To this the following reply was received by Acting-President Burger:—
Army Headquarters, South Africa.
Pretoria,
March 18, 1902.
Your Honour,
I am placed in some difficulty by the receipt of Your Honour's dispatch enclosing a telegram which you request me to forward to His Honour Mr. Steyn.
Owing to recent military operations in the country South of the Vaal and East of the Railway, His Honour Mr. Steyn, with a following estimated at about Thirty Burghers, has left that district, and was last reported travelling in the vicinity of Bothaville. It is therefore not easy for me to communicate with him, especially as he does not at present make a prolonged stay in any one part of the country. For this reason I venture to suggest, for Your Honour's consideration, that it might save time, if you came now to Balmoral, where a special train would be placed at Your Honour's disposal. You might then travel to the neighbourhood of Kroonstad, where my Officers would give you every assistance to go out and meet His Honour Mr. Steyn, according to the latest information.
It will be understood that the safe conduct I had the pleasure of forwarding to Your Honour was for a definite purpose of passing my lines to meet Mr. Steyn, and will have to be renewed if any delay takes place in taking advantage of it.
I have the honour to be,
Your Honour's obedient servant,
Kitchener, General,
Commanding-in-Chief, South Africa.
His Honour Mr. Schalk Burger.
The Transvaal Government then wrote to Lord Kitchener as follows:—
To His Excellency Lord Kitchener, Commander-in-Chief of the British Troops, Pretoria.