ed the object in view. In these
circumstances the decision to rely mainly upon the natural inclination
of the more enlightened Boers to secure for their children the
material advantages which a knowledge of English would bring them, was
the right one. And the policy which this clause allowed the new
administration to pursue may be described as that of a modified "free
trade in language"--that is to say, free trade up to, but not beyond,
the point at which the toleration of Dutch would not impede the
convenient and efficient discharge of the ordinary business of
administration. It is doubtful, however, whether either of these
concessions were justifiable except on the assumption that full
self-government would not be granted to either of the new colonies
until a British or loyalist majority was assured.

[Sidenote: Free initiative secured.]

But, whatever the ultimate result of the Terms of Vereeniging, their
immediate effect was to leave the High Commissioner with complete
freedom of initiative, but with a no less complete responsibility for
the complex and difficult task of economic and administrative
reconstruction which now awaited him. How this task--at once more
congenial and more especially his own--was discharged is a matter that
must be left for a second volume. In the meantime the conclusion of
the Surrender Agreement is no unfitting stage at which to bring the
review of the first period of Lord Milner's administration to a close.

INDEX

"Acting Chief-Commandant" of the Orange Free State, The, his report
of De Wet's success in Cape Colony, 431, 432.
Administrative reconstruction, 397, 458, 489, 523 _et seq._
Africa. _See_ South Africa.
Afrikander Bond, The, 46;
programme of, 50 _et seq._;
its sphere of action, 55;
its power in Cape Colony, 55;
its origin, 56;
its purpose, 56 to 58, 106;
its first congress, 59;
its "programme of principles," 59;
its change of policy, 60;
members returned to it by the Cape Parliament, 60, 483;
meets at Bloemfontein, 63;
adopts the Hofmeyr programme, 64;
its manner of reuniting European communities in S. Africa, 65;
its first openly avowed aim, 66;
falls back on the policy of 1881, 69;
its influence in the Cape Legislature, 70, 93, 121, 122, 141;
its attempts to obstruct the business of the Cape Parliament, 94, 95;
the parliamentary chief and the real leader of, 97;
Lord Milne