THE SPRINGBOKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18322, 12 August 1921, Page 8

THE SPRINGBOKS

AMBASSADORS OF EMPIRE AND OF SPORT. Bv Fred Waite. “Second return Uarisbrook,” said the tall man with tho Jimp to tho booking clerk at the country railway station. “Uarisbrook ?’’ queried the man behind the window. “Oh, well, I suppose Dunedin spells Carisbrook this week,” came the answer; "i don’t often go in myself, but I was in South Africa 20 years ago, and 1 want to see this grandson of old Kruger's. If they are as good at football as their fathers were at soldiering Otago will have to shake it up.” “Yes! It’s certainly a miracle, this football business,” agreed the clerk, as he slipped tho little bit of pasteboard through the ticket window. “Why didn’t you write in, and book your seat?”

“Well,” ho answered quietly, “this isn’t a case of ‘hang the expense’ exactly; but I never had a front seat in the South African business, and at Carisbrook 1 reckon I’ll take my chance with the mob.” And ho limped out to wait for the train.

New Zealand has long prided itself on football prowess. But this visit of tho South Africans is making everybody sit up and take notice, for these football giants of 1921 are very much to be reckoned with, as their soldier fathers were in 1900. New Zealand has bred a race of wonderful footballers, and, at first sight, we are surprised that South Africa has achieved the same end. But if we look into the matter a little, we see that the conditions that have produced a hardy race in this land have also been operating in. South Africa. Our fathers and mothers came many miles overseas to found new homes for themselves, where they and their children mignt live under conditions that were unobtainable in the older lands. In this country, the process of natural selection operated from the outset. New Zealand was farthest from the Old Country, and only the hardiest and most adventurous dared the journey in the uncomfortable ships of the day. The continual battle against natTure, and the self-reliant open-air life were conducive to the production of a hardy and sturdy race. As footballers and as soldiers the New Zealanders have proved that the British race has not deteriorated under these new conditions and tho bluer skies of our Southern Britain.

There is a certain parallel to bo observed between our national life and that of South Africa. True, they are an older people than wo, as the life of nations is counted. And the early Dutch settlers at the Capo of Good Hope certainly had more to test their national temper, mgro to toughen their national fibre than had our forefathers in ■ this country. Because the Capo was the half-way house to the Dutch\ East Indies, it was necessary to provide good water, meat, and provisions for the shipping. Very early in the life of the settlement the coloured question obtruded itself; perhaps it would be bettor to say that the tvhito people obtruded on the life of the coloured folk, who were certainly there first. The Bushman and the Hottentot were only two of the natural enemies the pioneer Dutch farmers had to contend against. They wore battlers, however, and gradually pushed out over the country, up every ferule valley increasing their herds. Farther and fartherout, overcoming all obstacles, they pushed with their flocks and herds. By the year 1590 Governor Simon van der Stol had settled all the fertile valleys with Dutch settlers and a certain proportion of French Huguenots. These Frenchmen were very impatient of the paternal Dutch rule, and becoming incorporated with the original white population, had a leavening effect on the more stolid Dutch, and by their efforts exacted a more tolerable administration from the officials. \ Like all primitive communities, there went lirst a wave ot hunters as a great advance guard—hunting more particularly for elephant ivory. Then came the cattlemen, men who raised cattle for themselves and who bought beasts from the natives. As these two groups moved farther and farther out, the land was occupied by the farmers and agriculturists. These really settled the country, building substantial houses and cultivating the soil. We in Now Zealand can hardly credit the difficulties that continually confronted the South African farmers—the diseases peculiar to cattle, the wild animals, and the destructive insects; the extraordinary climatic..conditions ; the continual trouble with the natives, whose hunting domains were being increasingly invaded. , Over all these the Dutchmen triumphed. “The fairest cane we saw -in the whole circumference of the earth,” so Sir Francis Drake wrote when, as the first Englishman, he saw it in 1580. * But it was not until 200 years had passed away that the English made any real move against the Dutchmen of the Cape. Our interests in India wore growing, and it became increasingly necessary to secure a half-way house. The English and Dutch were then the great maritime rivals, and in September of 1795, the Dutch Governor, Abraham Sluysken, was obliged to surrender to Admiral Elphinstonc. But under the Treaty of Amiens the country was returned to the Dutch, and it wa s not till 1806 that the country was again taken by force of arms. Until about the year 1820 there wore few British settlers in South Africa, but from that time onwards English, Scotch, and Jnsn arrived in great and increasing numbers. When the English local government system was introduced to take the place of the original Dutch, there was bound to be trouble; in 1827 the Dutch language \Vas superseded by English as the official language. Then came disputes about slavery, and the treatment of the local natives—differences that always must arise wiien local knowledge is ignored in favour of the opinions of stay-at-home officials. So in 1836 the dissatisfied Dutch settlers decided on “the great trek,” a movement that was pregnant with possibility for Southern Africa. Thus grew up outside the jurisdiction of the British, those purely Dutch States—the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. For many years the history of the several States is the story of war after war against the' natives—the Zulus, the Matabeles, and the Basutos. The Orange Free State was particularly hard pressed by troubles with the natives, and on several occasions made overtures to be accorded British protection. But those in authority at Home did not understand the South African situation ; misgovernment and misunderstandings ensued. We of Now Zealand are prone to think of Sir George Grey as one of ourselves, for he was twice Governor, and for a considerable time I’remier of this country. But South Africa, too, claims him; and the first thing one notices in the Parliamentary Buildings in Capetown is the large portrait of the greatest of our pro-consuls. He was a far-seeing statesman, for as far back as the “fifties” ho proposed that our two Houses of Parliament should bo elected by the people; some of our present-day politicians are now almost convinced of the necessity 1 So in South Africa, whore Sir George was appointed Governor in 1854, he realised, first, that the great open spaces of South Africa should be occupied by white settlers; and, secondly, that the federation of all South Africa was an urgent necessity. Ho went so far as to bring a proposal for union from the Orange Free State before the Capo Parliament. Downing Street in those days never could trust its representatives on the spot, and recalled Grey to England ns a dnngerpus man. The opportunity for federation was lost; all Grey’s proposals were set aside, oven as was his proposal for the elective Upper House in New Zealand. The Orange Free State, largely because of its native troubles, was never very averse from joining the South African Union, but the South African Republic, or the Transvaal, ns we belter know ,it, was irreconciliable. Those wore the men and women of the Groat Trek; the lovers of freedom and the wide spaces; the men who went farthest out. They were rugged old people, who could not forget the past—the substitution of English for their own beloved language, and the displacing of their old Dutch institutions. “England and the Engjjsh” were certainly distrusted. The Transvaal was entirely cut off from the sea by British territory, the only alternative being through the Portuguese settlement by way of Delagoa Bay. So they were the victims of circumstance and geography, and cut off from the world by the British. They were a farmer people, and distrustful of" those who congregated in cities, and when the diamond and gold mines of the Rand attracted a mining population, mostly British, the old Dutchmen refused to grant them a reasonable franchise. Twenty years ago we were apt to place all the Boers in one class, just as to-day some ignorant folk class all Germans. There was a party among the Boers who were willing to treat the Uitlanders fairly, but President Kruger, in the ascendant, was not the type to make concessions. But, there is a good deal to admire in the character of these everything-or-nothing characters; like some of the older fashioned in Otago to-day, they were dour men. hating all frivolity, but with a firm belief and an implicit confidence in the will of God. This tvpe has always been the antidote to national shallowness and fluffiness, and oven those of us who do not

like it cannot, say how much it, has contributed to the true national greatness of Holland and of Britain.

Even bo to these, these Veldt Folk, God hath given ' The near communion in His Temple vast, "Wherein He speaketh yet," in awful levin, And in the thunder blast. We judge by roaring loom and crowded harbour, By teeming street and plenteous gear and gold. Where Greatness dwells; and yet within an arbour Sitb Wisdom as of old.

All men conserve their faith, who, dwelling lonely In those vast breadths of kopje, stream, and plain, Fulfil their happiness by reason only That wealth to them is vain—

That wealth is vain, and Freedom more than cattle; Ay, more than life—as when in troubled shires, Of old were gathered up to awful battle Our own victorious sires. But when two virile peoples live side-by-side and develop divergent interests, sooner or later those interests must clash —and the clash eventually resolves itself into war. So one thing led to another —the old unforgotten hatreds, the honuning-in of the Republic, the growth in strength of the Uitlanders, the Jameson Raid —all these combined to make war inevitable.

As India was (as it still is) the strategic centre of the British Empire, and as South Africa was the inevitable half-way house, it was imperative, from the British point of view, that South Africa should be an Imperial stronghold. As tho South African Republic could not see its way clear to harmonise its -policy with British policy u clash was inevitable. This may sound brutal but it is the irrevocable law. We'know that in 1899 war did break out, and dragged its weary way through the long years until ISO2. The fighting capacity of this race of hunters and farmers was sadly under estimated, and so it was that many of New Zealand’s best young men became acquainted with kloof and kopje. To the people of New Zealand this meant the loss of valuable lives and the expenditure of considerable money. But what did it mean to the South African Dutch? This generation of New Zealanders has experienced war in its time, and a bitter price we have been forced to pay. But red war did not sweep across our countryside as t did across Europe in 1919, and as it did across South Africa in 1899. For war is war, and in the Orange Free State and in the Transvaal homesteads were razed to the ground, crops were burnt, women and little children saw their husbands and fathers swept away in tho awful maelstrom of war —and saw it face to face. Only those who have witnessed the terrors and the sickening experiences of a real war can have any conception of the suffering it inflicts or the hatred it engenders. Suffering may be for gotten, but'hatred is an awful weed that flourishes. '

' There could be but one end to a struggle between a powerful Empire and “a little people, few but apt in the field.” When the end did conic it must be sot down to our national credit that we had leaders wise enough and strong enough in their wisdom to grant to tho conquered territories such a full measure of representative government that those who had been most energetic in the field against ns became his Majesty’s most prominent advisers—Christian do Wet. among others in the Orange River Colony: while General Louis Botha became the first Prime Minister of the Transvaal. Thjs latter colony, once so bitter and irreconcilable, now showed its appreciation by presenting to King Edward VII the famous “Cullinan” diamond, the largest known in the world. This liberal treatment of the old Dutch States has been productive of the happiest results, and events culminated on May 31, 1910. the anniversary of the peace of 1902. in the inauguration of tho new constitution for a united South Africa, the federating States consisting of Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal, the Orange River Colony, Rhodesia, and the protectorates of Bechuanaland and Basutoland.

In 1914 came a great test —the world war. What would these South African States do? Would they be loyal to the British Grown? The Germans spared nothing to cause the Dutch to rebel and throw' in their lot with Britain’s enemies. The small British garrisons at the Cape made dispositions to hold only that small part known as the Cape Peninsula I was privileged to hear the story from General Thompson himself, and he was the general officer commanding in South Africa. Sitting up there on tho slopes of Table Mountain he told me of the anxious days of August, 1914. “But Botha and Smuts were ‘ white men,’ and South Africa was saved.” We talked of the Dolarcy rebellion, which was put down by the South African Dutchmen themselves. “Surely,” I said, “that was significant. These Dutchmen in authority shooting men of their own race.” “Yes,” said the General, “it really was wonderful.” “Well, that means that a brighter day has dawned for South Africa, doesn’t it?” I queried. “I hope so,” said the General, but he added quickly, “South Africa is very like Ireland.” And then as we eat up there on the heath and watched the songless South .African birds playing among the sugar bushes, I began to realise tho complexity of the local politics—the educational difficulties, the problem of language, the “poor white” problem, and perhaps the greatest question of all, that eternal one of colour. A visit to the Union Parliament was an education. Two languages were used —tho Speaker spoke first in English, and, repeated the words in the Taal. There were two interesting groups—one. the Labour members, young men and alert, extremists from the mining districts; then there were the Back-veld members, with long whiskers, and with very keen susrdptjhilities. A Minister was speaking, in English, of the necessity for reform in dairying methods, so that South African butter might be able to compete in the world’s markets. When this was translated into Dutch, there was a tremendous protest from the back-veld members—quite a hubbub. It seemed that the Minister had referred to the lack of science and perhaps due cleanliness on the pari of tho South African butter-maker. This was construed as a particularly nasty attack on the Dutch women of the farms, who, of course, are the principal buttermakers. Nothing would quieten tho indignant Dutchmen, and Botha, who was absent from the House on committee work, had to be sent for. When he arrived he spoke quietly to them in their own beloved language, made a few dignified gestures, and all was peace once more. A trivial in-* cident perhaps, but it throws a little light on tho peculiar temperament of these representatives, and on tho great reliance placed in Louis Botha. He was a Dutchman through and through, and was universally loved and respected; whereas at, that time General Smuts was not trusted to the same degree, for Smuts had been a protege of Cecil Rhodes, and had had a brilliant career at Cambridge University, and so to a certain extent was_ considered tainted by too much contact with the British.

Though the generous treatment of the now territories made n verv favourable imnression. the pessimists always hold that South Africa was a very uncertain qualitv. “Look at the Hertzog party,” they would say. .

A very definite answer came in February of this year. For some years a “Nationalist" Party, led by General Hertzog, has agitated for independence. Before’ this year’s elections. General Smuts had a very precarious majority of four votes. The Nationalist 44 votes and the Labour 21, made a total of 65 in opposition to the 69 who supported General Smuts. Tin's total was made up of 41 of Smuts’s party, 25 Unionists, and three Independents. For the elections of 1921. the Unionists joined forces with General Smuts and fought the election as the South African Party, achieving this great victory:— South African Party 76 Nationalist Party 41 Labour Party v . ... 9 Independent 1 —thus giving General Smuts a majority of 25 over all the other groups. And this is the answer of the South African nation to the world—this election which was described by one United States paper a$ “the most important election ever held in South Africa, one of the most important over held in the British Empire.” The old conception of Empire is not congenial to General Smuts, and in this he does not stand alone. He is always careful to refer, not to the “British Empire,” but to the “British Commonwealth.” More and more wo are beginning to consider the component parts of the Empire as nations within the Empire, States with a nation’s status. And this is the way they are recognised in the Peace Treaty of Versaillies. To-day this South African Dutchman is one of the most trusted leaders—not only of the British commonwealth—but of the world. If it is true that the past is niii"tenthj of the present, General Smuts is typical of the bigness, the generosity, of the South African Dutch—men who are big enough to lie able to forget the past.

And now wo have this new get of ambassadors—a body of men knitting the commonwealth together with the strong ties of

sport! This honest sporting tussle for football supremacy is more effective than the subtleties of liack-frocked diplomatists. Truly this is the age of miracles. The men of the last generation fought each other tor the possession of the diamond mines and for power; the men of this cross the ocean to get possession of a leather ball. This is the crowning glory of the British Commonwealth, the sign of our perfect brotherhood, for men to come together in the world of snort. And when a German cricket team defeats the chosen of Australia, and a .Tapanse fifteen severely trounces Taranaki, there will need to be no talk- of disarmament, for the honourable men of snort will have no stomach for the fight! Perhnns in the same year a battledore and shuttlecock team from Paekakariki will humble the elite of Tokio! It seems a long way of!! But who in 1901 would have credited that, even in 1921 a team of “Springboks’’ would have toured New Zealand? We should be profoundly thankful' that we are privileged to live in such an ago. And may the best team win!