"Mr. Kruger's action shows how hopeless, in his opinion, is the war which has now been carried on for nearly a year, and his desertion of the Boer cause should make it clear to his fellow-burghers that it is useless for them to continue the struggle any longer. "It is probably unknown to the inhabitants of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony that nearly fifteen thousand of their fellow-subjects are now prisoners of war, not one of whom will be released until those now in arms against us surrender unconditionally. "The burghers must by this time be cognisant of the fact that no intervention on their behalf can come from any of the Great Powers, and, further, that the British Empire is determined to complete the work which has already cost so many valuable lives, and to carry to its conclusion the war declared against her by the late Governments of the Transvaal and Orange Free State--a war to which there can be but one ending. "If any further doubts remain in the minds of the burghers as to her Britannic Majesty's intentions, they should be dispelled by the permanent manner in which the country is gradually being occupied by her Majesty's forces, and by the issue of the proclamations signed by me on the 24th May and 1st September 1900, annexing the Orange Free State and the South African Republic respectively in the name of her Majesty. "I take this opportunity of pointing out that, except in the small area occupied by the Boer army under the personal command of Commandant-General Botha, the war is degenerating, and has degenerated into operations carried on in an irregular and irresponsible manner, and in very many cases by insignificant bodies of men. "I should be failing in my duty to her Majesty's Government and to her Majesty's army in South Africa if I neglected to use every means in my power to bring such irregular warfare to an early conclusion. "The means which I am compelled to adopt are those which the customs of war prescribe as being applicable to such cases: they are ruinous to the country, entail endless suffering on the burghers and their families; and the longer this guerilla warfare continues the more vigorously must they be enforced." From the Hague Messrs. Fischer, Wessels, and Wolmarans, the Boer delegates, now issued an appeal addressed to all nations in favour of intervention. After expressing the conviction that the only object of the annexation of the Transvaal which had been proclaimed by Great Britain was to enable the British to continue the war in an inhuman manner, and contrary to the principles of International Law, the appeal said--