ter to say to a Boer: "Take your family,
go to the enemy, and lay down your arms." However, we could do that
rather than to see an entire people fall.

We can learn much from the history of America. It has been said that
our circumstances cannot be compared with those of the Americans, and
yet a comparison is not out of place. Even the powerful England had to
give in to them. It may be said that America is much larger than the
two Republics, but we are not bound to the territories of the two
Republics. The Orange Free State offers many difficulties on account
of her situation. The railway passes through the entire country, and
on the borders we have the Basutos, a powerful nation. We have no
Bushveld like the South African Republic, and have thus to find our
way through the British forces.

The matter is a very grave one for us, but we cannot part with our
arms. Everything else is of minor importance to me, but if we give up
our arms we are no longer men. Let us persevere. Three or six or
twelve months hence or later, a time may dawn when we may be able to
do everything with our arms. But if we give up our arms and such a
time dawns, we shall all stand as women.

Now, I wish to ask you: Why has Lord Kitchener refused to allow our
deputation to come out? And why did he say that we could see from the
papers that there was nothing brewing in Europe? Which papers,
however, did he refer to? _The Star_, _The Cape Times_, _The Natal
Witness_, and other Jingo papers, which, you must moreover bear in
mind, are all censored. If we can accept his word that the deputation
can bring us no favourable news it would have been to the interest of
England to let the deputation come out, or to allow all newspapers
through. But there is no question of allowing certain European and
even certain English newspapers through. If we therefore give up the
struggle now, we do so in the dark. We do not know what is going on in
the outside world. We cannot say that the enemy are making their terms
more and more onerous, because that is not so. They are conceding.

Considering all this, and also the fact that the tension in England
can be looked upon as an indirect intervention, I believe that we
should continue with the bitter struggle. By standing manfully we
shall get our just rights. When the time arrives that we cannot go on
any further, we can again open negotiations. Let us keep up this
bitter struggle and say as one man: We persevere--it d