THE new Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, MAY 26, 1902, THE COMING PEACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11975, 26 May 1902, Page 4

THE new Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, MAY 26, 1902, THE COMING PEACE.

The Twenty-fourth of May has passed and formal Peace is not yet proclaimed. But the indications are all that could be wished. It is hardly too much to say that little more than the actual formalities are now lacking and that, unless the totally unforeseen eventuates, the laying down of their arms by the remnants of the commandos is only a question of days. The „ tone of out cable messages is so confident, that of Mr. Seddon is so buoyant, that the very natural disinclination to rejoice too soon will hardly prevent a general belief that the war is practically over. Mr. Seddon, who so interlines his bulletins with the broadest of broad hints that he must be very leniently regarded by. the military censor of

telegraphs, tells us now that "time permitting" he intends "to see the Boer delegates at Vereeniging." He can only meet them after Peace is proclaimed. To this long-looked-for consummation Pretoria is evidently counting the hours. Our perambulating Premier further declares that both Milner and Kitchener are " the right men in the right place," and adds that the former " practically admits our land settlement conditions are best suited for South Africa." We need hardly remark that Lord Milner must have been informed by Mr. Seddon of the theory of our land settlement system and not of its application. If South Africa is to be locked up as the North Island is and if the " optional" clauses are to be perverted as was done at the recent Kawhia ballot, we do not think that such a shrewd statesman as Lord Milner would view the Seddon system with such a friendly eye. But this is a mere diversion from the Peace question. However South Africa is to be settled, it will be settled under British law. for Peace is coming at last with British rule.

The present situation appears to be as follows:—On Friday last the British Cabinet sat to consider various matters of detail upon which a provisional understanding had been previously arrived at in Pretoria between the Imperial representatives and the Boer deputation. The Vereeniging Conference, after the hot and acrimonious discussion which was to have been anticipated, seems to have arrived at a tentative proposal which, according to the London Standard—the chief organ of the Salisbury Administration—contained no details which offered "an insuperable barrier to the early declaration of peace." All accounts confirm the assumption that independence has been at last abandoned by the Boers. A satisfactory militaryagreement has also been provisionally drawn up at Pretoria covering the laying down of arms and the general submission. Only minor details remain to be settled and we may confidently take it for granted that the British Cabinet has formally approved of the provisions by which Lords Milner and Kitchener proposed to remove various difficulties as to amnesty, rebuilding and restocking farms, adjustment of debts and burgher-status during military government. Those loyal and devoted representatives of the Empire were the last men in the world to consider and recommend any concessions which would imply or involve a withdrawal from the Imperial determination to bring the war to a decisive and honourable conclusion. They have held, for instance, that the question of amnesty " rests with the King," that to those who. rebel grace may be extended, but that no encouragement will be given to rebels by formally including those guilty of treason and rebellion in the same category as burghers of the late republics, who took up arms at the command of their Governments and could therefore claim the status of belligerents. This is the only visible point in the negotiations where a hitch may arise, but it is evident that the Boer deputation which went to Pretoria has agreed to recommend to the Conference the provisional agreement recommended by Lords Milner and Kitchener to the Imperial Government. We have therefore in existence what is practically an Imperial ultimatum, an ultimatum in the preparation of which all that the Boer leaders could bring forward has been considered and weighed, an ultimatum which the most influential of Boer leaders are prepared to accept and the general acceptance of which by their fellow delegates they recommend. Its rejection will mean the remorseless continuation of the British operations until the whole country is swept clear of guerillas— a conclusion which the Boers see to be inevitable. Its acceptance will mean immediate peace and cordial cooperation between loyalists and exburghers, Imperial Government and ex-Boer leaders, to remove as speedily as possible every unhappy trace of this long and desperate struggle. The hopefulness lies not so much in thfi, fact that the Boers have much to gain and nothing to lose by surrender as in the fact that at last they themselves seem to realise it.

Our inference that the Vereeniging Conference would exhibit a strong line of demarcation between the Transvaalers and the Free Staters turns out to have been correct. • The Transvaal delegates went to Vereeniging fully authorised to act for their commandos—in other words to yield. The Free State commandos gave their delegates no such powers, but we can hardly think that this failure to observe one of the conditions of the Conference will be allowed to delay the consideration of the tentative agreement which we have termed the Imperial ultimatum. As thirds are, its consideration will necessarily take some days, a period during which we must possess ourselves with patience. We can do this the more easily because the end is close, whatever happens at Vereeniging. Four hundred Middelburg Boers announce their intention to surrender if peace is not made, and this spirit, as we have frequently pointed out, now pervades many of the commandos. The German press, none too friendly to Britain and drawing its information through Pro-Boer channels,. asserts that " beyond doubt" King Edward VII. will be crowned "amidst the chimes of the bells of peace." Mr. Brodrick has reiterated, since the Cabinet meeting, the determination of the Imperial Government "not to purchase temporary immunity from trouble by sacrificing anything tending to the permanent security of peace ;" and he spoke hopefully. Lord Rosebery, famous as the mouthpiece of " the man in the street," has declared peace to be " certain." And Ave have all confidence enough in Mr. Seddon's Imperialism to agree with the Morning Post that his optimism is a satisfactory assurance that the arrangements proposed are such that every loyalist can endorse. And, aftsr all if the Boers have had enough, if they see that their independence is i?one and are prepared to accept loyally the generous alternative of citizenship in the greatest and freest of empires, there is little left for either party in this terrible war to cavil at.