ABSTRACT
The Pretoria Convention had valiantly aimed at finding a method of bringing peace to the veld without endangering the basic Victorian concern for British supremacy in southern Africa. The era of trekking had reappeared; and not only in respect of land hunger. The trek had never been forgotten, but it had also never been so consciously recalled. Speaker after speaker referred to that early epic journey in their lives. Kruger, who had walked the trek as a boy of ten, reminded his listeners of their early struggles, and of how each time the Creator had guided them onward. Gladstone was forced into grappling not only with three concurrent major threats to imperial supremacy in three widely distant parts of the Empire, but equally to reviewing the wisdom of his policy of conciliation and moderation. The Convention and the frontiers which it delineated became their special target for attack.
