THE MOST REVD. DR. RANDALL T. DAVIDSON, P.C., G.C.V.O.
Ninety-fourth Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of England under King Edward, 1903-10.
THE RIGHT HON. SIR WILFRID LAURIER, P.C., G.C.M.G., M.P.
Prime Minister of Canada during King Edward's Reign
THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL GREY, P.C., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O.
The King's Representative in Canada, 1904-10
The war now dragged on its weary way. Victories and occasional defeats marked the stages of attrition by which the bravery and obstinacy of a determined foe was gradually worn down. On August 16th, 1901, Lord Kitchener issued his proclamation banishing all Boer leaders taken in arms after September 15th: three days later the Duke of Cornwall landed at Cape Town; on August 27th Lord Milner returned to take up his arduous duties. Mr. Cecil Rhodes died on March 26th, 1902, and on April 9th Boer delegates met at Klerksdorp under safe conducts from Lord Kitchener, and there Mr. Steyn, General Delary and General De Wet, and others, conferred upon the possibilities of peace. Three days later they proceeded to Pretoria and were given every facility for discussion and consultation by the British authorities. On April 18th they temporarily dispersed to consult their Commandos after being given the terms and concessions which it was decided to grant. There were supposed to be, at the most liberal computation—London Times of April 25th—some 10,000 Boers in the field at this time, while the women, children and Boer residents of the refugee camps, who were being fed and cared for by the authorities, numbered 110,000.
The keenest interest had been taken by the King in the course of the war during this period and in the negotiations which ensued. He had been hoping for its termination before his Coronation and, some months prior to this, on January 15th, had addressed a re-inforcement of the Grenadier Guards in rather sanguine terms: "I trust that the duties you will be called upon to perform will be less arduous than those of some of the men who have gone before you and that the war will shortly be brought to a close. But, whatever duties you may be called upon to perform, I am sure you will fulfil them efficiently and will keep up the old spirit and traditions for which the Guards are famous." His wishes, like so many entertained throughout the Empire, were not speedily realized, but it is safe to say that His Majesty would no more have unduly hurried the course of negotiations or changed their effective and final character in order to attain his natural desire for a peaceful celebration of the Coronation—as was asserted in some sensational quarters—than he would have cut his own hand off.
It is sometimes forgotten that the King not only embodies the authority of his vast realm in his position, but must concentrate in his own person a natural strength of pride in his Empire so great as to be far beyond the possibility of a reflection upon its patriotism. He would hardly be human in his qualities if the most intense patriotic pride in the unity and power of his realms was not the first and strongest instinct of his nature. But this in passing. Lord Salisbury illustrated the attitude of both the Sovereign and his Ministers when speaking at the Albert Hall, London, on May 7th, during the pending negotiations: "I only wish to guard against misapprehension which I think I have seen, to the effect that the willingness we have shown to listen to all that may be said to us is a proof that we have retreated or receded from our former position and are willing to recognize that the rights we claimed are no longer valid. There is no ground for such an assertion. We cannot afford after such terrible sacrifice, not only of treasure but of men, after the exertions, unexampled in our history, that we have made—we cannot afford to submit to the idea that we are to allow things to slide back into a position where it will be in the power of our enemy again, when the opportunity suits him and the chance is favourable to him, to renew again the issue that we have fought this last three years."
TERMINATION OF THE WAR