The peace negotiations between the governments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State Part 2

_To His Excellency_ LORD KITCHENER, _Commander-in-Chief of the British Troops, Pretoria_.

GOVERNMENT LAGER, IN THE VELD, S.A.R., _March 17, 1902_.

YOUR EXCELLENCY,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency's letter of the 13th inst.

I thank Your Excellency for consenting to our travelling through Your Excellency's lines, and also for the order given to your troops to immediately withdraw from the neighbourhood where I at present am, and for the notice given them of the safe conduct extended to us.

In order to obviate delay I respectfully request Your Excellency to transmit the enclosed telegram to President Steyn, and to put me in possession of His Honour's reply thereto, on receipt of which I shall immediately inform Your Excellency a day in advance, as requested by you, of the time when we shall arrive at Balmoral.

Pending the receipt of Your Excellency's reply we shall remain at Roodepoort, near Rhenosterkop.

I have the honour to be, Your Excellency's obedient servant, S. W. BURGER, _Acting State President_.

TELEGRAM.

FROM S. W. BURGER, _Acting State President, Rhenosterkop, distr. Pretoria_.

TO HIS HONOUR PRESIDENT STEYN, IN THE VELD.

With reference to confidential Memoranda exchanged between the Netherlands Minister and Lord Lansdowne, which correspondence was kindly sent to me by His Excellency Lord Kitchener, I with the members of my Government, wish to proceed to meet you. For that purpose a safe conduct has been granted to us by Lord Kitchener. Be so good as to inform me as soon as possible where and when such meeting can take place.

To this the following reply was received by Acting-President Burger:--

ARMY HEADQUARTERS, SOUTH AFRICA.

PRETORIA, _March_ 18, 1902.

YOUR HONOUR,

I am placed in some difficulty by the receipt of Your Honour's dispatch enclosing a telegram which you request me to forward to His Honour Mr. Steyn.

Owing to recent military operations in the country South of the Vaal and East of the Railway, His Honour Mr. Steyn, with a following estimated at about Thirty Burghers, has left that district, and was last reported travelling in the vicinity of Bothaville. It is therefore not easy for me to communicate with him, especially as he does not at present make a prolonged stay in any one part of the country. For this reason I venture to suggest, for Your Honour's consideration, that it might save time, if you came now to Balmoral, where a special train would be placed at Your Honour's disposal. You might then travel to the neighbourhood of Kroonstad, where my Officers would give you every a.s.sistance to go out and meet His Honour Mr.

Steyn, according to the latest information.

It will be understood that the safe conduct I had the pleasure of forwarding to Your Honour was for a definite purpose of pa.s.sing my lines to meet Mr. Steyn, and will have to be renewed if any delay takes place in taking advantage of it.

I have the honour to be, Your Honour's obedient servant, KITCHENER, General, _Commanding-in-Chief, South Africa_.

HIS HONOUR MR. SCHALK BURGER.

The Transvaal Government then wrote to Lord Kitchener as follows:--

_To His Excellency_ LORD KITCHENER, _Commander-in-Chief of the British Troops, Pretoria_.

ROODEPOORT, NEAR RHENOSTERKOP, DIST. PRETORIA, S.A.R., _March 20, 1902_.

YOUR EXCELLENCY,

I acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency's communication dated the 18th inst., and have the honour to inform you in reply that we shall arrive at Balmoral on Sat.u.r.day morning the 22nd inst., at 10 o'clock, to avail ourselves of Your Excellency's kind offer to allow us to travel to Kroonstad by rail, and to a.s.sist us from there to meet His Honour President Steyn.

I shall be accompanied to Kroonstad by five gentlemen, four white attendants, and one native servant. Furthermore we shall be escorted to Balmoral by some men who will take our vehicles and horses back from there.

I also wish to inform Your Excellency that my guard is still here, where it will remain until our return.

I have the honour to be, Your Excellency's obedient servant, S. W. BURGER, _Acting State President_.

At this stage of the negotiations an express messenger was despatched to Commandant General Louis Botha, who was then in the South-Eastern districts of the South African Republic, to acquaint him with the decision of the Government, and with the correspondence with Lord Kitchener (of which copies were sent to him). Unfortunately, as it appeared later, the despatch rider did not reach General Botha.

On the morning of March 22nd, 1902, at ten o'clock the Members of the Executive Council, consisting of Acting State President S. W. Burger, State Secretary F. W. Reitz, and Messrs. L. J. Meyer and J. C. Krogh, arrived at Balmoral Station. The Executive Council was also accompanied by Mr. L. J. Jacobsz, a.s.sistant State Attorney, and Mr. D.

van Velden, Secretary of the Executive Council (the latter had arrived at Balmoral the previous day with the despatch of March 20th, 1902.)

When they approached the Station, Captain Marker, A.D.C. to Lord Kitchener, Major Leggett, who was connected with the Imperial Military Railways, and Captain Baird of the Intelligence Department, rode out to meet them. At 12 o'clock they left by special train for Kroonstad.

There was an hour's delay at Pretoria while another train was being prepared. During this delay the Executive Council paid a visit to Lord Kitchener at his request. After that the journey was continued, and Kroonstad reached in the night.

On the following morning two despatch riders, Robberts and Hattingh, who had been brought with the Executive Council for that purpose, were sent out to find President Steyn. They took with them the following letter with annexures, consisting of copies of the letter of Lord Kitchener, dated March 4th, 1902, and the above-mentioned correspondence between the Netherlands and British Governments, which had been forwarded to Acting President Burger.

_His Honour_ M. T. STEYN, _State President, O.F.S., in the Veld_.

KROONSTAD, _March 24, 1902_.

YOUR HONOUR,

Herewith I send you copies of correspondence which has pa.s.sed between us and Lord Kitchener, as a result of which I, with the Members of the Executive Council, have proceeded hither with the object of meeting Your Honour.

We learn that Lord Kitchener has sent, or that he intended to send, the same correspondence to Your Honour, but did not know where to find you. His opinion was, that you were somewhere to the west of the railway. I have therefore obtained a copy of the communication intended for Your Honour and send this also herewith.

We shall wait here until we learn where and when we can meet Your Honour.

Will you let us have this information as soon as possible and by the shortest way.

I have the honour to be, Your Honour's obedient servant, S. W. BURGER, _Acting State President_.

The despatch riders reached President Steyn on March 26th, and handed him the correspondence. The President thereupon immediately sent a despatch to General de Wet--who was at the moment on his way to General Badenhorst--summoning him to attend the proposed meeting, and replied to the Transvaal Government as follows:--

_To His Honour_ S. W. BURGER, _Acting State President of the S.A. Republic, Kroonstad_.

PRESIDENT'S LAGER, IN THE VELD, _March 28, 1902_.