Lord MILNER: I am convinced that your proposal will not be accepted, and if you wish to make another proposal, it will injure you to refer this proposal to His Majesty's Government. General BOTHA: If you have authority to reject our proposed basis, we would like to see you do so. Lord MILNER: I have no hesitation to take upon myself to reject your proposals. The instructions received by me and Lord Kitchener are so clear on this point. General BOTHA: Must I then understand that when Lord Salisbury said some time ago that this war was not waged with a view to obtaining territory he did not mean it? Lord KITCHENER: There is now no question of territory, as the annexation stands. General BOTHA: I fail to see that our proposal is in conflict with the annexation. Lord MILNER: I do not recollect the exact words of Lord Salisbury, but it is true that Lord Salisbury said that his Government did not commence the war with the object of obtaining territory, but in the course of the war circumstances developed in such a manner that no other course was open than to annex the Republics, and my Government have expressed their fixed intention not to go back on their decision. General HERTZOG: I would like to know what is really the difference between the basis now laid down by us and that laid down by His Majesty's Government in the negotiations last year? I do not mean so much in detail as in general principle. Lord KITCHENER: Does your proposal assume that the Boers become British citizens? General SMUTS: I do not see that our proposal is necessarily in conflict with the proposal of last year. Our proposal only makes provision as regards the government. Lord MILNER then read out the following clause from the terms offered last year (the Middelburg proposals, March 7, 1901)[3]: "At the earliest possible date military administration will cease and be replaced by civil administration in the form of a crown colony government. In each of the new colonies there shall be at first a Governor and Executive Council consisting of the principal officials, with a Legislative Council consisting of a certain number of official members, to whom will be added a nominated non-official element. But it is the desire of His Majesty's Government, as soon as circumstances permit, to introduce a representative element and ultimately to extend to the new colonies the privilege of self-government." "It may be," he remarked, "that I do not quite understand your proposal; but it appears to me to differ from the scheme here set forth not only in details but also in principle." [Footnote 3: See Appendix, p. 210.] General HERTZOG: I fully agree with you that it can be taken to differ in principle, but a principle that is found to vary even from principles adopted in Colonies of the same State. In other words, you find that one principle was conceded to one colony, while another principle was applied to another colony, and yet they belong to the same Empire.