He that runneth may read and understand these luminous words in Sir Alfred Milner’s dispatch. The coming struggle was not to be about some foreigners in the Transvaal, but to defeat, in time, the republican aspirations of the whole Africander race, including those in the two republics already established and “a section of her Majesty’s subjects” in the British territories of Natal and Cape Colony; and the issue was understood to be either “a republic embracing all South Africa”—involving the expulsion of the British government “from its position in South Africa”—or the defeat of those aspirations in the establishing of a confederated South Africa under the British crown. In the light of Sir Alfred’s dispatch one ceases to wonder that all negotiations about the uitlander grievances, and that the repeated concessions as to the franchise offered by the Transvaal, were without effect. It is evident that both parties saw inevitable war approaching on quite another and a much larger question. The response of the British government to the uitlanders’ petition, and to Sir Alfred Milner’s appeal for intervention, was a suggestion that President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner should meet at Pretoria and confer concerning the chief matters in dispute between the two governments. Afterward, upon the invitation of Mr. Steyn, president of the Orange Free State, it was decided to hold the conference at Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State Republic. In accepting the invitation to this conference in a telegram dated the 17th of May, Mr. Kruger said: “I remain disposed to come to Bloemfontein and will gladly discuss every proposal in a friendly way that can conduce to a good understanding between the South African Republic and England, and to the maintenance of peace in South Africa, provided that the independence of this republic is not impugned.” The date selected for the first meeting between Mr. Kruger and Sir Alfred was the 31st of May. On the 22d Sir Alfred telegraphed Mr. Chamberlain asking for final instructions to guide him in the approaching conference, and outlining his own views of the situation thus: “It is my own inclination to put in the foreground the question of the uitlanders’ grievances, treating it as broadly as possible, and insisting that it is necessary, in order to relieve the situation, that uitlanders should obtain some substantial degree of representation by legislation to be passed this session. Following would be the general line: “Franchise after six years, retroactive, and at least seven members for the Rand” (the mining district). “Present number of Volksraad of South Africa being twenty-eight, this would make one-fifth of it uitlander members. “If President Kruger will not agree to anything like this, I should try municipal government for the whole Rand as an alternative, with wide powers, including control of police.