The letter was as follows:-- IN THE VELDT, _August 15th_, 1901.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY, LORD KITCHENER, ETC.
EXCELLENCY,-- I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's letter, dated Aug.

7th, 1901, enclosing your Excellency's Proclamation of the same date.
The conciliatory tone of your Excellency's letter encourages me to speak freely, and to answer it at some length.

I have noticed that not only your Excellency in your letter asserts, but that also responsible statesmen in your country assert, that the declaration of war from the South African Republic, and the inroad on the British territory, had been the cause of the war.

I hardly believe it necessary to remind your Excellency that, in 1895, when the South African Republic was unarmed and peaceful, and had no thought but that their neighbours were civilized nations, an unexpected attack was made on them from the British territory.

I do not consider it necessary to point out to your Excellency that the mad enterprise--for surely the instigators of it could not have been sane--miscarried, and the whole body of invaders fell into the hands of the South African Republic.