'Which Is Better For The Republics,' He Asked, 'to
Continue The Struggle And Run The Risk Of Total Ruin As A Nation,
Or To Submit?
Could we for a moment think of taking back the
country if it were offered to us, with thousands of people to be
supported by a Government which has not a farthing?.
. .Put
passionate feeling aside for a moment and use common-sense, and you
will then agree with me that the best thing for the people and the
country is to give in, to be loyal to the new government, and to
get responsible government. . .Should the war continue a few months
longer the nation will become so poor that they will be the working
class in the country, and disappear as a nation in the future. . .
The British are convinced that they have conquered the land and its
people, and consider the matter ended, and they only try to treat
magnanimously those who are continuing the struggle in order to
prevent unnecessary bloodshed.'
Such were the sentiments of those of the burghers who were in
favour of peace. Their eyes had been opened and their bitterness
was transferred from the British Government to those individual
Britons who, partly from idealism and partly from party passion,
had encouraged them to their undoing. But their attempt to convey
their feelings to their countrymen in the field ended in tragedy.
Two of their number, Morgendaal and Wessels, who had journeyed to
De Wet's camp, were condemned to death by order of that leader. In
the case of Morgendaal the execution actually took place, and seems
to have been attended by brutal circumstances, the man having been
thrashed with a sjambok before being put to death. The
circumstances are still surrounded by such obscurity that it is
impossible to say whether the message of the peace envoys was to
the General himself or to the men under his command. In the former
case the man was murdered. In the latter the Boer leader was within
his rights, though the rights may have been harshly construed and
brutally enforced.
On January 29th, in the act of breaking south, De Wet's force, or a
portion of it, had a sharp brush with a small British column
(Crewe's) at Tabaksberg, which lies about forty miles north-east of
Bloemfontein; This small force, seven hundred strong, found itself
suddenly in the presence of a very superior body of the enemy, and
had some difficulty in extricating itself. A pom-pom was lost in
this affair. Crewe fell back upon Knox, and the combined columns
made for Bloemfontein, whence they could use the rails for their
transport. De Wet meanwhile moved south as far as Smithfield, and
then, detaching several small bodies to divert the attention of the
British, he struck due west, and crossed the track between
Springfontein and Jagersfontein road, capturing the usual supply
train as he passed. On February 9th he had reached Phillipolis,
well ahead of the British pursuit, and spent a day or two in making
his final arrangements before carrying the war over the border. His
force consisted at this time of nearly 8000 men, with two
15-pounders, one pom-pom, and one maxim. The garrisons of all the
towns in the south-west of the Orange River Colony had been removed
in accordance with the policy of concentration, so De Wet found
himself for the moment in a friendly country.
The British, realising how serious a situation might arise should
De Wet succeed in penetrating the Colony and in joining Hertzog and
Kritzinger, made every effort both to head him off and to bar his
return. General Lyttelton at Naauwpoort directed the operations,
and the possession of the railway line enabled him to concentrate
his columns rapidly at the point of danger. On February 11th De Wet
forded the Orange River at Zand Drift, and found himself once more
upon British territory. Lyttelton's plan of campaign appears to
have been to allow De Wet to come some distance south, and then to
hold him in front by De Lisle's force, while a number of small
mobile columns under Plumer, Crabbe, Henniker, Bethune, Haig, and
Thorneycroft should shepherd him behind. On crossing, De Wet at
once moved westwards, where, upon February 12th, Plumer's column,
consisting of the Queensland Mounted Infantry, the Imperial
Bushmen, and part of the King's Dragoon Guards, came into touch
with his rearguard. All day upon the 13th and 14th, amid terrific
rain, Plumer's hardy troopers followed close upon the enemy,
gleaning a few ammunition wagons, a maxim, and some prisoners. The
invaders crossed the railway line near Houtnek, to the north of De
Aar, in the early hours of the 15th, moving upon a front of six or
eight miles. Two armoured trains from the north and the south
closed in upon him as he passed, Plumer still thundered in his
rear, and a small column under Crabbe came pressing from the south.
This sturdy Colonel of Grenadiers had already been wounded four
times in the war, so that he might be excused if he felt some
personal as well as patriotic reasons for pushing a relentless
pursuit. On crossing the railroad De Wet turned furiously upon his
pursuers, and, taking an excellent position upon a line of kopjes
rising out of the huge expanse of the Karoo, he fought a stubborn
rearguard action in order to give time for his convoy to get ahead.
He was hustled off the hills, however, the Australian Bushmen with
great dash carrying the central kopje, and the guns driving the
invaders to the westward. Leaving all his wagons and his reserve
ammunition behind him, the guerilla chief struck north-west, moving
with great swiftness, but never succeeding in shaking off Plumer's
pursuit. The weather continued, however, to be atrocious, rain and
hail falling with such violence that the horses could hardly be
induced to face it. For a week the two sodden, sleepless,
mud-splashed little armies swept onwards over the Karoo.
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