It is impossible at present to say whether the situation
is improved by the new proposals or not, but we are not inclined to take a very hopeful view. The Boers know perfectly well that we shall not, and indeed cannot, yield on the suzerainty, and it looks, therefore, as if there were some truth in the allegation that they are manoeuvring to fight on that point. They know that it will rally the whole population to their side. There is internal disagreement about all the other questions, but not about the suzerainty. That is in many ways an able piece of statecraft, but the Boers must not for- get that while the suzerainty divides them least, it also unites us most. There is practically no party here which is willing, to give np our position as the paramount Power in South Africa. We argue about the franchise, but not about the acknowledgment of the Transvaal as an absolutely in- dependent State.
