the compulsion
of their leaders. In this, as in many other matters, the English
friends of the Boers were _plus royalistes que le roi meme_.

[Sidenote: Boer coercive measures.]

These, then, were the means employed by the British military
authorities to avert a needless protraction of the war. We have now to
observe the methods by which the Boer leaders prevented their efforts
from producing the desired result. In view of the destruction of the
organised resistance of the Republics, Lord Roberts had made known by
proclamation that all burghers who surrendered their arms and took the
oath of neutrality would be allowed to return to their homes, or, if
at home, to remain there undisturbed. This implied an intention on the
part of the British authorities to provide such protection as would
enable the surrendered burghers to remain in peaceable possession of
their property. General Botha, as we have already noted, was
personally in favour of a general surrender after the battle of
Dalmanutha; but, when once the majority of the Boer leaders had
decided to continue to resist the establishment of British authority
by force of arms, it became his business to keep every fighting
burgher in the field. Here, again, the work of the Intelligence
Department provides us with instructive evidence of the purposes and
acts of the enemy. In the course of the subsequent military operations
Sir Bindon Blood captured a number of official documents in the Boer
Government laager at Roos Senekal. One of these, referring to the
period in question, sufficiently indicates the nature of the "coercive
measures" to which Lord Kitchener had alluded. Under date October 6th,
1900, General Botha gives instructions to the Boer commandant at
Bethel to telegraph round to the Boer generals and officers certain
military instructions, and he then adds:

"Do everything in your power to prevent the burghers from laying
down their arms. I will be compelled, if they do not listen to
this, to confiscate everything moveable or unmoveable, and also
to burn their houses. Get into direct communication with the
Standerton men, and destroy the railway line between Heidelberg
and Standerton, and especially derail and hold up trains. In this
manner we will obtain a large quantity of food."[242]

[Footnote 242: Cd. 663. See also the text of the circular
issued on December 2nd, 1900, by Louis Botha, as
Comm