. South Africa and the Transvaal War. as the eternalsea—one sees the pathos of the picture. But this is as anothergeneration may see it. To-day we are too close, so close that themeaner details, the blots and flaws, are all most plainly visible: thecorruption, the insincerity, the injustice, the barbarity—all the un-lovely touches that will by-and-by be forgotten, sponged away bythe gentle hand of Time, when only the picturesque will Fitzpatrick speaks somewhat more plainly in another place:— Outside the Transvaal Mr. Kruger has the reputation of beingfree from taint of corruption f
. South Africa and the Transvaal War. as the eternalsea—one sees the pathos of the picture. But this is as anothergeneration may see it. To-day we are too close, so close that themeaner details, the blots and flaws, are all most plainly visible: thecorruption, the insincerity, the injustice, the barbarity—all the un-lovely touches that will by-and-by be forgotten, sponged away bythe gentle hand of Time, when only the picturesque will Fitzpatrick speaks somewhat more plainly in another place:— Outside the Transvaal Mr. Kruger has the reputation of beingfree from taint of corruption from which so many of his colleaguessuffer. Yet within the Republic and among his own people one ofthe gravest of the charges levelled against him is, that by his exampleand connivance he has made himself responsible for much of theplundering that goes on. There are numbers of cases in which thePresidents nearest relations have been proved to be concerned inthe most flagrant jobs, only to be screened by his influence ; such I 12. PAUL KRUGER President of the Transvaal Republic. Photo by Elliott & Fry, London. Mr. Kruger cases, for instance, as that of the Vaal River Water Supply Concession,in which Mr. Krugers son-in-law hawked about for the highestbid the vote of the Executive Council on a matter which had notyet come before it, and, moreover, sold and duly delivered the afore-said vote. There is the famous libel case in which Mr. EugeneMarais, the editor of the Dutch paper Land en Volk, successfullysustained his allegation that the President had defrauded the State bycharging heavy travelling expenses for a certain trip on which he wasactually the guest of the Cape Colonial Government. The light thus thrown on the dealings of Mr. Kruger is not asolitary gleam. It may be remembered that during the period ofBritish rule in the Transvaal he had an appointment under Govern-ment. The terms of his letter of dismissal can be found on page135 of Blue-Book, c. 144, and involving
Size: 1337px × 1869px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidsouthafricat, bookyear1900
