The Press. MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 1903. MR CHAMBERLAIN AT PRETORIA. MR CHAMBERLAIN AT PRETORIA.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11479, 12 January 1903, Page 4

The Press. MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 1903. MR CHAMBERLAIN AT PRETORIA.

MR CHAMBERLAIN AT PRETORIA.

The Boers cannot complain of any want of clearness in Mr Cha_-_be__un's latest utterances regarding the attitude of the Imperial Gov«rn__ent towards the South African ooloni» No-hintf could ba j-ainer than

his st—tement to the Boer Oonference at Pretoria. Great Britain, he said, intended to execute the terms of ibe peace settlement "in the spirit and in the letter," and while adopting a policy of conciliation towards the Boers, would, nevertheless, consent to no concession calculated to alienate those who had proved loyal to the nation during the war. The Boer Conference, acco__ing to a cable message which we publish this morning, advised Mr Cbamberlairf, if he wished to command the loyalty of the Boers, to "write c«nc_J_ration largely across South "Africa." But the Boers' idea of conciliation appears to consist in Grea* Britain's unqualified acquiescence in every request which they may choose to make, regardless of the claims and the feelings of the loyalists, and regawHees, too, of the remarkably generous treatnuent already accorded to a vanquished people. Mr. Chamberki-i, it will be seen, made short work of the impossible requests framed by the Boer Conference, and emphasised in the plainest terms the decision of the Imperial Govemane_t to go neither behind nor beyond the conditians of peace agreed to -by the Boer leaders at Vereeniging. In those conditioMi are embodied whatever pledges the Governmeat made before the Boers laid down their arms. Any suggestion that the latter were induced to surrender by all kinds c£ unwritten promises from Lord Kitchener i_ completely refuted by the recently-pub-lished minutes of the interview between the Boer delegates and Lords Kitchener and Zvlilner. Again and again Lord Milner impressed upon the delegates that "this "document (the peace terms) must contain "everything about which there is anything "in the form of a pledge. I consider," he said, "that all piwmiaee to which a "reference inray be made later should ap"pear in it. Everything to which the " Covernm-int is asked to bind itself should "appear in this dormant." It was with the understanding that the peace terme were signed, and the Imperial Govermment, it is quite clear, will not lay themselves open to a charge of weakness by reopening negotiations now that the issues {have been settled.