The Transvaal Leader- 1905

Johannesburg, saturday, 14th October, 1905, Xmas Number, illustrated weekly edition, complete, 32 pages excluding cover, broadsheet, 31 cms x 46 cms, some edgeware and slight lose to loose covers otherwise condition : very good.

  In 1899, Sir (James) Percy FitzPatrick was instrumental in founding theJohannesburg morning newspaper, the Transvaal Leader. As with much ofthe English language press in south Africa at that time, it wasfinanced by Rhodes and Wernher-Beit and Company seemingly with theobjective of stirring dissent, through which it was hoped to furtherthe capitalist ends of the mining lobby and imperialistic ambitions ofBritain.In the months preceding the onset of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902),the provocative editorial styles of Robert Joshua Pakeman of theTransvaal Leader, and William F Moneypenny of the Star were impertinentand profound. Methuen was to write that "the South African Press becamea manufactory of outrages" for, determined to force the war issue ofMilner and Rhodes by any means, Uitlanders' grievances and countless small points of friction perpetually were magnified out of allproportion.Seemingly as a ruse de guerre intended to rattle the cages of theUitlander body, and citing as his rationale "fragrant and provocativeuntruths", JC Smuts, then State Attorney in the Kruger government,amongst others ordered the arrest of the two editors. William FMoneypenny, prewarned, avoided arrest but Pakeman did not. This actioncaused such an outcry that Smuts, totally unabashed, subsequentlypublicly distanced himself from it. Pakeman was to die in 1906.