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Title: The Transvaal from Within
A Private Record of Public Affairs

Author: J. P. Fitzpatrick

Release Date: August 9, 2005 [EBook #16494]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE TRANSVAAL FROM WITHIN

A Private Record of Public Affairs

BY
J.P. FITZPATRICK
AUTHOR OF 'THE OUTSPAN'

LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1899

_Written August, 1896.
Privately circulated June, 1899.
Supplemented and published September 1899._

PREFACE

It was originally designed to compile a statement of the
occurrences of 1895-6 in the Transvaal and of the conditions
which led up to them, in the hope of removing the very grave
misunderstandings which existed. Everybody else had been heard and
judged, the Uitlander had only been judged. It therefore seemed
proper that somebody should attempt to present the case for the
Uitlander. The writer, as a South African by birth, as a resident
in the Transvaal since 1884, and lastly as Secretary of the Reform
Committee, felt impelled to do this, but suffered under the
disability of President Kruger's three years' ban; and although it
might possibly have been urged that a plain statement of facts and
explanations of past actions could not be fairly regarded as a
deliberate interference in politics, the facts themselves when set
out appeared to constitute an indictment so strong as to make it
worth while considering whether the Government of the Transvaal would
not regard it as sufficient excuse to put in force the sentence of
banishment. The postponement of publication which was then decided
upon for a period of three years appeared to be tantamount to the
abandonment of the original purpose, and the work was continued with
the intention of making it a private record to be printed at the
expiry of the term of silence, and to be privately circulated among
those who were personally concerned or interested; a record which
might perhaps be of service