I have already replied in my telegram of 15th January, No. 2, in answer to your telegram of 14th January, No. 1, and I do not think it possible to obtain further information at this stage, the matter being sub judice.

Sir Hercules Robinson left Pretoria on the 14th, having resided within a few hundred yards of Dr. Jameson and his comrades for a week, and of the Reform prisoners for four days, without making any attempt whatever to ascertain their circumstances or story.  During that time his military secretary called upon Dr. Jameson for the purpose of finding out details of the prisoners and wounded of the force, but made no further inquiries.  Dr. Jameson’s solicitor wrote to the Colonial Office on March 5: 

MY DEAR FAIRFIELD,

You have probably seen the cable that has come to the Diggers’ News, giving the lie direct to Sir John Willoughby’s statement respecting terms of surrender.

I have seen Sir John again, and am authorized by him to state, with regard to the criticism that it is incredible that nothing should have been said by the officers when in prison at Pretoria to anybody about the terms of surrender, that it must be remembered that from the time of the surrender until they left Africa none of them were allowed to make any communication.  While in gaol they were not allowed to see newspapers or to receive any news of what was going on in Pretoria or elsewhere.

Sir J. Willoughby made a statement to the head gaoler and other officials at the time of his arrival at the gaol when he was searched and all his papers taken from him.  He requested to be allowed to keep the document signed by Cronje, as it contained the terms of the surrender, but received as answer that all papers must be taken and that they would be returned afterwards.  They were in fact taken and only returned when the officers were removed from the gaol to go to Durban.

My clients did try to get a note through to Johannesburg concealed in a matchbox.  They paid twenty-five pounds to get it through, and sent it within thirty-six hours of their arrival in gaol, but they have never been able to ascertain whether it reached its destination.

The gist of it was that they were all right.  It never occurred to the prisoners that neither the British Resident nor the High Commissioner would be informed of the terms of the surrender, or that they would not satisfy themselves on this point.

Sir Hercules Robinson might urge, in so far as Dr. Jameson’s affair is concerned, that he could not be expected to suspect a deception such as was practised upon him; yet it does seem extraordinary that, being in Pretoria for the purpose of negotiating for the disposal of Dr. Jameson and his comrades, he should not have taken steps to ascertain what there was to be said on their behalf, especially as on his own showing it was for the greater part of the time a question of life and death for the leaders of the