AFRIKANER BOND--OUTLINES AND PROGRAMME


The late Mr. Jan Brand, that noble President who was succeeded by Reitz
and now by Steyn in the presidency of the Orange Free State, appeared to
have had early intimations, or at least presages, as to the true nature
of the Afrikaner Bond, for during the early eighties that association
had yet posed as a harmless body, intended to preserve old Boer
traditions upon perfectly constitutional lines. President Brand and some
others then already suspected more, as the following incident will show.
In 1883 President Brand officially opened the new wagon-road bridge over
the Caledon River at Commissie drift, near Smithfield, Orange Free
State. Towards the conclusion of the ceremony, one of the other
speakers, Mr. Advocate Peeters, member of the Volksraad for Smithfield
district, in the course of his speech formally suggested that President
Brand should accept the leadership of the Orange Free State section of
the Afrikaner Bond. The President, addressing the burghers and all
present, replied in about the following terms: The proposal just then
made by Advocate Peeters had pained and offended him; the festive event
would be marred by that incident were it not that it afforded him the
opportunity, which he otherwise would have missed, of telling them all
what he thought of the Afrikaner Bond--that it was an evil thing; he
could not find terms strong enough to warn the people against its subtle
seductions. The Afrikaner Bond professed its objects to be peace and
harmony, but it really contained the pernicious seeds of division and
strife, to set up enmity between English Afrikaners and Boer Afrikaners.
He pointed out the sincerity of friendly relations on the part of