tarily a liberal franchise bill with such
safeguards as would prevent the old burghers from being swamped.

"Mr. Chamberlain's speech was more moderate than I expected it
would be, and as he holds out an olive branch in the form of a
joint enquiry into the franchise proposals, would it not be well to
meet him in this matter? I know that it might be regarded as a
_partial_ surrender."

The last sentence runs as follows:

"I don't think that President Krueger and his friends realise the
gravity of the situation. Even now the State Secretary is doing
things which would be almost farcical if the times were not so
serious."

According to Sir Henry telegrams were suppressed by Dr. Reitz on the
plea that "the Government should not disseminate lies by its own wires."

Mr. de Villiers added:

"The Transvaal will soon not have a single friend left among the
cultivated classes."

Events have proved he had a better opinion of them than they deserved.
He goes on with the following:

"The time really has come when the friends of the Transvaal must
induce President Krueger to become perfectly frank and take the new
comers into his confidence."

And ends with saying again:

"As one who signed the Convention in 1881 I can assure you that my
fellow Commissioners would not have signed it if they had not been
led to believe that President Krueger's policy towards the
Uitlanders would have been very different from what it has been."

In a letter written the same day to his brother Melius, one can see in
what fool's paradise Dr. Reitz and his colleagues were living:

"When I was in the Transvaal three months ago, I found that Reitz
and others had the most extraordinary notions of the powers and
duties of a Cape Ministry in case of war. They are Ministers of the
Crown, and it will be their duty to afford every possible
assistance to the British Government. Under normal conditions a
responsible Ministry is perfectly independent in matters of
internal concern, but in case of war they are bound to place all
the resources of the Colony at the disposal of the British Crown;
at least, if they did not do so, they would be liable to
dismissal."

Here is his opinion on the proceedings in the House of Commons:

"The debate which took place in the House of Commons since I last
wrote