n
respect of this force of 18,000 men in the field, Sir Gordon Sprigg
pointed out that such a number of men, coming from a population of
500,000, was equivalent to a force of 1,450,000 men from the United
Kingdom, with its population of over 40,000,000. He might have added
that, since half of the 500,000 Europeans in the Cape Colony were
"either actually in rebellion against the Crown or in positive
sympathy with rebellion," the more correct equivalent force from the
United Kingdom would have been 3,000,000 men. And as for the cost of
maintenance, the colony provided three-fourths of the expenditure upon
the 18,000 men in the field, while it wholly supported the town guards
and other purely defensive forces. He then dwelt with satisfaction
upon the fact that these local forces were now entirely controlled by
the Cape Government, which had made itself responsible for the defence
of no less than thirty-one districts of the Colony.

"Months ago," he said, "we pressed strongly upon the
Commander-in-Chief to hand over to us the colonial forces then
under his direction. We thought that if we got them into our
possession, not only defraying the cost of their maintenance, but
taking charge of certain parts of the Colony, we could keep those
districts clear of the enemy. We were continually putting that
view before the Commander-in-Chief, and also before the High
Commissioner, Lord Milner, but still the matter hung, and we had
communications going backwards and forwards till at last the High
Commissioner communicated with me, and he said, 'I think the only
way to come to an understanding in this matter is, if we have a
conference. If you could manage to meet Lord Kitchener and
myself, I have great hopes we should be able to arrange what you
desire.' I asked then if Lord Kitchener and Lord Milner could
come to meet me half-way, but Lord Kitchener said it was not
possible for him to leave Pretoria at that time, but he would be
only too delighted if I could come up and meet him and Lord
Milner upon the question. The result of that was that I went up
with two of my colleagues. It has been put about all over the
country that we were ordered by Lord Kitchener to proceed to
Pretoria, but, so far from that being the case, it was our
suggestion that we should take over the command of certain
portions of the country, and we