question may now be
asked: Why have the Deputation not sent us a report on these
conditions? The reason is clear as daylight to me. We sent the
Deputation to seek help for us. They went to ascertain from the other
Powers what could be done for us, and thus came to know what the
policy of those Powers was. Will they now be able to lay bare that
policy to us? No, certainly not, because there is a great danger that
their letters will fall into the hands of the enemy. Even though the
Members of the Deputation were here themselves, I doubt whether they
would be free to explain to us the future policy of the European
Powers. It is therefore significant to me that the Deputation is
silent, and this should not discourage, but rather encourage us.

If there is any man who feels the pitiful condition of our country,
then I am that man. And I believe every word that has been said here
about the conditions in the various divisions. It is asked: What
prospect have we of continuing the fight with success? To reply to
that I must go back to the beginning of the war, and ask what hope and
prospects had we then? My reply is: Only Faith, nothing more. And that
Faith we still have. How weak we were in comparison with that Power,
our enemy, with its three-quarters of a million of soldiers, of which
it has sent some 250,000 to fight us! How could we have entered into
such a struggle if we had not done so in Faith? We could only
speculate on help from Natal and the Cape Colony. Some said that Natal
and the Cape Colony would stand by us, but now we miss the persons who
said that. They are lost to us, but we have not lost them on the
battlefield, for they sit amongst the enemy, and many of them are even
in arms against us. However, I never built on that help, although I
hoped from what history teaches us that we should not stand alone to
defend our rights by force of arms.

I feel why some, taking into consideration our position, seek for
tangible grounds upon which we can justify a continuance of the
struggle; but then the question arises again: What tangible grounds
had we when we began? Has the way become darker or lighter to us? It
is still all Faith, and we know what a small people can by Faith
triumph over the most powerful enemy. And if we, a small people,
overcome by Faith, we shall not be the only people that has done so.
Those who say that the struggle must be given up want tangible grounds
from us for the continuance of it, but wh