foresee danger for our commandos if they proceed to
Zoutpansberg.

I feel that our people have defended themselves and have fought better
than any people in the world. Our little nation has already sacrificed
proportionately more in this struggle than any other nation known in
history, and I should regret it bitterly if this people should be
destroyed, or have to fight till all are dead or captured, and the
independence lost. If we become convinced that it is impossible for us
to proceed, that it is impossible for us to retain our independence,
then we must inform the people to that effect, and they can then
decide what they wish to do. By continuing blindly we shall certainly
fall. During the last year more than 20,000 women and children died in
the concentration camps, and their suffering there was terrible. Then
there are also some of our own people, who have taken up arms against
us, and if matters go on as at present there will shortly be more
Africanders fighting against us than for us.

The question now is: What must we do? There are only a few courses
open to us. If we can retain our independence by the surrender of a
portion of our territory, then, however hard it may be, let us do so.
The State Secretary has made a few suggestions in this respect, and
however detrimental it may be to us to have a Government within a
Government in the country, it would nevertheless be better than to
lose everything, for humanly speaking it is impossible for us to
retain our independence by force of arms. Swazieland is a great
country, and yet it is of no value to us, and we can well give it up.
And let us also surrender the Witwatersrand--that cancer in our
country--if we can save ourselves thereby. If by these means we do not
succeed in our object it is for you to say whether the war must still
be continued or not. The conditions show me plainly that we are going
backward. In the Orange Free State we have only 6,000 men under arms,
and in the South African Republic only 10,000. Compare these with the
numbers with which we commenced. Are we not going down the precipice?
Let us not co-operate to that end. Let us rather do what we can to
save our people if we must lose our independence. If we must give up
the struggle, are we then to say to the enemy: "We have fought for our
independence only, and since we cannot get that, here we are, do with
us as you please." That we can do for ourselves as leaders, but we
cannot say that f