The Message Was Not An Ultimatum, But
It Foreshadowed An Ultimatum In The Future.
In the meantime, upon September 21st the Raad of the Orange Free
State had met, and it became more
And more evident that this
republic, with whom we had no possible quarrel, but, on the
contrary, for whom we had a great deal of friendship and
admiration, intended to throw in its weight against Great Britain.
Some time before, an offensive and defensive alliance had been
concluded between the two States, which must, until the secret
history of these events comes to be written, appear to have been a
singularly rash and unprofitable bargain for the smaller one. She
had nothing to fear from Great Britain, since she had been
voluntarily turned into an independent republic by her and had
lived in peace with her for forty years. Her laws were as liberal
as our own. But by this suicidal treaty she agreed to share the
fortunes of a State which was deliberately courting war by its
persistently unfriendly attitude, and whose reactionary and narrow
legislation would, one might imagine, have alienated the sympathy
of her progressive neighbour. There may have been ambitions like
those already quoted from the report of Dr. Reitz's conversation,
or there may have been a complete hallucination as to the
comparative strength of the two combatants and the probable future
of South Africa; but however that may be, the treaty was made, and
the time had come to test how far it would hold.
The tone of President Steyn at the meeting of the Raad, and the
support which he received from the majority of his burghers, showed
unmistakably that the two republics would act as one. In his
opening speech Steyn declared uncompromisingly against the British
contention, and declared that his State was bound to the Transvaal
by everything which was near and dear. Among the obvious military
precautions which could no longer be neglected by the British
Government was the sending of some small force to protect the long
and exposed line of railway which lies just outside the Transvaal
border from Kimberley to Rhodesia. Sir Alfred Milner communicated
with President Steyn as to this movement of troops, pointing out
that it was in no way directed against the Free State. Sir Alfred
Milner added that the Imperial Government was still hopeful of a
friendly settlement with the Transvaal, but if this hope were
disappointed they looked to the Orange Free State to preserve
strict neutrality and to prevent military intervention by any of
its citizens. They undertook that in that case the integrity of the
Free State frontier would be strictly preserved. Finally, he stated
that there was absolutely no cause to disturb the good relations
between the Free State and Great Britain, since we were animated by
the most friendly intentions towards them. To this the President
returned a somewhat ungracious answer, to the effect that he
disapproved of our action towards the Transvaal, and that he
regretted the movement of troops, which would be considered a
menace by the burghers.
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