my information is not derived by any means exclusively from these
sources.

My second remark is the expression of a hope that the contents of this
book may be regarded not merely as a chapter of history, but also as a
body of facts essential to the full understanding of the circumstances
and conditions of South Africa, as it is to-day. Since the restoration
of peace--an event not yet five years old--a great change has been
wrought in the political and economic framework of this province of
the empire. None the less, with a few conspicuous exceptions, almost
all of the principal actors in these pages are still there; and,
presumably, they are very much the same men now as they were before,
and during, the war. And in this connection it remains to notice an
aspect of the South African struggle which transcends all others in
fruitfulness and importance. It was a struggle to keep South Africa
not a dependency of Great Britain, but a part of the empire. The
over-sea Britains, understanding it in this sense, took their share in
it. They made their voices heard in the settlement. The service which
they thus collectively performed was great. It would have been
infinitely greater if they had been directly represented in an
administration nominally common to them and the mother country. No
political system can be endowed with effective unity--with that
organic unity which is the only effective unity--unless it is
possessed of a single vehicle of thought and action. To create this
vehicle--an administrative body in which all parts of the empire would
be duly represented--is difficult to-day. The forces of disunion,
which are at work both at home and beyond the seas, may make it
impossible to-morrow.

W. B. W.

RIDGE, NEAR CAPEL, SURREY,
_October 19th, 1906_

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I Page

DOWNING STREET AND THE MAN ON THE SPOT.................. 1

CHAPTER II

THE CREED OF THE AFRIKANDER NATIONALISTS............... 48

CHAPTER III

A YEAR OF OBSERVATION.................................. 75

CHAPTER IV

UNDER WHICH FLAG?..................................... 130

CHAPTER V

PLAYING FOR TIME...................................... 188

CHAPTER VI

THE ULTIMATUM......................................... 253

CHAPTER VII

THE FALL OF THE REPUBLICS............................. 300

CHAPTER VIII