must also be taken into consideration, and
if it appeared that the war could not be continued, the delegates must
get the best terms they could. In their demands they must be
united--this was the principal reason why dissension was so much to be
avoided. For himself, he could only say that whether the meeting voted
to continue the war or to bring it to a conclusion, he would fall in
with the wishes of the majority. Any decision would be better than the
failure of this conference, as that would leave everything undecided.

He was followed by Secretary of State Reitz, who said:

"You all know what the Governments have done. The question now is, Is
there anything further that we can do? For my part, I think that there
is. We might offer to surrender Witwatersrand and Swaziland; we might
also relinquish our rights to a foreign policy; we might even accede to
an English Protectorate. If France has been able to do without Alsace
and Lorraine, surely we can do without the goldfields. What benefit have
they ever done us? Did the money they brought ever do us any good? No!
rather it did us harm. It was the gold which caused the war. It is then
actually to our advantage to cede the goldfields, and moreover by so
doing we shall be rid of a very troublesome part of our population."

Mr. Reitz then went on to discuss in detail the position in regard to
Swaziland, the question of a British Protectorate, and the surrender of
our right to treat with foreign powers.

General Muller (Boksburg) expressed sympathy with the views of the
Secretary of State, while Vice-Commandant Roux (Marico) said that he was
prepared to sacrifice many things, but that he intended to hold out for
independence.

The next speech was made by Landdrost Stoffberg (Zoutpansberg), who
said:

"I agree with General Du Toit in what he said about the necessity for
unity amongst us. Disunion must not be so much as mentioned. I have a
mandate from the burghers of Zoutpansberg not to sacrifice our
independence. But if anything short of this will satisfy the English, I
am quite prepared to make concessions. Some of the burghers think that
it might be well to surrender the goldfields for a certain sum of money,
while others point out that the gold was the cause of the war. I also
think that we have suffered through the gold, and that we might give up
the goldfields without doing ourselves any harm. For what has the gold
done for us? It has enriched us, many will say.