1914: The Union of South Africa's Fatal Year
Imperial Occupation, European War, Internment, Censorship, Invasion, Republican Rebellion .... and Schism
Steve Hannath with permission from Hugh Amoore RDPSA.
In September 2024 Hugh Amoore RDPSA gave an inspirational Zoom presentation to the South African Collectors’ Society on the subject of ‘Internment in South Africa during WW1’. Those who did not see it missed something special. This article on the major events of 1914 has grown out of Hugh’s Zoom deeply impressive presentation.
The October 2024 issue of SACS's 'The Springbok' includes a full report on that Zoom meeting. Rather than duplicate the report again I decided to combine the material which Hugh supplied to SACS with additional items of my own and other SAPC members in order to underline the pivotal events of 1914 whose consequences shaped much of ‘White South African’ politics for my post-WW2 generation.
Circa 1916. General Louis Botha, Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, 1910 - 1919.
Boer Warrior, Statesman, Empire Loyalist, the Most Hated Man in Republican Afrikanerdom.
Botha's campaign in GSWA was largely a South African one in which he favoured mounted Boer commandos.
He gave Britain its first victory of the war. It was the only 'British' campaign of WW1 not run by British Staff officers.
Cigarette silk (1 of 61), 'General Botha', BDV Cigarettes, (Godfrey Phillips Pty Ltd, Great Britain, 1914-1918).
For an article on the GSWA campaign, see SWA: 1914 - 1923. The Union Land Grab.
If you have material that can expand this article to illustrate the social, political and postal developments in South Africa during WW1, please send scans and your comments to me for my consideration. If suitable I will include them here. In particular, I am looking for items that cover the internment of Enemy Aliens and the withdrawal of the Imperial Garrison after the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. (As a British dominion South Africa entered World War I automatically on 4th August 1914 when Britain declared war on Germany and its allies. South Africa officially declared its support for the war after a divisive Parliamentary debate on 14th September 1914.)
I am also looking for items that will illustrate South Africa's the outburst of riotous public disorder known as ‘Germanophobia’ and, of course, more material on the Invasion of GSWA and also the Republican Rebellion. These events split the Afrikaner nation (Afr. 'die Broedertwis'. the quarrel between brothers) and led to a long period of Afrikaner Nationalist republican agitation and rule in which SA's ad hoc segregation was formaliseed into a political policy known as Apartheid. But that's another story not to be covered here!
Contact Us:
To contact us about this article and or to submit scans, please email:
Steve Hannath <editor@southafricanphilatelyclub.com>
This article is more history than one on stamps and covers which I use extensively for the purposes of illustration. To satisfy those philatelists and postal historians with a need for postage rates and routes I start with a brief description of the rates of the time as they were applied to the items illustrated below. The article starts with the South African backround politics leading up to the events of 1914. This article will be in about 8 -10 parts as I am limited to five images per post. It will take a similar number of says to complete.
Postage Rates of the WW1 Internment Period: 1914 – 1919
Under the Hague and UPU (Universal Postal Union) Conventions of 1907 mail from servicemen, POWs and Internees was free of charge. Registered and parcel post mail was treated differently by some countries who were signatories to the conventions. All international mail went by ship (surface mail) as no airmail service existed at the time.
Between 1910 to 1919 the postage rate in the Union of South Africa and SWA once conquered remained much without change. The domestic mail rate on a standard sealed letter was a 1d up to a ½ ounce or a part thereof, a postcard a ½d. Overseas letters to Britain and the Empire were a 1d per ½ ounce and 2½d to foreign destinations (like Germany or the USA). In the Union a Registered letter cost an internee 4d while the normal additional cost of standard postage was free.
1902 - The War is Over (.... for some)
The defeated ‘Boer’ Republican forces surrendered on 31st May 1902. The SAW (South African War), one started by the Boers as a pre-emptory strike against a much superior foe, ended in the horror of a holocaust. Many surrendered Boers who had been imprisoned overseas found they had neither homes nor family to return to. This was the result of the British Army's scorched earth policies - the destruction of farms, homesteads, even some small rural towns, as well as cattle and livestock - and the forced removal of Boer 'refugees' to concentration camps where appalling conditions and indifferent treatment led to a death among children that peaked at 433 / 1000.
Following the “Khaki Election” of 1900, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal MP and leader of the Liberal Party, met Emily Hobhouse, a British anti-war activist. She bought the plight of the incarcerated ‘Boer’ and African ‘refugess’ to the British public;s attention. Campbell-Bannerman was so shocked by what Hobhouse told him of the conditions in the concentration camps that he described them as ‘methods of barbarism’ in a speech to the National Reform Union in June 1901. As a result, for many Boers defeat by and peace with the British was hard to swallow. The bitterness they felt became a cornerstone of Afrikaner Nationalist Republicanism.
Victory in the SAW saw Britain achieve its long-held imperial goal for southern Africa, the unification of its British colonies of the Cape and Natal with the defeated ‘Boer’ republics of the OFS (Orange Free State) and ZAR (South African Republic aka ‘Transvaal). In order to maintain Pax Brittanica while strong-arming the reluctant ‘Boers’ into accepting the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, Britain retained a large and powerful army, the Imperial Garrison, in South Africa, from 1902 - 1914. Victory in the SAW left the country’s English jingoists cock-a-hoop. There was now no obstacle to the British running the country for the benfit of capital.
For many, this was the natural order of things at a time when God was thought to be an Englishman. As a result, the Boers had to be made to speak English in school, the courts and the civil service. The imperial hubris that the English expressed after the Boer surrender was soon tempered by recognition that the ‘Boers’ were the largest European group in the country. Politically English-speakers would have to play second fiddle in any democratic Boer’ ‘tiekiedraai’. (Afr. a fast folk dance that turns on a tight circle). If Britain’s long-term goal of unification was to be achieved the defeated ‘Dutchmen’, ‘Japies’ and ‘back-velders’, had to be accomodated and brought on-side.
The defeated ‘Boer leaders made it clear that there could be no negotiations with Britain if Black South Africans were given political rights. For its part Britain felt that Black South Africans were yet not ready to run a rapidly industrialising country whose mineral wealth its Empire had fought a hugely expensive war to acquire. When the negotiations finally concluded with agreement Britain granted political power in the Union of South Africa to ‘Europeans Only’. The objections of Black South Africans were brushed aside as Britain concentrated on finding the right White man to lead ‘Boer’ and Brit in its new Imperial dominion, the Union of South Africa.
That man was General Louis Botha, the previous Commander of ZAR Forces. He was ably assisted by General Jan Smuts, previously the ZAR's State Attorney. They would share an unwavering loyalty to the British Empire which they saw as a shield behind which White South Africa would prosper across southern Africa. The sky was the limit in terms of what was possible. Their first mistake was to assume that all the ex-Boer commanders that they appointed to high office in the Union of South Africa and its nascent Union Defence Force shared their enthusiasm for the Empire. Many did not. They bided their time remembering their lost republics and 'volk' (Afr. folk, kin).
More to come. Watch this space.......