that they had obtained
no help for us, and further, that they could hold out no prospect of
help. We must therefore cherish no hope whatever of help from Europe.
And it is apparent that if no nation came to our assistance when the
enemy introduced a new principle into warfare, namely, to remove women
and children by force, crowd them in camps, and let them die in
thousands, then we need not ever expect any help from other nations.
Their inaction makes me think that they do not care what becomes of
us, even though we all die. They ought to have known that if the
British were tacitly allowed to introduce such a new principle into
warfare, that principle would establish a precedent. We have only the
sympathy of the European Powers, and that sympathy threatens to
smother us, and there the matter remains.

I now come to another matter which lies very near to the heart of each
one of us, namely, our families. If this meeting should decide to
continue the war, then some provision or other must be made for them.
We shall have to decide what to do with them. When I think over this
matter my mind is at a standstill. Their condition is most pitiable,
and they are exposed to all kinds of danger. I have lately tried to
send them in to the British, but without success, because the British
would not receive them. The position has now become such that I am
beginning to think that the fathers of these families must accompany
them into the British lines, because then the enemy receives them. But
even this suggestion offers a great difficulty, namely this, that we
have with us many wives of prisoners-of-war, and what can we do with
them? Where could we find men to "hands up" with them? These families
are in a terrible condition, and something must be done for them.

It has been said that we must fight "to the bitter end," but no one
tells us where that bitter end is. Is it there where everyone lies in
his grave or is banished? In my opinion we must not consider the time
when everyone lies in his grave as the "bitter end." If we do so, and
act upon that view, we become the cause of the death of our people. Is
the bitter end not there, where the people have struggled till they
can struggle no more? Personally, there is nothing that hinders me to
prosecute the war still further. My family is well provided for. I
have good horses, and when I consider what the enemy has done, then I
say: "Rather die than surrender," and that is also my inclin