ENPages
page_0001
High Commissioner's Office, Johannesburg.
Oct: 3: 1902
My dearest Mother
You are a doleful old body, with that Kirk of yours. What does it matter? You must try & not be so low-spirited, and above all things keep your health. You must keep on the two servants: I shall be very glad to pay their wages. Thank Anna very much for her letter. I received Aunt Aggie's marriage invitation. I am glad that
page_0002
my present was in time. What extraordinary falsehoods about me seem to circulate in Glasgow. I wonder who invents them. Here I get enough newspaper notice, but they mostly confine themselves to facts and abuse. It seems my fate to be a target for idle journalists.
I enclose 2 letters for William which wandered here from Brasenose and were opened by my clerk in error. He ought to speak to the
page_0003
Porter about it.
I have had a busy week - the same old see-saw between Pretoria and Johannesburg. I hope another week will see the end of it. To-morrow I have to make a wild rush down to Machadodorp on the Swazi Border to try to redd up a tangle there. I must say I am rather proud of my Lands Act. It is nearly entirely my own work, & is better than any other Colonial Land Laws that I know.
I have been sair troubled this week with the Master of Elibank.
page_0004
He turned up last Sunday & since then has been haunting my company. I had him to dinner and got H.E. to ask him to dinner. I took him to Pretoria one day, & I gave him numerous introductions. He is a little ugly fat man, getting very grey too, and very unlike our thin brown people here. He wasn't very popular, but personally I rather liked him & found him amusing. He is full of stories - rather malicious ones - of Thorburn and the Tennants. He told me a rather sensational piece of news - that efforts were being made to
page_0005
get Raymond Asquith to stand as Liberal Candidate for Peeblesshire. If he did, he would get in, for no honest county could withstand Raymond. If little Marshall stands as Conservative Candidate it will be the funniest contest on record. Some day Raymond and I will have a titanic fight there.
You seem to be persecuted
