General Botha landed in Cape Town on Thursday week, and
was received with the greatest enthusiasm by huge crowds. How real the danger to the Union has been was shown in the remarkable revelations he made in a speech at the banquet given to him and General Smuts. It was established, lie said, that Maritz had sent a delegate to German South-West Africa in 1913, and had received an encouraging reply ; and that he had renewed his application before the war broke out, with a view to ascertaining what artillery, arms, and ammunition the rebels might expect from German South-West Africa and how far Germany would guarantee South African independence. The matter was referred to the German Emperor, who undertook to give the guarantee upon one condition—that the rebellion should be started immediately. General Botha also stated that a map had fallen into his hands which he described as "one of the most interesting discoveries in German South- West Africa," and which showed "the redistribution of the world after the Peace of Rome, 1916," placing "the whole of Africa south of the equator as a greater German Empire," with a small "reserve" for the Boers. No better proof could he desired of General Smuts's declaration that if German South-West Africa did not belong to the Union, the Union would ultimately belong to German South-West Africa.
