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omething. General SMUTS: Is it your opinion that our proposal must be set aside? Lord KITCHENER: Yes, certainly. It is impossible for us to act on it. Lord MILNER: We cannot take your proposal into consideration. We can send it to England, but it will certainly contribute to injure the negotiations. This is my personal opinion, which, of course, you need not accept. We can only say that this is all the reply that we can get out of you. Lord KITCHENER: It will be better to draft a new document in which we note what is important and what not, and omit the unimportant. General SMUTS: But Point 3 of our proposal has not even been touched upon. We are prepared to give up a portion of our territory. Lord MILNER: That would be inconsistent with the annexation of the whole. If the whole is annexed by us, how can you part with a portion of it? General SMUTS: The portion we gave up would then become a crown colony. The rest would be governed as proposed here. Lord MILNER: You mean that one portion would become a British Colony of the ordinary type, and the other portion a Protected Republic? Lord KITCHENER: Two forms of government in the same country would cause great friction. Our proposals are too divergent. From a military point of view, the two forms of government could not exist. We would be at war again in a year's time. The meeting then adjourned until the afternoon. During the adjournment the Republican Commission discussed the situation and sent General Smuts to talk over a few matters with Lord Kitchener and Lord Milner. The Conference resumed at 4 o'clock. Lord MILNER: In consequence of an informal conversation between General Smuts and ourselves, Lord Kitchener and I have drafted a document, which indicates the form in which we think the only agreement which can be entered into must be worded. This is a draft document which we think the Governments can subscribe to. Our idea is that after it has been considered here, it can be submitted to the burghers, and you can ask them: "Do you agree to our signing it?" The document read as follows: "The undersigned Leaders of the Burgher forces in the Field, accepting on behalf of themselves and the said Burghers the Annexations notified in Lord ROBERTS' Proclamations, dated respectively, the 24th day of May in the year of our LORD 1900, and No. 15 dated the 1st day of September in the year of our LORD 1900, and accepting as a result thereof t
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