t is well known that
Commandant Cronje only took up this attitude after an extremely
acrimonious discussion had taken place between him and Commandant
Malan--a quarrel in which they went the length of making charges
against each other in the public press of treachery and neglect of
duty whilst in the field. The Commandant Cronje referred to here is
the same gentleman who commanded the Boer forces at Potchefstroom in
the War of Independence, and his record is an extremely unpleasant
one, his conduct of operations having earned for the Potchefstroom
commando the worst reputation of any. Apart from the execution
of several British subjects who were suspected and, on wholly
insufficient grounds, summarily shot as spies, there are the
unpleasant facts that he caused prisoners of war to be placed in the
forefront of the besieging operations and compelled them to work in
the trenches in exposed positions so that they should be--and
actually were--shot by their own comrades. There was also the
incident in which he refused to allow one or two of the ladies who
were among the beleaguered garrison, and who were then in extremely
bad health, to leave the fort to obtain such food and medical
attendance as would enable them to live. One of the ladies died in
consequence. But the incident which has more bearing on Jameson's
surrender than any other is that connected with the armistice, when
Commandant Cronje, in defiance of treaty obligations, withheld from
Colonel Winslow and the besieged garrison the news that an armistice
had been arranged between the Boer and British forces, and continued
the siege until the garrison, in order to save the lives of the
wounded and the women and children refugees, were obliged to
surrender. It will be remembered that this incident was too much even
for Mr. Gladstone, and that on its becoming known after the terms of
peace had been settled, the Transvaal Government were required by Sir
Evelyn Wood to allow a British force to march up from Natal and
re-occupy Potchefstroom as a formal acknowledgment of Cronje's
treachery. Mr. Kruger and his party, who were in the greatest fear
that the settlement would not be effected, and that Sir Evelyn Wood's
action might provoke a renewal of hostilities, agreed to the terms,
but with grave apprehensions as to the results. However, no
_contretemps_ occurred.

{32} Once when out hunting on foot--a young man then--Mr. Kruger,
after climbing to the top of a kopje, f