General Botha, the career and the man . pecially the habit of raising money by grantingconcessions for cash. He spoke now and again in theVolksraad; but he already had the rare and preciousgift of silence except when he really had somethingto say. He was already in training for the largercareer in that strange, narrow school of the old Repub-lican assembly. Botha was already fitting himself forthe future guidance of South Africa. 58 GENERAL BOTHA It was while he and his friends were still strivingto preserve the friendship of the two white races thatthere came the sudden letting out of the man
General Botha, the career and the man . pecially the habit of raising money by grantingconcessions for cash. He spoke now and again in theVolksraad; but he already had the rare and preciousgift of silence except when he really had somethingto say. He was already in training for the largercareer in that strange, narrow school of the old Repub-lican assembly. Botha was already fitting himself forthe future guidance of South Africa. 58 GENERAL BOTHA It was while he and his friends were still strivingto preserve the friendship of the two white races thatthere came the sudden letting out of the many watersof strife. On October 9, 1899, Kruger sent to the BritishGovernment the famous Ultimatum which meant war. Even at that supreme moment Botha cast his voicefor peace. He was one of that small body of sevenRepublicans who voted in the Volksraad against theUltimatum.^ 1 The others were De la Rey, Lukas Meyer, Barnard,Loveday, Depening-, and Labuschagne. Lukas Meyer was thenChairman of the First Volksraad. CHAPTER IV WAR (1899-1900). To face />age 6i. CHAPTER IV WAR (1899-1900) Tumultuous warsShall kin with kin and kind with kind confound. —Richard II. There was probably no man in South Africa wholess desired war in the autumn of 1899 than LouisBotha. He was even slow to believe in its few weeks before the outbreak of war the peopleat Pretoria had already begun to fly. Botha was askedwhether he would advise people to leave. Well,they can run away, he said, but Im not going tomove. I think war will be avoided. It was thensuggested to him that he would not have to fight ashe was a Member of the Volksraad. No ! he said. If there is a war, I shall be the first to go, but westill hope to avoid war. This was certainly Bothas aim right up to the eveof strife. Like Falkland in our English Civil War,he ingeminated peace; but, unlike Falkland, when thewar once broke out he turned his back on peace untila decision had been reached by way of war. 62 GENERAL BOTHA For
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