ave done that, and
it is very plain to me that there is no hope of any help from the
Deputation. But I wish to go further. We know that there is one
friendly Power, and that it wishes to help us as much as possible.
That Power is the Netherlands Government. What did the Netherlands
Minister write to the British Government on the 1st of January, 1902?
He wrote as follows:--

"The Government of her Majesty the Queen is of opinion that the
exceptional circumstances, in which one of the belligerent parties in
South Africa is situated, and which prevents it from putting itself
into communication with the other party by direct means, constitutes
one of the causes of the prolongation of the war, which continuously,
without interruption or termination, harasses that country, and is the
cause of so much misery."

Thus wrote the Power in Europe who is best disposed towards us, a few
months ago; and in that same letter they suggested that our Deputation
should come out here with the object of meeting the leaders of the
people, in order to bring about peace. It was certainly never the
intention that peace would be concluded on the basis of the
independence of the Republics. Can we thus cherish any hopes of
assistance from European nations? I am convinced that we can arrive at
a decision in this matter without worrying ourselves for a moment with
the idea that we shall obtain help elsewhere. A war in Europe is, of
course, possible, but the war we are engaged in has opened the eyes of
all the Powers, so that every European Government now avoids war as
much as possible. I will even go so far as to say that it is in the
interest of more than one Power that this war continues.

A great difficulty is also the unfaithfulness of our own burghers, and
much injury is done us by those who lay down their arms. A year ago we
took a resolution at Waterval, in the Standerton district, to continue
the war vigorously. We kept it up for a year, and fought and
sacrificed. What have we gained by it? I say we are now so broken up
and weakened that if matters go on like this a little longer we shall
no more be able to assert ourselves as a party. It is maintained that
this proposal goes further than the proposal made to us at Middelburg
in March, 1901, but I do not think that that argument is correct,
because we did not negotiate on that proposal. We simply replied that
we could not negotiate on the basis proposed. If we had negotiated
then we might