occupied, that difficulty is
over, and we can no longer hesitate clearly to inform your
Government and people, in the sight of the whole civilised world,
why we are fighting, and on what conditions we are ready to
restore peace."[206]

[Footnote 206: Cd. 35.]

The best comment upon this grossly disingenuous document is that which
is afforded by certain passages in Mr. Reitz's book, _A Century of
Wrong_, which was written in anticipation of the outbreak of war and
issued so soon as this anticipation had been realised:

"The struggle of now nearly a century," he writes in his appeal
to his brother Afrikanders, "hastens to an end; we are
approaching the last act in that great drama which is so
momentous for all South Africa.... The questions which present
themselves for solution in the approaching conflict have their
origin deep in the history of the past.... By its light we are
more clearly enabled to comprehend the truth to which our people
appeal as a final justification for embarking on the war now so
close at hand.... May the hope which glowed in our hearts during
1880, and which buoyed us up during that struggle, burn on
steadily! May it prove a beacon of light in our path, invincibly
moving onwards through blood and through tears, until it leads us
to a real union of South Africa.... Whether the result be victory
or death, Liberty will assuredly rise on South Africa ... just as
freedom dawned over the United States of America a little more
than a century ago. Then from Zambesi to Simon's Town it will be
Africa for the Afrikander."[207]

[Footnote 207: Mr. Reitz's work was translated into English
by Mr. W. T. Stead.]

And to this may be added the following extract from a letter written
by "one of the distinguished members of the Volksraad" who voted for
war against Great Britain, to one of his friends, a member of the
Legislative Assembly of the Cape Colony:

"Our plan is, with God's help, to take all that is English in
South Africa; so, in case you true Afrikanders wish to throw off
the English yoke, now is the time to hoist the Vier-kleur in
Capetown. You can rely on us; we will push through from sea to
sea, and wave one flag over the whole of South Africa, under one
Afrikander Government, if we can reckon on our Afrikander
brethren."[208]