PREFACE.

“In this awful turning point of the history of South Africa, on the eve of the conflict which threatens to exterminate our people, it behoves us to speak the truth in what may be, perchance, our last message to the world.”

Such is the raison d’etre of this book.  It is issued by State Secretary Reitz as the official exposition of the case of the Boer against the Briton.  I regard it as not merely a duty but an honour to be permitted to bring it before the attention of my countrymen.

Rightly or wrongly the British Government has sat in judgment upon the South African Republic, rightly or wrongly it has condemned it to death.  And now, before the executioner can carry out the sentence, the accused is entitled to claim the right to speak freely—­it may be for the last time—­to say why, in his opinion, the sentence should not be executed.  A liberty which the English law accords as an unquestioned right to the foulest murderer cannot be denied to the South African Republic.  It is on that ground that I have felt bound to afford the spokesman of our Dutch brethren in South Africa the opportunity of stating their case in his own way in the hearing of the Empire.

Despite the diligently propagated legend of a Reptile press fed by Dr. Leyds for the purpose of perverting public opinion, it is indisputable that so far as this country is concerned Mr. Reitz is quite correct in saying that the case of the Transvaal “has been lost by default before the tribunal of public opinion.”

It is idle to point, in reply to this, to the statements that have appeared in the press of the Continent.  These pleadings were not addressed to the tribunal that was trying the case.  In the British press the case of the Transvaal was never presented by any accredited counsel for the defence.  Those of us who have in these late months been compelled by the instinct of justice to protest against the campaign of misrepresentation organised for the purpose of destroying the South African Republic were in many cases so far from authorised exponents of the South African Dutch that some of them—­among whom I may be reckoned for one—­were regarded with such suspicion that it was most difficult for us to obtain even the most necessary information from the representatives of the Government at Pretoria.  Nor was this suspicion without cause—­so far at least as I was concerned.

For nearly a quarter of a century it might almost have been contended that I was one of the leading counsel for the prosecution.  First as the friend and advocate of the Rev. John Mackenzie, then as the friend and supporter of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, and latterly as the former colleague and upholder of Sir Alfred Milner, it had been my lot constantly, in season and out of season, to defend the cause of the progressive Briton against the Conservative Boer, and especially to advocate the Cause of the Reformers and Uitlanders