is remark on the warlike situation was as follows: "Kruger is
only a white Kaffir chief, and as such respects force, and force only.
Send sufficient soldiers, and there will be no fighting." This was also
Mr. Rhodes's view, but, as it turned out, both were wrong. In the
meantime the sands were running out, and the troops were almost on the
water, and yet the old man remained obdurate.

Outside the hospitable haven of Groot Schuurr I one day met Mr. Merriman
at lunch as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Solomon.[14] Considerably
above the average height, with a slight stoop and grey hair, Mr.
Merriman was a man whose appearance from the first claimed interest. It
was a few days after his Budget speech, which, from various innovations,
had aroused a storm of criticism, as Budgets are wont to do. Whatever
his private feelings were about the English, to me the Finance Minister
was very pleasant and friendly. We talked of fruit-farming, in which he
takes a great interest, of England, and even of his Budget, and never
did he show any excitement or irritation till someone happened to
mention the word "Imperialist." Then he burst out with, "That word and
'Empire' have been so done to death by every wretched little Jew
stockbroker in this country that I am fairly sick of them." "But surely
you are not a Little Englander, Mr. Merriman," I said, "or a follower
of Mr. Labouchere?" To this he gave an evasive reply, and the topic
dropped. I must relate another incident of our sojourn at Cape Town.
Introduced by Mr. Rhodes's architect, Mr. Baker, we went one day to see
a Mrs. Koopman, then a well-known personage in Cape Town Dutch society,
but who, I believe, is now dead. Her collection of Delft china was
supposed to be very remarkable. She lived in a quaint old house with
diamond-paned windows, in one of the back streets, the whole edifice
looking as if it had not been touched for a hundred years. Mrs. Koopman
was an elderly lady, most suitably dressed in black, with a widow's cap,
and she greeted us very kindly and showed us all her treasured
possessions. I was disappointed in the contents of the rooms, which were
certainly mixed, some very beautiful things rubbing shoulders with
modern specimens of clumsy early Victorian furniture. A room at the back
was given up to the Delft china, but even this was spoilt by ordinary
yellow arabesque wall-paper, on which were hung the rare plates and
dishes, and by some gaudy window curtains, evid