ed if it comes to a collision? Why, the subjects of Her
Majesty in Johannesburg."[104]

[Footnote 101: C. 9,415.]

[Footnote 102: On May 15th, 1899--_i.e._ a fortnight before
the Bloemfontein Conference met--five persons alleged to be
British subjects were arrested on a warrant, signed by Mr.
Smuts as State-Attorney, on a charge of high treason. All of
them, except one man--Nicholls, who was innocent--were agents
of the secret service. The statement that the men were
ex-British officers, and that one of them alleged that he was
acting under direct instructions from the War Office, was
disseminated through the Press by the Transvaal Government,
with the object of discrediting (1) the South African League,
and (2) the British Government, in the eyes of the civilised
world. The whole of the alleged "conspiracy against the
independence of the Republic," thanks to the endurance of
Nicholls and the persistence of the Imperial authorities in
South Africa, was shown to be the work of the Transvaal
police, favoured by the negligence or political bad faith of
certain Government officials. The prosecution was abandoned
on July 25th. Mr. Duxbury, the counsel for the defence
retained by the British Government, in reviewing the case and
the proceedings, wrote (August 9th): "It seems abundantly
clear, from all the facts which have come to light, that the
whole of this disgraceful prosecution found its inception in
the minds of Mr. Schutte, the Commissioner of Police, and
Acting Chief Detective Beatty.... I must direct your
attention to the very grave accusation contained in Thomas
Dashwood Bundy's affidavit against Mr. Tjaart Krueger. This
gentleman is the son of President Krueger, and is the Chief of
the Secret Service department of this State." And of Mr.
Smuts he writes: "I believe he was deceived by the
detectives, and yet at the same time I fail to understand
why, in a matter of such-magnitude, he allowed himself to
sign warrants for the arrest of persons charged with such a
serious crime as high treason on the strength of an affidavit
signed by a detective, who, on the very day such affidavit
was signed, had