THE SITUATION IN SOUTH AFRICA.
Speech at Bournemouth, October 5th, 1899.[1]
(Reprinted from ‘Bournemouth Directory.’)
Declaration of war.If the rumour that war had begun was true, then that meeting was held one day too late, but he was glad to think from the latest tidings he had received, and from his own strong belief that the Boers would not take the initial warlike step on the frontier, that at present war had not broken out. His opinion, he confessed, had all along been that there would be no war. If he had been wrong, and the Boers had declared war, he would never believe that the prospects of a satisfactory settlement were diminished by the fact that Her Majesty's Government made it plain that they were prepared to resort to arms to put an end to the state of unrest which had stopped the progress of all South Africa for some years past, and of which the Transvaal Government had been the focus.
- ↑ Mr. Brassey, during the months of August and September, had visited the Transvaal, Rhodesia, Natal, and Cape Colony. War broke out in less than a week after this speech was delivered.
243
