Daring the past week there have been renewed efforts here
to find some means for preventing the outbreak of hostilities, and for bringing about a compromise. We feel nothing but respect for those who have made one more effort in the cause of peace, but those efforts are, we fear, doomed to failure because they do not recognise that President Kruger does not mean to agree to a peaceful issue except upon conditions which even the extreme advocates of peace on this side admit that we cannot grant. When the differences between our contentions and those of the Boers are looked at superficially they seem narrow enough, but unfortunately that is little help, for, though narrow, they are infinitely deep. The strongest proof that peace is now impossible is to be found in two facts. The first is that Mr. Kruger, as the corre- spondent of the Zfanchester Guardian, has shown in a study of the President, abstracted by us below, is in fact supreme. The second is that at any time during the last few weeks the President might have had peace by making simple and reason- able concessions. That he did not make such concessions shows that he would rather have war than part with that power which, it is impossible to deny, the concessions would oblige him and the Boers to share with the Outlanders. Very much the same thing happened at the outbreak of the American Civil War. Plenty of good and well-meaning people in the North wanted to make a compromise with the South, and thought it possible, because they did not realise that the Southern oligarchy had determined that they would do what they would with their own, and that they would not allow any interference with their internal affairs on the part of the North. It is the old story. War is never inevitable unless two communities have determined on exactly opposite courses. When they have it cannot be avoided. The Boers are deter- mined that they have a right to do what they will with their own, and that they will not really share power with others on any conditions that are not illusory. Such an attitude does not admit of concession or compromise.
