South Africa and the British Empire: The History and Legacy of the Region Under Great Britain’s Control by Charles River Editors

Author:Charles River Editors
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2019-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

Milner

These considerations compelled Milner to seek a permanent British dominance in South Africa, in order that South Africa as a future British dominion would stand alongside the other major pillars of the empire when push came to shove. In part, his strategy to achieve this was to encourage the inflow of British capital for reconstruction, the mass immigration of British labor to facilitate industry and mining, and the imposition of the English language as the language of government, the judiciary, and education. In the face of all of this, the petty anxieties of a minor race seeking to preserve their identity counted as very little.

Thus, when the Boer committee returned its position on peace, marking as its minimum negotiating position the retention of independent Boer rule over the republics, Milner dismissed this outright. Unconditional surrender was his minimum negotiating position, and he would not be moved.

Kitchener now had to become something of a diplomat. He took aside the more moderate Boer leaders, like Botha and Smuts, and expressed his opinion that under the current conservative establishment in Britain, concessions of that magnitude would be impossible. A brutal and costly war had been fought and funded by the British for the purpose of adding South Africa to the British sphere of influence, and that, at the very least, was what was expected. However, he reminded the Boer that an election in Britain was imminent, and the likelihood would be that a Liberal government would follow. Given the Liberal position over such issues as the internment camps and other harsh realities of the war, the Boer should wait for the elections to begin sounding the British government out for a more equitable distribution of power and resource.

Smuts, of course, recognized this immediately. His history, his training, and his past engagement with the British softened his view, and naturally, he was better placed than his more bucolic comrades to recognize that the independence of a small race in a larger, imperial world was temporarily impractical. He did not like it, but he realized that it was unavoidable, at least in the short term. On his side stood Botha, now a very influential figure among the Boer, and it was with this fundamental realization that the two men guided the Boer establishment on the next step towards a negotiated peace.

On May 15, 1902, a grand council of Boer leaders gathered under an expansive marquee in the market town of Vereeniging, 40 miles southeast of Johannesburg, and here the final Boer position would be established. A series of difficult and acrimonious discussions took place, with moderates led by Smuts and Botha grappling against hardliners led by de Wet and Hertzog. There remained a strong Boer army in the field, and the war could easily be continued for a season or two, as the hardliners pointed out, but what, ultimately, would be the result of this? Terms of surrender could, under current circumstances, be negotiated that would salvage the Boer language, customs and national ideals. In the event of an unconditional surrender, all of that would be lost.

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