BOER PRISONERS WITH THEIR NURSE AT BERMUDA
Commandant W.J. Viljoen was elected as delegate by his men, the Johannesburg Commando, and Commandant David Schoeman was elected as delegate by his men, the Lydenburg Commando. I heard both of these commandants pledge their words to do as their burghers wished, and stand for independence or war. Both of these commandants at the Conference stood for discontinuing the war and accepting the British proposals. With the exception of two or three small districts, all the burghers of the land were unanimous in declaring for war or independence. I must here state, however, that the burghers did not know at the time that 22,000 of their women and children had been murdered in the English prison camps, and that probably in another year all the rest would meet the same fate.
The delegates all being elected, they met, sixty in number, on May 15th, at Vereeninging, on the Vaal River. On the 31st of May, they agreed to accept the English proposals, as follows:
PEACE TERMS.
General Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, Commander-in-Chief, and His Excellency Lord Milner, High Commissioner, on behalf of the British Government;
Messrs. S.W. Burger, F.W. Reitz, Louis Botha, J.H. de la Rey, L.J. Meijers, and J.B. Krogh, on behalf of the Government of the South African Republic and its burghers;
Messrs. M.T. Steyn, W.J.C. Brebner, C.R. de Wet, J.B.M. Hertzog, and C.H. Olivier, on behalf of the Government of the Orange Free State and its burghers, being anxious to put an end to the existing hostilities, agree on the following points:
Firstly: The burgher forces now in the veldt shall at once lay down their arms, and surrender all the guns, small arms, and war stores in their actual possession, or of which they have cognizance, and shall abstain from any further opposition to the authority of His Majesty, King Edward VII., whom they acknowledge as their lawful sovereign. The manner and details of this surrender shall be arranged by Lord Kitchener, Commandant-General Botha, Assistant-Commandant General J.H. de la Rey, and Commander-in-Chief De Wet.
Secondly: Burghers in the veldt beyond the frontiers of the Transvaal and of the Orange River Colony, and all prisoners of war who are out of South Africa, who are burghers, shall, on their declaration that they accept the status of subjects of His Majesty King Edward VII., be brought back to their homes, as soon as transport and means of subsistence can be assured.