The horses were everywhere worn out and exhausted.
They had been so constantly kept on the move, owing to the enemy's increasing attacks, they could now only cover the shortest distances.
The Kaffir question was becoming from day to day more serious.

At Vrijheid, for instance, there was a Kaffir commando which had already made several attacks upon the burghers.

This attitude of the Kaffir population was producing a very dispiriting effect upon the burghers.
The women were in a most pitiable state, now that the lines of blockhouses had been extended in all directions over the country.
Sometimes the commandos had to break through the lines and leave the women behind alone; and when the burghers later on returned they would perhaps find that the women had been driven from their houses, and, in some instances, treated with atrocious cruelty.
Referring to the numbers in the field, he said that there were, in the whole of the Transvaal, ten thousand eight hundred and sixteen men, and that three thousand two hundred and ninety-six of them had no horses.
The enemy during the summer had taken many of the burghers prisoner; and since June, 1901, the commandos had diminished to the extent of six thousand and eighty-four men.

The burghers thus lost to them had either been killed, or taken prisoner, or had surrendered their arms.
The number of households was two thousand six hundred and forty.
The Commandant-General concluded by saying that the three greatest difficulties with which they were confronted were their horses, their food supply, and the miserable condition of their women and children.
Commander-in-Chief de Wet then spoke.

He said he would leave it to the delegates who were officers to make reports.