A War Between East Africa and Britain Was Inevitable

When the Berlin Conference convened, the resistance movement within the Orange Free State was completely quelled, ending as the last batch of northern Orange Free State resistance army fighters fled to East Africa.

"The Orange Free State resistance army had been doomed to fail from the very beginning. Their strength was limited to begin with, and their strategic depth was too shallow; they were even less capable of contending against the Transvaal people and the British. For them to win, we would have had to take over the Orange battlefield, but that was clearly impossible. For the East African government to provide the Orange people with substantial aid already counted as having done everything within reason," Felix said.

In fact, East African officials unanimously believed it had not been easy for the Orange Free State resistance army to hold out for so long. The main reason was that the Orange Free State's strategic depth was now far too narrow.

As long as the British and the Transvaal people blockaded the Orange people, they could achieve results quickly. The Orange people could not possibly maintain production while fighting Britain and Transvaal at the same time.

East Africa's aid was merely a drop in the bucket. After all, East Africa was not running a charity hall; the Orange people had to exchange supplies for East African assistance.

"How should we deal with these Orange people who fled across the border into East Africa? There are still more than two thousand of them. Reconciliation with Britain is impossible for them, but whether they would be willing to serve at our command is probably another unknown," asked Merke, commander of the Southern Military Region.

The Orange Free State resistance army was indeed a troublesome matter, because the Orange people had their own aspirations rather