ow that policy to a conclusion; for upon the tenth
occasion they will subordinate principle and, at the call of one who
may use it unscrupulously, will rally upon race lines alone. It is
only too true of only too many that they cannot be got to see that if
they would really divide upon principles all danger of conflict would
disappear and the solution would be both speedy and peaceful; for it
is the division upon race lines that alone raises the distracting
prospect of war.

For those who are in this position in the Transvaal it may be allowed
that their difficulties are great. They cannot, it is true, complain
of lack of warning. They did not, it is also true, after trying their
influence and finding it of no avail, cut adrift when they might have
done so, and by their example have so stripped the reactionaries of
all support that there could now be no question of their standing
out; but they may have honestly believed that they would in time
succeed, whilst the Uitlanders, judging from a long and bitter
experience, felt that they would not and could not. They may say that
this is no time to part from those with whom they associated
themselves in times of peace. Such reasoning may provide an excuse in
the Transvaal, but no such plea will avail for those without the
Transvaal who have let the day of opportunity go past, and who cry
out their frightened protest now that the night of disaster is upon
us.

Footnotes for Chapter X

{42} That President Kruger always contemplated controlling the
Uitlander population by arbitrary methods was proved by the choice of
the site for the Johannesburg fort. This site, on a hill commanding
the town, had been reserved by Government from the commencement, and
when the accommodation in the old gaol proved insufficient and a new
gaol was required it was located on this spot, then a favourite
residential quarter of the town. A deputation of officials waited
upon the President to urge the placing of the new gaol in a more
convenient locality elsewhere. His Honour replied, 'that he did not
care about the convenience. He was going to build the gaol there,
because some day the town would be troublesome and he would want to
convert the gaol into a fort and put guns there before that time
came.' That was at least four years before the Raid.

{43} The writer has since learned from Mr.
Alfred Beit that the same proposal was made to him by Mr. Graaff in
January, 1896, immediately after the