splendid gallantry of the British troops in South Africa, authorized the Government to co-operate with the other Colonies in despatching an additional Australian force, and was carried unanimously amidst great cheering. At first it was proposed that a thousand men should go from the combined Colonies; then it was found that each Colony was anxious to send more than was thus provided for; and eventually 1,700 men were despatched by the middle of January, of whom New South Wales alone contributed seven hundred. But this was not all. Continued preparations were made for the despatch of more troops. On January 11th the Premier of Queensland telegraphed to Mr. Lyne, at Sydney, suggesting that the second Contingent should be increased so as to ultimately form a body of 5,000 men. To this the New South Wales Premier agreed, but pointed out at the same time that his Colony was already increasing its contribution to 840 men, besides 500 Bush-riders who were being sent by private subscription, and that many more were being drilled for service. Mr. McLean, of Victoria, replied to a similar telegram that: "I do not think that the number of our Contingent should be limited. We will send men as rapidly as they are trained and equipped." In saying farewell to the second New Zealand Contingent of 242 officers and men, on January 20th, the Premier of that Colony declared that another would follow, and that "if occasion arose every man who could bear arms in the Colony would volunteer; as in helping the Empire in South Africa they were securing New Zealand and upholding the Queen, the country and the constitution." By the middle of February 1,000 Bush-riders were also trained and equipped and almost ready to embark as a special Contingent from Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.
Cause for Demonstrations of Loyalty
And so these revelations of patriotic feeling and Imperial unity have gone on in increasing volume from day to day. To theorists like Goldwin Smith, political economists like Mr. James Bryce, or philosophical politicians such as Mr. John Morley, such demonstrations of loyalty are incomprehensible. To the man who really understands the history of the Empire and the evolution of its system, who reaches down into the hearts of the people and comprehends the undercurrents of sentiment, it is not so difficult to grasp the reasons. Speaking of Australasia more particularly, Dr. W. H. Fitchett, the well-known editor of theAustralasian Review of Reviews, recently summed up a part of the situation very concisely: "Why," he said, "have the Colonies stood by the side of England? For Jingoism? Don't you believe the men who tell you that. Our people are too hard-headed and too businesslike to be carried away by mere Jingoism. They come because they know that the Transvaal question is a Colonial question, a question that intimately concerns all of them. To-day these little settlements of white men, planted down on the coastline of great continents, are able to remain secure, notwithstanding the earth-hunger of every great Power, because the might of the Empire is behind them." This, in part, is the reason. But there is more at the back of it than the mere principle of self-interest. A liberty common to all the Colonies has been threatened, a new-grown pride in the Empire was struck at, a feeling of manly aversion to further dependence was touched, an inherent but sometimes dormant love for the Mother Land was aroused.
Other Colonies Eager to Assist
Nor have these manifestations of affectionate allegiance to the Crown and the flag been limited to Australia and New Zealand and Canada. Back on the 17th of July the Malay States volunteered a body of troops; on the succeeding day the Lagos Settlements did the same; on the 21st of September Hong-Kong joined in the proffer of help; later on Ceylon offered a Contingent, and toward the end of January 130 officers and men, completely armed and equipped, sailed from there for the Cape. As already stated, however, it was not deemed well to use colored soldiers, so that the loyalty of the first-named Colonies was not utilized. Englishmen in India were keen to go to the front, and from every rank of life and labor came the offer to serve. Finally, in January, a mounted corps was accepted with Colonel Lumsden in command. Not only did men in large numbers volunteer, but money in immense sums was proffered. As native troops could not be accepted, the native rulers, Princes and great merchants did the next best thing. They all offered cavalry horses, money or guns. The Nizam of Haidarabad, on December 28th, at a Vice-regal banquet in Calcutta, told Lord Curzon that "his purse, his army and his own sword were ever ready to defend Her Majesty's Empire." The Maharajah of Gwalior asked to be allowed to serve on Lord Roberts' staff, and offered to send troops, horses and transport to South Africa. The Maharajahs of Mysore and Jodpore joined in the latter part of his request. The Maharajah of Kuch Behar wrote a stirring letter to the CalcuttaEnglishmanproposing the enrollment of the Indian Princes and their sons in a sort of "Empire army," and, at the same rime, he contributed 350 guineas to the Indian Patriotic Fund which, on January 14th, amounted to $100,000. Amongst other contributors the Maharajah of Tagore had given 5,000 rupees.
Natal Forces
Meanwhile what of the South African Colonies? Seldom in history has there been such a spontaneous response to the call to arms as in Natal and Cape Colony; never has there been a more fervent belief in the righteousness of their cause than amongst the first and greatest sufferers from the inevitable agonies of war. The fleeing Uitlanders, almost to a man, volunteered; and by the middle of January little Natal, with its English population of about 40,000, had the following list of troops in active service: