But beyond them, and of infinitely more importance, there was one fact which dominated the situation.

A burgher cannot go to war without his horse, his horse cannot move without grass, grass will not come until after rain, and it was still some weeks before the rain would be due.

Negotiations, then, must not be unduly hurried while the veld was a bare russet-coloured dust-swept plain.

Mr.
Chamberlain and the British public waited week after week for their answer.

But there was a limit to their patience, and it was reached on August 26th, when the Colonial Secretary showed, with a plainness of speech which is as unusual as it is welcome in diplomacy, that the question could not be hung up for ever.