hostilities. I have
advised my Government of Your Excellency's said letter; but, after the
mutual exchange of views at our interview at Middelburg on 28th February
last, it will certainly not surprise Your Excellency to know that I do
not feel disposed to recommend that the terms of the said letter shall
have the earnest consideration of my Government. I may add also that my
Government and my chief officers here entirely agree to my views.'

It will be observed that in this reply Botha bases his refusal upon his
own views as expressed in the original interview with Kitchener; and we
have his own authority, therefore, to show that they were not determined
by any changes which Chamberlain may have made in the terms--a favourite
charge of that gentleman's enemies.

It is impossible to say how, short of independence, Great Britain could
have improved upon these terms, and it has already been shown that to
offer independence would mean having to fight the war over again. It has
been suggested that Great Britain might have offered a definite date
upon which representative institutions should come in force, but such a
promise must be disingenuous, for it must evidently depend not upon a
date, but upon the state of the country. The offers of loans to the
farmers towards the stocking and rebuilding the farms were surely
generous to our defeated foes, and, indeed, it is clear now that in some
respects our generosity went too far, and that the interests of the
Empire would have suffered severely had these terms been accepted. To
have given more would certainly seem not to have offered peace, but to
have implored it.

Whatever the final terms of peace may prove to be, it is to be earnestly
hoped that 40,000 male prisoners will not be returned, as a matter of
right, without any guarantee for their future conduct. It is also much
to be desired that the bastard taal language, which has no literature
and is almost as unintelligible to a Hollander as to an Englishman, will
cease to be officially recognised. These two omissions may repay in the
long run for weary months of extra war since, upon Botha's refusal, the
British Government withdrew these terms and the hand moved onwards upon
the dial of fate, never to turn back.

De Wet had said in reference to Kitchener's terms of peace, 'What is
the use of examining all the points, as the only object for which we are
fighting is our independence and our national existence?' It is evident,