that they would be able to maintain themselves on the
Rand in the same important positions which they had occupied previous to
the war, yet they had enough common sense to understand that they would
not be allowed under a British administration the same free hand that
President Kruger had given, or which they had been able to obtain from him
by means of "refreshers" administered in some shape or other. It is true
that they had always the alternative of retiring from South Africa to Park
Lane, whence they would be able to astonish Society, but they preferred to
wait, in case the crash were still delayed for some little time.

The big houses, such as Wernher, Beit and Co.--the head of which, at
Johannesburg, was Mr. Fred Eckstein, a man of decided ability, who perhaps
was one of those in South Africa who had judged the situation with
accuracy--would have preferred to see the crisis delayed. Mr. Eckstein and
other leading people knew very well that sooner or later the Transvaal was
bound to fall to England, and they would have felt quite content to wait
quietly until this event had been accomplished as a matter of course, by
the force of circumstances, without violence. President Kruger was such an
old man that one could, in a certain sense, discuss the consequences which
his demise was bound to bring to South Africa. There was no real necessity
to hurry on events, nor would they have been hurried had it not been for
the efforts of the Rhodesians, whose complaints had had more than anything
else to do with the failure of the Bloemfontein Conference, and all that
followed upon that regrettable incident. It was the Rhodesians, and not
the big houses of the Rand, who were most eager for the war.

The exploitation of Rhodesia, the principal aim of which was the
foundation of another Kimberley, had turned out to be a disappointment in
that respect, and there remained nothing but making the best of it,
particularly as countless companies had been formed all with a distinctly
mineral character to their prospectuses. Now, if the Rand, with all its
wealth and its still unexplored treasures, became an appanage of
Kimberley, it would be relatively easy to effect an amalgamation between
gold and diamond mines, which existed there, and the Rhodesian companies.
Under these conditions it was but natural that despite an intelligent
comprehension of the situation, Sir Alfred Milner was nevertheless unable
to push forward his own plans in r