The Boer War

by Thomas Pakenham

  But Milner’s arithmetic in anglicizing the old republics rested on one crucial foundation: the need for new British immigrants. When the first census was taken in 1904, it turned out that potential Boer voters roughly balanced the number of British voters in the Transvaal. Hence Milner’s desperate need for British immigrants, which depended, in turn, on the expansion of the Rand. The alliance with Wernher-Beit, indispensable to the making of the war, now proved Milner’s undoing. The deep level mines, controlled by Wernher-Beit and other British magnates, were still short of sufficient African miners prepared to work underground at sufficiently low wages. Milner agreed that the best expedient was to import indentured labourers from China. The British Cabinet agreed —subject to regulations that the Chinese were not to be flogged as though they were Africans. But such was the hostility felt by white miners towards Chinese immigration, that Milner lost the support of the mass of the British Uitlanders; their political representatives formed an alliance with the emergent pan-Afrikaner party (Het Volk) of Botha and Smuts. When it was discovered in Britain that Chinese labourers were being flogged after all, a vote of censure was passed on Milner in the British House of Commons. He resigned as Governor in 1905. His fall – and the hullabaloo over ‘Chinese slavery’ – helped sweep CB and the Liberals to power in 1906.

  Milner’s political blunder in allowing the flogging of Chinese labourers cut short his experiment in building a Greater Britain on the veld. But the experiment was already doomed, Chinese or no Chinese. The blunt demographical facts undermined all Milner’s hopes. There was so little immigration that the Boers remained in the majority. In 1906, CB and the Liberals promoted, according to their understanding of the agreement at Vereeniging, the two Crown Colonies to the status of self-governing colonies. When the votes were counted after the first general elections, Smuts’s and Botha’s Het Volk had swept the board. It set the seal on the failure of Milnerism.22 From now on, there would be a series of shifting alliances in power in South Africa. The loyalist party, led by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick (knighted, along with other Randlords or ex-Randlords, George Farrar, Abe Bailey, Julius Wernher, and Alfred Beit’s brother, Otto), would have no chance.

  On the other hand, the grant of self-government by CB transformed Smuts’s and Botha’s own attitude to the Empire. While Milner exchanged the public service for international banking (re-emerging only in December 1916, as the man of destiny in Lloyd George’s war Cabinet), Botha and Smuts travelled the world as imperial statesmen. In fact, the paradox of the war was that, despite the bitterness that it created among the volk, it gave Britain during the same period an apparently contented addition to its Empire. In two World Wars, South Africa stuck by the side of its mother (and stepmother). The naval base at Simonstown, hinge of Britain’s global strategy, remained a British-controlled base until 1955.

  True, there was an attempt at a Boer rebellion in 1914, led by De Wet and other irreconcilables, and possibly supported by De la Rey. (He was shot by accident during the rising.) But Botha and Smuts had no difficulty in stamping out the rebellion, without calling on imperial troops. De Wet served a year in prison. He died in 1922, isolated and apparently forgotten.

  Then, nearly forty years later, in 1961, the Great Trek happened all over again. Dr Verwoerd led the volk out of the Commonwealth – and took all other South Africans, black, brown and white, with them. He declared the Union a republic fifty-nine years, to the day, after the Peace of Vereeniging. The party founded by Botha and Smuts had been replaced in 1948 by Malan and the Nationalists. The last of the war heroes were then vanishing from the scene: Hertzog in 1942, followed by Smuts in 1950. But the new governments were heirs to the old uncompromising republican tradition of Steyn and De Wet – tempered in the fire of war. Today, the Nationalists rule white South Africa on their own terms, and the memory of the Tweede Vryheidsoorlog (the ‘Second War of Independence’ as they call the Boer War) is kept green.*23 It is a reminder to English-speaking South Africans that they do not belong to the volk, and must earn their place in the white laager. The war (‘that wretched war’, as the sons of loyalists call it) helps to weaken white opposition to the Nationalists.

  What of the black majority? Perhaps the worst legacy of the war was the political price it exacted from Africans to pay for white unity.

  Bringing two new states into the Empire made urgent the need to reconcile the white communities. The war made that process a great deal more difficult. It has taken seventy-six years and is still not fully accomplished. And, in the end, the grand design defeated itself. The two half-reconciled communities left the Empire. And the price of trying to reconcile the whites was paid by the blacks and browns. In fact, the end result of Milner’s destruction of the old republics was not only to lose the two old colonies, too, but to cast away that priceless Liberal legacy: the no-colour-bar tradition of the Cape.

  The first payment of the price was at Vereeniging. Milner had inserted that subtle preposition ‘after’ into Article 8 (Clause 9) of the peace terms. There was to be no franchise for the natives until after the introduction of self-government, that is, never (or, as people used to say in Ireland, not until Monday-come … never-in-a-wheel-barrow). This led to the second payment in 1906–7, when CB introduced self government to the Transvaal and ORC. Because of Article 8 at Vereeniging – and because of a guilty conscience towards the Afrikaners – the Liberals did not prevent the restoration of the colour-bar in the constitutions of the two ex-republics. The third payment was made when the Union was being negotiated in 1909. Once again, Article 8 was cited to explain why Britain could do nothing to stop the colour-bar poisoning the new Union constitution. There had been no colour-bar (although the coloured seventy-seven per cent had only fifteen per cent of the vote) in the old Cape Parliament. The Liberals magnanimously agreed that the new constitution would permanently exclude all potential coloured MPs from the new Union Parliament. The process of pact-making between the whites, at the expense of the blacks and browns, occurred several times more before the Nationalists completed the job. The pact between Hertzog’s Nationalists and the Labour Party in 1924 extended the colour-bar to industry; the coalition of Hertzog and Smuts in 1934 involved the removal of the African voters of Cape Province from the common roll; the reunion of Nationalist parties in 1948 led to the removal of the Coloured voters of the Cape from the common roll. This was the tortuous path down which Milner’s short cut had led South Africa.24

  Today, the wheel has turned full circle. With the Boer War, the Second War of Independence, finally won, the volk are facing a third. The new adversary, black nationalism, can match Afrikaner nationalism in stamina and perhaps outmatch it in bitterness. Otherwise, there are many parallels between the situation today and in 1899. If an African read Milner’s ‘Helot Despatch’ in the United Nations Assembly, no black man would dispute the force of the rhetoric. ‘The case for intervention is overwhelming … the spectacle of thousands of helots …’ To save white South Africa and its economy from ruin, a chorus of sensible advice is offered by the gold magnates and other well-wishers. And in 1978, as they heard Vorster pleading for time, promising reforms, yet dribbling them out like a squeezed sponge (if at all), it was almost as though Oom Paul was alive and well and living in Pretoria. The enlightened (verligte) wing of the Nationalists oscillates today – as Smuts did in 1899 – between hope for compromise and a fear that it is too late. The hard-liners (verkrampte) put their faith in their French Mirages as Kruger’s war party put their faith in God and the Mauser. ‘There is only one way out of the troubles in South Africa: reform or war. And of the two war is more likely.’ How grimly prophetic is Milner’s phrase today. But, this time, no one expects the war to be over by Christmas.

  Milner did not live to see the complete overthrow of all he had tried to accomplish. The Higher Powers had reserved a more ironic fate for him. With Violet, his wife (they married in 1921), he made a trip to South Africa in 1924 to revisit the scene of his labours, was bitten by a tsetse fl
y, caught sleeping sickness, and died. On Milner, Africa had had its revenge.

  Postscript: Wernher’s death occurred in 1912, preceded by Beit’s in 1906. Their personal estate (Beit – £8 million: Wernher £14 million) made them in turn the two richest men of those whose wills had hitherto been proved at Somerset House. Beit left much of his to charity. Wernher-Beit’s successors in South Africa have maintained rewarding relationships with successive South African governments. The gold assets of South Africa are now valued at a hundred times the value estimated in 1899.

  President Kruger and his advisers.

  The ‘gold-bugs’: Cecil Rhodes (left) and Alfred Beit.

  Sir Alfred Milner, his staff and his ‘godsend’, Violet Cecil (standing) at Government House, Cape Town.

  Lord Lansdowne

  Piet Joubert

  Lord Wolseley

  Jan Smuts

  Sir George White

  Louis Botha

  British reinforcements prepare for kit inspection at Cape Town.

  Boers in laager.

  ‘Mournful Monday’: 30 October 1899. White’s troops driven back into Ladysmith.

  ‘Horrors of War’. British gunner smashed by Boer shell at Ladysmith.

  Inside Mafeking, Baden-Powell’s officers sentence to death a starving African (extreme left) for stealing a goat.

  Inside Kimberley, Cecil Rhodes (left centre) dispenses ‘siege soup’ – price 3d a pint.

  (Boers:) ‘don’t Forget Majuba, Boys.’ (British:)‘NO FEAR, BOOJERS, NO FEAR.’ Graffiti on house re-captured by British at the Modder.

  Helping the wounded at Driefontein (reconstruction by photographer after battle).

  Field dressing station at the Modder River (real).

  Dickson’s newsreel of Buller’s troops retreating from Spion Kop.

  Cronje surrenders to Roberts at Paardeberg.

  Spion Kop: the morning after.

  Boer children in a concentration camp. One in five died.

  Important Dates Before and During the Boer War

  1652 Dutch East India Company found shipping station at Cape

  1795 Dutch lose Cape to British

  1803 Dutch (Batavian Republic) resume control

  1806 Second British occupation begins

  1815 Slachter’s Nek Rebellion by Afrikaans-speaking settlers. British rule at Cape confirmed

  1820 4,000 British settlers arrive at Cape

  1834 Slavery abolished at Cape, following decision of British Parliament

  1835–7 The Great Trek. Frontier farmers (Boers) pour across Orange River. But majority of the Afrikaans-speaking settlers (Afrikaners) remain in the Cape

  1838 (16 Dec) Pretorius beats Dingaan, Zulu king, at Battle of Blood River

  1838–43 Boers concentrate in Natal

  1843 British annex Natal as colony

  1848 Transorangia annexed as Orange River Sovereignty. Smith defeats Pretorius at Battle of Boomplaatz

  1852 Sand River Convention confirms independence of Transvaal Republic

  1854 Bloemfontein Convention restores independence of Transorangia as Orange Free State

  1868–9 British annex Basutoland as Crown Colony at request of King Mosweshwe

  1870–1 Diamond rush to Kimberley

  1871 Annexation of Kimberley to Cape Colony, now self-governing. Cecil Rhodes, aged 18, joins diamond rush, followed by Alfred Beit (in 1875)

  1877 Proclamation of Transvaal as British Crown Colony. Arrival of Frere

  1879 British forces invade and (1887) annex Zululand, soon incorporated in Natal, now self-governing

  1880–1 Kruger leads Transvaal rebellion against British rule: First Boer War (alias ‘First War of Independence’)

  1881 Peace talks after Battle of Majuba (27 Feb). Pretoria Convention: Transvaal Republic obtains limited independence

  1884 London Convention: Transvaal (South African Republic) obtains greater independence

  1886 Gold rush to Witwatersrand begins

  1888 Cecil Rhodes obtains British Royal Charter for his British South Africa Co. to exploit Lobengula’s territory (Mashonaland and Matabeleland)

  1889 Formation of Wernher, Beit & Co, soon to become the principal Rand mining-house

  1890 Rhodes’s BSA Co. (Chartered Company) sends pioneers to occupy Lobengula’s country, renamed Rhodesia

  1895 (29 Dec) Dr Jameson launches Raid into Transvaal with 500 Chartered Company police from Pitsani and Mafeking

  1896 Battle of Doornkop. Jameson surrenders. Arrest and trial of Johannesburg Reform Committee. Rhodes resigns as Prime Minister at the Cape. Cape Enquiry into Raid

  1897 London Enquiry into Raid. Sir Alfred Milner takes over as British High Commissioner at the Cape

  1898 Kruger elected for fourth term as President of Transvaal

  1898–9 Milner back in London for ‘holiday’

  1899

  31 May-5 Jun Bloemfontein Conference

  8 Sep British Cabinet decides to send 10,000 men to defend Natal

  26 Sep Penn Symons pushes up troops to Dundee

  27 Sep Kruger calls up Transvaal burghers, and persuades Steyn to follow suit in Free State

  7 Oct British mobilize 1st Army Corps etc. White lands at Durban

  9 Oct Kruger sends ultimatum

  11 Oct Expiry of ultimatum and outbreak of war

  14–16 Oct Boers begin siege of Kekewich at Kimberley and of Baden-Powell at Mafeking

  20 Oct Penn Symons gives battle at Talana. Möller surrenders

  21 Oct Battle of Elandslaagte

  24 Oct Battle of Rietfontein

  30 Oct ‘Mournful Monday’: Joubert outmanoeuvres White at Battle of Ladysmith (Modderspruit) and Carleton is forced to surrender at Nicholson’s Nek

  31 Oct Buller lands at Cape Town

  2 Nov White’s ‘field force’ accepts siege at Ladysmith

  15 Nov Botha wrecks armoured train between Frere and Chieveley

  22–3 Nov Battle of Willow Grange

  23 Nov End of Botha’s and Joubert’s raid southwards into Natal. Methuen’s first battle: Belmont

  25 Nov Methuen’s second battle: Graspan

  26 Nov Holdsworth, with Linchwe’s Africans, attacks Boer laager at Derdepoort

  28 Nov Methuen’s third battle: Modder River

  7 Dec Hunter’s night raid on Long Tom besieging Ladysmith

  10 Dec Gatacre’s mishap at Stormberg

  11 Dec Methuen’s repulse at Magersfontein

  15 Dec Buller’s first reverse: Colenso

  18 Dec Roberts appointed to succeed Buller as C-in-C in South Africa, with Kitchener as Chief of Staff

  26 Dec Baden-Powell’s abortive attack on Game Tree Fort

  29 Dec German mail-steamer Bundesrath seized by Royal Navy

  1900

  6 Jan Boers attack Caesar’s Camp and Wagon Hill (Platrand) at Ladysmith

  10 Jan Roberts and Kitchener land at Cape Town

  24 Jan Battle of Spion Kop

  5–7 Feb Vaal Krantz captured, then evacuated

  11 Feb Roberts begins great flank march

  14–27 Feb Buller’s fourth attempt to relieve Ladysmith

  15 Feb French relieves Kimberley

  18 Feb Battle of Paardeberg

  27 Feb Surrender of Cronje at Paardeberg

  28 Feb Buller relieves Ladysmith

  7 Mar Battle of Poplar Grove. Kruger escapes

  10 Mar Battle of Driefontein

  13 Mar Capture of Bloemfontein

  15 Mar Roberts’s first proclamation: amnesty except for leaders

  17 Mar Boer Council of War at Kroonstad

  27 Mar Death of Joubert

  31 Mar De Wet ambushes Broadwood at Sannah’s Post

  4 Apr Surrender of Royal Irish at Reddersburg

  3 May Roberts resumes march to Pretoria

  4 May Mahon’s relief column sets out for Mafeking

  11 May Buller resumes advance

  12 May Roberts occupies Kroonstad. B-P beats off Eloff’s attack on
Mafeking

  14 May Buller outmanoeuvres Boers from Biggarsberg

  17 May Mahon and Plumer relieve Mafeking

  28 May Annexation of Orange Free State proclaimed: renamed Orange River Colony

  31 May Roberts captures Johannesburg Piet De Wet captures Spragge and Irish Yeomanry at Lindley

  5 Jun Roberts captures Pretoria. Release of prisoners

  7 Jun Christiaan De Wet’s success at Roodewal

  11–12 Jun Battle of Diamond Hill

  12 Jun Buller turns Drakensberg position and occupies Volksrust

  11 Jul Surrender of Scots Greys at Zilikat’s Nek

  15 Jul Steyn and De Wet escape from Brandwater Basin

  21 Jul Roberts begins advance towards Komati Poort

  31 Jul Surrender of Prinsloo to Hunter in Brandwater Basin

  14 Aug Ian Hamilton fails to prevent De Wet’s escape

  27 Aug Buller defeats Botha at Bergendal (Dalmanutha)

  30 Aug Release of last 2,000 British prisoners at Nooitgedacht

  6 Sep Buller captures Lydenburg

  25 Sep Pole-Carew reaches Komati Poort

  19 Oct Kruger sails for France on board the Gelderland

  24 Oct Buller sails for England

  25 Oct Formal proclamation at Pretoria of annexation of Transvaal

  6 Nov De Wet defeated at Bothaville. Le Gallais killed