elegates from the Free State. From ten to fifteen columns are
trekking about in my district, devastating everything. There is but
little grain, but my greatest trouble is the families who are still
with us. We have 200 families, and how and on what must they live?
Some months ago I had 200 burghers. Now I have only 80. If we must
continue the war I with my men can leave my district, but what must I
then do with my 200 families? My instruction was: "Do not surrender
the independence," but more than half the burghers who gave me this
instruction have been captured, and subsequently others have asked me
to try to arrive at a satisfactory arrangement, and to act according
to circumstances. I am at one with the proposal of State Secretary
Reitz. Let us even give up a portion of our country if we can thereby
retain our independence. I recollect when I was still a child the late
President Jan Brand saying: "Give up the Diamond Fields! You will
profit more from them than England; you plough and sow and farm." This
we can do now, too.

Commandant Fleming (Hoopstad) said that Hoopstad had been considerably
devastated, and few cattle had been left, but there were still other
cattle with which they had escaped. Matters in his district were not
in such a state that they could not continue the war. There was also
sufficient game for them to live on. The burghers had said to him: "We
have sacrificed wives and children, fathers and mothers, brothers and
sisters, money and blood, and if we must now surrender our
independence too, we give up everything, and rather than do that we
will fight to the finish." However, he had to admit that the burghers
were not acquainted with the conditions in other parts of the country
and in the Transvaal, and now that he knew what these conditions were
he could support the proposal of State Secretary Reitz to give up a
portion of the country to save the independence. They should, if
possible, make an end to the war out of sympathy with the poor
families who suffered so grievously from the enemy and from the
Kaffirs.

Acting State President Burger spoke as follows: The Governments must
receive an instruction from the delegates after they have heard and
considered everything. We should now make a fresh proposal to the
British and see what will come of it. If our proposals are rejected
then we stand exactly where we were before. If any one of you is
attached to his independence, I am too, and I shall very