ood for the
men, what would become of the families if the struggle was to be
continued?

Commandant D. J. Opperman (Pretoria, South of the railway) gave an
account of how matters were situated in that part of the district
represented by him. His remarks were to the same effect as those of
Commandant Alberts (see above).

General Liebenberg (Potchefstroom) spoke about the commandos of
Potchefstroom under his command. During the past eight or nine months
blockhouses had been established in his division, and he had only a
narrow space of about twelve miles wide where he could exist. A
considerable amount of corn had been sown, but their fields had
recently fallen into the hands of the enemy, and now everything had
been destroyed, burnt, and trampled down by the horses. They had still
93 families. Some women from the Orange Free State had been placed on
the boundary between the districts of Lichtenburg and Potchefstroom by
the British. These were in a most deplorable condition, and were
almost dying from misery. These women had informed him that unless
matters improved they would proceed to Klerksdorp on foot. He had
advised them to wait until after the completion of the negotiations.
His commando consisted of 400 mounted men and about 100 dismounted. He
would be able to continue the struggle for some little time yet, and
then he would have to seek salvation elsewhere.

General du Toit (Wolmaransstad) informed the meeting that provisions
were very scarce with him, and that they had 500 families to support.
The horses were in a very poor condition, but by making _detours_ he
could always manage to get out of tight corners. His commando was not
large--it consisted of only about 450 mounted men--and the cattle they
had were in good condition, but grain was scarce.

Commandant de Beer (Bloemhof) stated that he had 444 mounted men and
about 165 unmounted burghers. Grain was not plentiful in his district,
nor cattle, but Bloemhof had never had much cattle. The families with
them were not yet suffering very much from scarcity of provisions, and
he thought he would be able to continue the struggle for another year.

General Kemp said that he had under his command portions of the
commandos of Krugersdorp and Rustenburg, and portions of the commandos
of Pretoria and Johannesburg. In the Krugersdorp district they could
not sow any more, and the majority of the cattle had been taken from
them. And yet they were not suffering from