“Of course, if the object of the memorialists is war, if what they desire is a war with the Zulu nation, it is not to be wondered at that they should find fault with any steps that have been taken to prevent the necessity for war. Nor, if they desire war, is it to be expected that they should be favourable to arbitration, though I find it difficult to reconcile the expression of the apprehensions of the memorialists that arbitration would decide against them, with the unanimous expression of opinion, previously given to your Excellency by some of the leading men of the district, that the proposal made by me was a Christian, humane, and admirable one; that they had no misgivings regarding the justice of the claim of the State, and that they believed the more it was investigated ... the clearer and more rightful would that claim prove itself to be. Your Excellency observes that the deep feeling of distrust shown by the memorialists is scarcely to be wondered at, when it is remembered that they are compelled to occupy with their families fortified camps, while their farms in the neighbourhood are being occupied by Zulus, their crops reaped, and their cultivated lands tilled by Zulus, and the timber of their houses used as Zulu firewood. “I do not quite understand what farms and cultivated lands are referred to; because in a previous despatch—your despatch, No. 7, of February 5th—your Excellency, in referring to the disputed territory, states, so I understand, that it ‘_is at present occupied solely by Zulus_,’ and that, although the whole of it has been apportioned in farms to Transvaal subjects, _it has not been occupied by them_.’” The matter was referred to the High Commissioner, Sir Bartle Frere, and the appointment of a commission was approved by him. He plainly took it for granted that, as Sir T. Shepstone had said, the Transvaal claim was based on “evidence the most incontrovertible, overwhelming, and clear,” and looked to the commission for the double advantage of enabling Sir T. Shepstone “to clear up or put on record, in a form calculated to satisfy Her Majesty’s Government, an answer to all doubts as to the facts and equity of the question,” and of gaining time for preparing a military force to silence and subjugate the Zulus should they object (as he expected) to such an award. That nothing short of military coercion of the Zulus would settle the matter, was evidently Sir Bartle Frere’s fixed idea; in fact that was the foregone conclusion with him from beginning to end. On February 12th, Sir Henry Bulwer sent a message to Cetshwayo (2079, p. 140), to this effect: “The Lieut.-Governor now sends to let Cetshwayo know that he has selected, for the purpose of holding this inquiry, the Queen’s Attorney-General in Natal (Hon. M. H. Gallway, Esq.), the Secretary for Native Affairs (Hon. J. W. Shepstone, Esq.), and Colonel Durnford, an officer in the Queen’s army.