Life of Ahmad — Page 720
A CITIZEN OF THE EMPIRE as 720 hours. Therefore on Wednesday, October 11th, 1899, at 5 p. m. a state of war existed between the British Government and the two Boer republics. It was a bloody strife and lasted for two years and a half until Lord Robert formally annexed Transvaal on October 25th, 1900, and peace was ratified at Pretoria between Lord Kitchener and the representative Boer leaders on May 31st, 1902. In the beginning of this war the British met with several reverses. Speaking of a particular battle of this war, a writer says: 'Never had Scotland a more grievous day than this of Magersfontein. It may be doubted if any single battle has ever put so many families of high and low into mourning from the Tweed to the Caithness shore. ' Hundreds of Britishers were killed and wounded in this war and the situation caused grave anxiety in England. So on the occasion of the Eid ul-Fitr (February 2nd, 1900), after the Eid prayers had been led by Maulaw i N u r-ud-D i n ra in the old Eidgah to the west of Qadian, Ahmad as delivered an impressive address when more than a thousand people had gathered at Qadian from Afghanistan, Iraq and different parts of India. Drawing a picture of the tyrannical Sikh rule in the Punjab from which the British had rescued Muslims, he moved the audience in accordance with Islamic teachings to pray for the success and victory of the British in South Africa. (See D iy a ’ul Islam Press Qadian) The meeting ended with