 During the Anglo-Boer War, he was part of the Pretoria Commando serving in the artillery but was captured at Ermelo and sent to India as a prisoner of war.On his return to the Transvaal Colony in 1902 at the end of the war, there was no job for him at the Department of Mines and he considered emigrating to Argentina, but was offered the editorship of "Land en Volk".By 1903 he was editor of "De Volkstem", the mouthpiece of Louis Botha's future party, "Het Volk".