h May, 1899. No. 83, C. 9345.]

[Footnote 42: Dispatch of the Transvaal Government, 26th September,
1899. Appendix C.]

[Footnote 43: Dispatch, 10th May, 1899. Blue Book, C. 9345. Page 229.]

[Footnote 44: Dispatch. Appendix C.]

[Footnote 45: Dispatch, 10th May, 1899. C. 9345. Page 229.]

[Footnote 46: Appendix C.]

[Footnote 47: Dispatch, 10th May, 1899. Blue Book, C. 9345. Page 229.]

[Footnote 48: Appendix C.]

[Footnote 49: _Life of Prince Consort_, Vol. III., page 510.]

[Footnote 50: Blue Book, C. 9404.]

[Footnote 51: Blue Book, C. 9530.]

[Footnote 52: Blue Book, C. 9507. Page 6.]

CONCLUSION.

I have now reviewed all the facts connected with the history of our
oppression and persecution during the past hundred years. The
allegations I have made are not invented, but are based upon the
statements of the most reliable witnesses, nearly all of them of British
nationality; they are facts that have been declared incontestable before
the tribunal of history. As far as the more recent occurrences since
1898 are concerned, I may state that I have had personal knowledge of
all the negociations and questions at issue above referred to, and I can
only declare that I have confined myself to facts; these will stand out
in a much clearer light when the curtain is raised and the events of the
last two years in this sorely afflicted part of the world are revealed.

In this awful turning point in the history of South Africa, on the eve
of the conflict which threatens to exterminate our people, it behoves us
to speak the truth in what may be, perchance, our last message to the
world. Even if we are exterminated the truth will triumph through us
over our conquerors, and will sterilise and paralyse all their efforts
until they too disappear in the night of oblivion.

Up to the present our people have remained silent; we have been spat
upon by the enemy, slandered, harried, and treated with every possible
mark of disdain and contempt. But our people, with a dignity which
reminds the world of a greater and more painful example of suffering,
have borne in silence the taunts and derision of their opponents;
indeed, they elected out of a sense of duty to remedy the faults and
abuses which had crept into their public administration during moments
of relaxed vigilance. But even this was ascribed to weakness and
cowardice. Latterly our people have been represented by influential
statesmen and on hundreds of plat