"What we have to consider is, what will be the condition of things here in the event of a conflict? Thousands of unarmed men, women, and children of our race will be at the mercy of well-armed Boers, while property of enormous value will be in the greatest peril. We cannot contemplate the future without the gravest apprehensions. All feel that we are justified in taking any steps to prevent the shedding of blood, and to ensure the protection of our rights. "It is under these circumstances that we feel constrained to call upon you to come to our aid should a disturbance arise here. The circumstances are so extreme that we cannot but believe that you and the men under you will not fail to come to the rescue of people who will be so situated. We guarantee any expense that may reasonably be incurred by you in helping us, and ask you to believe that nothing but the sternest necessity has prompted this appeal. "CHARLES LEONARD. LIONEL PHILLIPS. FRANCIS RHODES. JOHN HAYS HAMMOND. GEORGE FARRAR." It was arranged that Dr. Jameson should start from camp on the night of the outbreak at Johannesburg--either on the 28th of December or on the 4th of January--according to notice which would subsequently be given. From this moment, however, doubts began to fill the minds of the Reformers. They were dissatisfied with the quantity of arms they had been able to smuggle into the town; there was a want of cohesion among the different sections, of those interested; they went so far as to disagree as to what flag they were going to revolt under. The Reformers were evidently not all of Dr. Jameson's opinion, that the Union Jack was the one and only flag under which they could hope for justice--they were, as we know, only comrades in suffering but not compatriots, and besides this, many declared that reform and not annexation was what they were anxious to secure. [Illustration: Dr Leander Starr Jameson. Photo by Elliott & Fry, London.]