h
January--No. 3. Since my telegram No. 1 of this morning matters have
not been going so smoothly. When the Executive Council met I received
a message that only 1,814 rifles and three Maxim guns had been
surrendered, which the Government of the South African Republic did
not consider a fulfilment of the ultimatum, and orders would be
immediately issued to a Commando to attack Johannesburg. I at once
replied that the ultimatum required the surrender of guns and
ammunition for which no permit of importation had been obtained, and
that onus rested with the Transvaal Government to show that guns and
ammunition were concealed for which no permit had been issued. If
before this was done any hostile step were taken against Johannesburg
I should consider it a violation of the undertaking for which I had
made myself personally responsible to the people of Johannesburg, and
I should leave the issue in the hands of Her Majesty's Government ...']

IV

SUNDAY, JANUARY 12.--Mr. and Mrs. Perkins called this morning to
advise Betty's not going immediately to Pretoria, as was her
intention. Mr. Perkins said that the Boer feeling was very bitter, and
foreign women were insulted in the streets. Advocate Wessels has also
written to me, insisting upon my waiting two or three days, as my
presence in Pretoria could do no good, and might prejudice my
husband's cause. A little trunk was packed and sent to my husband last
night. I got out of bed to superintend, and felt tragically tender as
I watched the things laid in. A fresh suit of clothes, some personal
and bed linen, towels, shoes, family photographs, flea powder,
ginger-snaps, beef essence, soap, my little down pillow, and his
beloved and well-read Shakespeare. I was able to sit up for an hour
this afternoon to receive Sir Sydney Shippard, Mr. Seymour Fort, and
Mr. Manion.

Yesterday the Governor of Natal, Sir Walter Hely Hutchinson, started
for Pretoria to confer with the High Commissioner in regard to the
transport of Dr. Jameson and his men through Natal. They are to be
handed over to the English Government.

Search parties of mounted Boers are going about looking for hidden
guns. The Robinson Mine seems to be the spot most suspected.

Yesterday's 'Volksstem'--a Government organ--recalled to the minds of
the Boers the Slachter Nek affair of eighty years ago--a story of
Boers hung by Englishmen for their insistence in punishing a negro
slave according to established custo