international position. One of the measures taken was to replace State Secretary W.J. Leyds, who had the Dutch nationality, with a South African. Leyds was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Europe to represent the Republic abroad. Reitz took his place as State Secretary in June 1898, after Abraham Fischer had declined. As State Secretary Reitz had a complicated and hefty job. After the State President he was the most important member of the Executive Council (Uitvoerende Raad). As the most senior civil servant he was responsible for the oversight over the implementation of the laws and regulations, as well as for all the correspondence of the President, official government reports, etc. He was also an intermediary between the Executive Council and parliament, the First and Second Volksraad, and a key figure in the foreign affairs of the State. Experienced and well organised as he himself was Reitz managed to quickly modernise the structure of the state apparatus, by implementing regulations for the running of the government departments, appointing an archivist for his own, and by prescribing that all correspondence with the government should be in Dutch. The State President of the South African Republic, Paul Kruger, was not an easy man to work with, and in some circles it was predicted that Reitz would quickly find himself subordinated to Kruger. This was not the case, however. On occasion the two men clashed on matters of policy, but Reitz remained true to his own convictions, gaining some influence over Kruger in the process. Originally praised by the British for his diplomatic courtesy, their attitude quickly changed when they understood that Reitz was a protagonist of Transvaal independence. Reitz was sometimes rather brazen in his political statements, so when he – incorrectly – claimed the South African Republic to be a fully sovereign state, the British jumped on him. In view of rapidly mounting British pressure and an ensuing armed conflict over the position of the Uitlanders and economic control over the Witwatersrand gold fields, foreign policy in the South African Republic was eventually determined by a triumvirate: State President Kruger, State Secretary Reitz, and State Attorney General J.C. Smuts. During 1899 they decided that an offensive attitude towards British demands was the only way forward, despite the risks this entailed. Reitz sought and received the support of the Orange Free State for this approach. On 9 October 1899 the