on them, until at last there came a request that the
law on franchise should be laid before a Commission. On the behest
of the British Agent in Pretoria, the South African Republic made a
proposal granting far more than was demanded by the High
Commissioner. As this proposal was not accepted by His Majesty's
Government, who made yet further demands, the South African
Republic withdrew their proposal, and declared themselves willing
to accept England's proposal to lay the law before the Commission.
The British Government then closed all correspondence, and wrote to
the South African Republic saying that they would make their
demands later on. In other words, the British Government then gave
to the South African Republic an ultimatum, and it was clear that
they were only prevented from commencing the war at once by the
fact that they had not then landed sufficient troops in the
country.

The Orange Free State Government then again came to the rescue, in
order to attempt at the last moment to avoid the war, and cabled
through the High Commissioner direct to the British Government,
asking for information as to the nature of the demands which were
to be made upon the South African Republic; which cable, to my
sorrow, was never sent in its entirety. The only answer to my cable
was the continual arrival of transports of troops from all quarters
of the globe, which were massed, not only on the frontier of the
South African Republic, but also on the frontiers of the still
friendly Orange Free State. Then, when the South African Republic
saw that England had no intention of repairing the alleged
grievances, but had only brought them up as an excuse for depriving
the Republic of its independence, they requested that the troops
might be taken from their frontiers, and that all disputes might be
settled by arbitration. This happened about three weeks after the
British Government had issued their ultimatum, and about one month
after the Orange Free State Government had received a wire asking
them to remain neutral, thus clearly giving them to understand that
the British Government intended to make war on the South African
Government. This telegram was sent to the Orange Free State because
they knew that the latter had made a defensive alliance with the
Sout