f State for War, are noticeable and characteristic
utterances. His message to the former was:

"I find it difficult in the short space at my disposal
to acknowledge the deep obligation of the Army in South
Africa to the Governments of Australia, New Zealand,
Canada, Cape Colony, and Natal. I will only say here
that no request of mine was ever refused by any of these
Governments, and that their consideration and generosity
were only equalled by the character and quality of the
troops they sent to South Africa, or raised in that
country."

And of the troops, which under his command had successfully
accomplished a military task of unparalleled difficulty, he
wrote:

"The protracted struggle which has for so long caused
suffering to South Africa has at length terminated, and
I should fail to do justice to my own feelings if at
this moment I neglected to bear testimony to the
patience, tenacity, and heroism which has been displayed
by all ranks of His Majesty's forces, Imperial and
Colonial, during the whole course of the war. Nothing
but the qualities of bravery and endurance in our troops
could have overcome the difficulties of this campaign,
or have finally enabled the empire to reap the fruits of
all its sacrifices."]

[Sidenote: Admissions of the Boer leaders.]

The words used by the Boer leaders in the course of the debates at
Vereeniging afford culminating and conclusive evidence of the
hollowness of the two allegations upon which both the Boer
sympathisers in England and the hostile critics of the British people
abroad, based their denunciations of the policy and conduct of the war
in South Africa. The war was unnecessary; it was a war of aggression
forced upon the Boers by the British Government, said the enemies of
England, and those Englishmen who, like Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman,
wrote and spoke as though they belonged to the enemy. Very different
is the account of the origin of the war, which Acting President
Schalk-Burger gave to the remnant of his fellow countrymen in this day
of truth-telling.

"Undoubtedly we began this war strong in the faith of God," he
said; "but there were a