OOM PAUL AND TANT' SANNIE.
Paul Kruger and Mrs. Kruger, after whom Mr. Chamberlain enquired on a memorable occasion. The President has been twice married; the present Mrs. Kruger was a Miss Malan. The couple are familiarly known in South Africa as "Uncle Paul and Aunt Sannie."
The Bloemfontein Conference.
The crisis drew nearer when an immense petition to the Queen was forwarded by the Outlanders, praying for redress of their grievances. A conference was arranged between President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner at Bloemfontein, and at it Sir Alfred put forward minimum demands—for a reform of the franchise in the Transvaal, by which the Outlanders would be able to obtain votes, and for a redistribution of seats. The demands were refused, Mr. Kruger offering very much less, and the conference broke up.
SIR A. MILNER AND PRESIDENT KRUGER LEAVING THE CONFERENCE AT BLOEMFONTEIN, June, 1899.
No greater contrast can be imagined than the young, dapper, cultured diplomatist, and the rugged, wily, and uncultured old President.
Sept. 1899.] British Demands Refused.
Then followed a long diplomatic battle between the British Government and Mr. Kruger. Something on our part was conceded of Sir Alfred's minimum, but not by Sir Alfred; nothing was conceded by the Transvaal, which at every turn asserted its right to be considered a "sovereign independent state." Mr. Kruger, as he had always prophesied, was aided and encouraged in his resistance by a certain party of Englishmen which denounced Sir Alfred Milner, pretended that England was aiming at "the destruction of the Transvaal Republic," and asserted that England must concede, and ought to concede, because the nation would never go to war.