Read it through once

"You give fitting expression to the admiration universally felt for the valour and endurance of the officers and men who have been engaged in fighting their country's battles. They have been opposed by a brave and determined people, and have had to encounter unexampled difficulties. These difficulties have been cheerfully overcome by steady and persistent effort, and those who were our opponents will now, I rejoice to think, become our friends. It is my earnest hope that, by mutual co-operation and good-will, the bitter feelings of the past may speedily be replaced by ties of loyalty and friendship and that an era of peace and prosperity may be in store for South Africa."