ough mischief of this type was done to
demonstrate how deadly a blow a few desperate men might have dealt at
the chief industry of South Africa; and concerning it Sir Alfred
Milner wrote as follows:--

Fortunately the damage done to the mines has not been large
relatively to the vast total amount of the fixed capital sunk in
them. The mining area is excessively difficult to guard against
purely predatory attacks having no military purpose, because it
is, so to speak, "all length and no breadth," one long thin line
stretching across the country from east to west for many miles.
Still, garrisoned as Johannesburg now is, it is only possible
successfully to attack a few points in it. Of the raids hitherto
made, and they have been fairly numerous, only one resulted in
any serious damage. In that instance the injury done to the
single mine attacked amounted to L200,000, and it is estimated
that the mine is put out of working for two years. This mine is
only one out of a hundred, and is not by any means one of the
most important. These facts may afford some indication of the
ruin which might have been inflicted, not only on the Transvaal
and all South Africa, but on many European interests, if that
general destruction of mine works which was contemplated just
before our occupation of Johannesburg had been carried out.
However serious in some respects may have been the military
consequences of our rapid advance to Johannesburg, South Africa
owes more than is commonly recognised to that brilliant dash put
forward by which the vast mining apparatus, the foundation of
all her wealth, was saved from the ruin threatening it.

That this wonderful discovery of wealth was indirectly the main cause
of the war is undeniable. But for the gold the children of "Oden the
Goer," whose ever restless spirit has sent them round the globe, would
never have found their way in any large numbers to the Transvaal.
There would have been no overmastering Outlander element, no incurable
race competitions and quarrels, no unendurable wrongs to redress; the
Boer Republic might again have become bankrupt, or broken up into
rival chieftaincies as of old, but it could not have become a menace
to Great Britain, and would never have rallied the whole Empire to
repel its assault on the Empire. It is too usually with blood that
gold is bought!