secretserviceinsouthafrica（133页）.docVIP

SECRET SERVICE IN SOUTH AFRICA BY DOUGLAS BLACKBURN Douglas Blackburn (1857-1929), Document and Cipher Expert to the late Transvaal Republic. Author of Prinsloo of rinsloosdorp, Richard Hartley, Prospector, etc. AND Captain W. WAITHMAN CADDELL Chief Repatriation Magistrate for the West Rand on the British Occupation GASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD. London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 1911 FOREWORD A few words of justification are perhaps necessary for adding to the books on a country that has latterly received more than its share of attention from writers of varying degrees of authority. This volume has at least one feature not possessed by the majority of cognate works. It has not been written to attack or defend any party or policy. The authors have been prompted by two main reasons. First, they have had peculiar, and in some respects unique, opportunities for close association with the persons and events dealt with. Secondly, the opening of a new chapter in the history of South Africa with the establishment of the Union seems to warrant a valedictory review of some of the less-known events and conditions of the Old Regime before they have become indistinct and hazy, and possibly perverted in the re-telling. Had it not been already used, the title which most accurately would have fitted this work is, Footnotes to History. The events recorded are largely those which in a more pretentious volume would not be incorporated in the text, yet are valuable for the light they throw on many phases of South African history that, without them, would be obscure. The phrase secret service is intended to cover those comprehensive acts and aspects of policy which for reasons political or commercial, legitimate or otherwise, were enacted purposely below the surface and out of the public ken. Of such are the questionable methods of recruiting native labour, the abnormal State-aided precautions for the protection of the gold and diamond ind