THE SECOND INVASION OF CAPE COLONY.
(DECEMBER 1900 TO APRIL 1901.)
During the whole war the task of the British had been made very
much more difficult by the openly expressed sympathy with the Boers
from the political association known as the Afrikander Bond, which
either inspired or represented the views which prevailed among the
great majority of the Dutch inhabitants of Cape Colony. How strong
was this rebel impulse may be gauged by the fact that in some of
the border districts no less than ninety per cent of the voters
joined the Boer invaders upon the occasion of their first entrance
into the Colony. It is not pretended that these men suffered from
any political grievances whatever, and their action is to be
ascribed partly to a natural sympathy with their northern kinsmen,
and partly to racial ambition and to personal dislike to their
British neighbours. The liberal British policy towards the natives
had especially alienated the Dutch, and had made as well-marked a
line of cleavage in South Africa as the slave question had done in
the States of the Union.
With the turn of the war the discontent in Cape Colony became less
obtrusive, if not less acute, but in the later months of the year
1900 it increased to a degree which became dangerous. The fact of
the farm-burning in the conquered countries, and the fiction of
outrages by the British troops, raised a storm of indignation. The
annexation of the Republics, meaning the final disappearance of any
Dutch flag from South Africa, was a racial humiliation which was
bitterly resented. The Dutch papers became very violent, and the
farmers much excited. The agitation culminated in a conference at
Worcester upon December 6th, at which some thousands of delegates
were present. It is suggestive of the Imperial nature of the
struggle that the assembly of Dutch Afrikanders was carried out
under the muzzles of Canadian artillery, and closely watched by
Australian cavalry. Had violent words transformed themselves into
deeds, all was ready for the crisis.
Fortunately the good sense of the assembly prevailed, and the
agitation, though bitter, remained within those wide limits which a
British constitution permits. Three resolutions were passed, one
asking that the war be ended, a second that the independence of the
Republics be restored, and a third protesting against the actions
of Sir Alfred Milner. A deputation which carried these to the
Governor received a courteous but an uncompromising reply. Sir
Alfred Milner pointed out that the Home Government, all the great
Colonies, and half the Cape were unanimous in their policy, and
that it was folly to imagine that it could be reversed on account
of a local agitation. All were agreed in the desire to end the war,
but the last way of bringing this about was by encouraging
desperate men to go on fighting in a hopeless cause.
