The Committee desire to make it known that late last night they received an intimation from Her Majesty's Agent in Pretoria to the effect that the decision of the Government was that Johannesburg must lay down its arms as a condition precedent to the discussion and consideration of grievances.
The Committee met this morning to consider the position, and it was unanimously resolved to accept the ultimatum of the Government for reasons which the following communications sufficiently explain:
Here followed the High Commissioner's telegram to Sir Jacobus de Wet, urging disarmament, already given, and the following memorandum:
Sir Jacobus de Wet, Her Majesty's Agent at Pretoria, has notified to the Committee that he has been officially informed by the Government in Pretoria that upon Johannesburg laying down its arms Dr. Jameson will be handed over to Her Majesty's High Commissioner.
By Order.
Johannesburg, 7th January.
The above is correct.
J.A. DE WET,
H.B.M. Agent.
The Committee can add nothing to the above, and feel that there will not be one man among the thousands who have joined the Reform movement who will not find it consistent with honour and humanity to co-operate loyally in the carrying out of the Committee's decision.
By order of the Committee.
On Wednesday the investigations effected by the Government, with the aid of the Reform Committee, established the fact that the ultimatum had been complied with; but the juggling with Dr. Jameson's life continued for some days. On Thursday the 9th the High Commissioner received a communication from the President in which occurred the following sentence: 'As I had already caused your Excellency to be informed, it is really my intention to act in this sense (i.e., hand over Dr. Jameson and men), so that Dr. Jameson and the British subjects who were under his command may then be punished by her Majesty's Government, and I will make known to your Excellency the final decision in this matter as soon as Johannesburg shall have reverted to a condition of quietness and order.'
In the face of this and many other significant messages and expressions which reached Sir Hercules Robinson, it is not to be wondered at that he considered Dr. Jameson's life to be in peril, and that he regarded, as he distinctly said he did, disarmament by Johannesburg as the only means of saving him; but what is less pardonable is, that he did not pin President Kruger to this, and demand an explanation when it became known that Jameson and his men were secured by the conditions of the surrender. The truth is that the wily old Boer President, by a species of diplomacy which does not now commend itself to civilized people, managed to jockey everybody with whom he had any dealings. He is much in the position of a certain financier who, after a vain effort to justify his proceedings, turned at last in desperation upon his critics and said: 'Well, I don't care what view you hold of it. You can have the morality, but I've got the cash.'