The War in South Africa, Its Cause and Conduct

The War in South Africa, Its Cause and Conduct has a preface which says that, for a reason which may be either arrogance or apathy, the British are very slow to state their case to the world. The preface adds that the reasons for our actions and the methods which we have used are set forth in many Blue-books, tracts, and leaflets, but have never, so far as the writer knows, been collected into one small volume.

One passage says the emigrants travelled in small detached parties, from six to ten thousand according to their historian, and that the final victory of the voortrekkers cleared all the country between the Orange River and the Limpopo. The Boers, the passage says, saw at the end of their travels the very thing which they desired least, the flag of Great Britain. The text says De Wet spoke of Kitchener's terms of peace and asked what is the use of examining all the points, as the only object for which they were fighting was their independence and their national existence.