y expediency. In so doing, this Minister of the Crown
completely identifies himself with the aspirations of the Afrikander
nationalists, and he concludes by asking for "a private telegraphic
code. The absence thereof was badly felt on Saturday, when Schreiner
was obliged to write instead of telegraphing."

[Footnote 67: Cd. 369.]

"Circumstances appear to me now," he writes, "to be such that our
friends in Pretoria must be yielding; with their friends at the
head of the Government here, they have a better chance that
reasonable propositions made by them will be accepted than they
would have had if we had been unsuccessful at the late elections
and our enemies were advisers.

[Sidenote: "Play to win time".]

"Schreiner, who knows more than any one of us, feels strongly
that things are extremely critical.

"Telegrams from people in London, whom he thoroughly trusts, such
as J. H.'s[68] best friends, received by him on Saturday and this
morning, strengthen him in his opinion. We must now play to win
time. Governments are not perpetual, and I pray that the present
team, so unjustly disposed towards us, may receive their reward
before long. Their successors, I am certain, will follow a less
hateful policy towards us. When we hear that you have succeeded
in Pretoria, then we must bring influence to bear here."

[Footnote 68: Mr. Hofmeyr.]

In the second letter Dr. Te Water regrets that he cannot share
President Steyn's view that "all the noise about war is bluff." Then
there follows a passage showing that Mr. Steyn had entertained
expectations of assistance from the Schreiner Cabinet that even Dr. Te
Water could not reconcile with his ideas of ministerial allegiance:

"But now I should like a few words of explanation," he writes,
"as to what you mean by saying that 'The Cape Ministry will be
able to do much more good.' In what respect do you think that we
can be of more use than before?"

Assuming, for the moment, that President Steyn had written, "In the
event of war becoming inevitable, or having broken out, the Cape
Ministry will be able to do much more good than it is doing now," or
words to this effect, it would appear that he shared the erroneous
views of Mr. Reitz, against which Sir Henry de Villiers had protested
during his visit to Pretoria. In the letter to Mr. Melius de Villiers,
from whi