e time
refuse all responsibility for our debts. We had been recognized by you
as belligerent, and so are entirely in our rights in asking that when
you seize the riches of the country you shall also take its debts upon
your shoulders. So long as the British Government reaches the great goal
at which it is aiming, a matter so easily arranged as this should not
cause any difficulty: we are not bickering about trifles, but are
bringing forward what to us is a real hardship, and you must take it for
granted that when we say something here we really mean it. And now we
tell you that this matter is an obstacle in our way. Personally, we
have not signed many receipts: it was the officers of lower rank who
signed the greater number, and it is these very officers who form the
majority of the national meeting at Vereeniging. In some instances, I
may add, special persons were appointed for the purpose of carrying out
this work."

Lord Milner: "We do not take over the assets without taking also the
liabilities. We take over all the debts owed by the country before the
war, and we have even agreed to take over a debt--a legal debt--in the
shape of notes, which notes we are fully aware it only became necessary
to issue on account of the war, and thus we are already paying a part of
the cost incurred in fighting us. I think this is a very great
concession; and when I agreed that it should be put down I said that I
believed (and I still am of the same opinion) that the English
Government would take exception to it, although I hope that this will
not be the case. But to go further than this, and to ask us to pay not
only a debt contracted under a law for the furtherance of the war, but
also every debt contracted by every officer in the armies of both
Republics, for the purpose of fighting us, is to my mind a most
extravagant proposal. In answer to what General Botha has said, I may
observe that the Commission appears to think that we have no persons
behind us whose feelings and prejudices (if you use that word) we are
bound to take into consideration. If this matter causes a difficulty
among your burghers, I can only say that I am sure that your proposal
will cause the British Government the greatest trouble when dealing with
the nation, with whose feelings they have to reckon."

Commander-in-Chief de Wet: "I should like to explain the position of the
Orange Free State. In the Transvaal a law was passed empowering the
Government to is