Adamantia : the truth about the South African diamond fields : or, a ...

HIS WHOLESALE PERVERSION OF TRUTH. 361majority of the people at all three places had adopteda course in antagonism to the Free State; whereas,out of some 10,000 diggers, 112 constituted theCawood's Hope party, and barely 100 the number ofthe nominal volunteers at the other two places.)Sir H. Barkly, referring to the arbitration proposedon the 5th of April by the Free State Volksraad, andthe stipulation that, pending arbitration, its Governmentshould retain possession of and jurisdiction over theterritory, containing 143 of its farms, which it had enjoyedsince 1854, continues:·e Under present circumstances, the acceptance of the concludingstipulation would be wholly out of the question, even if Waterboercould be brought to assent to it (!), for tM mtire population of thediamond fields, which was nover disposed to pay much :respect tothe Free State, has boen so thoroughly alienated by its late futilethreats of coercion, tluzt the!l woulil r'f"", at all lIallJrtU, to h, 1000INItl/)!I it, and if 1M Britil" GOfJwnmint withdrew it. Special Jlagiltrat., andwitAJull protection, tI war of rfICII would, I tim afraid, h'lin I"To expose such wholesale perversions of truth as theabove, in moderate, or even decent, language is a difficulttask indeed. 'Vhy, at the time he wrote suchunmitigated falsehood and absurdity (April 11th, 1811),Sir H. Barkly must have been as well aware as I, orany of the people in the country, that the Government ofthe Free State WfU then zn the actual exercise of uncontrolled(luthori(lj and jurudiction Of)er the camps and diggzngs ofPniel, Robinson' 8 Kopje, and adjacent places, Du. Toit' 8Pan, BUltjontein and Alexandera/ontein, De Beer's andJagers/ontein-representing a popUlation of at least 7,000to 8,000 whites! lIoreover, it is notorious throughoutSouth Africa; the whole press has for months teemedwith it; it is prominently expressed in many of theDigitized by Goog Ie