north-western districts was such
that "only prompt and severe punishment could stop the spread of
rebellion and prevent general anarchy."[282] The Cape Government,
however, in assenting to the measure, stipulated that certain
conditions should be laid down for the constitution and procedure of
the military courts, sufficient to check the more obvious abuses to
which such tribunals are liable. These conditions, as expressed in a
minute of Sir James Innes, the Attorney-General, were embodied in a
set of instructions issued by Lord Kitchener to his officers
concurrently with the publication of the notice of April 22nd. Nor was
this all. In view of the continued assistance known to be rendered to
the Boer and rebel commandos by the Afrikander nationalists, martial
law was extended, on October 9th, to the Cape ports; and on December
2nd the British Government announced that, as the result of the
establishment of martial law at the South African ports, no persons
would be allowed to land in South Africa from January 1st, 1902,
onwards without a permit, except under certain special circumstances.[283]

[Footnote 282: Cd. 983.]

[Footnote 283: Cd. 903. These measures were taken upon Lord
Milner's return to the Transvaal (September, 1901) after his
visit to England. The scandal of the almost open co-operation
of the Bond with the Boer leaders had become notorious, and
this assistance was recognised as a contributory cause to the
protraction of the guerilla war.]

Ample evidence alike of the necessity of these measures, and of the
_de facto_ suspension of the constitution, is provided by a Minister's
minute of September 12th, 1901. The immediate object of the minute is
to advise the Governor that it is impossible, in the opinion of the
Cape Ministry, to avoid the further prorogation of Parliament; and
this, although the Constitution Ordinance requires the Cape Parliament
to meet "once at least every year," and cannot, therefore, be complied
with, unless Parliament is summoned "for the despatch of business on
or before Saturday, 12th October." In support of this decision Sir
Gordon Sprigg and his colleagues referred to the Military Intelligence
Report for the current month, which showed that, south of the Orange
River, there were a dozen or more commandos, with a total of from
1,800 to 2,000 men; while in the portion of the Colony north of the
river there were "nume