Established 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 1902. THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVI, Issue 75, 1 April 1902, Page 2

Established 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 1902. THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS.

It is cabled that at the instance of General Shalk-Burger the Boers would observe Saturday as "a day of prayer for peace." It is to be hoped that the prayers were universal and sincere, and that Mr Steyn, the hitherto irreconcilable opponent of surrender, was amongst the prayer-makers. It is from Steyn, De Wet and De la Rey that we fear opposition will come to the evident desire of the Transvaal Boers for a termination of the war, but Steyn is a proud, defiant, and, let us remember, most bitterly disappointed man, and we confess we are none too sanguine that he will give way. Steyn it was who, as the best educated, most intellectual and most European in general sentiment of the Orange Free Staters, was at first the least suspected by the British of any desire to rush j into the mad enterprise which was started by Kruger and the Reitz-Hol- j lander gang at Pretoria. But Steyn j was a man of great -personal ambitions. He dreamt, it has long ago become notorious, wild dreams of a Dutch Republic extending from the Zambesi to Table Bay. Kruger no doubt was to have been the first President of this republic in the air, but Kruger was an old man, and could not be expected to hold under the necessary control the wilder spirits. Steyn was, so that ambitious man considered, the only possible and successful successor to Kruger. But, alas, his dream has been cruelly shattered. Instead of the British being driven back to Durban and Capetown they advanced and overran the Free State, and Steyn had the mortification of seeing the hated Union Jack float over his own house at Bloemfontein. Later on the dreamer of dreams had to fly for his life from one village to another, leading the life of a hunted animal—an animal that retained all his cunning, and could at times give a nasty bite. We would like to believe that Steyn will now come round to the idea of surrender, but fear very much that he will advocate a policy of further resistance. The main opposition to surren- j der will come, we are afraid, from the j Cape rebels, who are reported as forming the chief strength of the commandoes under De Wet and De la Rey. These men, according to the last offers of the British Government, were not to receive an amnesty, but were to be handed over to the Cape authorities to be dealt with according to the laws of the Cape Colony. How they would be dealt with, unless those laws are altered or suspended, may be best seen in the treatment meted out by the military and civil courts of the Cape Colony to such rebels as have already fallen into the hands of the British. Some have been shot, others sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, and others again fined sums of from £100 to £1000. We can hardly conceive, therefore, of the Cape rebels with Steyn and De Wet agreeing to surrender unless under promise of a general amnesty. Such an amnesty must, we admit, come sooner or later, tmt to grant it at once would exasperate thousands of the Loyalist party in Cape Colony and Natal. And such exasperation would be not at all surprising, for what, the loyalists might very well say, is the good of us remainsing faithful to the British flag when the traitors, traitors who have destroyed our property, stolen our cattle, and subjected many of us to brutal violence, are to be allowed to go scot free ? Herein lies, we think, the most difficult problem to be solved by the negotiators on both sides for that peace which is so eminently desirable. Further news as to the offers which may be made by the Boers and the attitude of the British Government will be awaited with great curiosity and no small anxiety.