Patriotism Under Three Flags; A Plea for Rationalism in Politics (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ...had rankled in the minds of the Boers. Great Britain had during that time, by the unforeseen influx of large numbers of her citizens, greatly increased her power in the state. A sustained agitation against the Boer Government had been marked by an armed raid organised by a popular and respected minister of the Queen, a member of the Privy Council. The British political organisations in South Africa had proclaimed their intention of making an end of the Boer republics; and on the top of all this came a demand for political reforms which would still further place the power in the hands of the foreigners in the state, accompanied by a demand for the formal surrender of national autonomy in the shape of an acknowledgment of suzerainty--a demand which Sir Edward Clarke in the House of Commons described as a breach of national faith, and concerning which Lord Salisbury has indicated his view by officially avowing in the House of Lords that Mr Kruger made "considerable territorial and other sacrifices" to have the claim of suzerainty cancelled in 1884. Diplomacy of this kind was a direct provocative of war. Despite the frankly avowed intention--avowed by English newspapers, English political organisations, and English statesmen--to bring the whole of South Africa, "from the Cape to the Zambesi," under the flag, nothing is commoner to-day than for the patriots to wave aside all discussions as to the origin of the Boer War by the simple plea that " the Boers began it." For the purpose of these articles it does not matter at all who fired the first shot. What is certain is that the British were determined to assert their dominion over the whole country, and were willing and anxious to do so at the price of war....