much discussion. After the Jameson Raid, President Kruger, pursuing
his policy of packing the Executive with his own friends, decided to
put Cronje upon the Executive, for which purpose he induced General
Joubert to resign his position as Superintendent-General of Natives.
The President's intention becoming known to Raad members, the
strongest possible objection was expressed to this course as being
wholly unconstitutional and in direct conflict with the Grondwet; the
President in the first place having no right to add to the number of
Executive members and no authority for appointing any person to fill
a vacancy if there were one. Notice of motion was promptly given in
the Raad to instruct the Executive not to take the proposed course,
as the Raad felt that the privilege and power of appointing members
on the Executive rested with them alone. Twenty-four hours' notice
was requisite to bring a matter up for discussion before the Raad.
President Kruger hearing that notice had been given promptly called a
meeting of the Executive and appointed Mr. Cronje in defiance of the
notice of motion, so that when the motion came on for discussion on
the following day he replied to the Raad's instruction that it was
too late to discuss the matter, the appointment having been made. Mr.
Cronje, therefore, appears on the scene on this occasion without much
to prejudice the unbiassed reader in his favour. The circumstances of
the surrender of the Potchefstroom garrison, which was secured by
treacherously suppressing the news of the armistice between the two
forces (a treachery for which public reparation was afterwards
exacted by Sir Evelyn Wood), the treatment of certain prisoners of
war (compelled to work for the Boers exposed to the fire and being
shot down by their own friends in the garrison), the summary
execution of other prisoners, the refusal to allow certain of the
women to leave the British garrison, resulting in the death of at
least one, are matters which although sixteen years old are quite
fresh in the memory of the people in the Transvaal. The condition of
Dr. Jameson's surrender revived the feeling that Mr. Cronje has need
to do something remarkable in another direction in order to encourage
that confidence in him as an impartial and fair-minded man which his
past career unfortunately does not warrant. Commandant Trichard,
mentioned in this connection as a witness, was one of the commandants
who refused to confirm the t