OUR DUTCH COLONISTS AT THE CAPE.
[TO THE EDITOR 07 TEl "SPECTATOR."] Stu,—I think it will be of interest to your readers, who must during the last few months have heard frequent accusations against the loyalty of our Dutch colonists at the Cape, to know what is the answer made to such charges by Mr. Hofineyr, the most influential Dutchman in the Cape Colony. The speech from which I send an extract was made about three weeks ago, at a banquet given to Mr. Hofmeyr by Dutch and English gentlemen in Cape Town. The speech is also important, as defining the position and principles of those colonists who find themselves unable to welcome back Mr. Rhodes to the political life of the Colony.—I am, Sir, &c.,
FREDERIC MACHARNESS.
FROM THE "CAPE ARGUS" OP MARCH 30TH.
"Would it surprise you to learn that the very first speech I ?nide from a political platform in Cape Town—in October, 1875,—
was in favour of Lord Carnarvon's proposals to bring about the
federation of South Africa P His idea was good, and if his idea had been carried into effect, I would take it upon myself to say you would have had no Zulu War, no Transvaal Annexation, no War of Independence, no Uitlanders' grievances, no Jameson Raid, and you would have heard nothing of those constitutional means by which the politics of the country are at present being debauched. I was loyal to the British connection in 1875, and I have been loyal ever since. If I had not been loyal do you think that suc- cessive Ministries —Mr. Cecil Rhodes' amongst them—would have voted me to Customs Union Conferences in Cape Town and Bloem- fontein ; to Inter-Colonial (I would almost say Imperial) Con- ferences ? Would the Governor have repeatedly offered me the the Premiership of this Colony, and other honours which were not always rejected by the gentlemen to whom they were offered Would the Imperial Government have entrusted to me the delicate negotiations in connection with the Swaziland Conven- tion ? Would Mr. Rhodes, when I resigned my seat in Parliament, have adopted the unusual course of getting the House to pass a vote of regret and appreciation in connection with my name ? Would Mr. Rhodes have pressed me to accept the Agent-General- ship in the presence of other men of influence, men of mark, men of leading ? Would he, as he once politically boasted in the House of Assembly, have come up to my quarters in Camp Street, week by week, or day by day, entrusting to me the most confidential secrets and documents, begging me for my opinion and boasting that, as a rule, he acted on my opinion ? Now this same Camp Street is only mentioned in terms of abhorrence. Why the sudden change? Have I proved unfaith- ful to Prime Ministers, to Governors, to High Commissioners, to State Secretaries, who trusted me ? Have I debauched Imperial Secretaries ? No, sir ; not even Mr. Rhodes, bold man though he is said to be, has ever dared to insinuate anything of the kind. Why, then, this change from fulsome flattery to thorough-going condemnation of Camp Street? There is only one answer to be given to this question. It is because I behaved in connection with the Jameson Raid in exactly the same manner in which l conducted myself in connection with the Adendorff trek. I did my duty to my people and to my country in connection with the trek, although my own countrymen were concerned in it. I could do no less in connection with the Jameson Raid, in which very few of my countrymen were concerned. I have fallen into dis- favour because I have refused, and still refuse, to take part in any movement having for its object the re-establishment in power of a man found guilty of such misdemeanours as you will find sketched, I will not say in the columns of Ons Land, but in the report of the South African Committee appointed by the House of Commons. I refuse to countenance any attempt to put Mr. Rhodes at the head of affairs in this Colony, because he has been guilty of such misdemeanours, and because he has never given the least sign of any regret or of any remorse. He only regrets the failure. As a South African, as an Afrikander, as a man, I can do no otherwise than I have done. I would lose my own self-respect if I did otherwise. I am told that in acting as I have done, I have been provoking race hatred. I am charged with setting the love of race, local patriotism, before loyalty to. the Empire. I have still to learn that local patriotism, love of my own people, is not reconcileable with the very highest loyalty. I have still to learn that such loyalty demands that I should sink down in adoration before a man whose acts I abhor, whose methods I despise. I am reminded that I have been born under the British flag, and ought to be grateful for the privileges an& liberties I enjoy under this flag. I am grateful, and being grate- ful I intend to the fullest extent to avail myself of those rights and those privileges, and avail myself of them to the same extent as if I had had the good luck of being born in Scotland or Wales, or in the Channel Islands, or even in Canada I come now to a tremendous accusation against me. It is said I am an out-and-out Republican, and that my occupation night and day is devising means of getting rid of the British flag in South Africa, and that I would establish a united South Africa under its own flag. Will you be surprised to learn that when I joined the Afrikander Bond there was some sort of provision of the kind in its constitution, smuggled into it by the same gentleman I have referred to before, so I am informed P and one of the chief objects why I joined the Afrikander Bond was to get that provision knocked out of it, and I succeeded in my object. I was born under Her Majesty's sway, and I am quite content to remain under that sway. I have no illusions about the power of South African republicanism, Afrikanderism, or nationalism, or whatever you like to call it, to defy the whole British Empire, import you never so many Maxims, build you never so many forts. Even Majuba and Doornkop have not turned my head. I believe- Majuba has been wiped out by the magnanimity by which Her Majesty's Government gave back to the Transvaal their inde- pendence, limited if it be. I believe that in days to come, when little irritations still present in the minds of some of us shall have disappeared, when the last vestige of national animosity shall have died out, when Dutchmen and Englishmen shall sit down together as men of one happy family, the retrocession of the Transvaal will be regarded as one of the noblest pages in the history of England. By that time also, perhaps, the grievances of the Uitlanders in the Transvaal shall have become= a memory of the past, perhaps the franchise shall have been, extended, perhaps mutual trust and confidence shall have been founded between Downing Street and Pretoria. I can even venture to think that we may see the Transvaal Government trusting the protection of Transvaal burghers to British Consuls and British Agents instead of wasting thousands and thousands. of pounds on the payment of Ambassadors, Plenipotentiaries, and Ministers in the cities of Europe. But before that event'
can come to pass something else will have to happen. The memory of the Jameson Raid will have to be swallowed up in the quicksands of time, the name of its abettors must have faded away from the rolls of your national heroes."
[We may take a different view from that held by Mr. Hofmeyr as to the treatment accorded to the Outlanders by the Transvaal, and as to their right to obtain a remedy,
bat it is a mad or evil policy which proposes to treat such a man as a rebel.—En. Spectator.]
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