In this matter the best men, be they English, German, or Yankee, will win. But this is a home rather than a South African question. In any case, we may expect soon to see a considerable influx of capitalists, farmers, and traders, and they cannot but give an impetus to South Africa's reviving fortunes, let political ineptitude do its worst. I have endeavoured to show wherein lie the chief obstacles to progress in the new colonies. In the old--Natal would in any case seem to have an era of immediate prosperity before her--the future is darkened by considerations all too apparent for the most optimistic or blind to overlook or ignore. The Africander Bond and the Dutch Reformed Church have not buried the hatchet. Throughout South Africa it is, of course, the duty of the loyal South African of British origin or British sympathies to endeavour to recognise at their best the many sterling qualities of the Dutch, and to forgive with what charity he may their besetting sins, condoning them as the resultants of environment and circumstance. It is also their duty to recognise that the past mistakes of Downing Street were chiefly due to lack of brain and thought, rather than to lack of heart, and to determine to work with all true patriots for the lasting good and welfare of South Africa.
Unhappily there is ample evidence to show that the Dutch Reformed Church and the Africander Bond are as active for evil as ever. How great is the terrorism exercised by the COMMISSIE VAN TOEZICHT (the Secret Council of the Bond) is illustrated to-day by the abject recantation of the Rev. Mr. Botha, a pastor who, having counselled his countrymen to submit to the inevitable and accept British rule as far back as September 1901, now stands in the white sheet of repentance, and abjectly craves to be forgiven for what he calls his temporary weakness and backsliding! Undoubtedly disloyalty to the British Empire throughout South Africa has its _fons et origo_ not in the Transvaal but at the Cape. For the moment the Bond lies low. It has gained everything it can hope to gain for the present. This the most superficial student of Cape politics can see. The problem of how to reconcile divergent elements at the Cape, and to make the Cape Dutch as loyal to the Empire as the French Canadians to-day, not that their loyalty is unimpeachable, is an extremely complicated one. At the Cape it is by no means merely a question of Dutch _versus_ English or of Town _versus_ Country. Many of the most active enemies of Great Britain are to be found in the houses of the old Dutch families inhabiting the suburban districts of Cape Town--Wynburg, Rondebosch, and so forth. It is also true that among those old Dutch families no more loyal subjects of the king are to be found. Unhappily English associations, close intercourse with Government House, intermarriage with English families, and education at our universities or at the Temple here, do not always ensure that the Dutch Africander will be loyal to Great Britain. Even more to be regretted is the fact that many colonists of pure British descent, birth even, are merely nominally loyal to the Imperial connection, if as much as that. Their loyalty is of the opportunist kind. Because of their hatred of the Dutch propaganda, and because they fear that the Dutch, if left to themselves, would become "top dog," they tolerate British institutions. We cannot blame them over much for this attitude, when we remember how miserably we have deserted our countrymen in the past; how we have left them to the tender mercies of the Dutch; how we have neglected their warnings and advice, and brought ruin and misery upon them because of our short-sightedness and stiff-neckedness.