matter was referred, and a conference was arranged between President Kruger and him at Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State.  They met on May 30th.  Kruger had declared that all questions might be discussed except the independence of the Transvaal.  ’All, all, all! ’ he cried emphatically.  But in practice it was found that the parties could not agree as to what did or what did not threaten this independence.  What was essential to one was inadmissible to the other.  Milner contended for a five years’ retroactive franchise, with provisions to secure adequate representation for the mining districts.  Kruger offered a seven years’ franchise, coupled with numerous conditions which whittled down its value very much, promised five members out of thirty-one to represent a majority of the male population, and added a provision that all differences should be subject to arbitration by foreign powers, a condition which is incompatible with any claim to suzerainty.  The proposals of each were impossible to the other, and early in June Sir Alfred Milner was back in Cape Town and President Kruger in Pretoria, with nothing settled except the extreme difficulty of a settlement.  The current was running swift, and the roar of the fall was already sounding louder in the ear.

On June 12th Sir Alfred Milner received a deputation at Cape Town and reviewed the situation.  ’The principle of equality of races was,’ he said, essential for South Africa.  The one State where inequality existed kept all the others in a fever.  Our policy was one not of aggression, but of singular patience, which could not, however, lapse into indifference.’  Two days later Kruger addressed the Raad.  ’The other side had not conceded one tittle, and I could not give more.  God has always stood by us.  I do not want war, but I will not give more away.  Although our independence has once been taken away, God has restored it.’  He spoke with sincerity no doubt, but it is hard to hear God invoked with such confidence for the system which encouraged the liquor traffic to the natives, and bred the most corrupt set of officials that the modern world has seen.

A dispatch from Sir Alfred Milner, giving his views upon the situation, made the British public recognise, as nothing else had done, how serious the position was, and how essential it was that an earnest national effort should be made to set it right.  In it he said: 

’The case for intervention is overwhelming.  The only attempted answer is that things will right themselves if left alone.  But, in fact, the policy of leaving things alone has been tried for years, and it has led to their going from bad to worse.  It is not true that this is owing to the raid.  They were going from bad to worse before the raid.  We were on the verge of war before the raid, and the Transvaal was on the verge of revolution.  The effect of the raid has been to give the policy of leaving things alone a new lease of life, and with the old consequences.