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[pencil marked: January 1902 with letters to Stair Gillon]
High Commissioner's office, Johannesburg
dying like flies in spite of all our efforts. It is odd hearing Scots psalm-tunes rising from the tents. My work is certainly varied, for I have to decide on irrigation, engineering, medical, culinary, and financial problems. All in all, I feel a very excellent training, for I am learning to organise & take responsibility.
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I shall be able to tell you some strange stories when I cross Annan Water again.
Old Maxwell, the Military Governor of Pretoria (Gen. Sir J. G. Maxwell, et. ct), says he is a cousin of the Maxwells of Gribton; therefore I assume he is a relation of yours, and we have become great friends.
There is a lot of childish
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anti- Boerism rampant here of the 'Carthago est delenda' type. It is very easy to destroy: our problem is to consolidate. I believe that the settlement by govt money for Scots & English farmers on the land will be (D.V). the greatest means of consolidation. You may read my opinion on this subject in an article which will probably appear in the 'Edinburgh Review' for April.
We are having a Burns dinner on the 25th and a Jacobite
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dinner on the 30th. I have got 2 confidential clerks - one Somerville from Mankerton and a new one Forsyth, with a Glasgow accent you could cut.
Write to me soon again, with kind regards to your family, & any stranger within your gate whom I know
Sincerely yours
John
