ported. British
interests, British paramountcy, etc., were supposed to be seriously
threatened by a great Pan-Africander conspiracy, which had for its
objective the total elimination of the Imperial factor in South Africa.
The Dutch were plotting, so it was rumoured, to oust the British from
South Africa by driving them all into the sea on a certain day. What a
preposterous absurdity! And many were so innocent as to believe and
fear that a small nation of farmers would actually attempt to expel the
British from South Africa. The Boer may be ignorant, but he has more
common sense than to give such an idea even a thought.

The Cape Dutch, we are glad to state, left no stone unturned in their
attempts to avert a war on a kindred race which was bound to prove
calamitous to, and inflict endless misery on, thousands. Whilst
diplomatic negotiations went on between the Transvaal and English
Governments, and it became evident that these negotiations would in all
probability result in failure, Mr. Jan Hofmeyer,--"onze Jan," that
far-seeing, famous Cape politician,--and Mr. Harold, M.P., left for
Pretoria, and by the co-operation of President Steyn prevailed on
President Kruger to submit those proposals to the British Government
which the Colonial Secretary frankly admitted might form the basis of a
peaceful settlement. "We have nine-tenths of what we wanted," the
Colonial Secretary is reported to have said, "and the other tenth is not
worth our going to war for." Sad that that one-tenth should have
demanded the lives of thousands of men, women and children, millions of
pounds, besides ruin and misery to so many!

When war seemed inevitable and its declaration only a matter of time,
the Africander Party, which then constituted the majority in the Cape
Parliament, passed a resolution in Parliament, by which they solemnly
protested against any aggressive policy on the part of the Imperial
Government. They pointed out to the Home Government what endless woes a
war would entail, and how detrimental it would prove to Imperial
interests through the length and breadth of South Africa. At the same
time they stated, in the most unequivocal language, their strong
disapproval of extreme and coercive measures. This protest was slighted.
The members who subscribed their names to it, and who represented the
feeling of the Cape Dutch, were called disloyal. For to be loyal in
those days meant to side with the war party, and approve of all they