phing the draft agreement to the Home Government he
draws the attention of the commissioners in the most explicit language
to the fact that the Middelburg proposal has been "completely
annulled"; and that, therefore, if the draft agreement should be
signed, there must be "no attempt to explain the document, or its
terms, by anything in the Middelburg proposal."

The greatness of the debt owed by England and the empire to Lord
Milner for the inflexible determination with which he penetrated,
unmasked, and finally baffled the tortuous diplomacy of the Boer
commissioners may be estimated from the fact that within three months
of the signing of the Surrender Agreement at Pretoria, three out of
their number asked the British Government to re-open the discussion
and make, what Mr. Chamberlain rightly termed, "an entirely new
agreement." As it was, Lord Milner's faultless precision during the
whole progress of the negotiations at Pretoria provided the Home
Government with a complete answer to the representatives of the Boer
"delegates."

"It would not be in accordance with my duty," wrote Mr.
Chamberlain,[337] "to enter upon any discussion of proposals of
this kind, some of which were rejected at the conferences at
Pretoria; while others, which were not even mentioned on those
occasions, would certainly not have been accepted at any time by
His Majesty's Government."

[Footnote 337: Mr. Chamberlain to Generals Botha, De Wet, and
De la Rey, August 28th, 1902. Cd. 1,284.]

[Sidenote: Approval of Home Government.]

At the close of the afternoon meeting (May 21st) the draft agreement
was telegraphed to the Home Government. On the 27th Mr. Chamberlain
informed Lord Milner by telegram that the Cabinet approved of the
submission of this document with certain minor alterations, and with
the new clause dealing with the grant of L3,000,000, to the Assembly
at Vereeniging. Meanwhile the nature of the penalties to be inflicted
upon the colonial rebels, a subject which had been discussed in
private conversations between the Boer leaders and Lords Kitchener and
Milner, but which was excluded from the "Terms of Surrender," had been
settled by communications which had passed between Lord Milner and Mr.
Chamberlain and the Governments of the Cape and Natal. The reason for
this course was that the Home Government and Lord Milner, while they
objected on principle to the treatment of rebels be