mberlain was the tool of Rhodes in declaring war, presupposes
that Mr. Chamberlain could impose his will without question upon a
Cabinet which contained Lord Salisbury, Lord Lansdowne, Arthur Balfour,
Hicks-Beach, and the other ministers. Such a supposition is too
monstrous to discuss.

2. _That it is a capitalists' war, engineered by company promoters and
Jews._--After the Jameson Raid a large body of the public held this
view, and it was this which to a great extent tied the hands of the
Government, and stopped them from taking that strong line which might
have prevented the accumulation of those huge armaments which could only
be intended for use against ourselves. It took years to finally
dissipate the idea, but how thoroughly it has been dissipated in the
public mind is best shown by the patient fortitude with which our people
have borne the long and weary struggle in which few families in the land
have not lost either a friend or a relative. The complaisance of the
British public towards capitalists goes no further than giving them
their strict legal rights--and certainly does not extend to pouring out
money and blood like water for their support. Such a supposition is
absurd, nor can any reason be given why a body of high-minded and
honourable British gentlemen like the Cabinet should sacrifice their
country for the sake of a number of cosmopolitan financiers, most of
whom are German Jews. The tax which will eventually be placed upon the
Transvaal mining industry, in order to help to pay for the war, will in
itself prove that the capitalists have no great voice in the councils of
the nation. We know now that the leading capitalists in Johannesburg
were the very men who most strenuously resisted an agitation which might
lead to war. This seems natural enough when one considers how much
capitalists had at stake, and how much to lose by war. The agitation for
the franchise and other rights was a _bona-fide_ liberal agitation,
started by poor men, employes and miners, who intended to live in the
country, not in Park Lane. The capitalists were the very last to be
drawn into it. When I say capitalists I mean the capitalists with
British sympathies, for there is indeed much to be said in favour of the
war being a capitalists' war, in that it was largely caused by the
anti-British attitude and advice of the South African Netherlands
Company, the Dynamite Monopoly, and other leeches which drained the
country. To them a fr