A Century of Wrong | Page 5

1884, and which from 1884 to 1897 had never
been asserted by any British Government.
Another point of great importance is the reference which Mr. Reitz
makes to the Raid. On this point he speaks with much greater
moderation than many English critics of the Government. Lord Loch
will be interested in reading Mr. Reitz's account of the way in which his
visit to Pretoria was regarded by the Transvaal Government. It shows
that it was his visit which first alarmed the Boers, and compelled them
to contemplate the possibility of having to defend their independence
with arms. But it was not until after the Jameson Raid that they began
arming in earnest. As there is so much controversy upon this subject, it
may be well to quote here the figures from the Budget of the Transvaal
Government, showing the expenditure before and after the Raid.
Public Special Sundry Military. Works. Payments. Services. Total. £ £
£ £ £ 1889 75,523 300,071 58,737 171,088 605,419 1890 42,999
507,579 58,160 133,701 742,439 1891 117,927 492,094 52,486 76,494
739,001 1892 29,739 361,670 40,276 93,410 528,095 1893 19,340
200,106 148,981 132,132 500,559 1894[1] 28,158 260,962 75,859

163,547 521,526 1895[2] 87,308 353,724 205,335 838,877 1,485,244
1896 495,618 701,022 682,008 128,724 2,007,372 1897 396,384
1,012,686 248,864 135,345 1,793,279 1898[3] 163,451 383,033
157,519 100,874 804,877
Of the Raid itself Mr. Reitz speaks as follows:--
The secret conspiracy of the Capitalists and Jingoes to overthrow the
South African Republic began now to gain ground with great rapidity,
for just at this critical period Mr. Chamberlain became Secretary of
State for the Colonies. In the secret correspondence of the conspirators,
reference is continually made to the Colonial Office in a manner which,
taken in connection with later revelations and with a successful
suppression of the truth, has deepened the impression over the whole
world that the Colonial Office was privy to, if not an accomplice in, the
villainous attack on the South African Republic.
Nor has the world forgotten how, at the urgent instance of the
Africander party in the Cape Colony, an investigation into the causes of
the conflict was held in Westminster; how that investigation
degenerated into a low attack upon the Government of the deeply
maligned and deeply injured South African Republic, and how at the
last moment, when the truth was on the point of being revealed, and the
conspiracy traced to its fountain head in the British Cabinet, the
Commission decided all of a sudden not to make certain compromising
documents public.
Here we see to what a depth the old great traditions of British
Constitutionalism had sunk under the influence of the ever-increasing
and all-absorbing lust of gold, and in the hands of a sharp-witted
wholesale dealer, who, like Cleon of old, has constituted himself a
statesman.
When Mr. Reitz wrote his book he did not know that immediately after
the Raid the British Government began to accumulate information, and
to prepare for the war with the Republic which is now in progress. The
reason why Mr. Reitz did not refer to this in A Century of Wrong was
because documents proving its existence had not fallen into the hands

of the Transvaal Government until after the retreat from Glencoe.
Major White and his brother officers who were concerned in the Raid
were much chaffed for the incredible simplicity with which he allowed
a private memorandum as to preparations for the Raid to fall into the
hands of the Boers. His indiscretion has been thrown entirely into the
shade by the simplicity which allowed War Office documents of the
most secret and compromising nature to fall into the hands of the Boers,
showing that preparations for the present war began immediately after
the defeat of the Raid. The special correspondent of Reuter with the
Boers telegraphed from Glencoe on October 28th as follows:--
The papers captured at Dundee Camp from the British unveil a
thoroughly worked out scheme to attack the independence of both
Republics as far back as 1896, notwithstanding constant assurances of
amity towards the Free State.
Among these papers there are portfolios of military sketches of various
routes of invasion from Natal into the Transvaal and Free State,
prepared by Major Grant, Captain Melvill, and Captain Gale
immediately after the Jameson Raid.
A further portfolio marked secret styled "Reconnaissance Reports of
Lines of Advance through the Free State" was prepared by Captain
Wolley, on the Intelligence Division of the War Office, in 1897, and is
accompanied by a special memorandum, signed by Sir Redvers Buller,
to keep it secret.
Besides these there are specially executed maps of the Transvaal and
Free State, showing all the natural features, also a further secret Report
of Communications in Natal north of Ladysmith, including a
memorandum of the road controlling Lang's Nek position.
Further, there