ind ourselves
unable any more to call ourselves a fighting nation. What have we not
undergone in the course of this year which is just over! In the
concentration camps alone, twenty thousand women and children have died.
When I was in Pretoria I received reports from our information office,
and otherwise, of our losses. I found that there were thirty-one
thousand six hundred prisoners of war, of whom six hundred had died, and
that three thousand eight hundred of our burghers had been killed in the
war. Is not a loss such as this, in so short a time as two and a half
years, a serious matter? Think, too, of the sufferings which those
twenty thousand women who died in the camps must have endured!

"I am not deaf to the claims of the colonists who have been fighting for
us. I have said that if we surrender our independence, we must provide
for them. Should we serve their interests by continuing the war? No,
indeed! The best thing for them would be that we should bring it to a
close. But if we are absolutely determined to go on fighting, let us at
least say to them, 'We advise _you_ to desist.'

"What I am saying now is in substance what I said at Warmbad at a time
when there were two thousand men of that district in the Veldt. How many
are there now? Four hundred and eighty! On that occasion I also said
that we must continue the war until we were driven by sheer starvation
to make peace. Well, in some divisions starvation has already come. The
delegates themselves have had to confess that our strength up till now
has lain in the fact that we have been able to continue the struggle in
every district. In this way we have divided the enemy's forces. But if
we are compelled to abandon some of our districts, and to concentrate on
certain points, then the English also will concentrate, and attack us
with an irresistible force.

"It has been suggested that we ought to march into Cape Colony. I know,
however, what that would mean--Commander-in-Chief de Wet marched into
the colonies. He had a large force, and the season of the year was
auspicious for his attempt, and yet he failed. How, then, shall we
succeed in winter, and with horses so weak that they can only go
_op-een-stap_.[120]

"What, then, are we to do? Some will reply, 'Go on with the war,' Yes,
but for how long? For ten or twelve years? But would that be possible?
If in two years we have been reduced from sixty thousand fighting men to
half that number, where will our