[Sidenote:  The Liquor Law.]

In this very Liquor Law we have a test of a good administration.  From the very nature of the drink question it is one of the most difficult laws that a Government can be called upon to administer, and the measure of success which has attended the efforts of the Government and its officials proves conclusively that the charges of incompetency so frequently brought against the Government of the South African Republic were devoid of truth, and were only intended to slander and to injure the Republic.  A combined meeting of the Chamber of Mines, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Association of Mine Managers—­the three strongest and most representative bodies on the Witwatersrand Gold Fields—­passed the following resolutions,[40] which speak for themselves:—­

1.  This combined Meeting, representing the Chamber of Mines, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Mine Managers’ Association, desires to express once more its decided approval of the present Liquor Law, and is of opinion that prohibition is not only beneficial to the Natives in their own interest, but is absolutely necessary for the Mining Industry, with a view of maintaining the efficiency of labour.

2.  This Meeting wishes to express its appreciation of the efforts made to suppress the Illicit Liquor Trade by the Detective Department of this Republic since it has been placed under the administration of the State Attorney, and is of opinion that the success which has crowned these efforts fully disproves the contention that the Liquor Law is impracticable.

The first resolution was carried by an overwhelming majority, and the second unanimously.

Compare this declaration of the representatives of the Mining and Commercial interests of the Witwatersrand with the allegation repeated by Mr. Chamberlain in his great “grievance” dispatch of the 10th May, 1899[41]—­that the Liquor Law had never been strictly enforced, but that this law was simply evaded, and that the Natives at the mines were supplied with drink in large quantities.

When Mr. Chamberlain wrote these words they were absolutely untrue, and, like all his grievances, are of an imaginary character.

The results have clearly shown that the Government was quite correct in its conclusion that it was better to alter the administration of the laws complained of, than to adopt a principle (the advisory board), the consequences and eventual outcome of which no one was able to foresee.

[Sidenote:  The South African League.]

The agitation in connection with the report of the Industrial Commission was followed by a great calm.  If it had not been that the handling of the Swazie difficulty by the British Government gave colour to suspicion, one might have thought that there was no cloud upon the horizon.  To a superficial observer, the two Governments seemed to be on the best and most friendly footing, and some of us actually began to think that the era of the fraternal co-operation of the two races in South Africa had actually dawned, and that the cursed Raid and its harvest of race hatred and division would be forgotten.  Certain circumstances, however, indicated clearly that the enemy was occupied in a supreme effort to cause matters to culminate in a crisis.