|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 5
On the 12th of October the Bodyguard for the German South-West Campaign
assembled for field practices, etc., at Pretoria. On the 20th we heard
that we should be leaving at an hour's notice, presumably for the
South-West. The following day wild and disquieting rumours began to
circulate from early morning. Maritz had gone into rebellion.
Motor-cars sped all forenoon between General Botha's house close to us
and the Union Defence Headquarters. Our camp was full of alarms. The
police of Pretoria became suddenly twice as many about the streets.
Towards evening it was positively stated that plots were afoot aiming at
nothing less than the life of General Botha; and the Main Guard, which
had been mounted at the General's house from the day of the Bodyguard's
formation, was doubled. Not a soul was allowed within or around the
modest grounds of the house without challenge at the point of the bayonet
and presentment of the countersign. It will be long before memory loses
the picture of those evenings, when through the lighted windows of the
left wing of the house the Main Guard first and second reliefs got a view
of a familiar ample figure in anxious consultations at a table upon which
the electric light cast a mellow glow.
The next day, the 22nd of October, rumour gave way to fact. Rebellion
had definitely broken out in the Transvaal and the Free State; Beyers,
the ex-Commandant General, Kemp and others were leading in the
Transvaal; the names of De Wet and Wessel Wessels were coupled with the
Free State. For the second time within a year unhappy South Africa
heard rumours of imminent Martial Law proclamations.
Monday morning, the 26th, arrived and found us still waiting; then the
Bodyguard got twenty minutes' notice and entrained, horses, kits and
everything for Rustenburg. We arrived there at five o'clock the
following morning, and started at once in pursuit of rebel commandos
which were led by Kemp and Beyers. Before starting, General Botha over
a cup of coffee had an anxious consultation with his loyal commandants
who had arrived to meet him. Throughout the day we trekked, with one
brief halt only, and "outspanned" that night near Oliphant's Nek.
During the day the loyal commandos located the rebels without much
difficulty; they were routed in all directions, and some eighty were
captured. At two o'clock in the morning we continued the trek, stopped
in the forenoon on the railway line at Derby (close to Drakfontein, the
scene of the British disaster to Benson's Horse during the South
African War), and pushing on in the evening to Koster, learnt from
incoming scouts that Kemp had escaped capture by minutes only. The
direction of his flight was questionable at the time.
Returning to Pretoria, we remained there for a few days. The whole town
was in a state of remarkable tension. The police were armed. Armed
volunteers were called for. Loyalists were training after working hours
in batches on various open spaces. It was freely whispered that the
German South-West Campaign would be given up, so formidable was the
threatened opposition to it.... I am writing this much less than a year
later: and Windhuk has fallen, the Germans have surrendered their
territory, and thousands of burghers and volunteers are returning to
their homes.
On the 2nd of November we left Pretoria again. More trouble was brewing
at Brits, close to Pretoria. We trekked straightway to Zoutpan's Drift,
the commandos again pursuing a body of rebels who, cutting through the
railway line, had caused damage at De Wilts or Greyling's Post, twenty
miles or so outside the Union capital. Quite unwilling to make a stand,
the insurgents were again put to flight, and General Botha returned to
Pretoria the following day. In the meantime other loyalist columns in
the Transvaal had taken to the field, and the rebellion seemed well in
hand.
SECTION II
DE WET
Compared with the Free State insurrection, the Transvaal affair
appeared in many ways to be a small business from our point of view. In
actuality it was nothing of the kind. It was, if anything, much more
ugly in spirit. The genius of the Free State section of insurgents
displayed itself chiefly in a highly finished exposition of lying,
looting and "legging it."
De Wet's delirious harangue had not exhausted its nine-days' life as a
masterpiece of unconscious humour when General Botha left Pretoria for
the Free State on November 9. Again, I am not concerned with the highly
complex motives which prompted the veteran Dutch General to make his
delightful "Five Bob Outrage" speech and other things at Vrede.
Flogging dead horses is a useless job, anyway.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|