Review of Reoiewl, l/lOjOe. 



Character Sketch. 



359- 



Would you kindly state to tlie Committee what they 

 are? — My views are that the interests of Germany in South 

 Africa are identical with those of Enj^land. and that in 

 trying to i>rin? about, as I tried to do. a better .state of 

 afifairs in the Transvaal, and trying to replace an incapable. 

 and I miiilit saj^ corrupt Government by a capable and 

 intelligent Government. I was always acting as much in 

 the interests of Germany as in those of England. 



When you say they are identical, do you mean as re- 

 gards commercial interests? — Yes. absolutely commercial 

 interests. I say that Germany has only commercial in- 

 terests in the Transvaal. 



Mr. Beit did not hesitate to set himself against a 

 strong governmental current in his own country 

 when he saw that it would injure the real interests 

 of Germany. Possibly the remembrance of this fact 

 made him more tolerant of us pro-Boers when we 

 adopted the same course a few years later. 



MB. BEIT AND THE RAID. 



Mr. Beit was never hostile to the Dutch. If he 

 had been allowed a free hand I do not believe there 

 would have ever been a Raid and there never would 

 have been a war. He accepted the necessity for the 

 Reform movement in Johannesburg on the word onlv 

 of Mr. Rhodes, whom he regarded as a kind of su- 

 preme authority in politics. Everything Mr. Rhodes 

 had taken in hand had prospered. He had obtained 

 the Charter, conquered Rhodesia, secured the sup- 

 port of the Africander Bond, and he had just been 

 added to the Privy Council. Who was Mr. Alfred 

 Beit to oppose so heaven-sent a statesman in his own 

 peculiar domain ? Mr. Rhodes told Mr. Beit that 

 the time had come for something to be done in the 

 Transvaal. Mr. Beit replied that in whatever Rhodes 

 decided to do he would go halves. It was a simple 

 promise by w'ord of mouth. But it cost Mr. Beit 

 ^£200, GOO. and placed him in peril of losing both 

 liberty and life. 



Mr. L.eo Weinthal, writing in the African World 

 of this crisis in the history of the Raid, says: — ■ 



It was at this period that Alfred Beit, who had up to 

 then absolutely approved of everything proposed by his 

 political partner, became somewhat apprehensive as to the 

 wisdom of a policy of interference in the Transvaal, and. 

 as a fact, strongly urged conciliatory methods: but. even 

 when unwillingly dragged into politics, he was loyal in the 

 extreme degree, and. apparently convinced that nothing 

 serious would happen, he threw himself more heartil.v than 

 ever into the practical exploitation of the Rand deep' levels 

 and of the Northern Rhodesian projects, which were now 

 beginning to be actively felt from Bulawayo and Salisbury 

 to the Great Lakes. 



That fateful conversation took place at Cape Town 

 at the end of Mov or the beginning of June, imme- 

 diately after Mr. Rhodes's return from receiving his 

 Privy Councillorship. Mr. Beit made a hurried 

 visit to Johannesburg, talked over Mr. Rhodes's 

 suggestion with Mr. Phillips and Mr. Leonard, and 

 then went home to I^xsndon. sailing in the same ship 

 with Dr. Rutherfoord Harris, who was chaxged with 

 the duty of securing the support of Mr. Chamter- 

 iain for the great design. Mr. Beit remained in 

 London directing the conspiracy until the jumping- 

 off place had been secured and all was readv for 

 the great coup. On November 29th Mr. Rhodes 

 telegraphed : — 



Dr. Jameson back from Johannesburg. Everything right. 

 My jud^ent is. it is certainty. We think A. Beit must 

 oome with you on score of health. You will be just in 



time. A. Beit to stay with me here, and go up with us 

 and the Governor. 



Mr. Beit obeyed. But the opportunity to go up 

 with Mr. Rhodes and the Governor never arrived. 



WAS IT QUITE so MAD? 



Men ask in amazement, on reading such a tele- 

 gram, Where was the judgment of men like Rhodes 

 when they could speak of the perilous adventure 

 against President Kruger as " a certainty "? It must 

 be remembered, however, that the chance of a bona- 

 fide revolution in the Transvaal was by no means 

 small. The Boers were practically unarmed. The 

 opponents of Kruger were alnwst as numerous as 

 those of his supporters. A well-considered revolu- 

 tionary movement on the part of the anti-Krugerite 

 Boers might quite conceivably have been successful 

 if Johannesburg had flung its weight into the scale 

 against the President. All chance of this was de- 

 stroyed when Mr. Chamberlain insisted upon Jame- 

 son going in under the British flag, and converted 

 a daring but possible scheme for revolutionising the 

 Government of the South African Republic into an 

 absolutely impossible project of seizing the Trans- 

 vaal for the British Empire. The fatal mistake 

 niade by Mr. Rhodes, and acquiesced in by Mr. 

 Beit, was the attempt tn snatch success even after 

 Mr. Chamberlain had rendered it absolutely impos- 

 sible. They ought to have recoiled and waited their 

 time. They would probably have done so but for 

 the fateful cablegrams which Mr. Chamlierlain 

 caused Flora Shaw to send to his fellow-conspirators 

 at the other end of the cable. " Hurry up," they 

 said ; " delay dangerous." So goaded, Jameson 

 crossed t>ie frontier, and the whole game was lost. 



MR. BEIT m 1396. 



I first saw Mr. Beit after the Raid in 1896. I 

 had heard much about him, but I was not prepared 

 to find him so charming, so simple, and so unassum- 

 ing a man. He was expecting to go to gaol for his 

 share in the conspiracy. His doctor had warned him 

 that his heart was so weak the excitement of arrest, 

 trial, and imprisonment would probably prove fatal. 

 Mr. Beit faced the prospect with characteristic im- 

 perturbability. It was all in the day's work. He 

 had done what Rhodes wanted him to do. He had 

 failed, and he was pie])ared to face the music and 

 pay the bill. He did not say so; nothing was more 

 foreign to him than swagger. But when he left me 

 I felt that there was at least one other South Afri- 

 can who was of the same metal as Rhodes. 



A LIE NAILED TO THE COUNTER. 



The years passed. The Hush-up Committee which 

 made the war inevitable by its whitewashing of Mr. 

 Chamberlain did at lea:t one good thing. It afford- 

 ed Mr. Beit an opportunity of repudiating on oath 

 the charges brought against him, and of his having 

 made the Raid for the purjiose of rigging the mar- 

 ket. The following extract from the official Report 

 of his evidence before the Committee may be repro 

 duced here: — 



