Orange Free State

In Brand's successor to the presidency—F. W. Reitz—the Transvaal found an ally. At one time an advocate at the Cape and since 1874 chief justice of the Free State, Reitz had been in 1881—at the time of Majuba—a leading organizer in the State of the Afrikander Bond (q.v.), at that time a bitterly anti-British organization. Reitz was elected president in Jan. 1889; two months later he made a treaty of alliance with Kruger. The alli ance looked to a contingency which, however, did not arise dur ing Reitz's presidency and meanwhile the Free State continued to prosper. From its geographical position it reaped the benefit with out incurring the anxieties consequent on the settlement of a large uitlander population on the Rand. The Jameson raid, Dec. 1895, re-awakened anti-British feeling in the Free State. Reitz had resigned the presidency a month before the raid and at the election in Feb. 1896 Judge M. T. Steyn, a strong nationalist, was elected president, receiving 41 votes against 19 cast for (Sir) John G. Fraser. Fraser was the most prominent of the burghers of Scots descent, of whom there were a considerable number in the State, and he represented Brand's policy. Many burghers sup ported Fraser in opposition to entangling engagements with the Transvaal ; nevertheless, Steyn, though protesting against many of the manifestations of Krugerism, concluded a new defensive and offensive alliance with Kruger in March 1896.

The South African War and After.

In the four years which followed, the Free State revised its constitution, the period of resi dence to obtain naturalization being reduced (Dec. 1897) from five to three years; entered (1898) into a new customs union with the Cape and Natal and in other ways tried to live up to its repu tation as a model community. It was alarmed at the developments of the uitlander troubles in the Transvaal and tried to get Kruger to enact reforms ; its ex-president, Reitz, had become State secre tary in the Transvaal. Bloemfontein was chosen as the place for the Milner-Kruger conference which met in June, 1899, when Steyn urged Kruger to grant the five-year franchise to the uit lander (and thus avoid war) and Kruger retorted by asking Steyn "not to play the tame elephant to get him into the English kraal." But when the war came in the October following, the Free State was solidly by the side of the Transvaal. A resolution had been passed by the volksraad on Sept. 27 declaring that the State would observe its obligations to the Transvaal whatever happened. It would probably have sided with its sister Boer republic in any case, alliance or no alliance, for racial ties were strong. The offer of the British Government to respect the independence of the Orange Free State if it remained neutral had no response; and, as is common in these cases, the bitterness against Great Britain— with whom it had no cause of quarrel—was greater in the Free State than in the Transvaal. The events of the war are told else

where. (See SOUTH AFRICAN WAR and SOUTH AFRICA, UNION OF.) Orange River Colony.—Bloemfontein was occupied by the British under Lord Roberts on March 13, 19oo ; and on May 28 following the Free State was annexed to the British dominions under the title of Orange River Colony. For nearly two years longer the burghers kept the field under Christian de Wet (q.v.), and other leaders, but by the articles of peace signed on May 31, 1902, British sovereignty was acknowledged. A civil administra tion of the colony was established early in 1901 and in June 1902 a nominated legislative council was set up of which Sir John Fraser and a number of other prominent ex-burghers became un official members. In every direction vigorous and successful ef forts were made to repair the ravages of the war. Over £4,000, 000 was spent by the British Government in the colony on these objects. At the same time efforts were made—with no great meas ure of success—to strengthen the British element in the country by means of land settlements. Special attention was also devoted to the development of the resources of the country and the educa tion system was reorganized and greatly improved.

Responsible Government.

Having recovered from the worst effects of the war the Boers, both in the Transvaal and Orange Colony, began in 1904 to make organized efforts to regain their political ascendancy. This agitation, as far as the Orange River Colony was concerned, coincided with the return to South Africa of ex-President Steyn. Steyn had gone to Europe at the close of the war and did not take the oath of allegiance to the British Crown until the autumn of 1904. A congress of ex-burghers was held at Brandfort in Dec. 1904, when among other resolutions passed was one demanding the grant of self-government to the colony. This was followed in July 1905 by a conference at Bloem fontein, when it was resolved to form a national union. This or ganization, the Oranjie Unie, was formally constituted in May 1906.

A counter-organization was formed by ex-burghers who had wholeheartedly accepted the new order of things. They took the title of the Constitutional party, and Sir John Fraser was chosen as chairman. In Bloemfontein the Constitutionalists had a strong following; elsewhere their supporters were numerically weak. The programmes of the two parties were very similar, the real differ ence between them being the attitude with which they regarded the British. While the ideal of the Unie was an Afrikander state, the Constitutionalists desired the equality of both white races.