SIDE LIGHTS ON SOUTH AFRICA

274 pages, colour folding map, uncut edges, original red cloth gilt slightly frayed on top and bottom of spine

Mendelssohn (Sidney) SOUTH AFRICAN BIBLIOGRAPHY volume 1 page 455: The authoress expresses her opinions on South African politics with considerable vigour, comparing the " grotesquely mismanaged " South African League, with the " marvellous " organisation of the Bond, and observing that while Mr. Hofmeyr " rules his lieutenants with a rod of iron," Captain Brabant " thinks a great deal about the League, and very little about South Africa, with the result that the tactics of his society rather recall the ladies' committee of a charitable institution than the executive of a serious political organisation." After a short stay at Pretoria and Johannesburg the writer appears to have been convinced that " the manifold restrictions which hedge the liberty and enterprise of the alien population located there, are, for the most part, as oppressive as they are un- necessary," and that the cause of the depression and friction was " the iniquitous system of indirect taxation which crippled the mining industry on every hand." The account of Mr. Kruger affords a curious study of the Boer statesman, and it is remarked that " by some strange process of atavism, Paul Kruger seems to reincarnate the elemental forces of ignorance and superstition that dominated the primitive ages of the world; kept in his place by the most ignorant section of his own people, he is regarded by all, except the semi-educated official class, with a sort of superstitious awe." It is asserted that " The President strenuously denied the accusation that the Bond had received financial assistance from the Transvaal Government. '