That 'God bless you' from
Bloemfontein, showed, perhaps, that he had not tilled in vain.
'There can be no harm,' said Sir George, 'in relating another incident,
which kept up the kindly link between the Orange Free State and myself.
Before my friend Mr. Reitz accepted its Presidency, he wrote and asked me
would I be willing to consider the offer, provided it were made to me? I
was then, I think, in the quiet of Kawau Island, and I suppose Mr. Reitz
believed I might be more actively employed.
'One did not need to be already a burgher of the Free State, for
President Brand had not been; at all events, that was not an obstacle. I
did not see my way to regard the offer, but the making of it manifested a
beautiful trait in Mr. Reitz's character. How many men, being tendered
the highest post that their country could confer, would have turned to
another, asking, "Will you accept it?"'
The manner in which Sir George tackled the South African embroilment,
appears in his treatment of that mongrel race, the Hottentots. They
recruited largely to the Queen's Colonial service, but had a grievance in
that, on leaving, they did not get, as they had been led to expect, the
pension of white troopers. The 'Totties,' so christened in the Colony,
might be loyal and brave, but they were not whites, and anything was good
enough for them, if only it meant an Imperial saving.
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