In introducing _A Century of Wrong_ to the British public, I carefully
disassociate myself from assuming any responsibility for all or any of
the statements which it contains. My _imprimatur_ was not sought, nor is
it extended to the history contained in _A Century of Wrong_, excepting
in so far as relates to its authenticity as an exposition of what our
brothers the Boers think of the way in which we have dealt with them for
the last hundred years.

That is much more important than the endorsement by any Englishman as
to the historical accuracy of the statements which it contains. For what
every judicial tribunal desires, first of all, is to hear witnesses at
first hand. Hitherto the British public has chiefly been condemned to
second-hand testimony. In the pages of _A Century of Wrong_ it will, at
least, have an opportunity of hearing the Dutch of South Africa speak
for themselves.

There is no question as to the qualifications of Mr. F.W. Reitz to speak
on behalf of the Dutch Africander. Although at this moment State
Secretary for President Kruger, he was for nearly ten years Chief
Justice and then President of the Orange Free State, and he began his
life in the Cape Colony. The family is of German origin, but his
ancestors migrated to Holland in the seventeenth century and became
Dutch. His grandfather emigrated from Holland to the Cape, and founded
one of the Africander families. His father was a sheep farmer; one of
his uncles was a lieutenant in the British Navy.

Mr. Reitz is now in his fifty-sixth year, and received a good English
education. After graduating at the South African College he came to the
United Kingdom, and finished his studies at Edinburgh University, and
afterwards at the Inner Temple, where he was called to the Bar in 1868.