neral Smuts: "I am afraid that we cannot agree to this, for we thought
that the notes would be beyond all dispute."

Judge Hertzog: "I do not think that your Excellency is representing the
matter fairly when you say that you will not pay the bills of both
parties. There is one thing to be taken into consideration as regards
the Orange Free State, and which must be considered before everything
else, and that is, that we have made no loans nor have we given any
government notes. The notes we used were notes of the South African
Republic, which had been sent to the Orange Free State. Our law was
formed on the idea that in case of war all the costs should be paid by
commission notes. The Orange Free State acted on this principle, and
receipts were issued. If we take into consideration at the same time
that we have been and still are recognized by you as belligerent, then
we can only say: On our side we surrender everything that we possess,
and we only ask the other party to acknowledge the fact that if we had
contracted a loan it would have been to the charge of the British
Government, who, in taking everything from us, renders itself
responsible for our public loans. Lord Milner should understand that it
is of just as much importance to us for the receipts to be paid as it is
to the South African Republic for the loan, which it contracted before
the war, to be taken over by the British Government. But I can even go
further and give Lord Milner the assurance that we have acted more
economically when issuing these receipts than we should have done had we
contracted the loan previous to the war. Now we have only what is
absolutely necessary to meet our present needs. So that Lord Milner must
own that we find ourselves in the same position towards those who are in
possession of receipts, as we should have occupied towards any other
creditor we might have had before the war began. I must give my support
to what the Commandant-General has said; and I can only repeat what I
have already informally told Lord Milner, namely, that this difficulty
is almost insurmountable."

Lord Milner: "We can refer this to our Government. But your proposal is
altogether antagonistic to the Middelburg proposal, which absolutely
rejected the idea of taking over all the debts of the two States."

Lord Kitchener: "I should like to know the amount."

General De la Rey: "My issue of notes amounts to between twenty and
fifty thousand pounds; but I can