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Contents PUBLISHER / UITGEWER .............................................................................................................. 4 PREVIOUS EDITIONS / VORIGE UITGAWES................................................................................ 4 AIM / DOEL ...................................................................................................................................... 4 COPYRIGHT.................................................................................................................................... 4 ONGOING PROJECTS.................................................................................................................... 4 WELKOM / WELCOME ................................................................................................................... 5 HISTORY OF BLOEMFONTEIN MODEL ENgGINEERING SOCIETY (BMES) .............................. 6 METRO: PEOPLE’S TRAINS ........................................................................................................ 16 Zuma pleads with commuters: Don't burn new Metrorail trains............................................... 16 RAILWAYS: HISTORICAL BABERTON ........................................................................................ 21 Nico Moolman ......................................................................................................................... 21 SHERBORNE ................................................................................................................................ 23 KNYSNA RAILWAY STATION: CARRIAGES................................................................................ 23 GERMAN WONDERLAND ............................................................................................................ 24 Received from Glenn Macaskill. ............................................................................................. 24 TRANS AFRICA LOCOMOTIVE: TAL 2000 .................................................................................. 25 PAY MASTERS USING RAIL TROLLEY, FOR SECTION, MONTH END PAY DUTIES. .............. 26 By John and Jacque Wepener. ............................................................................................... 27 RAILWAYS AND SEGREGATION / SPOORWEË EN AFSONDERLIKHEID ................................ 28 IS THE MAHATMA GANDHI STATUE AT PIETERMARITZBURG STATION BASED ON LIES? . 29 By Dr. JC van der Walt, Richards Bay .................................................................................... 29 RAIL ACTIVITY: NORTHERN FREE STATE................................................................................. 30 MAGLEV: NICO MOOLMAN.......................................................................................................... 32 The Shanghai Maglev Train .................................................................................................... 32 “CLARA” USED ON THE NAMAQUA EXPRESS: RAILWAY LINE FROM PORT NOLLOTH TO O’OKIEP: HENNIE HEYMANS ...................................................................................................... 32 Piet Conradie .......................................................................................................................... 33 Wikipedia: Col Andre Kritzinger .............................................................................................. 35 “Rails to the Well” by Frank Jux .............................................................................................. 36 Map 21: Railway Atlas of South Africa: Bruno Martin ............................................................. 38 “Clara” by Phil Beck ................................................................................................................ 41 1980: Plaque by SA Monuments Council: Phil Beck ............................................................... 42 Photos from the THF Archive: Y Meyer .................................................................................. 43 UK: CATTLE ON PLATFORM ....................................................................................................... 45 It must be cattle class: Passengers face travel chaos as herd of cows invade railway platform and delay trains ...................................................................................................................... 45 1983 BLUE TRAIN MENU ............................................................................................................. 45 2
CRADOCK STATION: JP MEYER ................................................................................................. 48 Rhodesia: Royal Visit: April 1947 ................................................................................................... 49 - Gerry van Tonder (UK) ......................................................................................................... 49 1899 - 1902: GENERAL BULLER: VISITING HOWICK HOSPITAL .............................................. 50 - Gerry van Tonder (UK) ......................................................................................................... 50 1899 – 1902: NGR: LADYSMITH NATAL ...................................................................................... 52 1925 ROYAL VISIT: PRINCE OF WALES ..................................................................................... 53 - Gerry van Tonder (UK) ......................................................................................................... 53 THE 1925 ROYAL VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA .............................................................................. 53 THE PRINCE OF WALES' AFRICAN BOOK; A PICTORIAL RECORD OF THE JOURNEY TO WEST AFRICA, SOUTH AFRICA AND SOUTH AMERICA........................................................... 54 - Arthur St. John Adcock, 1864-1930 ...................................................................................... 54 RAIL TRACKS "NORTH OF THE BORDER". ................................................................................ 68 John and Jacque Wepener. .................................................................................................... 69 1914 – 1918: SAR: ARMOURED TRAINS ..................................................................................... 69 Leith Paxton ............................................................................................................................ 69 PHOTOS FROM WAYNE NAUSCHUTZ ....................................................................................... 70 THE GL GARRATT ........................................................................................................................ 73 MAIL BOX ...................................................................................................................................... 77 Dr Dreyer van der Merwe........................................................................................................ 77 Comment on SAS-SAR Vol 8 No 4: Mr Les Pivnic ................................................................. 77 GH Garratt Union Type ........................................................................................................... 77 Joanne Lombard ..................................................................................................................... 79 SLOT / END ................................................................................................................................... 79
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PUBLISHER / UITGEWER This electronic magazine is compiled and published on ISSUU by Hennie Heymans. Hennie is a retired brigadier of the former South African Police. He is passionate about the history of South Africa’s National Security and holds a MA degree in National Strategic Studies. He is most interested in the strategic use of railways in Southern Africa but he loves trains generally no matter where they are!
Hierdie elektroniese tydskrif word saamgestel en uitgegee op die platform ISSUU deur Hennie Heymans. Hennie is ʼn afgetrede brigadier van die voormalige SA Polisie. Hy is passievol oor ons nasionale veiligheidsgeskiedenis en het ʼn MA-graad in nasionale strategiese studies verwerf. Hy stel belang in die strategiese aanwending van die spoorweë tydens oorloë in Suider-Afrika. Hy is baie lief vir treine waar ook al op die aardbol. Niks kom mos naby treinry en kondensmelk?
Contact address: heymanshb@gmail.com Telephone number: 012-329-4229.
PREVIOUS EDITIONS / VORIGE UITGAWES Vir vorige uitgawes klik op: https://issuu.com/hennieheymans/docs For previous issues click on https://issuu.com/hennieheymans/docs
AIM / DOEL Our goal is to collect and record our South African railway history for publication in the SAS-SAR for the use of future generations.
Ons doel is om die spoorweggeskiedenis van suidelike Afrika in die SAS-SAR aan te teken en so vir die nageslagte se gebruik te bewaar.
COPYRIGHT Great care is taken to make sure that we do not transgress the Copyright Act. Please make sure that when you use somebody else’s photographs or material to first obtain the necessary permission before sending it to SAS-SAR for publication. Permission to reprint any article or photograph may be obtained from SAS-SAR.
ONGOING PROJECTS Please help us with: • • •
Researching royal and presidential visits to southern Africa. Compiling information about the use of armoured- and hospital trains in southern Africa. Trains in time of war, rebellion and unrest. 4
WELKOM / WELCOME Baie welkom by hierdie uitgawe oor treine in Suid-Afrika en oor die ganse wêreld heen. Welcome to this edition. Martin Nel has sent us the history of the Bloemfontein Model Engineering Society at Modenso Park in Bloemfontein. Through Martin we have also received some good photos from Wayne Nauschutz. The new white and blue “People’s Trains” have been introduced to the public. Our thanks to Yolanda Meyer for her efforts to obtain photographs and Douw Krynauw (of PRASA) who provided them to me. Nico Moolman has shared with us some old Barberton railway photographs. These photos capture a bygone era. He also went for a ride on the Maglev train in China. We thank the Wepener’s for their interesting railway anecdotal history. Their efforts to preserve the history of the old SAR is lauded. Whenever my friend Phil Beck sees a train he photographs it for us. He visited Knysna and took photos of derelict coaches which Carlos Veiera immediately identified. He also paid a visit to Namaqualand and took photos of locomotive “Clara” a national monument. I telephoned Frank Jux in London and obtained permission to quote from his article on “Clara”. One can see that locomotives are dependent on (good) water. The nearest water to Port Nolloth is five miles (eight kilometres) away from the harbour. The also look at the new African Locomotive TAL 200. I have always wondered about “apartheid on the rails” and I found an article that blames Cecil John Rhodes. In my mind, there is a nexus between “apartheid on rails” and Mathatma Ghandi. Dr. JC van der Walt shares his findings with us. There are many myths in history. A special word of thanks to Bruno Martin of his knowledge of railways stations and for providing us with a map of the lines which “Clara” trundled on. JP Meyer, a young man from Mortimer, sent us a few photographs of Cradock and some railway activity there. In Africa and India, we sometimes find the elephants delay trains, however in the UK we found that cattle came on to a platform had delayed commuter traffic. We must always be prepared for the unexpected. We continue with articles on Royal Trains and Armoured Trains and we thank Gerry van Tonder and Leith Paxton for sharing their interesting and historical photographs with us. We certainly live in an interesting world full of railway wonders.
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HISTORY OF BLOEMFONTEIN MODEL ENgGINEERING SOCIETY (BMES) Harold Marshall Smith (known to all as Dick) was born on 26 Oct 1907 in Kimberley. His father was a miner and they also lived in Keetmanshoop.
At the age of 15, Dick was rewarded a diploma for a model he built with Meccano. Later years he was qualified as an electrician. He was one of the founders of the RSME (Rand Society of Model Engineers) and also served in World War 2. In January of 1956 he was transferred to Bloemfontein as Branch Manager of Schindler Lifts. He was disappointed that that were no organisation similar to the Rand Society in Bloemfontein. Together with George Rhodes-Harrison he arranged a meeting for those interested in model making. The meeting took place at the Cecil Hotel, Bloemfontein on 13 July 1957. This was the inaugural meeting and BMES was formed.
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This was the original logo of BMES. In the beginning, there were not many models available, but within an organised society development was rapid and it was not long before there was a live steam section and a marine section. They used the pond at the National Zoo in Bloemfontein for the Marine section.
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For many years, the only steam loco was that of Harold Marshall Smith and it was run on a private piece of track that he owned. In 1965 Mr Jan Hugo of Loxton, a member of the society, donated a partially completed locomotive and this was completed by members of the club and used as a Club engine called " SPRINGBOK". She is retired now and is resting in the Society's museum.
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With financial help from the Lions International, 150 feet of portable track was built in 1966. The society were always very anxious to have their own ground where they can lay down permanent railway track and build a club house. After several years of negotiation with the City Council, a piece of ground at 6 Rhyn Street, Bayswater, were obtained on a 99-year lease in April 1969.
Members were very quick to take advantage of this and within six months, model trains were running over triple-gauge track of nearly 400 meters long. 9
Since then there were many improvements. There is an outer railway track (original) and an inner track with a steam bay that can accommodate 20 locos. Some of the early contributors to the club were: • • • • • •
Harold (Dick) Marshall Smith; Fred Bishop; Johan Koekemoer; Norman Reynecke; D.R. McFarlane; and Jan Hugo.
You will find the club open on every Sunday afternoon from 14h00 to 17h00 between February and November.
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Modenso Park, Bloemfontein
Class 16DA. 11
Class 23.
Anton Bosch on his Class 23. 12
Class 16DA.
“Wessie” with the red diesel Class 91-117. 13
The green diesel.
“Kiewiet” with Class 16DA.
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Class 16 DA in the depot.
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“Hugo Station.”
Semaphore Signals: Modenso Park. Modenso Park’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/trains.modensopark/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel Modenso Park’s Website: https://modensoparkbfn.wixsite.com/bmes Greetings Martin Nel.
METRO: PEOPLE’S TRAINS Zuma pleads with commuters: Don't burn new Metrorail trains 2017-05-09 16:02 / Alex Mitchley, News24 Pretoria - During the launch of the new Metrorail passenger trains, called the "People's Train" in Pretoria on Tuesday, President Jacob Zuma urged all commuters to not vandalise trains.
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"We have experienced shocking incidents in this country where people burn trains because they arrived late at the station and made them late for work. That is too drastic and is totally unacceptable," said Zuma outside the Pretoria station. Zuma said acts of vandalism and serious crimes such as the burning of trains and cable theft undermined the efforts of improving the quality of life for all who use Metrorail services. In 2016, a number of Metrorail passenger trains were vandalised and burnt in Gauteng and the Western Cape. "As we hand over such infrastructure, we appeal to our people to handle it with care. These are your trains. Look after them so that they can carry you for many years to come."
Modernisation The launch of the New Metro Commercialised Full Train Service forms part of a government's transport modernisation programme and massive infrastructure development that will cost R173bn according to Zuma. Zuma said government is investing significant amounts of money to improve the way South Africans travel and that R51bn has been spent on new trains as well as R4bn on new hybrid locomotives. The modernisation is expected to include the upgrading of depots, upgrading of signalling and overhead lines, railway tracks and platform correction. As part of the programme, Prasa has already refurbished 291 Metrorail and 298 Shosholoza Meyl coaches, in addition, 27 stations have been upgraded nationally, said Zuma. Twenty of the new Metrorail trains were built in Brazil and are fully operational, while a remainder of 580 trains will be built in Nigel on the East Rand, said Minister of Transport Joe Maswanganyi. Maswanganyi claimed that the manufacturing of the trains and upgrading infrastructure would create at least 8 000 jobs. He said is their target was to complete the 580 passenger trains by 2025, but that they would continue building trains as long as there was a demand. Prasa currently has 585 train stations and a total fleet of 4 735 coaches, with an overall staff complement of 18 207, according to Zuma. Zuma said the investment in this modernisation programme by government will ensure that we change the rail landscape of our country. "The handing over of this world class train today, the People's Train, indicates that the days of having an uncomfortable, unreliable, and unsafe rail service must become a thing of the past," said Zuma. Photo: SA Government via Twitter. http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/zuma-pleads-with-commuters-dont-burn-new-metrorailtrains-20170509
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Photos via Mr. D Krynauw: PRASA
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RAILWAYS: HISTORICAL BABERTON Nico Moolman Nico Moolman has sent us the following old photographs of the railways at Barberton:
Locomotive with ticket inspector Fred Hart and Driver J. Arlow.
Locomotive with ticket inspector Fred Hart and Driver J. Arlow. 21
Railway groups including Fred Hart. 22
SHERBORNE
Hello Hennie Sherborne is located on the section of line from Rosmead to Noupoort between Flonker and Ludlow. The original CGR Sherborne was located at 255 miles 35 chains from Port Elizabeth, the realignment of the section from Bangor to Noupoort in the late 1950s put the relocated Sherborne at 391,7km from PE. (see map in Boon's 'Tracks across the Veld' page 114). Kind regards, Bruno Martin.
KNYSNA RAILWAY STATION: CARRIAGES Hi Hennie I will be only too happy to give you that information. The coaches in question are as follows: Coach number 2 on the left-hand side. That is an articulated coach used to carry the Governor General. I saw this coach in JHB many times. Built in May 1931 by SAR. The other is a very historic coach, to me they are both but this one is built for the CSAR. Original number CSAR 20013 and SAR number 33 she was built in 1897 at the cost of ÂŁ4000 and she is a Reserved Saloon. Hope this information is of use. Best wishes my friend Carlos Vieira 23
Photo: Phil Beck. Text: Carlos Vieira.
GERMAN WONDERLAND Remember the two brothers, in Germany, who had a wonderful model railway that was something to see? Soon they were joined by other 'Model Railroad Clubs' and other craftsmen. Some were electricians, model makers, carpenters, computer programmers. Their wives would stop by to see what they were doing and usually bring them a lunch. One thing led to another. Three of the ladies had worked at a bakery, several visitors would ask if they had a snack bar. The Idea was planted; some of the carpenters came and built a nice restaurant area for the bakery and a kitchen too. If the fresh, coffee smell didn't get you, then the bakery definitely would. This was about 5 years ago. One of the Breweries came and furnished all of the tables and chairs, serving counter, etc. Their latest finished area is the airport. Planes look like they are flying and landing. Remember this is all a model! https://www.youtube.com/embed/ACkmg3Y64_s?rel=0 Received from Glenn Macaskill.
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TRANS AFRICA LOCOMOTIVE: TAL 2000
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PAY MASTERS USING RAIL TROLLEY, FOR SECTION, MONTH END PAY DUTIES. Hi all, After receiving the photograph of a small red Rail Trolley, said to have been used on pay master duties, we made enquires with former SAR Police members. SAR Police members stated that large Yellow/Orange painted Rail Trolleys were used for line/section payment to the Gangers teams. All SAR Police members were issued with Linen backed Service Free Passes. Held by the Post Commander and issued to staff as required. Most were valid on only one System; others were valid on all Systems. [For staff doing duty on certain trains, passing through other Systems]. These passes were valid for two years only. New ones applied for before old ones became invalid. These Free Passes applied for and issued to SAR Police by local Railway Station Official in charge. The SAR Police would accompany the various paymasters at large Depots to local bank, usually “Volkskas” branches, to cash the month end cheques, received from the System, Local Accountant’s Office. A Kombi was arranged to take all pay masters to bank. Each paymaster was issued with a side arm, kept in a safe in Booking Office, Station Master/Goods and Passenger Superintendent, District Engineers Offices. At smaller Stations a motor car was used. The Station based pay masters would use the local pay office, or a ticket window would be used, for payments. A SAR Policeman always in attendance. Visited by other senior policemen during the course of the day. For line payments, the District Engineer’s office would arrange a large trolley, accompanied by a SAR Policeman. Operating would arrange running times and various stop orders along the line, at the various Gangers camps. Here one would find the Igloo huts, which were easily dismantled and moved to a new location when needed. All staff concerned would complain of a very long day, sweltering or freezing in the veld, on pay days. Especially the SAR Policemen being bored as he was only on guard duty, he would help with filing the signed pay vouchers, to correspond with their accompanying cover lists. The two clerks on payment duties being busy, with pay duties. But often waiting for gangs to arrive. Payments were made from the Gangers house or office at these outlying points. [Stories of a braai being arranged and staff sitting on stoep, under its corrugated roof]. The Ganger would identify his team members, by signing the accompanying cover list, issue the Pay Voucher. The pay master would sign the pay voucher, after staff member had signed, and then the other clerk signed as witness to payment received. The ganger in attendance to verify his team members again. Any absent staff, not receiving payment had their pay vouchers plus all cash unpaid, at day’s end, placed in large thick leather, two handled carrying bag. Which was duly pad locked. This cash was returned to Depot pay point or ticket office, for safe keeping. After leaving leather bag and contents for safe keeping, pay master would sign the SAR Policeman’s occurrence note book. This unpaid pay cash, was kept for three days. Then banked with Station cash. All signed pay vouchers plus unsigned/unpaid pay vouchers returned to Local Accountant’s Office. Staff going on leave were allowed to take an advance, of their salary. This advance was sent a day before servant was to go on leave. A green telex message was received, authorising Pay Office or Booking Office at outside 26
stations to pay servant, from station cash receipts. However, a month end pay voucher would still be compiled, with very small amounts still owing and to be paid out. Canvas bags containing pay vouchers, cover lists and cheques would be forwarded by Value Letter Post O.R.S. / I.S.D. [On Railway Service / In Spoorwegdiens]. Similarly returned pay vouchers and cover lists were also booked up O.R.S./I.S.D. A SA51A way bill being compiled, signed for by Parcels staff, receipted copy placed on pay duties file using a G.127 cardboard file cover, file kept for Income Auditors. Servants which had not received their month end payments, would apply at Staff Office for payment of monies owing, on returning for duty. The Staff Office would send a Telex message, to the Local Accountant’s unclaimed payments Office, which would respond with another telex message, authorising payment from station cash receipts. A G50 “Proof of identification” notice issued, with specimen/proof of signature. Completed in double faced carbon paper. Payment would then be made, G50 pasted to back of Telex message. Telex forwarded to Local Accounts office at month end, as proof of payment of Station cash. During the Eighties cash payments were stopped and all servants had to open bank accounts. The Local Accountant’s Offices, then forwarding a cheque to the various Banks country wide. Outlying teams were then transported to Towns to draw cash and purchase supplies. Later electronic banking used. This was the end of an old method of SAR payment of emoluments, to staff country wide. A very complicated, staff and time consuming process. One must consider staff used, at Local Accountant Offices, to forward all pay vouchers, cover lists and cheques to hundreds of destinations in the RSA/SWA and again receiving these documents back after payment, for checking, filing and safe custody for three years. Then staff required at pay points. Two undertaking collection and paying out of said cash. SAR. Police officials on escort duties. Drivers of motor vehicles and Motor trolleys. Staff arranging the above duties. Operating staff having to arrange extra running slots and stop orders for Trolleys. Ganger and other officials supervising staff to go to pay points and return to duty places. Extra duties for Booking Office staff to safe guard unpaid cash, then having to help late comers obtain their payments. Finally, staff on pay duties, having to catch up with their normal duties, on returning to their offices. A large amount of over time was paid, on pay duty days. We shudder to think if this system was still in use today; without a SAR Police force. What would happen if a group of AK47 wielding Tsotsies, attacked the Gangers pay point. There would probably be an armed security guard, with an automatic hand carbine, possibly two or three 9mm pistols in staff possession. Staff may be lucky to have some sort of bullet proof clothing. Not being a match for the Tsotsies. • • • • •
“The Star”. Two Railway pay masters, security guard and 29 staff members, gunned down at outlying pay point, near Swartruggens. “Die Volksblad”. Twee betaalmeesters, sekerheidwag en 23 personnel, afgemaai met AK47 gewere. By betaalpunt 13km van af Wesselsbron. “RSG”. Onbekende bedrag geld beroof by plattelandse Transnet, betaal punt te Warden, deur swaar gewapende rowers. “OFM”. Undisclosed amount of pay cash stolen, by heavily armed gang, at a Transnet outlying pay point 11km from Springfontein. In later news bulletins. “No arrests made”.
Spoorweggroete,
By John and Jacque Wepener.
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RAILWAYS AND AFSONDERLIKHEID
SEGREGATION
/
SPOORWEË
EN
Introduction / Inleiding I have pondered on the question of railways and segregation in Southern Africa. It’s all history now. It would appear that we can blame not only the National Party that came into power during 1948 but also Mister Cecil John Rhodes. That made me think of Mr. Ghandi and Pietermaritzburg. I also contacted Dr. JC van der Walt and asked him for his historical article on the Ghandi-episode. Nou onlangs kom ek egter agter die kap van die byl; ek lees die volgende oor aparte geriewe veral op treine. Ek haal die volgende uittreksel uit ‘n artikel aan wat antwoorde verskaf: Volgens Anthony Thomas, die outeur van die boek, Rhodes: The race for Africa (1996), “it is impossible to understand Southern African history without understanding the treacheries of Cecil Rhodes between 1872 and 1902. Thomas says the message he received as a child, in reference to the unblemished English, was that ‘it was this fatherly concern, this sense of justice and decency that set us [the English] apart from the brutal Afrikaners, who were turning our country into an international pariah.’ In 1996, Thomas wrote that this was not so. In his opinion, if anyone could be accused of laying the foundations of apartheid, it was ‘that most English of Englishmen,’ Cecil John Rhodes, referring to Rhodes’ 1894 Glen Grey Act” (2909). Dit “introduced and legalised the first segregation laws in the Cape Colony” (3024). Hierdie wet “imposed evening curfews in all cities and towns. There were separate locations for Africans and Asians, as well as the requirement to carry a pass to prove they were authorised to live or move through an urban area outside their designated ‘locations'” (11001). “Non-whites … suddenly experienced segregation in schools, sports, prisons, hospitals, theatres and on public transport” (10980). “Race segregation on trains was a given in the two British colonies in Southern Africa; the Cape and the most English of English colonies, Natal” (11009). “Train segregation was introduced in Natal in 1877 and in the Cape by at least 1893” (11018). “The racism pot was hottest in Natal” (12269). Die spoorweë het Bloemfontein en Johannesburg eers in 1890 bereik. Anthony Thomas skryf: “Anyone familiar with the theory and practice of apartheid in South Africa will recognize that all the essential elements were put in place by Cecil Rhodes in 1894, fifty-four years before the Nationalist government came to power” (10971). Allister Sparks onderskryf Thomas se standpunt oor apartheid deur te sê: “Much of the legislation covered was already social practice. Segregation of the races had long been the convention in all spheres of South African life” (11105) en “It was the British who prompted Afrikaner nationalism into existence and that sacral nationalism in turn evolved the theologized ideology of apartheid” (11113, 12296). Opperman: “The Afrikaner’s religion … was not its [apartheid’s] cause: religion was apartheid’s vessel, serving as a container for the unprocessed trauma and fears of survival after the war” (9905). Op sy kenmerkende manier gaan Sparks soos volg voort: “”Though they [Englishspeaking South Africans] had gone along with the old-style segregation and regarded it as part of the natural order of things, the crassness of putting it all into law and proclaiming it to the world offended their traditional pragmatism and sense of decency. It was so graceless, so boorish!” (11132). Lees die volledige stuk: Leon Lemmer: ‘n Sielkundige ontleding van Afrikaners met verwysing: http://praag.co.za/?p=43564&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed %3A+praag+%28Pro-Afrikaanse+Aksiegroep%29 Have a look at the railway photographs: http://mashable.com/2015/06/20/apartheid-south-africasigns/#cH4NtC35_Pqk 28
Hier volg dr. JC van der Walt se artikel oor Ghandi.
IS THE MAHATMA GANDHI STATUE AT PIETERMARITZBURG STATION BASED ON LIES? By Dr. JC van der Walt, Richards Bay The original Hindi text of Gandhi’s autobiography makes the following clear: Indians regularly travelled with white first class passengers in the same compartment between Durban and Charlestown1. All first-class passengers were required to purchase compulsory bedding tickets for overnight trips. On 7 June 1893, Gandhi’s employer warned him to purchase a bedding ticket for the overnight trip. Gandhi stubbornly refused to do so. He was challenged at Pietermaritzburg station. Gandhi lied by claiming that he had a bedding ticket. He was found out and was then asked to leave the first-class compartment and to move to the van compartment. He refused. A constable took him by the hand and pushed him out. The train steamed away. The next day Gandhi complained to the railways. He was advised to buy a bedding ticket, which he did. “The general manager justified the conduct of the railway authorities. I now purchased at Maritzburg the bedding ticket I refused to book in Durban. The evening train arrived. There was a reserved berth for me. The hardship I was subjected to was superficial – only a symptom of deep disease of colour prejudice.” Gandhi had to leave the train because he refused to buy a bedding ticket and not on account of racism! In 1908, the Reverend JJ Doke, an English Baptist minister, volunteered to project Gandhi as a martyr in Gandhi’s biography. He wrote that Gandhi was “thrown off the train, insulted and assaulted.” The myth is perpetuated by admirers2: “He was thrown off a train because he sat in a whites-only first class compartment, even though he had paid the fare.” The “train incident” was NEVER MENTIONED in the following eight instances: 1). In September and October 1893 Gandhi wrote two letters to the Natal Advertiser complaining about racial discrimination faced by Indians. 2). In 1886 Gandhi went back to India. He told the Indians there about the terrible discrimination to which Indians were subjected to in South Africa. 3). Gandhi published a 33-page booklet, “The Grievances of South African Indians in South Africa – An Appeal to the Indian Public.” 4). Henry Polak, a Gandhi’s disciple and the editor of Gandhi’s newspaper, “Indian Opinion”, wrote two books on Gandhi: “The Indians of South Africa” and “MK Gandhi” in 1909 and 1910. Polak writes that Gandhi, the “coolie” lawyer, was a well-known railway passenger who travelled about the country on professional or public business travelling generally first class, often having a whole compartment for himself. 5). Gandhi’s newspaper, “Indian Opinion.”
1 2
This was on the Natal Government Railways – HBH. Name withheld – HBH.
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6). In 1912 Dr. PJ Metha published his book, “MK Gandhi and the South African India Problem”. 7). After Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, the South African attorney, FET Krause, who met Gandhi in 1893, wrote about Gandhi’s life. 8). In 1968, the Indian Government spent millions to produce the propaganda film, “Mahatma – Life of Gandhi” which depicts his life in detail. Sadly, the now world-famous Gandhi “train incident” at Pietermaritzburg is mostly based on lies written not by Gandhi, but by his biographer, the Reverend JJ Doke. PHOTO:
Is the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Pietermaritzburg station based on lies?
RAIL ACTIVITY: NORTHERN FREE STATE Hi guys. Hardly any trains in our area these days. Got Grindrod at Friedesheim, pushing back into the exchange yard from the station and then heading to Freddies 5 shaft. Also, got the Friedesheim pick-up with a load of timber from Nelspruit. This 34 class is still original and not a Brightstar rebuild. Have a look at the state of the windows, years back a driver would refuse to even leave the depot before the assistant cleaned the footplate and windows. 30
The Kroonstad electric guys are learning the road to Bethlehem, they are to work crossing point to there with the Danskraal crews. The diesel hauler from Gunhill to Wonderkop stopped over the weekend and the catenary is back on - the work on the N1 bridge has been completed. Cheers.
By John and Jacque Wepener.
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MAGLEV: NICO MOOLMAN
Hier is ek teen 431km per uur in die Maglev trein tussen Sjanghai en Pudong-lughawe. Die 63km rit het net 7 minute geduur.
The Shanghai Maglev Train The Shanghai Maglev Train or Shanghai Transrapid is a magnetic levitation train, or maglev line that operates in Shanghai, China. The line was the third commercially operated magnetic levitation line to open in history. It is the fastest commercial high-speed electric train in the world. The train line was designed to connect Shanghai Pudong International Airport and the outskirts of central Pudong where passengers could interchange to the Shanghai Metro to continue their trip to the city centre. It cost $1.2 billion to build. The line's balance of payments has been in huge deficit since its opening. From 2004 to 2006, Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development Co. Ltd, the company runs the line, had more than 1 billion RMB in losses. The line is not a part of the Shanghai Metro network, which operates its own service to Pudong Airport from central Shanghai and from Longyang Road Station.3
“CLARA” USED ON THE NAMAQUA EXPRESS: RAILWAY LINE FROM PORT NOLLOTH TO O’OKIEP: HENNIE HEYMANS Introduction Serendipity means a "fortunate happenstance" or "pleasant surprise". I recently visited Ms. Yolanda Meyer at the THF Library and archive and the locomotive, “Clara”, was on my list. As I was preparing this article Phil Beck (Cape Town) had just visited Namaqualand and sent me some pictures he took of “Clara”. Sit back and enjoy this article on Clara - she is an interesting old girl. She is even a national monument. The relevance of “Clara” and her friends to me is that, when we in South Africa 3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train accessed 15 May 2017.
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had to decide on a gauge for South Africa, we chose a gauge of 3 foot 6 six inches. The standard gauge then used was too wide in our mountainous terrain. After some research and deliberations, it was suggested by the engineer of the CCC that as they use 2 foot 6 inches and that the Cape Colony should use 3 foot 6 inches. That is how the name “Cape gauge” started. (Initially both Natal and the Cape at inception of railways used the standard gauge.) Wikipedia declares:” An alternate name for this gauge, Cape gauge, is named after the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa, which adopted it in 1873.4 Clara “Clara” is the name of a Narrow Gauge (NG) locomotive5, now plinthed and on exhibition at Okiep6. The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) describes “Clara” officially as: “Steam Locomotive 'Clara', Okiep Copper Company Museum, Nababeep, Namaqualand District.”7 Many years ago, before digital cameras I visited “Clara” and her rolling stock and I also photographed a solitary coach at Port Nolloth. I am a sentimental “historian” - I love trains and they will always have a special place in my field of interest. Springbok Kafee, Springbok During my visit to the area around Springbok about 20 years ago I stayed over in the Springbok Kafee, then owned by Mr. Jopie Fourie Kotze. There were rooms attached to the Springbok Kafee where tourists who came to view the magnificent flowers stayed over. Oom Jopie was a mine of information and a true story teller. He was a collector of gem stones and cowboy films, or so he told me. We had chat about his various interesting collections exhibited in the Springbok Kafee. (It was like a small private museum.) The conversation turned to “trains” and he told me that he had bought the museum in Okiep and he was the owner of “Clara” and the rolling stock. From Monomotapa to Nababeep The early settlers, discoverers and travellers heard of southern Africa’s Eldorado called Monomotapa, it “… inspired in Europeans a belief that Mwenemutapa held the legendary mines of King Solomon, referred to in the Bible as Ophir”.) 8 One of the first places these early settlers discovered was the mineral deposits at Okiep. Nababeep is north of Springbok9, the name ‘Nababeep’ combines two Nama words, naba, meaning ‘hump of an animal’ and bib, meaning ‘small spring’. It was in the 1850’s that mining began. From 1876 ore was taken to Port Nolloth by train for export. Due to the copper slump of 1919 the mine closed but again reopened in 1937. Nababeep is home to the Okiep Copper Company and the region’s largest copper-mining town.10
Piet Conradie Piet Conradie writes: “Okiep Mine was surveyed in March 1856, and by 1862 was managed by John Taylor & Sons of London. They formed the Cape Copper Company (CCC), and by 1874 the mine was described by a correspondent in the Mining Journal as ‘the richest copper mine in the world’”.11 4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_ft_6_in_gauge_railways and their source is: Ransom, P.J.G. (1996). Narrow Gauge Steam. Oxford Publishing Co. p. 107. ISBN 0-86093-533-7. - accessed on 7 May 2017. 5 ‘Clara’ is a 2 foot 6 inch NG locomotive - HBH 6 Spelling of O’Okiep differs – I have used Okiep throughout this essay. 7 http://www.sahra.org.za/sahris/node/14247 - accessed on 7 May 2017. 8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Mutapa and also see: Elkiss, T.H. (1981). The Quest for an African Eldorado: Sofala, Southern Zambezia, and the Portuguese, 1500–1865. Crossroads Press. p. 16.
Original name was Springbokfontein – HBH. http://www.northerncape.org.za/getting_around/towns/Nababeep/ - accessed on 7 May 2017. 11 http://steam-locomotives-south-africa.blogspot.co.za/2007/11/brief-visits-to-clara-locomotive-in.html 9
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More about Clara According to Piet “Clara” was built in 1892 by Kitson & Co. Clara is a 0-6-2 “mountain” class locomotive. Clara is the C.C.C.’s locomotive no 5, originally Kitson works no T258/3486 built in 1891. It was later reboilered using C.C.C. no 7's boiler (built in 1898), and thus has a boiler back plate Kitson (T)287 / 9.4.1898, which you can see, when you visit. "Clara" is displayed at the Peter Philip Mine Museum in Nababeep. The Line On the 15th of March 1893, the whole distance from Port Nolloth to Okiep was 91,5 miles – the line had been shortened by 1 and a half mile. In 1873, the first VIP to travel on the little train was the Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Henry Barclay. The locomotive on this trip was “Miner”. Readers should remember that it took two days to complete the journey. 12 Okiep About 10km north of Springbok, lies Okiep. The name is derived from the Nama word ~U-geib (‘the large brackish place’). Okiep is the oldest mining town in South Africa. By the 1870s it was ranked the richest copper mine in the world. In 1876, in order to overcome the transport problem once and for all, the company set about constructing a narrow-gauge railway from Okiep to Port Nolloth, a distance of about 146km. After the First World War, the copper price dropped so low, that the mining operation stopped all together until 1938 when it resumed again. Conditions improved and a new mine was opened in 1945. Okiep enjoys a semi-desert climate which is hot to very hot and dry during the summer months and cool to very cold in the winter months with snow on the mountains.13
[Photo by Errol Swanepoel and courtesy Piet Conradie.] National monument "Clara" is the last of the Kitson type mountain locomotives used by the Cape Copper Company to transport copper ore from Okiep to Port Nolloth for export. If you look closely Carstens, PR: PORT NOLLOTH: the making of a South African seaport, pp 67 – 70. http://www.northerncape-info-directory.co.za/northern-cape/okiep-nababeep-namaqualand/ - accessed on 7 May 2017. 12 13
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at the photo above, you can see the lids on the sandboxes for these mountain engines - on the front on both sides just under the smokebox door. The authority on this locomotive appears to be Peter Bagshawe see: Locomotives of the Namaqualand Railway and Copper Mines (1st ed.). Stenvalls. pp. 8–11, 16–23, 40–41. (2012). ISBN 978-91-7266-179-0.t
Wikipedia: Col Andre Kritzinger Andre Kritzinger in Wikipedia, on “Clara” quotes Peter Bagshawe extensively. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namaqualand_0-6-2_Clara_Class. Andre Kritzinger in his excellent series on all South African locomotives writes as follows about Clara and uses Peter Bagshawe as a primary source; I will only highlight some of the facts mentioned in the Wikipedia article: • Between 1890 and 1898, four tender locomotives with a 0-6-2 wheel arrangement were placed in service by the CCC. • These locomotives were acquired to meet the traffic needs of the upper mountainous section of the railway. • The locomotives in question became known as the “Mountain type”. • The first three of these “Mountain type” locomotives were later described as the “Clara Class”. • The 4th locomotive was included in the Clara Class by some. Others said she belonged to Scotia Class. • The railway was constructed between 1869 and 1876 by the Cape Copper Mining Company, restructured as the Cape Copper Company (CCC) in 1888. • The 93 1⁄2-mile long (150-kilometre) railway from Port Nolloth on the West Coast to the copper mines around Okiep was initially exclusively mule-powered. • In 1871 two 0-6-0T locomotives were acquired by the mining company on an experimental basis. • These two locomotives were named John King and Miner. • Between 1886 and 1888 by three 0-4-0WT condensing locomotives were introduced. • High-grade copper ore with an average copper content of 20% was hand-sorted to make its transport to the coast as economical as possible. • By 1867 two-way traffic was introduced. • The first smelter was opened at the mines to further reduce the tonnage which needed to be carried to the coast. On return journeys coke for the smelter was transported. • As smelting capacity at the mines increased, tonnages of coke from the coast to the mine increased and the mules could no longer cope. • To meet the needs of the upper mountainous section of the railway, Kitson and Company supplied a powerful 0-6-2 tender locomotive in 1890. • Another engine entered service in 1892, and a third in 1893. These locomotives were numbered in the range from 4 to 6 and were named Clara, Marie and James Kitson respectively. • A fourth locomotive was delivered from Kitson in August 1898 and named Albion (No 7). • Albion differed from the first three locomotives in some respects, mainly its shorter boiler, longer firebox and a larger fire grate area. • Like the old condensing locomotives, these new tender locomotives were equipped with sheet-metal casing above and below the running boards. The purpose of the casings was to protect the motion and bearings and other working parts of the valve gear above the running boards from wind-blown sand. The bottom encasement was hinged to allow easy access to the motion. All engines all had copper boilers. Service 35
• • • •
After undergoing trials on the lower section in September 1890, the engine Clara started work on the upper section on 2 October 1890. On 15 May 1893, with the upper section upgraded for locomotive operation and the first three Mountain locomotives in service, it was possible to introduce a through steam-hauled service from the coast to Okiep. The older condensing locomotives were then relegated to lesser duties, mostly restricted to the lower section near the coast. The first three locomotives, like their predecessors, suffered major problems with their fireboxes and tubes. This was as a result of the poor quality of water in the region and off course strenuous working conditions
•
To overcome these issues, the fourth locomotive, no. 7 Albion, was delivered in 1898 with a much shorter boiler to make room for a longer firebox.
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To speed up repairs a spare boiler, similar to the engine Albion's with an enlarged firebox, was purchased in November 1900. The spare boiler was fitted to the engine Albion and, after that, it was possible to exchange reconditioned boilers between locomotives as needed.
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After the CCC ceased mining and passed into the hands of receivers in 1922, all four locomotives survived. The locomotives saw service with the South African Copper Company from 1928 and with the Okiep Copper Company from 1937.
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Two or three locomotives were withdrawn from service and by 1942 were scrapped. Even as late as 1950 engine no. 4 Clara survived and was still employed in shunting and local service on the section between Nababeep and Okiep.
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Clara was withdrawn from service in March 1950 and was eventually plinthed at the entrance to the Nababeep mine workings in 1966. Later, when the Peter Philip Museum was established in the town in 1978, it was moved to the museum.
I “Googled” Clara and found the following interesting article14 on Clara on the site below:
“Rails to the Well” by Frank Jux I obtained permission from The Industrial Railway Record to quote from the article and use the two old photographs provided Mr. Jux agreed. They gave me his address in London in the UK. A friend got me the telephone number of Mr. Jux and on Sunday 14 May I phoned him and he gave me the necessary permission. I have made the following summary of the article in question: • In Namaqualand water is one of the essentials of life. Water is found only by sinking wells; the nearest wells from the harbour are about five miles inland.15 • Ever since Port Nolloth harbour was built, water had to be brought in by railway. • There were once 21 steam locos on the roster. • At first all transport to the coast was with mules and ox−wagons which was a tedious affair. From the mines to the sea there is a drop of 3000 feet, over mountain passes and heavy sand dunes. • By 1860 Phillips & King realised that if output continued to increase; more equipment and resources would be needed. A prospectus was therefore issued, resulting in the establishment of the Cape of Good Hope Copper Co Ltd. The newly established company had to take over and they had to develop the partnership's mines. They also had to build a railway inland from a jetty to be constructed at Port Nolloth.
14 15
The Industrial Railway Record, No. 18, April 1968; pp 210 – 213. Refer to the Bruno Marin’s railway map of the area.
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• Their immediate objective was to cross the 20 miles of difficult and heavy sand dunes which caused more trouble with heavy loads than the 80 miles of mountainous roads.
"Two Tanks", the present terminus of the line at Five Mile Point.
(Photo: Frank Jux)
“Clara”, the preserved locomotive at Nababeep, was built by Kitson as an 0−6−2 tank, works number 3486-T258 of 1891 and supplied new to the line. (Photo: Frank Jux) • •
During 1869 tracklaying commenced from the Port Nolloth and reached Okiep by 1876. Light rails with longitudinal sleepers, designed mule traction, were used. 37
• • • • • •
•
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•
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The track was improved during 1886 and over the first 22 miles’ steam locomotives took over the haulage. To accommodate locomotives throughout, the whole track was improved and re-laid. This was a great engineering feat, considering railway development in South Africa. Water had to be found for the locomotives and most of the stations seem to have been water stops. Fierce grades had to be climbed. 471/2 miles from the coast the worst part of the climb was reach. The next 71/2 miles climbed 1330 feet, with grades of up to 1 in 19 and the line hanging on the side of the mountains. The weekly passenger train was free, and 20 loaded wagons of coal and merchandise from Port Nolloth or ore from the mines raised the echoes of the mountains behind two Kitson 0−6−2 tender locos. After the CCC had opened their line, the Concordia Company (or their successors, the Namaqua Copper Company (NCC)) decided to also rail its ore to Port Nolloth, and built their own line from their mines near Concordia to join the main railway just north of Okiep. From the junction, the Cape Copper locos took over.
In 1905, the NCC had four locos in operation. in 1928, the NCC mining ceased in the area. The richer ore had been worked out. No method was available to make the low-grade ore more profitable. For almost 10 years the railway lay dormant. Then in 1937 the Okiep Copper Company was formed. The mines were reopened. A new separation plant was installed making the lower grades of ore more economical to mine. Two new diesel locos to shunt around the mines and operated the railway until 1942. They then decided to abandon the private railway to Port Nolloth and send the output of copper from the smelter by dirt road to the railhead of the South African Railhead at Bitterfontein, over 100 miles to the south, whence it was sent to Cape Town for export. Port Nolloth itself has never been adequate as a port. Steamers increased in size from the days of sail. Only coasters can enter the harbour at full tide. Consequently, the cargo is unloaded without break to enable the following tide to be caught for the return journey to Cape Town. The clock has turned full circle and the railway has receded from Okiep. In 1943, all the rails were sold, but strangely enough a forgotten loco or two lingered on in Okiep village. A local magazine during 1966 ran a feature on the area and the site was tidied up. One loco, this was “Clara”, was retained and she was painted up and plinthed at the Nababeep mine. “Clara” is the last of the mountain locomotives.16
Map 21: Railway Atlas of South Africa: Bruno Martin From Bruno Martin, Tasmania, the following map:
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http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/18/Rails_2_the_Well.htm.
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“Clara” by Phil Beck
Photos by Phil Beck taken in the Nababeep museum: 41
1980: Plaque by SA Monuments Council: Phil Beck
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Photos from the THF Archive: Y Meyer
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One of Clara’s passenger coaches plinthed at Port Nolloth
Photo by Hennie Heymans, Port Nolloth, circa 2000. 44
UK: CATTLE ON PLATFORM A while back I watching a program on the Indian Railways and I saw cattle grazing between the railway lines. They were grazing as if it was the most natural thing in the world to graze between railway tracks. I then remembered when I was stationed in Soweto how cattle and horses grazed on the Soweto Highway. So, as we can see, first world countries also have their own problems with stray animals.
It must be cattle class: Passengers face travel chaos as herd of cows invade railway platform and delay trains
Pictured: This was the scene at Hever train station in Kent this afternoon as 60 cows invaded a platform. The cattle, who appeared to have strayed from a nearby field, caused delays. Southern Rail announced train services could be cancelled or delayed by over half an hour because of the invasion. Francesca Ryan posted the picture on Twitter alongside the caption: 'Holy cow! This delay at Hever is crazy.' Hever station is on the Southern line which runs from London Victoria or London Bridge to Uckfield. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4414694/Passengers-face-travel-chaos-cows-invade-trainstation.html
1983 BLUE TRAIN MENU
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CRADOCK STATION: JP MEYER The station
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E7171 + E7290
Rhodesia: Royal Visit: April 1947
- Gerry van Tonder (UK) The photograph shows a BSAP Traffic officer on guard while the Royal Family are entraining. 49
1899 - 1902: GENERAL BULLER: VISITING HOWICK HOSPITAL - Gerry van Tonder (UK)
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1899 – 1902: NGR: LADYSMITH NATAL - Gerry van Tonder (UK)
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1925 ROYAL VISIT: PRINCE OF WALES - Gerry van Tonder (UK)
The Prince's Crossley cars 1925: We have read that the Prince brought out his own motor vehicle transport.
THE 1925 ROYAL VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA
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The young Prince of Wales, later to abdicate as King Edward VIII, visited South Africa in 1925. It was a grand affair with large welcomes at the all the extravagantly decorated towns he visited between his arrival on April 30th and his departure almost 3 months later on 29th July. Using two beautiful carriages the Royal Party toured Southern Africa visiting Cape Province, the Orange Free State, Basutoland, Natal, Transvaal, Swaziland, Southern & Northern Rhodesia and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. The Prince met local Royalty, visited Victoria Falls, played Golf and enjoyed exuberant African welcomes throughout his visit. The Royal Train had its own Post Office. The PO was situated within a travelling post office van attached to a pilot train. The pilot train kept ahead of the Royal Train by around 30 minutes. A special postmark was prepared. Royal Train letterhead sheet bearing a complete set of the South African 1925 Air Mail stamps tied by the trains special tour oval handstamp. As an aviator, himself perhaps the Prince enjoyed these stamps depicting a de Havilland Biplane, despite not sharing his father’s passion for philately! https://www.sandafayre.com/philatelicarticles/royalvisit.html (Retrieved 27 January 2017). Dear Mr Heymans, Thank you for getting in touch, we have no objections with this. Thank you for checking with us. Kind regards, Helena Marshall Sandafayre (Holdings) Ltd. Egerton Court, Haig Road Parkgate Knutsford, WA16 8DX
THE PRINCE OF WALES' AFRICAN BOOK; A PICTORIAL RECORD OF THE JOURNEY TO WEST AFRICA, SOUTH AFRICA AND SOUTH AMERICA - Arthur St. John Adcock, 1864-1930 Here is an extract, regarding the South African part of the tour, from the book: Cape Town The mist was so thick that the Birmingham, moving ahead as guide, had to fling the glare of a searchlight over her stern to enable the Repulse to keep her in view, but in spite of such difficulties the Royal battleship reached her stopping place and dropped anchor in Table Bay within a few minutes of her scheduled time. In an hour or so, the white fog lifted and, though it still held Table Mountain invisible, revealed the terraced houses along the seafront, the esplanade by Adderley Pier alive with expectant crowds, an aeroplane hovering above the harbour, and red-sailed little boats 54
bringing impatient sightseers out to see what they could see. A slim, swift barge with a gleaming brass funnel and flying the Royal standard carried the Prince shoreward, and at the head of the pier steps the Governor-General, the Earl of Athlone, his wife, Princess Alice17, and their son and daughter stood to welcome their Royal nephew and cousin, and in the group beside them were General Hertzog, the South African Premier, with the members of his Cabinet, and General Smuts, the ex-Premier and present leader of the Parliamentary Opposition. Through an avenue of whiteshirted boy-scouts and a swelling tornado of cheering the Prince walked up the long pier, inspecting the naval and military guards drawn up for his reception, and so to his car, and was presently driving past masses of delighted spectators, deafeningly vocal in many languages, who filled windows and roofs and overflowed pavements, through the lavishly flagged streets of the Town. Men of the kilted Cape Town Scottish, the South African Defence Force, and the School Cadets lined the roads, and nowhere on his tour had the Prince received a more thoroughly cosmopolitan greeting, for if one half of the surging masses around were English or Dutch, with a sprinkling of all manner of foreign whites, the other half were black or brown native Africans, Indians, Chinamen, Malays, and the joyous ardour of this enormous crowd was so unbounded that at times it was as much as soldiers and mounted police could do to keep a clear path for the procession to get through. Table Mountain at the back of it has dictated the shape of the city and, checking its growth inland, has forced it to grow in length, so that though it is only some three miles in breadth it stretches for about twenty-five along the seafront. Up Adderley Street, and St. George's Street, the Prince and his entourage wound a slow course to the Grand Parade and the City Hall, where he alighted in the open space in the middle of the Parade, by King Edward VII’s statue, to receive addresses from the Mayor of Cape Town, the British Empire Service League, and other public bodies. After speaking of the men of England, Holland, and France who had long ago come as pioneers of civilisation to the Cape, the Mayor, Mr. Verster, welcomed the Heir Apparent to "this Gibraltar of the South," and recalled the visit of the King and Queen to Cape Colony, when they were Duke and Duchess of York, shortly after the South African War. The reply of the Prince was spoken into microphones so that his first public utterance on South African soil should be heard not only by the vast audience on the Parade, but by listeners in at far-off country places. Before starting on a tour of South Africa that was to cover ten thousand miles, the Prince of Wales spent four days in Cape Town, where he stayed at Government House with the Earl of Athlone. On the day after his arrival he was installed as Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, which has grown out of the old South African College and was incorporated as a University in 1916. Lending himself genially to the friendly frivolities and extravagances of under-graduates, which have become traditional features of such ceremonies everywhere, the Prince was driven from Government House to the City Hall, where the installation was to take place, in a lumbering Boer ox-wagon drawn by six pairs of oxen, with students disguised as Kxffirs for teamsters, and others, mounted, armed with broomsticks, and picturesquely garbed as a "commando," to ride alongside as a guard of honour. They kept up the usual lively, irresponsible jesting and shouting in the Hall, but quieted down after the investiture when the Prince rose and made his speech as Chancellor, and concluded with an unpremeditated little message to the students. Speaking with whimsical appreciation of the magnificent procession they had given him from Government House, he concluded, "I must say when I mentioned an ox-wagon at a South African luncheon a few days before sailing; I did not expect I should be having a ride in one quite so soon. It only shows how careful you have got to be in speeches. I can only wish you, one and all, every possible success in your careers when you leave this University, of which I am very proud to be the first Chancellor, thereby carrying on the connection of my family with South African education, for my father was, as you know, Chancellor of the University of the Cape of Good Hope for many years, and maintains a keen interest in educational development in this Dominion."
17
A GL Garratt was named after her – HBH.
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From the Hall the Royal party went for a hundred-mile drive to see some of the beauties of the Peninsula, and at Groot Constantia, the heart of a vine-growing district, sat under an awning to lunch with a large company as guests of the Administrator, Sir Frederic de Waal, and the Provincial Council of the Cape of Good Hope. An interesting function awaited them near Groot Schuur, on the way back to Cape Town. Groot Schuur was the magnificent home Cecil Rhodes made for himself at the foot of Table Mountain, and he bequeathed to the nation, as a residence for his successors, the beautiful grounds and the old Dutch house in which he had lived there when he was Prime Minister of Cape Colony. Rhodes had once chosen a site within these extensive grounds for a new seat of learning, and in now laying here the foundation stone of new buildings for the University of which he had that morning been made Chancellor, the Prince spoke in moving terms of the great Empire builder who dreamed, as folk used to say, in continents. On the evening of the Prince's arrival there had been a State Ball at Government House, and during his four days at Cape Town he found time between other engagements to hold large reviews of exservice men, of Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, and school children; to attend gatherings of natives and Asiatics; to inspect the South African training ship Botha, at Simon's Town, and lunch at Admiralty House; to attend a race and gymkhana meeting at Kenilworth, and, at Newlands, a Rugby football match. But the most important of all the Cape Town events was the banquet at the Parliament House to which the Prince went as the guest of the Union Senate and Assembly, and where he made what has been described as "one of the happiest and most valuable speeches of his tour." There were at the banquet deputies of all shades of opinion, including republican extremists who had advocated breaking away from the Empire, and these held themselves aloof at first, it is said, with an uncomfortable air, as if they had come under protest, but by the end of the evening the unaffected friendliness and charm of the Prince's personality had dissipated suspicion and prejudice, and Unionists and Nationalists were one in their liking and admiration of him. The Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Jansen, and Mr. Van Heerden, President of the Senate, were the hosts, and at the reception in the Queen's Hall of the Parliament House, Mr. van Heerden presented their Royal guest with an illuminated address of welcome and introduced the senators and deputies. After the dinner Mr. Jansen welcomed the Prince in the name of the South African people through their elected representatives, and touching on the momentous changes that had come to pass since the two white races in that land had been at death-grips, a quarter of a century ago, said the opponents of those years had now become members of the Legislature of a united South Africa, and he believed this banquet would help to eliminate all elements of bitterness. General Hertzog, rising next, said he could speak for "a more widespread membership, which extends from the Cape to the Zambezi, and could promise the Prince, on behalf of that membership, a warm welcome to the high veld of the Transvaal and the plains of the Free State." General Smuts, who followed the South African Premier, said all sections of the Union had already shown that they valued their connection with the Crown, and that the affection and admiration they felt for the Prince was largely a personal tribute; he was out for some years on the battlefront in France, and they admired him because from his early years he had lived a life of duty. But it was the Prince more than all that the senators and deputies had come to hear, and he had not been speaking many minutes before it became evident that whatever hostility may have lingered in any of them at the outset was melted away. "I find it hard to put into words," he said, "my appreciation of the welcome you extend to me on my arrival in South Africa, on behalf of the Parliament of the Union, and I appreciate its cordiality all the more because it comes to me in the name of all parties, in the name of representatives of distant constituencies scattered through this great land, whose local interests may, perhaps, force them to face their own problems in their own particular way, but who are all, I feel sure, animated by the 56
spirit of free government and conscious of one single purpose, the welfare of the Union of South Africa as a whole. Many of these places I hope to visit in the next few months, and I need not assure you, gentlemen, how greatly I am looking forward to my tour. "The visits I have already made to other Dominions have helped me to realise the great development in the constitutional status of the various self-governing parts of the British Commonwealth which has taken place since the War. That development was, perhaps, first strikingly marked by the separate signature, by the representatives of the Dominions, of the Peace Treaties and by their inclusion as members of the League of Nations. But anyone who has taken the trouble to study the history of the period since 1919 will realise that this development is going on all the time, and that the full conception of what is meant by a Brotherhood of Free Nations such as ours has still to be worked out. I realise that the welcome which you extend to me is in recognition of the fact that I come to you as the King's eldest son, as Heir to a Throne under which the members of that Commonwealth are free to develop each on its own lines, but all to work together as one. No Government can represent all parties and all nations within the Empire, but my travels have taught me this, that the Throne is regarded as standing for a heritage of common aims and ideals shared equally by all sections, parties, and nations within the Empire. "At this early stage I am hardly competent to make any remarks about South Africa. Indeed, I was — though I am no longer — rather appalled at the thought of having to address this distinguished gathering so soon after my arrival; but you have already made me feel that I am no stranger here, and if the wonderful welcome I have received, not only here to-night, but ever since I landed in Cape Town, is a foretaste of what awaits me throughout my tour, I can assure you that I shall feel very much at home and know that I shall leave these shores at the end of July with feelings of regret, and with deep and lasting affection." Other questions were dealt with, and the Prince concluded, or seemed to conclude, by saying, "If my visit serves in any degree to add to our mutual knowledge and co-operation, I shall be content." There was an instant outburst of applause, which gradually died down as it became apparent that he had not finished, and when he could make himself heard the Prince began, "Meneere — " at the sound of this word in the taal the Dutch South African Nationalists interrupted with a shout of delighted surprise — and beginning again in the old Dutch dialect, he said simply, "Gentlemen, I am glad to meet you, and I thank you again for your warm welcome." This little personal utterance of thanks to them in the language of their fathers moved the Nationalists in particular to a storm of passionately appreciative cheering, and when the Prince left the table several of them crowded about him and got him away into the Library, where they talked with him and sang snatches of old Dutch songs to him until nearly midnight ; and when at length he went out to his car he was followed by all the members of both Houses, who stood bareheaded in the portico and sang the National Anthem as he drove away. It was "such a manifestation of loyalty to the Empire on the part of all sections of Parliament," writes Mr. Ward Price, "as none had ever seen before in the Union of South Africa." The deep significance and happy auguries of that evening were admirably summarised in the next issue of the Cape Argus, which said: — "The speech will be regarded as a landmark in the constitutional history not only of South Africa, but of the Empire, and it may well mark the beginning of a new era in the political history of the Union. It has given members, and especially the Nationalists, a new view point towards royalty, which will clear away many doubts and materially contribute to a better understanding of the great and beneficent part which the Crown plays in promoting the happiness, prosperity and unity of the Empire as a whole." 57
Stellenbosch Leaving in his wake this atmosphere of friendliness and increasing goodwill, the Prince of Wales set out, in the morning of May 4th, for Stellenbosch, which was to be the first stopping place on his way up country. The pleasant countryside between Cape Town and Stellenbosch, with its rugged hills, vineyards, fruit gardens, and roads bordered with blue-gum and wattle trees, was reclaimed and civilised by the Dutch, and by exiled French Huguenot emigrants who joined them here, before the Cape came under British rule. Its villages, hamlets, and homely farmsteads are largely of Dutch origin, and largely occupied still by Dutch-speaking people whose politics are represented in Parliament by the Nationalists. Stellenbosch itself is one of the oldest Dutch settlements in the Province, proud of its history and dourly race conscious. It holds by its past in spirit, but is a wonderfully up-to-date town materially, with, its rows of charming, sturdily built old houses, its streets lined with oak trees, its College, Theological Seminary, and Schools of Agriculture and Mining. But from the start it was obvious that General Hertzog's promise that the Prince would be cordially welcomed in these districts was no mere figure of courteous speech. Villages turned out en masse, workers in fruit-garden or vineyard dropped what they were doing and ran for the road as soon as they saw his cars in the distance, and at every stage he was frankly charmed with the simplicity, the kindness and exuberant heartiness of his reception. At the entrance to Stellenbosch, the local Rugby team was waiting with an open carriage, and, readily accepting their invitation, the Prince left his car and they drew him in triumph through the town in their more primitive vehicle to University Field, where all the men and women students of Stellenbosch, nearly a thousand of them, were gathered to attest their loyalty in ringing outbursts of high-spirited acclamation. Such a scene in what has been spoken of as the very centre of Dutch nationalism, "the Mecca of Afrikanderdom," was significant of much, even of much more than the admiration and personal regard that were expressed in the witty, whimsical address of the President of the Students' Council, Mr. Jehan Buhr, whose remarks, as spokesman of the occasion, were punctuated with fervent shouts of approval, and with laughter, in which the Prince joined. Somerset West, Paarl and Huguenot From Stellenbosch, the Prince went on to Somerset West, to Paarl and Huguenot— these last two a town and a village reminiscent of the old seventeenth-century French settlers, and at the small station which serves both, the Royal trains were in readiness for the longer journey by way of Swellendam and Robertson, through a region of vineyards, tanneries, and ostrich-farms, to the town of Worcester. Worcester Wherever he went the Prince found the keenest pleasure in meeting veterans of the War; sometimes he would stop his car on the highroads to speak with any he noticed among groups that had collected at waysides to cheer him as he passed; sometimes he would pick them out among crowds in the streets and linger to shake hands with them. On his arrival at Worcester, the Prince was met by a typical Boer "commando" mounted on nimble veld ponies, and with this escort rode through streets that seethed with excitement and were packed almost to suffocation, for the numbers of the townsfolk had been augmented by farmers and farm-workers who had come in from miles around to do honour to the occasion. One of the most thrilling incidents of the visit was the singing of "God Bless the Prince of Wales" in Afrikaans while his Royal Highness was standing by the War Memorial which the town has raised in memory of its fallen heroes, "To the Spirit of Honour and Sacrifice." Mossel Bay, George and Knysna All night the train speeded across the veld, where at intervals patient throngs sat or stood round blazing camp-fires by the line, or at wayside stations, to cheer and wave hats and hands as he went by; and in the morning of May 6th the Prince alighted at Mossel Bay, a fishing town and famous for 58
its oysters. At George, again, a commando was in waiting to serve as escort into the town. Thence the party set forth on an expedition, that occupied several hours, through the deep gorges, by the lakes and over the beautiful heath land of the wild area known as "the wilderness" — a solitary vast expanse, little peopled except by woodmen and "poor whites" whose huts or hovels were scattered here and there; but wagons drawn by full teams of oxen were occasionally met on the road, and some of the farmers flourished banners bearing such messages as, "Hartelik welkom!" It was a relief after the long drive through that loneliness to arrive at Knysna, and here there were no formalities, but the Prince, after going to lay a wreath on the cenotaph, enjoyed himself by shaking hands with many ex-soldiers, some of them survivors from Zulu and Matabele campaigns, some who could talk of experiences in Flanders, and in chatting with the children and with old inhabitants. Before leaving he made two brief speeches in which he congratulated Knysna on the beauties within and around it and on the new railway which was shortly to span the "Wilderness" and join it up with George town and the sea coast. Oudtshoorn At Oudtshoorn, next morning, instead of crossing from the station to his car, the Prince walked up to the leader of the commando that was in waiting, as an escort, to ask for the loan of a horse, and on this borrowed mount, rapturously cheered alike by the two hundred farmers who formed the troop and by the thousands who lined the ways, he led the commando through the streets to the recreation ground, where the Mayor, giving voice to the common impulse which had drawn the great concourse that was round them together, said, in the course of his address : — "Irrespective of class, creed, race or colour, we are united in a common feeling of joy at being able to welcome the Ambassador of King George, the Heir to the British Throne, round which centre our national aims and our national ideals. The visit will do much to create in the people of South Africa a more powerful sentiment of attachment to the Crown, which has fostered liberty and furthered the cause of independence. It has enabled us to advance our common national sentiment and patriotism." Microphones made the reply of the Prince easily audible even to those of his audience of twentyfive thousand who were unable to get near him and listened from the most distant edges of the recreation ground. Most of them were Afrikaans-speaking farmers and traders or workers on the soil, and they shouted themselves hoarse in appreciation of his praise of their notable show of ostrich plumes at the Wembley Exhibition, of which he was President, of his sympathy with the ostrich breeders who had suffered badly since the feathers had rather gone out of fashion, and of his admiration of their enterprise in meeting this depression by devoting themselves to irrigation work and to fruit and tobacco and other forms of farming. It was this alert under-standing of local conditions, this genuine interest in the problems, vicissitudes, and successes of every community he visited that seemed to draw Prince and people into closer relations everywhere and make him no mere looker-on at their various activities, but a partner in whatever concerned them and their well-being. From a tour of the ostrich farms and tobacco plantations he was conducted to the grim range of mountains north of Oudtshoorn, and into those most gigantic of all subterranean grottoes, the Cango Caves — a series of spacious halls and lesser chambers shaped without hands and without hands made beautiful with strangely sculptured shapes and exquisite traceries — two miles of lofty caverns with glittering walls and roofs of blue marble and lace-like hangings of petrified water, all filled with ghostly shadows that the candle-light brought to life, and all as eerily beautiful and mysterious as any underground palace in a Rider Haggard romance. The Caves were discovered over a century ago by a Dutch farmer, and on some of the walls of the outer chambers are crude, half obliterated drawings of men and animals that are possibly relics of prehistoric Bushmen. Colesberg and the Karoo 59
Pushing farther north, on the way to Colesberg, the Prince's train crossed a section of the Great Karoo, those 130,000 square miles of desolation which have been vividly described by one of South Africa's own poets, Francis Carey Slater, in his volume, "The Karoo”: — “Wilderness, sterile and parched, far-stretching away to the skyline, Desert, stark and inclement — mournful, majestic Karoo, — Region reft of the gladness of grass and its grateful greenness — Barren of woods that dream Narcissus-like over their shade; Alien to thee is the music of water — sweetest of singers — Crystal chanting of rivers, laughter and lilting of rills; Rivers hast thou of grey sand; they curl, like sun-smitten serpents, Twisting through cactus and scrub, wearily seeking the sea." Colesberg has many associations with the South African War; some of the most stubborn fights took place in its neighbourhood, but time has healed the memories of those "old, unhappy, far-off things and battles long ago." In the commando that was at the station were some of the same Boers who had fought against us in their Colesberg laager, and the Prince rode at the head of them into the town, with a vanguard of farmers' daughters who turned the warlike cavalcade into a gracious pageant of amity and peace. Colesberg is high above sea-level and apt to be oppressively hot by day and wintry cold after sundown. Heavily wrapped and over-coated, the Prince left Colesberg for Grootfontein, where he spent the week-end as the guest of Sir Abe Bailey, and went back on the Monday to a Colesberg that was basking in summer, giving itself a holiday and eagerly on the qui vive for his return. In a speech to the townsfolk he discussed matters of local importance, and congratulated the farmers on their success in horse-breeding and cattle-rearing, "As a farmer in a small way myself," he added, "I am very interested in the fine quality of your sheep. In fact, in face of keen competition from Australia, Argentina, and the United States, you rank as one of the 'big four' of the sheep world." His remark that he most certainly hoped someday to be able to re-visit them roused a thunder of applause and cries of "You'll be jolly well welcome" from his hearers. Cradock Valley to Port Elizabeth Southward again, through Cradock Valley, making brief calls at towns, or holding levees at stations on the road, and at the end of another run of some two hundred and fifty miles was the sea once more and fifteen thousand people waiting for the train in the streets and squares of whose handsome buildings and commercial eminence give it a right to claim the title of "the Liverpool of South Africa." Speaking from the dais that had been erected before the City Hall, the Prince said he knew he was addressing, among his large audience, descendants of those pioneer settlers of 1820 whose undaunted courage under early hardships was perpetuated in the municipal motto: "Meliora spero!" When he thought how the spot on which that magnificent town had risen was, in 1820, nothing but a sandy shore on which a few huts were clustered around the block- house called Fort Frederick, "I am astonished," he said, "at the progress made in the comparatively short time of your existence. The Campanile which commemorates the landing of those first settlers of a hundred years ago symbolises the simple character of your community, who in the early days endured, as British and Dutch on equal footing, the difficulties of pioneer existence." There were many pleasant, though sometimes exacting, functions to be attended in and around Port Elizabeth before the Prince completed his Cape Province itinerary and crossed the border into the Orange Free State, including three hours spent in talking with and listening to the singing of seven thousand white and as many coloured school children in the Crusaders' Ground, three miles east of the town; and a visit to one of Port Elizabeth's most noted institutions, the "Snake Park," in which the public may learn how to recognise and deal with the deadly types in the numerous varieties of South African snakes. 60
Uitenhage Uitenhage, the next place of call, was, the Prince laughingly agreed with the Mayor, a very beautiful town, though he could not go so far as to say it was the most beautiful in South Africa, for there were so many towns that he had not yet seen, but he confessed that there he was beginning to understand what was meant by the lure of South Africa and its irresistible appeal to those who had long lived there. Grahamstown In Grahamstown, one of the most English-looking towns in the Province, the Rhodes University College was visited; St. Andrew's and other Colleges in the outlying suburbs; there were meetings with war veterans who had fought in the Kxffir wars, in France, and for or against us in the South African campaigns; and meetings with congregations of vast black or brown communities. There was a little leisure for needed recreation on the fine golf-links of Kowie West, where Port Alfred is a famous holiday resort. Then through the Bathurst district, rich in pineapple plantations, to King William's Town, where on the Victoria Grounds the Prince held a great Indaba attended by over ten thousand natives drawn from the half-million Bantu population scattered over the Ciskeian districts which cover an area of nearly thirty thousand square miles. They were a vast, miscellaneous multitude, dressed in every variety of costume, from the gaudy blankets of the Red Kaffirs to the top hats and frock coats of civilisation. A native choir of men and women, occupying a grand stand, sang the National Anthem, and sang it well, first in English and afterwards in Xhosa, their native tongue. An educated Bantu delivered an address in English, and, responding, the Prince referred to the goodwill that happily now existed between the white and black races, urged that there should be closer co-operation between the two in the interests of both, and that his hearers should have faith in those who had authority over them and take advantage of the Council system, which gives them a voice in the management of their own affairs, inaugurated by Cecil Rhodes. This entitles every adult native who pays a special rate of ten shillings annually to a vote in electing six native representatives who in turn elect four of the six members of the native District Council, the Government nominating the other two, and the Resident Magistrate acting as chairman. Umtata Another and greater Indaba was held at Umtata a few days later, to which the peoples of many tribes, some from as far away as the borders of Basutoland, had sent twenty thousand of their men, their chiefs making loyal orations that were translated by a native interpreter, and offering gifts of shields and assegais, and receiving gifts in return. But among all these larger, more important events there was one little incident, very characteristic of the Prince's gracious thoughtfulness and ready sympathy, that will not go into official records. While he was at Port Alfred he happened to hear of an old woman who lay dying and had expressed a great desire to see him, and he promptly made a point of calling at a small wayside house and going in to gratify that wish. A trivial matter, perhaps, but typical of the instinctive kindliness that was his passport to the affections of high and low of all shades of opinion throughout his journeyings, and that explains what the Mayor of King William's Town meant when addressing the Prince after the Indaba there, he added to his titles that of the "King of Hearts." East London From Umtata, the Royal party travelled to East London, and after spending two days at that busy seaport entrained, making short stays by the way at Queenstown, Molteno, and Burghersdorp, for the Orange Free State. The Free State Province 61
All about the Free State Province, Natal, and the Transvaal are towns, rivers, kopjes, and stretches of country whose names are familiar in the stories of South African wars, and the Prince took a keen interest in seeing such places, in realising on the spot the details of the siege of Ladysmith and Mafeking, in sometimes fighting old battles over again in imagination, and listening to reminiscences of men who had fought in them, irrespective of the side they had fought on. He could never resist the opportunity of having chats with such veterans and with the many men, English and Dutch, who wore medals or ribbons of the Great War, for he has a warm corner in his heart for all ex-service men. When, later on, he was at Newcastle, in Natal, he specially thanked the Municipal Council for having established a settlement for returned soldiers on the outskirts of the town, and said, "It is our duty to see that those who fought are not forgotten in days of peace. I have always been a supporter of movements with that object in view and earnestly trust that your experiment will so succeed that it will encourage other bodies in South Africa to establish similar settlements." Jagersfontein The Prince's first visit in the Free State Province was paid to the diamond-mining town of Jagersfontein, in whose central square of wooden buildings the amazingly cosmopolitan population of the place had collected to receive him. There were Syrians among them and Germans, Italians and Russians, French and Portuguese, as well as Britishers, South Africans, Hollanders, and Americans. From the square, the Prince was taken to the Kaffir compound, reserved to the "boys" who on any day but this, which was a Sunday, would have been working in the mines. He showed a particular interest in the kitchen and general domestic economy, and there was a roar of delight from the thousand genially grinning blacks when the compound manager announced that the Prince wished him to tell them he was having a present of tobacco sent down for distribution. Jagersfontein is a "Dopper" centre, and the Doppers have the sober, sound qualities of our old English Puritans and are strict in Sunday observances. That evening the Prince attended a service of the Dutch Reformed Church, where hymns were sung in English and Dutch, and where, evading the prominent chair that had been placed for him, he sat with the Union Minister of Finance, Mr. Havenga, who had been delegated to accompany the party through the Province. The Predikant spoke in his prayer of how this visit of the Prince would deepen the mutual knowledge of the two South African races, and said, "had there been similar knowledge in the past, some of the sad pages in our history need never have been written." Bloemfontein On Monday, with an hour's halt on the veld for some guinea-fowl shooting, the Royal train proceeded, by way of Springfontein and Edenburg, to the capital of the Orange Free State. Here, on leaving Hamilton Station, the Prince rode into Bloemfontein through the lines of a commando escort of some two thousand men that was drawn up on each side of the road, under the leadership of General Conroy, now the Nationalist member for Hoopstad, but remembered as a doughty rebel of earlier days who served with the dashing and elusive De Wet. In Market Square, in President Brand Avenue, in Maitland Street, shops, houses, hotels, clubs, public buildings were alive with bunting, and serried masses of English, Dutch, and black and coloured people rent the air with thunderous ovations. Reining up near the gates of King's Park, the Prince reviewed the commando, addressing the men in their own language and speaking too many individually. Most of them were men who, like their leader, General Conroy, had once borne arms against us; they had come in voluntarily, many from distant parts of the Province, and were obviously and deeply gratified by the intimate touch the Prince gave to this little ceremony of farewell before they set out to ride the long miles home to their far-off farms. The Prime Minister, General Hertzog, had come from Cape Town and was present with the Mayor of Bloemfontein and the Administrator of the Free State Province at the reception of the Prince, who, 62
after opening an extension to King's Park which had been planned in his honour and named "The Prince's Garden," received the Mayoral address on the rotunda and then shook hands with some three thousand representative townsfolk, largely burghers and their wives, who came up to be introduced by the Mayor. There was a Civic Ball in the evening, and next day the Annual Congress of the South African Branch of the British Empire Service League was opened by the Prince, who was greeted with round after round of applause from delegates of the League who had come from all parts of the Union, and from delegates of an association of Dutch South Africans which, as the League looks after the welfare of British ex-soldiers, looks after the welfare of men who fought on the other side in the Boer Wars. There could have been no finer testimony to the conciliatory spirit that is harmonising the whole Dominion than the coming together on this occasion of the two Leagues that work not for the rival interests, but for the common interests of soldiers who had once been enemies ; and speaking with deep earnestness of the economic difficulties which still face many of those who have given their all in the common cause, the Prince expressed his sympathy with the objects of such organisations and his readiness to do all in his power to assist them. In the evening, accompanied only by Admiral Halsey, his Chief of Staff, he drove to the outskirts of Bloemfontein to lay a wreath on the grave of Ex-President Steyn, who as head of the Orange Free State, joined President Kruger in the war against Great Britain and remained almost to the end of his days one of our most honest and irreconcilable opponents. A roundabout route was then taken from Bloemfontein into Basutoland. At Winburg His Royal Highness shook hands with Commandant Cronje, nephew of the General of that name who was famous in the old wars, and in the course of a little speech to the townspeople, said, "Many of your sons have won distinction in South African affairs, but the greatest of them was President Steyn, whose devotion to his country and whose transparent honesty are known to all." Theunissen, Kroonstad, Fiksburg, Ladybrand were passed, but not until the Prince had stayed to see something of each and make acquaintance with their peoples, and with a final stoppage at Harrismith, near the border of the Free State Province, where the Prince thanked a big gathering in the Town Hall for the spontaneous cordiality of their welcome, the train crossed into Basutoland. Basutoland The sad Basuto Leper Colony was not overlooked; but the first function in Basutoland was a great native "Pitso," outside Maseru, the capital city — the biggest and most spectacular assembly the country has ever known. Crowds of excursionists had come out from Bloemfontein, and about a hundred thousand Basutos were there, on their shaggy ponies or afoot, most in semi-European dress, but some with plumes in their hair and carrying battle-axes. The Prince rode to the "Pitso" with an escort of Basuto Mounted Police, and from a platform in a central enclosure was introduced "to the sons of Moshesh, chiefs and people" by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Edward Garraway, the Resident Commissioner. The Paramount Chief of Basuto, Griffith Lerothodi, made a prominent figure in frock coat and tall hat, and with him was his uncle, Jonathan, a very ancient man, revered for his wisdom, and attired in similar but older garments. Before the seventeen leading chiefs were brought forward and presented with recognition sticks, Jonathan was deputed to approach the Prince and, leaning on a staff, with his grey head uncovered, he said, each sentence being translated by an interpreter, he was glad to have lived to see so great a day; "I rejoice as old Simeon of the Scriptures rejoiced that he had seen his Lord before he was gathered to his fathers. I am the oldest chief of the House of Moshesh, the oldest House of chiefs, and can recognise more than anyone the changes for the better that have taken place since Queen Victoria took over our country. As an old man who has not long to live, and as one of the fathers of my people, I come to express my deep gratitude, first, for 63
the protection afforded by the British Crown, and, second, to your Royal Highness for having come so far to visit Basutoland." Other chiefs came forward to make loyal addresses, but the most important was the harangue of the Paramount Chief who declared with emphasis that his people yielded to none as the most devoted subjects within the British Dominions. The Prince, in replying, assured them the King was well aware that the Basutos could be counted among his most loyal subjects. "Your war memorial," he went on, "is a lasting testimony to the devotion of the Basutos who served His Majesty in distant lands and proves that the sentiments contained in your addresses are not mere words, but the expression of what is in your hearts. Chief Jonathan and others of you can remember the days when the country was stricken by famine and devastated by strife. To-day you live in peace and prosperity under British rule. The King continues to watch over you with fatherly care." The Basutos are said to be a phlegmatic race, not given to cheering, but nobody would have guessed that from the continuous roars of applause that surrounded and followed the Prince as he drove slowly through the dispersing multitude back to Maseru. Natal and Zululand With snow on the bare peaks that towered above them, the Royal trains glided under the shadow of the Drakensberg Mountains and down into the green, fertile valleys of Natal, and at ten o'clock on the morning of June 1st, halted at Ladysmith. There is no need to recount the familiar story of the siege of Ladysmith, from the middle of November, 1899, to the beginning of March, 1900, or of the desperate battles fought by Sir Redvers Buller's troops at Colenso, Spion Kop, and Vaalkranz in reiterated attempts to cross the Tugela and relieve Sir George White and his beleaguered garrison. In the afternoon, following a Civic reception on the great sports ground, the Prince climbed Spion Kop and Observation Hill, and visited other such landmarks of that long struggle; was driven to the convent standing on a hill which dominates the town and had served as the British Headquarters during the investment; and before leaving Ladysmith had made a pilgrimage to all the historic sites on that memorable battleground. Two hundred and forty miles of railway lie between Ladysmith and Durban, Natal’s seaport and largest town — a handsome town with many splendid public buildings, a famous Botanical Garden, a racecourse and several public parks. The whites make over 50,000 of its 140,000 inhabitants, and all sections of the people were out in the streets to join in the mighty cheer that hailed the Prince on his arrival. He alighted at Berea station, on the edge of the town, and through two miles of streets that were lined by local troops and men from the warships and clamant with indescribable enthusiasm, he drove to the Town Hall, in front of which a stand had been erected for the reception. After the Mayor had presented an address on behalf of the whole of the community, including Indians and natives, and the Prince, in response, had congratulated Durban on its industrial enterprise and the pleasure it gave him to hear that it had granted an area of land to the Natal Technical College for its University college buildings, there was a march past of the troops, His Royal Highness taking the salute. He had arrived in the town on the King's birthday, and Durban was celebrating the double event. The Prince was to stay, during his two and a half days in Durban, at King's House, the GovernorGeneral's residence, but before going on there he attended a gathering of several thousand natives in the Oval cricket ground, the first of a number of such Zulu gatherings that he witnessed before the end of his visit. Then, before lunch at the Turf Club and a race meeting at Greyville, he drove to the headquarters of the Durban Light Infantry to have informal talks with many out of 3,000 exservice men, who were assembled there to see him — men who had fought in Flanders, in the Far East and in German East Africa — and shook hands with every one of them.
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From a football match between Natal and Transvaal, which Transvaal won, he went to one of the happiest and most successful of Civic banquets, and rounded off a day of varied duties and pleasures at the King's Birthday Ball that evening in the Town Hall. Next morning, June 4th, was given to a review of scouts and guides on the Old Fort Road grounds; to receiving the tumultuous greetings of fifteen thousand children at Kingsmead, and the loyal demonstrations of twenty-three thousand Indians in Albert Park, who, when the Prince began to speak to them in Hindustani, made it clear that the language of the Natal Indians was English. Perhaps the most important event of the visit was the opening of a new Graving Dock which had been completed after more than five years' work and named after the Prince of Wales. It is built on the most modern lines and can accommodate the largest of mercantile vessels. In declaring it open, His Royal Highness spoke of how much the new dock would mean to South Africa and the shipping of all nations, said he felt it was a great privilege to have been invited by the Union Government to open it, and that he was proud so magnificent a piece of work should bear his name. An excursion to Eshowe, the Zulu capital, on June 5th, to meet the Zulu chiefs and tribal dancers, ended the Prince's official programme for a brief space, and the next three days were, by arrangement, reserved to rest and recreation. Pietermaritzburg Thereafter, the tour was resumed and on June 10th the Prince was in Pietermaritzburg, where he was to present colours to the Natal Carbineers, an old and distinguished volunteer regiment of which he is honorary Colonel. At Pietermaritzburg, another great Zulu "Indaba" was held; and the day after there was the opening of the Royal Agricultural Show, which commemorated the seventieth anniversary of the Natal Agricultural Society, and a speech to the farmers by one who, as a farmer himself, could appreciate that remarkable display of what was being done by the farming and stockraising industries of the district. Farther north, at Newcastle, the Prince was specially gratified to see those settlements, to which reference has already been made, established by the municipal council for the accommodation of ex-soldiers. At Dundee, to the south again, where the first shots were fired in the Boer war, there were the graves of British soldiers on Talana Hill to be visited; and at Vryheid and at the little coalmining village of Zuinguin the Prince had the last of those unstinted and unforgettable welcomes he had received everywhere in Natal — whose name, by the way, holds a memory of the day in 1497 when the great navigator, Vasco de Gama, storm-tossed and sore bestead, discovered Natal and landed at what is now its Port, and because it was Christmas Day, named it "The Land of the Nativity." The Transvaal, Swaziland, and Bechuanaland On Saturday, June nth, the Royal trains crossed into the Transvaal, whose prevailing characteristics are Dutch as those of Natal are English. The Prince had been assured that he would have the warmest of welcomes from the Boers of the High Veld, and the assurance more than justified itself at Ermelo, his first stopping place, where there was a march past of armed farmers, and a presentation of hardy Boer veterans who, in their day, had campaigned against the British, to say nothing of the Zulus; and the Dutch Mayor, in broken English and with transparent sincerity, greeted His Royal Highness in the name of the High Veld people as "their future King." Before going farther up the Transvaal, a ninety-mile motor run eastwards took the Prince into Swaziland, where the rest of that day and the next were passed with the European residents of the Protectorate, and in attending a gathering of the Swazi nation under their Paramount Chief. Then, re-crossing into the Transvaal, the Royal party entrained at Carolina for Barberton, and thence to Komatiport, and to Pietersburg where an impressive concourse of Matabeles, Basutos, Shangaans, and other native peoples had come together to see and hear their Prince. 65
Pretoria And at length, after a long journey over the barren, magnificent solitudes of the veld, Pretoria, the old Boer capital, received him with whole-hearted acclamations. In a procession of cars, the Prince and his entourage drove up the winding way to the Government buildings, which stand on a hill overlooking the city, and as he appeared at the balustrade of the kiosk that had been prepared for him, the National Anthem was sung by the seven thousand spectators who, when the cheering after had died down, were led by the Pretoria Choral Society's choir of five hundred voices in singing Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory." There could have been no more wonderful demonstration of how the differences of a quarter of a century ago have been healed. That evening the Prince was the guest of the Administrator, Mr. Hofmeyr, at a dinner at the Pretoria Club, which was attended by delegates from all over the Transvaal. On the following morning, Sunday, he attended a service to two thousand five hundred ex-service men, at which the Bishop of Pretoria preached; and then drove to the old cemetery to lay a wreath of laurel on the grave of President Kruger; as, before proceeding to Johannesburg, he made a wide detour to Potchefstroom and placed a wreath on the grave of Pretorius, the first President of the Transvaal Republic, after whom the capital was named. Johannesburg Forty thousand people were waiting in the square between the Town Hall and the Post Office when the Prince entered Johannesburg on June 22nd. To-morrow was his thirty-first birthday, and it had been rumoured that Johannesburg had laid itself out to give him a special and tremendous greeting, and for once in a way rumour completely fulfilled itself. He drove under triumphal arches, and the air resounded with joyous shouts of "Many happy returns!" all the way he went; and at night the streets were illuminated, and the mines on both sides of the city, all along the Reef, sent mighty rockets streaming fire and scattering stars across the darkness. Early on the 23rd, he was waited on by a delegation from the Transvaal Chamber of Mines, who presented him with a casket made of gold from Johannesburg's mines. During the "morning he drove along the Reef to a huge assembly of native miners; and in the afternoon opened the new building of the Witwatersrand University in Milner Park; reviewed a muster of scouts and guides, and a large assembly of Indians and gatherings of native Africans, celebrating his birthday by making it one of the busiest of his days. There was a carnival-procession next day of all manner of vehicles, from the most ancient ox- wagon to the modern motor lorry and automobile, illustrating the development of transport in South Africa; and a very different show later, and one the Prince always considered one of the most important in his programme, a parade of thirty-five thousand children down by the Zoo lake. The 25th, the Prince's last day at Johannesburg, was passed for the most part among the Reef mining towns, and in making a descent of one of the Crown Mines, said to be the largest gold mine in the world. That evening the Prince was continuing his journey, but made two other calls before he passed into Rhodesia. At Mafeking he was taken over the siege positions and viewed the siege memorial; and at Serowe, the capital of Bechuanaland, to reach which the train was left at a wayside station for a thirty-five mile motor run over a bush track, he went to attend an "Indaba" of Bechuana warriors and receive their Chief, Sekgoma, and to unveil a white marble memorial to the memory of a great Bechuanaland ruler of the past, Chief Khama. There was no other stopping till the train drew up at Bulawayo station, where Sir John Chancellor, the Governor of Rhodesia, and a group of officials were in waiting. Rhodesia RHODESIA is in itself Cecil Rhodes' monument; and its later history is largely the history of the great, practical dreamer of whom Kipling has written: — 66
"The travail of his spirit bred Cities in place of speech." In Bulawayo, close to Government House, which Rhodes built, survives a little thatch-roofed, whitewashed, circular hut which was his first residence in the country. It was under the statue of Rhodes, in Main Street, that Sir John Chancellor officially welcomed the Prince into Southern Rhodesia, amid a vast and enthusiastic congregation of its white and black peoples. After a meeting with the native chiefs, under what used to be Lobengula's "Indaba" tree in the grounds of Government House, the Royal guest took tea with some three thousand Bulawayans in the public park; and attended an official dinner at Government House in the evening. Other events in Bulawayo included the unveiling of a war memorial in the presence of eight hundred service and ex-service men, the Prime Minister standing in the ranks of No. 1 Platoon; and, in Main Street, a march past, at which the Prince took the salute and shook hands with five hundred exsoldiers and nurses. He drove, next morning, into the Matopo Hills to stand beside the grave of Cecil Rhodes, of whom Kipling again wrote the great, last words: — "Living he was the land, and dead His soul shall be her soul." It was after the Matabele rebellion in 1896, while camped in the Matopo Hills waiting for certain of the defeated chiefs to come in and make peace, that Rhodes discovered this spot and chose it as his place of burial; and now not far from him his friend, Sir Starr Jameson, is buried, and nearby, too, is the tomb of Major Alan Wilson and the men who died fighting against Lobengula. Another day was given to a drive out to Zimbabwe, to see the wonderful monuments of a remote civilisation which stand above ancient gold mines there from which, if tradition is to be trusted, the gold was taken to furnish Solomon's Temple of Jerusalem. Nothing is known of the race that built and worked in the great city of Zimbabwe, and it was left to Rider Haggard to bring its ruins into popular romance by making it the realm of "She who Must be Obeyed," a traditional native chieftainess, Modjadje, serving him as a model for the character of his heroine. Leaving Bulawayo, the Prince broke his journey for some shooting among the vast stretch of ranches known as the Central Estates; then returned to Umvuma whence the train took him on to Enkeldoorn, and to Range, where he attended an Indaba of Matabele and Shangaan chiefs; arriving at Salisbury, the capital of Rhodesia, on July 7th. Here he received a welcome that matched the warmest he had anywhere met with, and responding to the official address said, "Nearly thirty-five years have elapsed since the Pioneer Column hoisted the British flag over Salisbury. Until two years ago the Government of the territory was carried on by the British South Africa Company, who followed the best traditions of British Colonial administration. Now you are governing yourselves — a fact that would have gladdened the great founder of the country had he lived to realise his dream of Rhodesia as a British Colony." Before concluding, he emphasised his hope that the administration would, in co-operation with the Imperial Government, give all possible encouragement to men and women in our overcrowded Island to come and live in that young, healthy country, which offered health and wealth to any who were prepared to work. A visit to Livingstone, the capital of Northern Rhodesia, and to the marvellous Victoria Falls occupied the week-end. A review of the native police of Northern Rhodesia was succeeded in the afternoon of July 13th by a drive to Kamujomas, on the Zambesi, where, in a clearing on the river bank, the Prince met Yeta III, the Paramount Chief of the Barotse, the ceremonies ending in a mid-African regatta.
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After a day at Kafue, the Royal party arrived at Broken Hill, its farthest north point, having travelled over two thousand five hundred miles of the Rhodesian railways. There could be no happier or more significant comment on the Prince's tour through Rhodesia than that in the letter written by the Premier, Sir Charles Coghlan, at its conclusion: "The Prince of Wales's visit to Rhodesia marks an epoch in the history of this youngest self-governing Colony in the Empire. From the farthest confines of our Colony, Rhodesians have flocked to meet their Prince, and now that he is departing he carries with him in a more intimate and personal degree our love and respect — May he return soon." Kimberley to Cape Town Stopping at the diamond city, Kimberley, on his way back to the Cape, the Prince was taken over the mine workings, and spent an hour exploring the depths of the Wesselton mine. There were two or three other stoppages yet, at the battle-grounds of Magersfontein, at the Modder River, at De Aar, an important railway centre, and elsewhere, and at last, at the end of three thousand four hundred miles by road, and nine thousand six hundred and eighty by rail, the Prince was back again in Cape Town. Wherever he had been, it was justly said, his presence had been "an inspiration"; and it may safely be taken that South Africa, in return, had moved him to the profoundest admiration of both country and peoples. The Repulse sailed from Simon's Town in the evening of July 29th. On an evening six days later she anchored off Jamestown, and next morning the Prince went ashore at St. Helena. Here, having inspected the archives of the island, he planted an olive tree near the stone that marked what had been the grave of Napoleon until his body was given over to the French and re-interred in Paris. This call at St. Helena was the last stage in the British Empire tour, and the Repulse headed out across the Atlantic on its long voyage to South America. https://archive.org/stream/princeofwalesafr00adco/princeofwalesafr00adco_djvu.txt
RAIL TRACKS "NORTH OF THE BORDER". Hi all, Been watching a series on Kyknet, Sundays 19h30. “Van Gansbaai na Gabon”. Produced by the SABC. Last night the programme showed the railway line from Luanda to Malanje, at a level crossing. One immediately noticed the slack sections, going into the distance, in a regular – Roller Coaster – formation, looking awful. This reminded us of our recent chat to the drivers and fitters at Welkom station. They often accompanied the Rovos Rail trip to Dar es Salaam, on the “TAZARA” line. They mentioned that it was a very bumpy trip, even at reduced speeds, due to the severe slacks on the entire line. On one occasion a section of line was so bad, that the bolts holding, the cab and body to the chassis, sheared off completely, stranding the train in the veld. It took a long period to arrange another locomotive, to come to their assistance. At least Transnet/Prasa tracks are in better shape. Probably due to track maintenance in the capable care of Lennings Rail and Plasser Rail teams. As mentioned before, when the ballast sifting train departs. The spoils lie track side, looking very unsightly. In the past, a special train of DZ trucks would clear this mess up. New method saves on expenditure, but creating a possible flood danger. 68
The spoils forming a dam wall, preventing proper drainage to the recently cleaned culverts. Done by this very same ballast cleaning team. Bumpy greetings,
John and Jacque Wepener. 1914 – 1918: SAR: ARMOURED TRAINS Leith Paxton
12-pound Quick-Firing Gun.1915
An Armoured 8th Class Engine.1914 69
Armoured Truck used to Pilot General Botha's Train.1915
Train and Protected truck at Springfontein.1915. The coach following the locomotive is a type “J”.
PHOTOS FROM WAYNE NAUSCHUTZ (Via Martin Nel) 70
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THE GL GARRATT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Alice,_Countess_of_Athlone#/media/File:Princess_Alice_of _Albany.jpeg and https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Earlofathlone.jpg (Retrieved 15 April 2017.) GL 2351
My poor “police friends” – whenever we visited a town or a dorp, the first thing for me after work – and some unwilling colleagues - was down or up to the railway station. Here is General Le Roux Stemmet hanging on the side of 2351 then staged at Voorbaai during November 1999.
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At Vryheid: SAR Photo
Photo and text: SA Last Stronghold of Steam; SA Railways
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Text: SA Last Stronghold of Steam; SA Railways
Photo: The Railway Circle.
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What a mighty beast! (SAR photo). Diagram
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MAIL BOX Dr Dreyer van der Merwe Dankie Hennie, ek geniet dit baie. Ek het tydens een Desember/Januarie- universiteitsvakansie tussen Kimberley en De Aar vir sakgeld “kole gegooi” en die daaropvolgende jaar was ek “bevorder” na kelner op die Trans-Karoo. Ek het altesame 5 maande die voorreg gehad om tussen die treine te wees – magtige monsters. Groete Dreyer
Comment on SAS-SAR Vol 8 No 4: Mr Les Pivnic Dear Hennie, Wow! This edition of SAS-SAR is packed with interesting historical items that I need to re-read slowly to take in all the facts. In the meantime, I would suggest that the photo on page 17 was taken at Pretoria looking across towards the old “Roundhouse Loco Shed” and coal stage. The Engine Shed was on a higher level than the station layout in the foreground where the armoured train is standing. Thanks again for a packed edition of SAS-SAR! Cheers Oom Les.
“… was taken at Pretoria looking across towards the old “Roundhouse Loco Shed” and coal stage. The Engine Shed was on a higher level than the station layout in the foreground where the armoured train is standing”.
GH Garratt Union Type Mr Pivnic writes: “The photo shows a class GH Garratt-Union at the head of the Union Limited Express at Monument station in Cape Town. The class GH (two were built) was originally intended 77
for and tested on working the fast passenger trains over the Hex River Pass in the Cape – between Cape Town and Touwsrivier. However, due to excessive vibration of the rear bunker mounted on a solid frame with the boiler section, they were taken off that passenger service and ended their days working coal trains between Glencoe and Vryheid in Natal.�
Etienne du Plessis Collection.
SAR Diagram 78
Joanne Lombard Beste Hennie Baie geluk met jou uitstekende publikasies. Elke artikel wat ek tot dusver kon lees, was fassinerend en verrykend. Ek wil nie op te veel van jou tyd aanspraak maak nie, maar ek wonder of jy my dalk kan verwys na enige van jou publikasies vir inligting oor die volgende: Die alledaagse lewe, werksomstandighede, dorpsuitleg, behuising, fasiliteite in spoorwegdorpe vroeg in die 20ste eeu (1910-1950), in die besonder stel ek belang in Waterval Boven. Dan stel ek ook belang in die stasies te Airlie, Moedig, Kaapmuiden en Olifantsfontein. Vriendelike groete •
Indien daar van ons lesers is wat Joanne kan help, sal ons bly wees.
SLOT / END Geagte leser vir hierdie kwasiehistoriese dokument ons maak van verskeie bronne gebruik en bevat die dokument uiteraard uiteenlopende en diverse persoonlike menings van verskillende persone en die opsteller van die SAS-SAR kan nie in sy persoonlike hoedanigheid daarvoor verantwoordelik of aanspreeklik gehou word nie. Dear reader of this quasi-historical document: please note we make use of various sources and consequently it is obvious that the document contains various diverse and personal opinions of different people and the author of the SAS-SAR cannot be held responsible or be liable in his personal capacity. Hennie Heymans
(Via Martin Nel) 79