nd at the end of January
(1900) in view of Mr. Schreiner's gradual conversion to the side of the
Imperial Government, is sufficiently indicated in the resolution
prepared for submission to the annual Congress, to which reference has
been already[215] made. It was, in effect, a condemnation not only of
the British Government, but of the Cape Government also, in so far as it
had co-operated with the Imperial authorities, and a determination to
prevent the war from being carried to a logical and successful
conclusion by the incorporation of the Boer Republics into the system of
British South Africa. The annual Congress, at which these opinions were
to be affirmed, was announced to be held at Somerset East, on March 8th.
Lord Milner, however, represented to Mr. Schreiner that it was very
undesirable that such a demonstration should take place; and, through
Mr. Schreiner's influence, the Congress was postponed. But the Prime
Minister, in undertaking to use his influence with the Bond to prevent a
denunciation of the policy of the Imperial Government at so critical a
period, expressed the hope that the loyalists on their side would
refrain from any public demonstration of an opposite character.

[Footnote 215: See p. 349.]

This abstinence from agitation, which was obviously desirable in the
public interests at a time of intense political excitement, by no
means suited the leaders of the Bond. _Ons Land_, in commenting upon
the postponement of the Congress, incidentally reveals the real
consideration which made it worth while for the Bond to promote an
agitation of this kind. The Bond organ regrets that the Congress has
been postponed. And why?

"It is said that the [South African] League would have held a
Congress had the Bond Congress been held. We have nothing to do
with what the League does or does not do; as a matter of fact,
its opinion has already been published in the Imperial
Blue-books. We were of opinion that it would have been the duty
of the Afrikander party to express itself at the Congress in
unmistakable terms, and resolutely, in order thereby to maintain
its true position and strengthen the hands of its friends in
England who have courageously and with self-sacrifice striven for
the good and just cause."[216]

[Footnote 216: Cd. 261.]

This, then, was the real object of the agitation--to "strengthen the
hands of the friends of the Afrik