1 Hotel Milner
2 Matjesfontein
3 Cape Colony
4 Dec 30 / 08
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6 Dear Neef Jan
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8 Thank you for your letter. No, I don’t want to come to Cape Town
9while this Convention is sitting. The less I think of it the happier I am.
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11 I wish I had a copy of a letter I wrote to Milner when he first came
12here, to send to you (only substituting your name for his). It
13wasn’t clever, it wasn’t perhaps interesting, but it held a truth,
14when I tried to prove to him that from the moment when he accepted a
15high position of rule to this country his right to act as a mere party
16man was gone. That not only to the Englishmen but to every Boer and
17every little Kaffir child to every old Hottentot walking in the veld,
18he owes a duty. Our duty stretches as far as our power of benefiting
19our fellow creatures goes. It doesn’t end till that ends.
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21 And from the man of wide powers, from him much is expected.
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23 Good bye dear Nief Jan
24 Love to Isie & the little ones
25 Auntie Olive
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