Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III FROM QUEBEC TO BELMONT J I rHE negotiations which had been proceed- ing between London and Pretoria were suddenly interrupted by the despatch of the celebrated ultimatum from Pretoria, on the gth of October, 1899, demanding "that all British troops on the borders of the Republic be immediately withdrawn, that all reinforcements which had arrived in South Africa during the preceding year should leave the country, and that those which were on their way to South Africa should be returned without landing." Forty-eight hours were given for compliance with these requests, otherwise the Boer Government would regard the action of Her Majesty's Government as a formal declaration of war. The following reply was sent through Sir Alfred Milner: " Her Majesty's Government have received with regret the peremptory demands of the Government of the South African Republic conveyed in your telegram of the gth of October. You will inform the Government of the South African Republic in reply that the conditions demanded by the Government of the South African Republic are such as Her Majesty's Government deem it impossible to discuss." And this was the end of the negotiations. The hope of a peaceable solution of the South African problem was also at an end, deliberately cast aside by the Boer Government. Surely all the means of diplomacy had not been exhausted; surely a solution of the difficulties could have been found, and the Government of the South African Republic made to recognize that at the very end of the nineteenth century all law- abiding white men must have equal rights. That the Boers were evidently anxious and determined to resort to the arbitrament of war was evident, and as the conflict proceeded and it was seen what stupendous preparations had been made for it, l... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.