shameful, in
fact, inhuman, manner were these men treated; and for what
reason? Simply because they had tried to save their country and
people....

"The burghers are kept totally in the dark by their leaders as to
what the real state of affairs is. Because I wish to save them
from certain ruin I make this appeal to you....

"If [the burghers] knew what the true state of affairs was, a
large portion would long ago have come in and delivered up their
arms....

"Therefore, I implore you, stand still for a few moments and
think of the true interests of the Afrikander nation, and see if
you will not alter your opinion, and quench the fire of war
instead of feeding the flame....[247]

[Footnote 247: Cd. 547.]

These letters, which were published in _The Cape Times_, formed part
of an attempt made by the Burgher Peace Committee, "to induce some of
the leading men in the colony, who are known to sympathise with the
Boers, to tell the men still in the field that the hope of any
assistance from here is a delusion." But, in thus reporting this new
endeavour to Mr. Chamberlain, Lord Milner adds that he is not,
himself, "very sanguine" of its success.

[Sidenote: Policy of the Bond.]

There was only too good ground for this opinion. The Afrikander
nationalists of the Cape hated England no less than did the republican
nationalists, though they feared her more. The policy which the Bond
had adopted after the occupation of the Republics by the British
forces was perfectly definite. Its object was to avert the final
disaster of the war by securing the maintenance of the Republics as
independent centres of Afrikander nationalism. In order to do this the
Bond resolved to keep the Cape Colony in a state of smouldering
rebellion, to encourage the continued resistance of the Boer
commandos, and to render all the material assistance to the guerilla
leaders and their forces that could be afforded without exposing the
Cape Dutch to the penalties of treason. It may be doubted, however,
whether the Bond leaders, in view of the resolute attitude of the
loyalist population and their consistent and unfaltering support of
Lord Milner, would have embarked upon this policy, unless they had
calculated upon the co-operation of the Liberal Opposition in England.
As it was, their expectations in this respect had been amply
fulfilled, and the policy itself, as we have seen,