A Century of Wrong | Page 3

and to the United Kingdom. After Dr. Leyds
was appointed to his present post as foreign representative of the South
African Republic, Mr. Reitz was appointed State Secretary, and all the
negotiations between the Transvaal and Great Britain passed through
his hands.
Mr. Reitz's narrative is not one calculated to minister to our national
self-conceit, but it is none the worse on that account. Of those who
minister to our vanity we have enough and to spare, with results not
altogether desirable. In the long controversy between the Boers and the
missionaries Mr. Reitz takes, as might be expected, the view of his own
people.
An English lady in South Africa writing to the British Weekly of
December 21st, in reply to the statement of the Rev. Dr. Stewart, makes

some observations on this feud between the Boers and the missionaries,
which it may be well to bear in mind in discussing this question. The
lady ("I.M.") says:--
Dr. Stewart naturally starts from the mission question. I speak as the
daughter of one of the greatest mission supporters that South Africa has
ever known when I say that the earliest missionaries who came to this
country were to a very large extent themselves the cause of all the Boer
opposition which they may have had to encounter. When they arrived,
they found the Boers at about the same stage of enlightenment with
regard to missions as the English themselves had been in the time of
Carey. And yet, in spite of prejudice and ignorance, every Boer of any
standing was practically doing mission work himself, for when,
according to unfailing custom, the "Books" were brought out morning
and evening for family worship, the slaves were never allowed to be
absent, but had to come and receive instruction with the rest of the
family. But the tone and methods which the missionaries adopted were
such as could not fail to arouse the aversion of the farmers, their great
idea being that the coloured races, utter savages as yet, should be
placed upon complete equality with their superiors. At Earl's Court we
have recently seen something of how easily the natives are spoilt, and
they were certainly not better in those days. When, however, the Boers
showed that they disapproved of all this, the natives were immediately
taught to regard them as their oppressors, and were encouraged to
insubordination to their masters, and the ill-effects of this policy on the
part of the missionaries has reached further than can be told. May I ask
was this the tone that St. Paul adopted in his mission work among the
oppressed slaves of his day?... It is not those who do not know the
Boers, like Dr. Stewart, but those who know them best, like Dr.
Andrew Murray, who are not only enamoured of their simple lives, but
who know also that with all their disadvantages and their positive faults
they are still a people whose rule of life is the Bible, whose God is the
God of Israel, and who as a nation have never swerved from the
covenant with that God entered into by their fathers, the Huguenots of
France and the heroes of the Netherlands.
Upon this phase of the controversy there is no necessity to dwell at

present, beyond remarking that those who are at present most disposed
to take up what may be regarded as the missionary side should not
forget that they are preparing a rod for their own backs. The Aborigines
Protection Society has long had a quarrel with the Boers, but if our
Imperialists are going to adopt the platform of Exeter Hall they will
very soon find themselves in serious disagreement with Mr. Cecil
Rhodes and other Imperialist heroes of the hour. That the Dutch in
South Africa have treated the blacks as the English in other colonies
have treated the aborigines is probably true, despite all that Mr. Reitz
can say on their behalf. But, whereas in Tasmania and the Australian
Colonies the black fellows are exterminated by the advancing Briton,
the immediate result of the advent of the Dutch into the Transvaal has
been to increase the number of natives from 70,000 to 700,000, without
including those who were attracted by the gold mines. In dealing with
native races all white men have the pride of their colour and the
arrogance of power. The Boers, no doubt, have many sins lying at their
door, but it does not do for the pot to call the kettle black, and so far as
South Africa is concerned, the difference between the Dutch and
British attitudes toward the native races is more due to the influence of
Exeter Hall and the sentiment which it represents than to any practical
difference between English and Dutch Colonists as to the