feels all
these matters, and because he has had the courage to lay before his
people and before us with great honesty precisely how matters stand.

We are here under exceptional circumstances. Awful wars have already
been fought, but I do not believe that a war has ever been waged in
which the people have proportionally suffered so much and sacrificed
so much as our people have done in this war. In the American War of
Independence the people did not suffer a third of what we have
suffered. But all this has not yet turned the scales as far as I am
concerned. We consider all these matters, but we must consider
particularly what awaits us if we give up our country. What will our
future be? Will there then be such satisfaction in the Orange Free
State and in the South African Republic that we shall be able to say:
We will await the day of deliverance from God's hand? If I knew that
there would be a rising in a few years, I would rather fight on till I
am dead. If I conclude peace I want a lasting peace.

There is a matter that weighs more heavily with me than all this, and
that is the holding of this meeting. I regret from the bottom of my
heart that it ever took place. This meeting gives us a death blow. I
also experienced hard times, when my burghers surrendered in hundreds,
but I always found comfort in the thought that I was not fighting
alone, and I knew that when I had a hard time of it, my comrades in
the struggle elsewhere had an easy time. However, I do not wish to
blame anyone for the holding of this meeting, because I am convinced
that everything was done with the best intentions. Now, what has been
the result of this meeting? The Commandant General has had to express
his views, and expose the situation, and this has had the effect of
disheartening some of our burghers. If we now decide to continue,
hundreds and thousands will go over to the enemy who would otherwise
have remained with us. I would have suggested that the discouraged
ones leave us, but now those who were not discouraged have also become
so.

Although all these facts have made me dubious, I am not yet convinced
that we should stop the war. If I were a delegate, I should say: "Go
on," because I think that if we are in doubt we should lay down this
as an axiom: "Proceed on the road we are on." In the proposal before
us we get nothing at all of what we have the right to lay claim to.

General L. J. MEYER (Member of the S.A.R. Government) said: Acc