 Transvaal began importing large quantities of arms and an alliance was signed between Transvaal and the Orange Free State in 1897.Jan C. Smuts wrote in 1906 of the Raid, "The Jameson Raid was the real declaration of war... And that is so in spite of the four years of truce that followed... [the] aggressors consolidated their alliance... the defenders on the other hand silently and grimly prepared for the inevitable.