Saturday Boer War Cartoon

J.M. Staniforth here again. This one appeared in June 1899 in Wales’ Evening Express. It’s another cartoon published during the few months leading up to the outbreak of the Boer War.

What we see is John Bull, seemingly with toothache having bitten hard on something too tough to bite through. He stands before what looks to be a lushly forested area, and bears a piece of paper in his right hand, which seems to refer to President Paul Kruger’s ultimately fruitless meetings with Alfred Milner, the British High Commissioner for Southern Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony. On the floor is a roll with the words Uitlanders Petition. The caption is A Hard Nut To Crack.

What I like about this is that it doesn’t seem to lay the blame at the feet of supposed Boer stubbornness, but admits that the whole situation is extremely difficult. If anything, it seems as if the cartoon is saying that Uitlanders’ petition is the problem. The cartoon seems a pretty good forecast of what the next couple of years would bring. Yes, eventually the Boers did have to surrender, the Transvaal and Orange Free State were annexed and eventually would be part of the Union of South Africa. But it was very difficult for the British Empire, with all the huge resources at its command, to accomplish and cost a staggering amount in terms of money and lives. A hard nut indeed.