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 to you satisfies me that the British nation is now determined to settle the Transvaal business in a manner satisfactory to themselves.

“I accordingly begged of Krueger’s friends to put the matter to him in this way:  On the one side there is war with England—­on the other side there are concessions which will avoid war or occupation of the country.  Now decide at once how far you will ultimately go; adopt the English five years’ franchise—­offer it voluntarily to the Uitlanders—­make them your friends, be a far-sighted statesman, and you will have a majority of the Uitlanders with you when they become Burghers.  The answer I got was:  ’We have done too much already and cannot do more.’”

One is aware of the fact that Mr. Krueger contended that the non-English Uitlanders would side with him.  Sir Henry Villiers writes: 

“I have never been able to understand why Krueger never attempted to take the Uitlanders into his confidence.  He has always kept them at arm’s length with the result that he has entirely alienated them.  It is said that there are 21,000 Uitlanders in Johannesburg who support him, and yet no meeting has been held at Johannesburg to compare with the meetings held by his opponents.