see them exterminated, it must also be palatable;
and to those who hate the name of Basutoland it must be
palatable, for it offers a solution which will prevent them ever
hearing the name again.

"This Pitso ought to be called at once. All Colonial officials
ought to be absent, for what the colony wants is to know what is
the matter; and the colony wishes to know it from the Basuto
people, irrespective of the political parties of the Government.

"Such a course would certainly recommend itself to the British
Government, and to its masters--the British people.

"Provided the demands of the Basutos--who will, for their own
sakes, never be for a severing of their connection with the
colony, in order to be eventually devoured by the Orange Free
State--are such as will secure the repayment to the colony of all
expenses incurred by the Colonial Government in the maintenance
of this connection, and I consider that the Colonial Government
should accept them.

"With respect to the Loyals, there are some 800 families, the
cost of keeping whom is on an average one shilling per diem each
family, that is L40 per diem, or L1200 per month, and they have
been rationed during six months at cost of L7200. Their claims
may therefore be said to be some L80,000. Now, if these 800
families (some say half) have claims amounting to L30 each
individually (say 400 families at L30), L12,000 paid at once
would rid the colony of the cost of subsistence of these
families, viz. L600 a month (the retention of them would only add
to the colonial expenditure, and tend to pauperise them).

"I believe that L30,000 paid at once to the Loyals would reduce
their numbers to one-fourth what they are now. It is proposed to
send up a Commission to examine into their claims; the Commission
will not report under two months, and there will be the delay of
administration at Cape Town, during all which time L1200 a month
are being uselessly expended by the colony, detrimentally to the
Loyals. Therefore I recommend (1) that the sum of L30,000 should
be at once applied to satisfy the minor claims of the Loyals; (2)
that this should be done at once, at same time as the meeting of
the National Pitso.

"The effect of this measure in connection with the meeting of the
National P