ked to preserve as a curiosity!]

[Footnote 108: A salt lake.]

[Footnote 109: Commandant Jacobsz was somewhere not very far from
Kimberley; Commandant Bester, close to Brandfort; Commandant Jacobus
Theron, near Smaldeel; Commandant Flemming, near Hoopstad; and
Commandant Pieter Erasmus, near the Gannapan.]

CHAPTER XXXVI

Peace Negotiations

General De la Rey, who, as a Member of the Transvaal Government, had to
be present at the coming deliberations, accompanied the President to
Klerksdorp, where they arrived on the 9th of April, and found the
Transvaal Government already there awaiting them.

The two Governments held their first meeting in the afternoon
of the same day. The South African Republic was represented
by:--Vice-States-President S.W. Burger; Commandant-General Louis Botha;
Secretary of State F.W. Reitz; General De la Rey; Ex-General L.J.
Meijer; and Mr. J.B. Krogh. Although not a member of the Government, the
States-Procureur, L. Jacobsz, was also present.

On behalf of the Orange Free State appeared:--States-President M.T.
Steyn; Commander-in-Chief C.R. de Wet; Vice-Commander-in-Chief Judge
J.B.M. Hertzog; States-Secretary W.J.C. Brebner; and General C.H.
Olivier.

It was decided that no minutes should be taken. Accordingly, I am only
able to give a summary of the proceedings.

The meeting having been opened with prayer, the Vice-President of the
South African Republic said that the fact that Lord Kitchener had sent
in a copy of the correspondence between the Governments of the
Netherlands and England, was looked upon by himself and his Government
as an invitation on the part of England to the two States to discuss the
matter dealt with in that correspondence, and to see if peace could not
be concluded. Before, however, the meeting could make a proposal, it
would be necessary to hear what the state of affairs really was.

Thereupon, firstly, Commandant-General Louis Botha, then I, and lastly,
General De la Rey, gave a report of how matters stood.

President Burger now asked whether an interview with Lord Kitchener
should be asked for, and (in case Lord Kitchener acceded to this) what
we were to demand, and what we should be prepared to sacrifice. He went
on to ask President Steyn what he thought of the proposal which the
Transvaal had made to the Free State Government in the October of the
previous year.

President Steyn answered that he was still of the same opinion as in
June, 190