perhaps have obtained better terms than now. But even
granted that the present proposals are more favourable, what have we
not sacrificed for such improvement? Twenty thousand women and
children have been laid in their graves in the Concentration Camps.
Almost the half of our burghers are prisoners of war; we have had to
bury hundreds of our comrades. When I review the past year, I must say
that we have lost ground tremendously. We can only gauge the future by
the past. We now stand face to face with the fact that we shall have
to abandon a large tract of our country, and I do not see any chance
of retaining our independence in that way. We commenced with 60,000
men, and now we have only 15,000 in the field. Our Information-bureau
in Pretoria informs me that the enemy has already 31,400 of our
burghers as prisoners of war, and that 600 have already died in the
prisoner-of-war camps. Three thousand eight hundred of our burghers
have fallen during the war. Is it not a serious matter that so many
fell in the course of two and a half years? What must not the
sufferings of our women and children in the Concentration Camps have
been at the death of so many of their number?

The question is asked, and rightly too: What about the Cape Colonists
who have thrown in their lot with us? I have always said that if we
lose our independence it will be our first and foremost duty to care
for them because they have got into trouble through us. I was always
prepared to say: "Banish me, but give terms to the Cape Colonists."
And now there is a chance for us to-day to save those comrades. Would
it therefore be advisable to miss that chance, and simply to say that
we must persevere in the struggle? I say it is not advisable. The
other members of our Commission and I did our best at Pretoria for
those Colonists. Let us now take what we can get. If we decide to
continue, it would only be honest to these Colonists to say that they
must stop fighting and accept these terms. A few thousand men become
free with the temporary loss of the franchise. If we can get no better
terms for them they cannot blame us, nor will they do so if the facts
are put before them.

I am referred to what I said about a year ago at the Warmbaths, but
let me remind you that, when I spoke there, the commando of that
division was 2,000 men strong. What is the situation there to-day? The
commando consists of only 480 men. I said then that the war must
continue till famin