It has been described in a previous chapter how Lord Kitchener made an offer to the burghers which amounted to an amnesty, and how a number of those Boers who had come under the influence of the British formed themselves into peace committees, and endeavoured to convey to the fighting commandos some information as to the hopelessness of the struggle, and the lenient mood of the British.  Unfortunately these well-meant offers appear to have been mistaken for signs of weakness by the Boer leaders, and encouraged them to harden their hearts.  Of the delegates who conveyed the terms to their fellow countrymen two at least were shot, several were condemned to death, and few returned without ill-usage.  In no case did they bear back a favourable answer.  The only result of the proclamation was to burden the British resources by an enormous crowd of women and children who were kept and fed in refugee camps, while their fathers and husbands continued in most cases to fight.

This allusion to the peace movement among the burghers may serve as an introduction to the attempt made by Lord Kitchener, at the end of February 1901, to bring the war to a close by negotiation.  Throughout its course the fortitude of Great Britain and of the Empire had never for an instant weakened, but her conscience had always been sensitive at the sight of the ruin which had befallen so large a portion of South Africa, and any settlement would have been eagerly hailed which would insure that the work done had not been wasted, and would not need to be done again.  A peace on any other terms would simply shift upon the shoulders of our descendants those burdens which we were not manly enough to bear ourselves.  There had arisen, as has been said, a considerable peace movement among the burghers of the refugee camps and also among the prisoners of war.  It was hoped that some reflection of this might be found among the leaders of the people.  To find out if this were so Lord Kitchener, at the end of February, sent a verbal message to Louis Botha, and on the 27th of that month the Boer general rode with an escort of Hussars into Middelburg.  ’Sunburned, with a pleasant, fattish face of a German type, and wearing an imperial,’ says one who rode beside him.  Judging from the sounds of mirth heard by those without, the two leaders seem to have soon got upon amiable terms, and there was hope that a definite settlement might spring from their interview.  From the beginning Lord Kitchener explained that the continued independence of the two republics was an impossibility.  But on every other point the British Government was prepared to go great lengths in order to satisfy and conciliate the burghers.