er, Mr. Cornelius Wessels, and Mr. Wolmarans,[328] might be
allowed to return to South Africa to take part in the negotiations,
and again asked for an armistice while the return of the deputation
and the subsequent meetings of the burghers were taking place. Both
these requests were refused on military grounds; but Lord Kitchener
was willing to grant facilities to the Boer leaders to consult the
burghers, and arrangements were made in the course of the next two
days (April 17th-19th) for representatives of the Boer commandos in
the field--exclusive of those in the Cape Colony--to be elected, and
meet at Vereeniging, a small town on the Vaal near the border of the
two colonies, on May 13th or 15th. During the month that followed,
every possible assistance was rendered by the Commander-in-Chief to
the Boer leaders with the object of enabling them to carry out these
arrangements. Safe-conducts, under flags of truce, and passes for
their officers and messengers, were freely granted; and the localities
chosen for the commando assemblies, the places and dates of which had
been notified to Lord Kitchener before the Boer representatives left
Pretoria, were "scrupulously avoided" by the British troops. In spite,
however, of the restrictions imposed upon the activity of the forces
under his command, Lord Kitchener was able to report, on June 1st,
that "good progress" had been made in the work of the campaign up to
the actual cessation of hostilities.[329]

[Footnote 328: This deputation was despatched in March, 1900,
to "win the sympathy of the nations," in De Wet's words.]

[Footnote 329: Cd. 986.]

The sixty Boer representatives--two for each commando--thus assembled
at Vereeniging appointed, on May 18th, a special commission to treat
for peace. The commissioners, who included Commandant-Generals Louis
Botha and Christian De Wet, Generals Hertzog, De la Rey and Smuts, and
President Steyn, Acting President Schalk Burger, and other
civilians,[330] proceeded at once to Pretoria, where, on May 19th,
they met Lord Kitchener and Lord Milner in conference, and put forward
the following three proposals as a basis of negotiation:

[Footnote 330: A full list of the names is to be found in the
Draft Terms of Surrender at p. 564.]

[Sidenote: The terms drafted.]

"(1) We are prepared to surrender our independence as regards
foreign relations. (2) We wish to retain self-government