The peace negotiations between the governments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and the representatives of the British government, which terminated in the peace concluded at Vereeniging on the 31st May, 1902

J. D. (John Daniel) Kestell, D. E. Van Velden

Informations

• Publié par: isse
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 39
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Peace Negotiations, by
J. D. Kestell and D. E. van Velden
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Peace Negotiations
Between the Governments of the South African Republic and
the Orange Free State, etc....
Author: J. D. Kestell
D. E. van Velden
Translator: D. E. van Velden
Release Date: December 14, 2008 [EBook #27529]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS ***
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Christine P. Travers and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all other
inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling has been maintained.The Signatories to the Peace Treaty on behalf of the South African Republic.The Signatories to the Peace Treaty on behalf of the Orange Free State.Facsimile of the letter from Lord Kitchener upon which the Peace Negotiations were
entered into.
THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS
Between the Governments of the South African Republic
and the Orange Free State, and the Representativesof the British Government, which terminated
in the Peace concluded at Vereeniging
on the 31st May, 1902
BY
REV. J. D. KESTELL
Secretary to the Orange Free State Government
AND
D. E. VAN VELDEN
Secretary to the Government of the South African Republic
TRANSLATED AND PUBLISHED BY
D. E. VAN VELDEN
WITH PHOTOS AND FACSIMILES OF ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
LONDON
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LTD., BRUNSWICK STREET, S.E.
1912
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED
BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E., AND
BUNGAY SUFFOLK
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE ix
INTRODUCTION BY S. W. BURGER, M.L.A., ACTING STATE PRESIDENT OF THE LATE
SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC xiii
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE xixCHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY CORRESPONDENCE 1
CHAPTER II
PROCEEDINGS AT KLERKSDORP 18
CHAPTER III
FIRST NEGOTIATIONS AT PRETORIA 33
CHAPTER IV
VEREENIGING 46
CHAPTER V
FURTHER NEGOTIATIONS AT PRETORIA 98
CHAPTER VI
VEREENIGING AND PEACE 138
APPENDIX—THE MIDDELBURG PROPOSALS 210
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Signatories to the Peace Treaty on behalf of the South African
Republic. Frontispiece
The Signatories to the Peace Treaty on behalf of the Orange Free StateF. rontispiece
Facsimile of the letter from Lord Kitchener upon which the Peace
Negotiations were entered into Facing Title page
Facing page
Facsimile of the copy of the reply from the Government of the South African
Republic to Lord Kitchener's letter dated 4th March, 1902 6
Facsimile of Safe Conduct granted by Lord Kitchener 44
Facsimile of the Oath subscribed to at Vereeniging by the Delegates of the
South African Republic 46
Facsimile of the Oath subscribed to at Vereeniging by the Delegates of the
Orange Free State 46Facsimile of a page of the Peace Proposals as submitted by the British
Representatives and amended by the Boer Representatives. The
alterations are in the handwriting of Generals Smuts and Hertzog 112
Facsimile of a page of the Peace Proposals as submitted by the British
Representatives and amended by the Boer Representatives. The
alterations are in the handwriting of General Smuts and Mr. Advocate N. J.
de Wet 117
Facsimile of the original proposal by Commandant H. P. J. Pretorius,
seconded by General Chris. Botha, to accept the British Peace Proposals 202
Facsimile of the document on which the voting on the proposal by
Commandant H. P. J. Pretorius, seconded by General Chris. Botha, to
accept the British Peace Proposals was recorded 206
PREFACE
The want has been repeatedly expressed of an official publication of the Minutes of the
Negotiations which led to the Peace concluded at Vereeniging on May 31, 1902, events
which have hitherto been a closed page in the history of the Boer War. As the Republics
had ceased to exist, the question arose: Who could publish such Minutes? It is true that
some very incomplete Minutes appeared in General de Wet's book, but although they
were in all probability reliable, yet they had not the seal of an official document.
The only way in which the want could be met appeared to be for the Secretaries, who
had been appointed by the two Republican Governments to minute the Negotiations, to
publish those Minutes after they had been read and approved of as authentic by persons
competent to do so.
This is what has been done by this publication, which places the reader in possession
of all the correspondence leading up to the Negotiations, exact reports of what was said
and done, not only at Vereeniging, but also previously at Klerksdorp, and, finally, all the
Negotiations which took place at Pretoria between the two Republican Governments and
the British Government, represented by Lord Kitchener and Lord Milner.
We, however, were not satisfied to publish this record, which we had most carefully
taken down, merely on our own authority. We felt that, if only this and nothing more were
done, the world would after all have only our word to rely upon, and that, although the
record thus published would always serve as a highly reliable book of reference, it would
lack the authority of a document properly authenticated by a body competent to do so.
In order, therefore, to obtain this desirable seal of authenticity to our record, we
submitted our manuscript to President Steyn, Acting President Burger, the Chairman of
the Meeting of Representatives of the People at Vereeniging (General C. F. Beyers),
Generals Botha and Smuts for the South African Republic, and Generals de Wet and
Hertzog for the Orange Free State, with the result that they all found our record to be a
true and correct account of the Peace Negotiations.
So this book sees the light with their imprimatur, and we therefore publish it with the
greatest confidence.The Reader's attention is drawn to the following particulars:—
IN RESPECT OF THE SPEECHES MADE BY THE MEMBERS OF THE REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENTS AT
KLERKSDORP, AND THE SPEECHES DELIVERED LATER ATV EREENIGING BY THEM AND BY THE
DELEGATES FROM THE VARIOUSC OMMANDOS, THE REPORTS ARE ALMOSTv erbatim. THE
ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENTS AND PRINCIPAL GENERALS ESPECIALLY WERE TRANSCRIBEDfr om
the stenographic notes of D. E. van Velden, and revised by J. D. Kestell.
THIS COMPLETENESS DOES NOT EXTEND TO WHAT IS PUBLISHED OF THEF irst CONFERENCE
BETWEEN THE TWO REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENTS AND LORD KITCHENER AND LORD MILNER,
BECAUSE NO SECRETARIES WERE ADMITTED TO THAT CONFERENCE. LORD KITCHENER HAD
EXPRESSED THE DESIRE THAT NO OFFICIAL NOTES SHOULD BE TAKEN, AS THE PARTIEW S O ULD FIRST
CONFER INFORMALLY. WHAT WAS DISCUSSED, HOWEVER, HASN OT BEEN LOST, FOR AN ACCOUNT OF
WHAT TOOK PLACE AT THISC ONFERENCE WAS TAKEN DOWN BY J. D. KESTELL FROM THE DICTATION
O F GENERAL HERTZOG IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE CONFERENCE WAS OVER, ANRDE VISED BY
PRESIDENT STEYN AND MR. W. J. C. BREBNER (ACTING OVERNMENT SECRETARY, ORANGE FREE
State), and appears in this book.
WITH REFERENCE TO THSE econd CONFERENCE, HOWEVER, WE WERE PRESENT, AND WHAT IS
given is a verbatim account of the discussion.
Of some official documents in our possession, reproductions or facsimiles are given in
the hope that the reader will find them of interest.
J. D. K.
D. E. v. V.
Pretoria,
October, 1908.[Back to Contents]
INTRODUCTION
DEAR READER,
In connection with the publication, by the Rev. J. D. Kestell and Mr. D. E. van Velden,
of the official minutes of the Peace Negotiations (together with the official
correspondence relating thereto) between the British Government and the Governments
of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, which terminated in the Peace
concluded at Vereeniging on May 31, 1902, I do not wish in this introduction to enter into
details, but merely to confine my remarks to the great responsibility which rested upon us
and to the question, "Was it necessary to conclude Peace?"
If it was a task of supreme importance to decide to enter upon the struggle which had
been waged, if it was an arduous and difficult duty to carry on the struggle, it was much
harder and more difficult to foresee what the result of that struggle would be, and still
harder and more difficult to decide to give it up. With how much hope, fear, and anxiety
was not the end looked forward to! And when the end came, what did it not cost us to
persuade the head to do what the heart refused to perform? What was realised of that
hope for which there had been such a struggle, for which so much had been suffered, so
much endured, so much sacrificed—the Reader will find in this book. He will also find in it
the correspondence which led up to, and was carried on during, the Peace Negotiations;
the proceedings at our meetings at Klerksdorp, Pretoria, and Vereeniging; the opinions,
views, and grounds upon which the leaders of the people acted, in so far as those wereexpressed. You will not, however, find here the struggle that took place at Vereeniging
within every Delegate between the heart and the head; the intense eff