Paul Kruger in Mosambiek, September - Oktober 1900

Abstract

Afrikaans

Die Anglo-Boereoorlog het op 11 Oktober 1899, die dag na president S.J.P. Kruger se vier-en-sewentigste verjaardag, uitgebreek. Die President was in Pretoria omdat hy weens sy ouderdom nie aktief aan die oorlog kon deelneem nie. As gevolg van die Britse opmars na die Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) het die Volksraad tydens sy laaste vergadering aan die begin van Mei 1900 in Pretoria besluit dat die regering en die President na ’n veiliger plek as Pretoria moes verskuif. Machadodorp is as regeringsetel gekies, maar teen die einde van Augustus 1900 was die Transvalers verplig om die regeringsetel na Nelspruit te verskuif. Ter wille van sy persoonlike veiligheid en om die moontlike tussenkoms van die Europese state te verkry, het die Uitvoerende Raad van die ZAR besluit dat president Kruger na Europa moes gaan. Op 11 September 1900 het hy die grens na Mosambiek oorgesteek en vir ietwat meer as ’n maand in die Goewerneurswoning in Lourenço Marques deurgebring, voordat hy op 19 Oktober 1900 onderweg na Europa aan boord van die Gelderland gegaan het. Die President se uitwyking na en sy doen en late in Lourenço Marques, asook die Portugese owerheid se optrede jeens hom aldaar, word beskryf.

English

Paul Kruger in Mozambique, September - October 1900

The Anglo-Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899, the day after President S.J.P. Kruger’s seventy-fourth birthday. The President was in Pretoria because he could not participate in the war on account of his age. As a result of the British advance on the South African Republic (ZAR), the Volksraad decided during its last session in Pretoria at the beginning of May 1900, that the Government and the President should move to a safer location than Pretoria. Initially Machadodorp was chosen as the seat of government. However, towards the end of August 1900, the Transvalers were obliged to relocate the headquarters to Nelspruit. The Executive then decided that President Kruger should go to Europe, both for the sake of his personal safety and in order to procure the possible intervention of European states. On 11 September 1900 he crossed the Mozambiquan border and spent over a month at the Governor’s mansion in Lourenço Marques, before boarding the Gelderland bound for Europe on 19 October 1900. The President’s detour to Lourenço Marques and his activities there, as well as the Portuguese government’s comportment towards him, are described