Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 140 pages of information about Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.).

Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 140 pages of information about Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.).
rabble who betrayed and sacrificed the insensate doctor.  It was loudly asserted that the combined forces of the two Republics were competent to resist an invasion a hundred times stronger than the one so foolishly attempted; but, with cooler counsels, it was resolved to adopt the appealing attitude of the deeply injured party who miraculously and providentially escaped a great national peril.  Upon these lines the raid incident afforded an immense advantage to Afrikaner Bond tactics, and an impulse to Bond propaganda which enormously increased Boer partisanship, inflicting at the same time a fatal check upon the diplomacy of England and upon the essential peace-preserving measures for safeguarding her South African interests.  The circumstances, however, served to embolden many hitherto undecided sympathisers into openly declared and vehement Boer partisans, revealing the singular spectacle, among English people even, of a morbid cult apparently ready to sacrifice their nation just to vindicate their judicial dicta about Boer innocence and to parade their own darling sense of shocked and violated national honour.

Quite other and more emphatic terms apply to the revolting sewerage such as the socialistic platform and other purulent nurseries for breeding wilful and hypocritical abettors, at so much a score, of misguided and treason-hatching Afrikanerdom.

THE TRANSVAAL DYNAMITE AND EXPLOSIVES MONOPOLY

The factory pertaining to this enterprise, situated near Pretoria, is recognised to be the most extensive and best equipped of its kind in existence.  It is capable of turning out all the dynamite and similar blasting material needed for the gold and other mines of the State, also every description of explosive needed for modern ammunition.

Its equipments include ateliers and laboratories under the conduct of eminent scientists and men of most advanced technical proficiency.  The site is a farm named Modderfontein of about 8,000 acres near Pretoria.  The industry provides employment for over 5,000 persons.  In connection with this factory is a foundry at Pretoria for casting shells, etc.  The various ingredients, such as sulphur, guhr, saltpetre, etc., are believed to be plentiful in the State, but their exploitation is found to be more costly than it is to import the pure articles from Europe.

The investment is represented mostly by French and German shareholders, the Transvaal Government also possessing a portion of the shares.  The contract with the State conveys a complete monopoly for the manufacture and importation of all descriptions of explosives, and is so framed as to base its subsistence upon international rights.  One of the conditions is that the issue of ammunition is relegated to State control.  In this manner burghers only get supplies, whilst Uitlanders are limited to very small quantities for sporting purposes by special permits.

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Origin of the Anglo-Boer War Revealed (2nd ed.) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.