ER XIV.

IN FLIGHT FROM THE RAND

One of the greatest difficulties with which the Imperial Government found
themselves confronted when relations between Great Britain and the
Transvaal became strained was the influx of refugees who at the first hint
of impending trouble left Johannesburg and the Rand, and flocked to Cape
Town.

The greater number were aliens. From Russia in particular they had flocked
to the Transvaal when they heard of its treasures. Adventurers from other
parts of Europe, with a sprinkling of remittance men, also deserted
Johannesburg. Only the few were real English residents who, from the time
the Rand had begun to develop, had been living and toiling there in order
to win sufficient for the maintenance of their families. All this mass of
humanity, which passed unnoticed when scattered over wide areas in the
vicinity of Pretoria or Johannesburg, had lived for many years in the
expectation of the day when the power of the Transvaal Republic would be
broken. They had discounted it perhaps more than they should have done had
the dictates of prudence been allowed to take the lead against the wishes
of their hearts.

When war became imminent the big mining houses considered it wiser to
close their offices and mines, and for these unfortunate beings, deprived
of their means of existence, the position became truly a lamentable one.
They could not very well remain where they were, because the Burghers, who
had never taken kindly to them, made no secret of their hostility, and
gave them to understand very clearly that as soon as war had been declared
they would simply turn them out without warning and confiscate their
property. Prudence advised no delay, and the consequence was that,
beginning with the month of August, and, indeed, the very first days which
followed upon the failure of the Bloemfontein Conference, a stream of
people from the Transvaal began migrating toward Cape Colony, which was
supposed to be the place where their sufferings would find a measure of
relief that they vainly imagined would prove adequate to their needs. At
the Cape, strangely enough, no one had ever given a thought to the
possibility of such a thing happening. In consequence, the public were
surprised by this persisting stream of humanity which was being poured
into the Colony; the authorities, too, began to feel a despair as to what
could be done. It is no exaggeration to say that for months many hundreds
of people arri