The Terms Offered
Were Certainly As Far As, And Indeed Rather Further Than, The
General Sentiment Of The Empire Would Have Gone.
If the Boers laid
down their arms there was to be a complete amnesty, which was
apparently to extend to rebels also so long as they did not return
to Cape Colony or Natal.
Self-government was promised after a
necessary interval, during which the two States should be
administered as Crown colonies. Law courts should be independent of
the Executive from the beginning, and both languages be official. A
million pounds of compensation would be paid to the burghers - a
most remarkable example of a war indemnity being paid by the
victors. Loans were promised to the farmers to restart them in
business, and a pledge was made that farms should not be taxed. The
Kaffirs were not to have the franchise, but were to have the
protection of law. Such were the generous terms offered by the
British Government. Public opinion at home, strongly supported by
that of the colonies, and especially of the army, felt that the
extreme step had been taken in the direction of conciliation, and
that to do more would seem not to offer peace, but to implore it.
Unfortunately, however, the one thing which the British could not
offer was the one thing which the Boers would insist upon having,
and the leniency of the proposals in all other directions may have
suggested weakness to their minds. On March 15th an answer was
returned by General Botha to the effect that nothing short of total
independence would satisfy them, and the negotiations were
accordingly broken off.
There was a disposition, however, upon the Boer side to renew them,
and upon May 10th General Botha applied to Lord Kitchener for
permission to cable to President Kruger, and to take his advice as
to the making of peace. The stern old man at The Hague was still,
however, in an unbending mood. His reply was to the effect that
there were great hopes of a successful issue of the war, and that
he had taken steps to make proper provision for the Boer prisoners
and for the refugee women. These steps, and very efficient ones
too, were to leave them entirely to the generosity of that
Government which he was so fond of reviling.
On the same day upon which Botha applied for leave to use the
British cable, a letter was written by Reitz, State Secretary of
the Transvaal, to Steyn, in which the desperate condition of the
Boers was clearly set forth. This document explained that the
burghers were continually surrendering, that the ammunition was
nearly exhausted, the food running low, and the nation in danger of
extinction. 'The time has come to take the final step,' said the
Secretary of State. Steyn wrote back a reply in which, like his
brother president, he showed a dour resolution to continue the
struggle, prompted by a fatalist conviction that some outside
interference would reverse the result of his appeal to arms. His
attitude and that of Kruger determined the Boer leaders to hold out
for a few more months, a resolution which may have been
injudicious, but was certainly heroic. 'It's a fight to a finish
this time,' said the two combatants in the 'Punch' cartoon which
marked the beginning of the war. It was indeed so, as far as the
Boers were concerned. As the victors we can afford to acknowledge
that no nation in history has ever made a more desperate and
prolonged resistance against a vastly superior antagonist. A Briton
may well pray that his own people may be as staunch when their hour
of adversity comes round.
The British position at this stage of the war was strengthened by a
greater centralisation. Garrisons of outlying towns were withdrawn
so that fewer convoys became necessary. The population was removed
also and placed near the railway lines, where they could be more
easily fed. In this way the scene of action was cleared and the
Boer and British forces left face to face. Convinced of the failure
of the peace policy, and morally strengthened by having tried it,
Lord Kitchener set himself to finish the war by a series of
vigorous operations which should sweep the country from end to end.
For this purpose mounted troops were essential, and an appeal from
him for reinforcements was most nobly answered. Five thousand
horsemen were despatched from the colonies, and twenty thousand
cavalry, mounted infantry, and Yeomanry were sent from home. Ten
thousand mounted men had already been raised in Great Britain,
South Africa, and Canada for the Constabulary force which was being
organised by Baden-Powell. Altogether the reinforcements of
horsemen amounted to more than thirty-five thousand men, all of
whom had arrived in South Africa before the end of April. With the
remains of his old regiments Lord Kitchener had under him at this
final period of the war between fifty and sixty thousand
cavalry - such a force as no British General in his happiest dream
had ever thought of commanding, and no British war minister in his
darkest nightmare had ever imagined himself called upon to supply.
Long before his reinforcements had come to hand, while his Yeomanry
was still gathering in long queues upon the London pavement to wait
their turn at the recruiting office, Lord Kitchener had dealt the
enemy several shrewd blows which materially weakened their
resources in men and material. The chief of these was the great
drive down the Eastern Transvaal undertaken by seven columns under
the command of French. Before considering this, however, a few
words must be devoted to the doings of Methuen in the south-west.
This hard-working General, having garrisoned Zeerust and
Lichtenburg, had left his old district and journeyed with a force
which consisted largely of Bushmen and Yeomanry to the disturbed
parts of Bechuanaland which had been invaded by De Villiers. Here
he cleared the country as far as Vryburg, which he had reached in
the middle of January, working round to Kuruman and thence to
Taungs.
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