rious nationalities, at which the English members declared that, if
contrary to its regulations, the Transvaal question was to be discussed
they were resolved to withdraw. The Committee decided to admit Mr.
Wessels, formerly Speaker of the Orange Free State Parliament, simply as
a member of the Congress; to oppose any discussion of the Transvaal
question and to rule that the communication made by the Boer delegates
was merely to be circulated among the members as individuals.

My pamphlet, _La Politique Boer_, and my answer in _Le Siecle_ of the
1st of August, were also distributed. Here are a few extracts:

"The manifesto of Messrs. Fisher, Wessels and Wolmarans, delegates
for the South African Republics, has been a disappointment to me. I
expected that these gentlemen would produce some arguments; they
have contented themselves with giving us a summary of Dr. Reitz's
pamphlet--"A Century of Wrongs." It ends with the same incitement
to annexation, which was already to be found in the cry for help
sent on the 17th of February, 1881, by the Transvaal to the Orange
Free State--"Africa for the Afrikander, from the Zambesi to Simon's
Bay!" The delegates recognise that the time for claiming new
territories has passed; they describe themselves as a nation of
mild and peace-loving men, the victims of perpetual English
persecution. I do not wish to discuss their way of dealing with
historical facts, about which they are not so candid as was Mr.
Krueger in his 1881 manifesto, because what we are now interested
in, is not that which happened in times long ago, but what has
happened since the annexation of the Transvaal by England, on the
12th of April, 1877. They do not say a word of the state of anarchy
then prevailing in the Transvaal, nor of its military reserves, nor
of the threatening attitude of Sekukuni and Cetewayo. Whereas in
the manifesto of 1881, with these facts still fresh in the memory
of its author, it is said: "At the outset our military operations
were not very successful. In the opinion of our opponents we were
too weak to resist successfully an attack from the natives," Sir
Theophilus Shepstone, unable to restore order, had finally to annex
the Transvaal. This he did at the head of twenty-five policemen
only. Had the Transvaal been left to itself Sekukuni's and
Cetewayo's impis