2110-1-16-14

Dec. 18. 04

High Commissioner's Office, Johannesburg.

Dear John

I have just come back from staying with Madge at "Bulawayo" in Pretoria. I went over for Kruger's funeral & yesterday went & saw the Premier Mine. I believe Madge intends to write to you, so you will be able to compare our impressions of the funeral. I don't think it wd be true to call it an impressive sight, but there were many things in it that "gave one furiously to think". The number of people present have been exaggerated &

I would not put it down as more than 10000 or 12000. The Ceremony was held in the Church Square. In front of the church a hideously ugly black platform had been built. The coffin itself was not in this church, but in the Susannah Zaal beyond the Palace of Justice. The tower in the old church had been pronounced unsafe a few days before, & had been pulled down by the P.W.D. who made rather a mess of the job, most of the tower falling

into the church, smashing the organ, windows etc. By about 3.30 the grave was crowded with a motley throng, the Dutch of course preponderating enormously. There were a few policemen & a few S.A.C but they were all entirely unarmed. There were in addition a kind of amateur Boer police, keeping the crowd in order, Dutchmen in black clothes, black slouch hats & black bands round their bodies, commanded by a fellow called De Jager, Botha's adjutant in the war. Then we had the Staats Artillerie in brand new uniforms, a fine body of men, and endless deputations.

The show began with a speech from Schalk Burger, but he was impossible even to hear. After him Christian de Wet made an impassioned speech, & lastly Botha spoke, reading nearly all his speech. Then hymns and then the funeral procession appeared from the Susannah Zaal, & started for the cemetery: first the relatives then the Govt., Deane representing H.E, Dick Solomon, & Geoffrey Glyn (the latter representing only himself.) Madge & I walked about the crowd the whole time.

The impression I gathered of the Boers present was not a pleasant one. There were plenty of "taakhaars", old fellows with long draggled hair, rough beards & wild faces. They can never have washed in their lives. I thought a great many were degraded-looking beings, some certainly with black blood, & often with almost animal faces. They were a good many back-country