Reference
X955/1/115
Title
To Mrs Sarah Colenutt
Date free text
10 October 1899
Production date
From: 1899 To: 1899
Scope and Content
5 High Wickham, Hastings
My dear friend,
Jack left for Spain last week. His wife and child will follow later on. His firm (Cammell & Co) have acquired a large territory there in which there are iron-ore mines. A railway about 60 miles long is to be made. Jack in manager of the concern. The responsibility is great and I am afraid that it may be too much for him. However his directors know his capacity for business better than I know it. He is sorry to leave England, but it would have been foolish to refuse a good offer. Burgos, I believe is his head-quarters.
I have not yet taken the doctor’s advice as to Whitby. I am afraid of the cold. I shall be glad if you will tell Kate what I told you and I shall like to hear what she thinks. I was to get a get a house high up if possible.
I hope you are sound on the Transvaal question and that you protest against war. Chamberlain (1) is the most detestable minister the Queen has had in my day. I do not deny that the English-speaking people
in South Africa have their grievances, but substitute Germany for the Boers and do you think Chamberlain would have interfered? Besides, consider the history of our relationship with them, the annexation and the raid. I have but scant sympathy with the gold-mining speculative gentlemen in the Transvaal, nor do I much care for the propagation of their race and dominion. The whole of the Chamberlain policy, the grasping at territory and the consequent increase in our army and navy, seem to me a prediction of disaster some day. Endless complications will be the result and ceaseless wars, some little and perhaps some big ones. The situation today is strikingly similar to that of Rome under the empire, and we know how she fared.
Your ever affectionate friend
W. Hale White
(1) Chamberlain, Sir (Joseph) Austen (1863–1937), politician, He was again returned unopposed at the general election of 1900, held during the South African War, and escaped largely unscathed from allegations that he and his father were making money out of the war because of their holdings in armaments firms which had contracts with the government. ODNB.
Level of description
item