The Afrikander Congress, held at Worcester on Thursday week, and
attended by some eight thousand people, passed off without disturbance, though violent attacks were made upon Sir Alfred Milner. On the 11th a deputation appointed by the Congress waited on Sir Alfred at Cape Town and pre- sented the resolutions adopted at the meeting. The spokes. men, Messrs. de Villiers and Pretorius, while apologising for the resolution condemning the High Commissioner's conduct, declared there could be no lasting peace if the Republics lost their independence ; protested against the deportation of women and children and burning of farms; and claimed that the attitude of those who attended the Congress was loyal to the Queen as well as orderly. Sir Alfred Milner, while pro- mising to forward the resolutions to the Home Government, condemned them in a powerful speech as futile and mischiev- ous. Addressing himself to the appeal for the termination of the war, which, he pertinently asked them, was the more likely to lead to that end,—recognition of the irrevocable character of a, policy declared by the Imperial Government, endorsed by an enormous majority of the nation, and approved by all the great Colonies of the Empire except Cape Colony (where half the white and all the coloured population supported it); or, on the other hand, the reiteration of menacing protests against that policy P As to the conduct of the war—one of the most humane on both sides ever waged—its horrors increased as it became more irregular on the part of the enemy, necessitating severer measures on the part of the Imperial troops, and it was not morally justifiable to continue resistance, or to encourage its continuance, where the object of that resistance could not possibly be attained.
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