Astonished at Results.

When I traveled through South Africa the other day this new Constitution had been working for a few years, and I can only say that I was astonished at the results.  Here and there in the remoter districts, it is true, some racial feeling still prevailed, but taken as a whole this seems absolutely to have died away.  Briton and Boer have come together in a manner for which I believe I am right in saying there is no precedent in the history of the world, so shortly, at any rate, after a prolonged and bitter struggle to the death.  I might give many instances, but I will only take one.  At Pretoria I was asked to inspect a company of Boy Scouts, and there I found English and Dutch lads serving side by side with the utmost brotherhood.  Again I met most of the men who had been leaders of the Boers in the war.  One and all professed the greatest loyalty to England.  Moreover, I am certain that this was not lip loyalty; it was from the heart.  Especially was I impressed by that great man, Gen. Botha, with whom I had several conversations.  I am convinced that at this moment the King has no truer or more faithful servant than Gen. Botha.  Again and again did I hear from prominent South Africans of Dutch or Huguenot extraction that never more was there any chance of trouble between Boer and Briton.

I know it is alleged by some that this is because the Dutch feel that they have on the whole made a good bargain, having won absolute constitutional liberty and the fullest powers of self-government, plus the protection of the British fleet.  There may be something in this view, but I am sure that the feeling goes a great deal deeper than self-interest.  Mutual respect has arisen between those who ten years ago were enemies fighting each other.

Appeal to People’s Imagination.

Moreover, the Boer now knows a great deal more of the British Empire and what it means than he did then.  Lastly, the supreme generosity evinced by Britain in giving their enemy of the day before every right and privilege that is owned by her other oversea dominions with whom she has never had a quarrel appeals deeply to the imagination of the Dutch people.  Now, the world sees the results.  Germany, which has miscalculated so much in connection with this war and the part that the British Empire would play in it, miscalculated nowhere more than it did in the case of South Africa.  The German war lords hoped that India and Egypt would rise, they trusted that Canada and Australia would prove lukewarm, but they were certain that South Africa would seize the opportunity to rebel.  How could it be otherwise, they thought, seeing that but yesterday she was at death grips with us.  Then came the great surprise.  Lo and behold! instead of rebelling, South Africa promptly cabled to England saying that every British soldier might be withdrawn from her shores, and, further, that the burghers of the land would themselves undertake