embroiled elsewhere. It was also thought of importance that the
Transvaal should first realize the auriferous "underground rights"
situated around the Johannesburg mines, which Government asset was
expected to net at least fifty million pounds sterling. The sales had
already been advertised, and were in preparation when the outbreak of
the war intervened. Upon the word "ready," flashed from Bloemfontein,
followed at once the fateful Pretoria ultimatum. The proceeds of those
underground rights must now come in afterwards to defray the war bill.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 11: President Krüger's reference to that factory is well
known, styling it as one of the corner-stones of Boer independence.]




THE BOERS' NATIVE POLICY


Boer views regarding coloured peoples are those retained from Dutch
practices of a hundred and more years ago, when the Cape of Good Hope
still belonged to that nation. Servitude, if not absolute slavery, was
then generally recognised as the proper status for coloured aborigines,
and that principle of differentiation continues to be upheld and applied
in a modified form, it must be admitted, in all the Colonial possessions
of Holland. The authority for this stand is sought from ancient biblical
history, where the descendants of Ham appear marked out for servitude,
and from that basis it is interpreted that people so marked are not
designed for tuition or evangelization until after they have been