As to what should be the attitude of our Government
to offers from the Boers, we can only repeat in substance what we said a fortnight ago. There can be no compro- mise on the question of independence, or of allowing the Boers special and dominating privileges in regard to the natives. On all other questions we ought to be willing to meet the Boers, and, above all, we should take care to " save the face " of the Boer leaders, and, indeed, of the Boers as a whole. We cannot, of course, promise the Boers self- government at once, but we can, and ought to, give them the firmest assurances that the capital aim and object of our administration will be to produce a condition of things which will enable us to endow the new Colonies with the fullest measure of self-government. We want them to come into our regular self-governing Imperial system, not to remain outside it. As to the resettlement of the farms and the banishment question, we trust the Government will be wisely liberal, but whatever is given must be given freely and as of grace, and not as a hard-and-fast contract over which the Boers, who are born attorneys, can wrangle incessantly in the future. These matters, however, can be quite safely left to the Government. There is no fear of them being too harsh, for they are, we feel certain, most anxious to end the war if they can do so on reasonable conditions.
