Episode 77- Kitchener’s peace talks fail and De Wet experiences a miracle

Episode 77 and the Great de Wet hunt sees the English cornering their quarry in the North East Cape Colony, close to Hopetown. The mercurial Boer general Christiaan de Wet has given up the plan to invade the Cape Colony and he’s doing all he can to remain on the loose. He felt even more responsibility about the future of his commando because Free State President Steyn is traveling with him. Not that far away, in Bloemfontein the Free State capital, the British Commander Lord Kitchener and Transvaal Boer commander General Louis Botha met at the end of February, then a second time on 7th March to discuss possible peace terms. Kitchener presented Botha with a set of ten terms which the English say they’ll accept to make peace. It seems an incongruous position - the Boers technically defeated most of the towns and villages in English hands, the infrastructure out of their control - and yet - here they are negotiating their position as if they had a choice. A guerrilla campaign has left most of the west, north and eastern regions decimated. Boer property was being systematically destroyed in these areas in an attempt to force the men still roaming the countryside to accept defeat - but these actions were embittering the hard core fighters. Politically, this action was to leave a scar which would sometimes burst into violence in the coming century with uprisings during the First World War. In the Second World War, hardline Boers felt empathy with the Germans and some left the country to fight in Europe. Others trained with the Germans then returned to German South West Africa to continue the war. Much of the animosity emanates from this period - and specifically from the early 1901 to early 1902 period when Lord Kitchener set the veld ablaze and ordered women and children into internment camps which were ominously known as Concentration Camps. So General Louis Botha was not really interested in the British terms but his wife had asked him to meet and simultaneously he knew his people were suffering greatly so hoped that some way could be found out of this war which he knew he could not win. Botha was also aware of the role that Sir Alfred Milner, High commissioner of the Cape played. Milner was monitoring developments and was pressing for a resolution. While Milner was concerned by Kitchener’s destruction of Boer property - he was more worried about the Cape Afrikaners rising up in support of the Boers - and the British High Commissioner was influenced by investors in London.