Abstract

STRAUSS, Piet J.. The status of the Boer delegates according to the law of nations at the peace talks in May 1902 after the Anglo-Boer War. Koers (Online) [online]. 2025, vol.90, n.1, pp.1-15. ISSN 2304-8557.  https://doi.org/10.19108/koers.90.1.2596.

Peace talks after in the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) between Great Britain, the South African Republic (ZAR) and the Republic of the Orange Free State (Rep. OVS), took place in the final two weeks of May 1902. At that stage, the Anglo-Boer War had been lasting for about two years and eight months. The British High Commissioner in South Africa, sir Alfred Milner, who is on record for precipitating the war, anticipated that the Anglo-Boer War would last only three months and end in a British victory. The war started on 11 October 1899 after Britain had refused an ultimatum of the ZAR, which felt threatened by the movement of British troops to its borders. The war ended, however, nearly three years later, on 31 May 1902. In the middle of 1900, after Britain successfully invaded the republics, the Boers took to guerilla warfare. They used this until May 1902, whereafter the peace treaty was signed in Pretoria on 31 May 1902. During the period of guerilla warfare, the Boers were represented by the so-called Bittereinders or die-hard Boers. They believed that an imperialistic Britain threatened to terminate the independence of the republics and was committing a grave injustice to the Boers by doing so. The Bittereinders were convinced that the republics, by defending their cause in taking up arms as their final option, acted according to God's will, which gives states the right to defend their independence when necessary. God, they believed, gave them this right in His providence. The President of the Orange Free State, M.T. Steyn, who was named the "Bittereinder van die Bittereinders" (die-hard of the die-hards), promoted this view and added that the republics might lose the military side of the war, but win the fight for spiritual values. He propagated the defence of oneself and of independent states in situations of need as a holy God-given right and visualised the spiritual superiority of Boer women and children in British concentration camps. When peace talks between Britain and the republics became a reality, it was clear that the "Bittereinders" - at that stage their fighting group - would be delegated by the republics to the peace conference. Lord Kitchener, the officer in command of the British soldiers in South Africa, accepted a proposal from the republics that the Boers hold a conference with 30 delegates from each of the ZAR and the Rep. OVS to participate in the peace talks on behalf of the Boers. They would be chosen by the fighting Boers who were Bittereinders. The British cabinet appointed Kitchener and Milner to represent them in the peace talks and report back to the British government for the final decision. Britain annexed the ZAR and the Rep. OVS in 1900 after an invasion and the establishment of a military government in both. These military governments meant to replace the republican governments. This arrangement, however, played no role in the peace talks of 1902. The two sides, Britain and the republics, met as equals. Decisions in these talks were not taken by a majority of individuals, but by an agreement between the parties. Kitchener and Milner followed the talks to reach a proposal, which they sent to London for a final decision to act on. In the end the Boers accepted the British proposals, but after the consent of the conference of 60 Boer delegates, who fully represented their states in this situation. In fact, at the beginning of the meeting of 60 at Vereeniging, the delegates accepted that they could decide according to their own convictions in the negotiations on behalf of the two countries they represented. At the end of the talks, Milner presented the Boers with the final British proposal under the heading of an "Act of surrender". However, upon receiving it, the Boer Bittereinder general J.C. Smuts, replaced this heading with a more appropriate wording according to the Boers, namely an "Act of peace", that is an act of equal parties. Kitchener and Milner let this change pass in silence. Kitchener was eager to reach an agreement that would end the war and differences of minor importance could damage it. The influence of the Bittereinders could also be seen in South Africa after 1902. An important example was the establishment of the Republic of South Africa in 1961: an ideal of the Bittereinders. Another example was the implementation of the policy of apartheid, which ended finally and formally with the general election in 1994.

Keywords : Anglo Boer War 1899-1902; Boers as Christians should forgive; known convictions of 'Bittereinders'; republics represented by 'Bittereinders'; status of Boer representatives according to law of nations in May 1902; the bitter end; South African War.

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