Chapter 12

THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

So the year dragged on with its one little glimmer of light and its big black clouds of disappointment, and it was Christmas-time when the spark came to the waiting tinder. What a bloody bill could the holidays and holy days of the world tot up! On the Sunday night before Christmas a British subject named Tom Jackson Edgar was shot dead in his own house by a Boer policeman. Edgar, who was a man of singularly fine physique and both able and accustomed to take care of himself, was returning home at about midnight when one of three men standing by, who as it afterwards transpired was both ill and intoxicated, made an offensive remark. Edgar resented it with a blow which dropped the other insensible to the ground. The man's friends called for the police and Edgar, meanwhile, entered his own house a few yards off. There was no attempt at concealment or escape; Edgar was an old resident and perfectly well known. Four policemen came, who in any circumstances were surely sufficient to capture him. Moreover, if that had been considered difficult, other assistance could have been obtained and the house from which there could have been no escape might have been watched. In any case Edgar was admitted by the police to have sat on the bed talking to his wife, and to have been thus watched by them through the window. It is not stated that they called upon him to come out or surrender himself, but they proceeded immediately to burst in his door. Hearing the noise he came out into the passage. He may or may not have known that they were police: he may or may not have believed them to be the three men by one of whom he had been insulted. There is not a word of truth in the statement since made that Edgar had been drinking. It was not alleged even in defence of the police, and the post-mortem examination showed that it was not so. A Boer policeman named Jones (There are scores of Boers unable to speak a word of English, who nevertheless own very characteristic English, Scotch, and Irish names--many of them being children of deserters from the British army!) revolver in hand burst the door open. It is alleged by the prisoner and one of the police that as the door was burst open, Edgar from the passage struck the constable on the head twice with an iron-shod stick which was afterwards produced in Court. On the other hand Mrs. Edgar and other independent witnesses--spectators--testified that Edgar did not strike a blow at all and could not possibly have done so in the time. The fact, however, upon which all witnesses agree is that as the police burst open the door Constable Jones fired at Edgar and dropped him dead in the arms of his wife, who was standing in the passage a foot or so behind him. On the following morning, the policeman was formally arrested on the charge of manslaughter and immediately released upon his comrades' sureties of £200.

As gunpowder answers to the spark so the indignation of the Uitlander community broke out. The State Attorney to whom the facts were represented by the British Agent in Pretoria immediately ordered the re-arrest of the policeman on the charge of murder. The feeling of indignation was such among British subjects generally, but more especially among Edgar's fellow-workmen, that it was decided to present a petition to her Majesty praying for protection. British subjects were invited to gather in the Market Square in order to proceed in a body to the office of the British Vice-Consul and there present the petition, but in order to avoid any breach of the Public Meetings Act they were requested to avoid speech making and to refrain in every way from any provocation to disorder. Some four or five thousand persons gathered together. They listened to the reading of the petition and marched in an orderly manner to the office of the British Vice-Consul where the petition was read and accepted.

This was the first direct appeal to her Majesty made by British subjects since the protests against the retrocession eighteen years before. Not very many realized at the time the importance of the change in procedure. There could be no "As you were" after the direct appeal: either it would be accepted, in which event the case of the Uitlanders would be in the hands of an advocate more powerful than they had ever proved themselves to be, or it would be declined, a course which would have been regarded as sounding the death-knell of the Empire in South Africa. The time was one of the most intense anxiety; for the future of the Uitlanders hung upon the turn of the scale.

It was late one night when those who had been called to Pretoria to receive the reply of her Majesty's Government returned to the Rand. The real reply then was known only to three men; it was simply, point blank refusal to accept the petition. There were no reasons and no explanations. It was done on the authority of Sir William Butler, the Commander-in-Chief in South Africa and acting High Commissioner; for Sir Alfred Milner was at that time in England, as also was Mr. Conyngham Greene. But the faith was in these men that it could not be true, that it could not have happened had Sir Alfred Milner not been absent, and thus came the suggestion to 'explain it away.' On the following day British subjects on the Rand learned that a breach of diplomatic etiquette had been committed, that the petition should never have been published before being formally presented to her Majesty, and that thus it would be necessary to prepare and present another in proper form. The petition was redrawn and in the course of the following weeks upwards of 21,000 signatures were obtained by that loyal and enthusiastic little band of British subjects who form the Johannesburg branch of the South African League.

In the meantime other things had been happening. Messrs. Thomas R. Dodd and Clement Davies Webb had been arrested under the Public Meetings Act for having organized an illegal meeting in the Market Square, Johannesburg, for the purpose of presenting the petition to the British Vice-Consul. They were released upon bail of £1,000 each. Whether this was a fair example of the judicial perspective in the Transvaal, or whether it was a concession to the feelings of the Boers it is impossible to say, nor does it much matter. The fact is that for the crime of killing a British subject the bail was £200; and for the crime of objecting to it the bail was £1,000. This action only added fuel to the fire and a public meeting was immediately convened to be held in a circus building known as the Amphitheatre. Meetings are permitted under the Act provided they are held in an enclosed building. The object of the meeting was to record a protest against the arrest of Messrs. Dodd and Webb. A great many of the more ardent among the British subjects were of opinion that the time for protests and petitions was past, and they would not attend the meeting. A great many others feeling that it was more or less a formality leading to nothing else, did not trouble to attend. Not one of those who did attend had the least suspicion of any organized opposition. The following dispatch from the High Commissioner to the Secretary of State for the Colonies sufficiently describes the sequel:--

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CAPE TOWN, _April 5, 1899_.

SIR,--I have the honour to forward herewith the certified and attested copies of affidavits which form an enclosure to Mr. Wyberg's letter, transmitted to you in my dispatch of the 28th March, but which did not reach me in time to catch the last mail steamer.

From these affidavits, the number of which and the manner in which they confirm one another seem to me to leave no doubt of their general trustworthiness, it appears:

1. That early on the morning of Saturday, the 14th January, the foremen in charge of the various camps along the Main Reef Road were instructed to tell a certain number of their workmen to be at the Amphitheatre in Johannesburg at 2 p.m., where they would be addressed by an official of the Public Works Department, Mr. P.J. Malan (Hoofd van Afdeeling Wegen).

2. That the affair had been planned beforehand, and that Acting Road Inspector Papenfus and others systematically visited the various camps on that morning in order to beat up recruits, and that inquiry was made in some cases to ensure that the persons sent should be 'treu,' _i.e._, Boer or Afrikander workmen who might be expected to take the side of the Government. The Russian workmen were not asked to go.

3. That the men were paid two hours earlier than usual, and that those men who were ordered to go were told, if they could not get Government carts, they should hire and recover afterwards.

4. That in some cases, as that of the Boksburg section, the men were conveyed the greater part of the way by Government carts.

5. That when the men arrived at the Amphitheatre, about 2 p.m., a man who was either Mr. Bosman, Second Landdrost's Clerk, or Mr. Boshof, Registrar of the Second Criminal Court, and perhaps both of them, told them to go to the Police Station.

6. That on arriving at the Police Station, they were addressed by Mr. Broeksma, Third Public Prosecutor, and told they were there to break up the meeting when he gave them certain signals.

7. That they then went into the Amphitheatre, and that there were present, besides Mr. Broeksma, Mr. Papenfus, Mr. Jacobs, Special Road Inspector, Mr. de Villiers, Second Public Prosecutor, and Mr. Burgers, also an official, as well as several prominent members of the Town and Special Police in plain clothes.

8. That the different sections of the Road party men were placed in various parts of the building, under their respective foremen, and that several Government officials assisted in locating them.

9. That a number of the men did not understand what they were there for.

10. That the proceedings on the part of the promoters of the meeting, which, as you are aware, had been sanctioned by the Government, were perfectly regular.

11. That on the first appearance of the promoters of the meeting there was a concerted disturbance, which rendered it totally impossible to go on with the proceedings.

12. That in the riot which followed several people were seriously injured, the sufferers in every case being _bonâ fide_ sympathizers with the object of the meeting, and the aggressors being persons who had come there with the object of breaking it up.

13. That the Police did not make the smallest effort to check the disturbances though it would have been easy to do so, and that, when appealed to, they maintained an attitude of indifference.

14. That Broeksma, Third Public Prosecutor, and Lieutenant Murphy, of the Morality Police, actually assisted in breaking chairs, and encouraged the rioters.

I have, &c., A. MILNER, _Governor and High Commissioner._

With affairs of this kind stirring up race hatred and feeling among the class from whom the juries have to be selected, what chance was there of securing an impartial trial of the policeman charged with the murder of Edgar? The Acting British Agent Mr. Edmund Fraser in his dispatch of December 23 tells what he thought of the prospect before these affairs took place. 'As to the ultimate charge to be brought against the policeman, the State Attorney was doubtful whether the charge had not better be one of culpable homicide, for the reason that in the presence of a Boer jury his counsel would have a much easier task in getting him off under a charge of murder than for culpable homicide. But the chances of a Boer jury convicting him at all are so small that I said I should not assent to either charge until I had seen what rebutting evidence the Public Prosecutor brought.'

But this was not all. Immediately after the murder of Edgar, Mr. J.S. Dunn the editor of the _Critic_ newspaper, recited the facts of the case as they were known to him and passed some severe strictures upon Dr. Krause, the First Public Prosecutor, who was responsible for determining the charge against policeman Jones and fixing his bail in the first instance. The steps now taken by Dr. Krause no doubt were within his legal rights, but they do not appear to a layman calculated to ensure justice being done. Before proceeding with the murder trial Dr. Krause took criminal action against Mr. Dunn for libel, and in order to prove the libel he, whose duty it was to prosecute Jones for murder, entered the witness-box and swore that under the circumstances as known to him he did not consider that Jones had been guilty of murder, and had therefore faithfully performed his duty in charging him with the minor offence and releasing him on bail. Further, he called upon the Second Public Prosecutor to testify in a similar strain; and finally he directly and deliberately associated with himself as witness on his side the man Jones himself who was charged with the murder. All this ostensibly to prove a paltry libel which could have been dealt with quite as effectively and infinitely more properly after the trial for murder had taken place; indeed it is incontestable that the verdict in the murder trial should properly have been relied upon to a large extent to determine the gravity of Mr. Dunn's offence. It had appeared to the British population that the chance of an impartial trial, with the jury drawn exclusively from the burgher class, was sufficiently remote without any proceedings so ill considered as these. The result fulfilled anticipations. In due course the constable Jones was indicted for culpable homicide and acquitted; and the presiding judge (Mr. Kock, who as already described had claimed a judgeship as a 'son of the soil') when discharging the prisoner said, 'With that verdict I concur and I hope that the police under difficult circumstances will always know how to do their duty.'

After the preliminary examination of Jones the Acting British Agent had written to the Acting High Commissioner (December 30, 1898): 'I will only remark that the enclosed report ... seems to show that the Public Prosecutor (Krause), who has been deeply offended by the slur cast upon his judgment through the orders from Pretoria to keep the accused in prison instead of out on bail, was more inclined to defend than to prosecute and showed an extraordinary desire to incriminate either the British Vice-Consul or the South African League for what he termed contempt of court in connection with the publication of certain affidavits in the _Star_.'

That was indeed the position. In this as in the Cape Boys case (the Lombaard inquiry) the aim of the prosecution appeared to be to prove that the British Vice-Consul had investigated and reported cases of injustice suffered by British subjects; and the establishment of such proof seemed to be considered a sufficient and triumphant answer to the original complaint. Such action drew the following spirited protest from Mr. Emrys Evans to the British Agent: 'He (Krause) seems generally to suppose that I have no right to do anything in the way of assisting British subjects, and that my action as Vice-Consul is nothing more nor less than officious meddling.' That well describes the position of Great Britain's representative in the Transvaal, and it has been the same for so many years that among the Uitlanders it creates no feeling of surprise; but imagine the representative of--let us say--the United States being so treated!

While these matters were proceeding an opportunity occurred to raise fresh funds for the Uitlander Education Council. The scheme had been perilously near collapse on several occasions, but by a little generous and timely help actual abandonment had been averted. The possibility of a return of better times had been foreseen by some of those interested in education, and the appeals which were made in the months of February and March resulted in raising a fund of over £100,000. The companies were also applied to for assistance in the form of annual grants for maintenance; and guarantees were given amounting in all to about £16,000 a year. A final effort was made by the Government party and the allies of Dr. Mansvelt, the Superintendent of Education, to show that the Government had made ample provision for the education of English-speaking children, and that the Uitlanders' scheme was unnecessary. Even Mr. Reitz, the State Secretary, it is to be regretted, undertook a public defence of the system which he has frequently expressed his disapproval of; but the more favourable construction which he endeavoured to place upon the law was immediately removed by a plain statement from the President to the exact contrary effect.

The Uitlanders consider that, if the intentions of the Government were as good as they desire them to be thought, firstly, they should not object to have the conditions permanently established and not leave them liable to alteration at the sweet will of the Superintendent, as they are to-day; and secondly, as there has been nothing to hinder the carrying out of benevolent intentions--had they existed--there is no reason why there should be five or six thousand Uitlander children without any facilities for education in their own language except such as are provided by private enterprise or charity. And this is so; notwithstanding the expenditure by the State of nearly a quarter of a million per annum, ostensibly upon education, nine-tenths of which sum is contributed by the Uitlander population.

The spirit in which the State aid is given and the aim which the Government have in view are entirely revealed in the conditions, a brief reference to which will be sufficient.

The Government capitation grant of £4 per annum may be earned on the conditions:--

(a) That the child be over six years of age.

(b) That it shall have a sufficient knowledge of the Dutch language and South African history.

(c) That it be not the child of Dutch or Hollander parents.

(d) That a qualified Dutch teacher must be retained by the school.

The first condition excludes all the children of the kindergarten schools, and also a class who form a considerable percentage in the elementary schools. The third condition excludes all those who have in early years any chance of satisfying the inspectors under the second condition. Obviously the amount earned by the few who would satisfy all the conditions could not possibly pay for the salary of a Dutch teacher. It was an actual experience in several schools that the acceptance of State aid involved a direct loss; a good example of the 'something for nothing' policy.

English is permitted to be the medium of instruction in Government schools on the conditions, among others--

That Dutch be taught for one hour a day during the first year, two hours a day during the second year, three hours a day during the third year; and that in the fourth year Dutch shall become the sole medium of instruction.

The characteristic trickery and cunning which mark so many of the Boer-Hollander enactments are again apparent here. The proposal is made to appear reasonable, but it is clearly impossible for a child to attain within the time named such proficiency in a foreign language as to be able to receive all instruction in it. The effect and the design are to place English-speaking children at a grave disadvantage compared with Dutch-speaking children; either they would have to devote a great deal more time to the study of Dutch in the first three years so as to be able to receive all instruction in that tongue, or they would suffer in the higher standards through their imperfect knowledge of the medium of instruction. It was not to be supposed that the Uitlanders, after an experience extending over a decade and a half of all sorts of promises, not one of which had been kept in the spirit in which it was intended to be construed, would consent to abandon their scheme at the behest of Dr. Mansvelt and the misguided few who judged his proposals by appearances. President Kruger speaking at Rustenburg as lately as March last laid particular emphasis upon the stipulation in the Law that in the fourth year Dutch should be the sole medium of instruction, and explained that his determination was to make Dutch the dominant language.

In the month of February the Transvaal Government received a dispatch from her Majesty's Government with reference to the dynamite concession. It referred to the announcement already recorded, that in the course of the coming session of the Raad a proposal would be submitted for the extension of the monopoly for fifteen years. Mr. Chamberlain pointed out that her Majesty's Government were advised that the dynamite monopoly in its present form constitutes a breach of the Convention; he expressed the hope that the Transvaal Government might see its way voluntarily either to cancel the monopoly or to so amend it as to make it in the true sense a State monopoly operating for the benefit of the State; and he suggested that in any case no attempt should be made to extend the present concession, as such a proposal would compel her Majesty's Government to take steps which they had hitherto abstained from taking in the hope and belief that the Transvaal Government would itself deal satisfactorily with the matter. It was with this despatch, so to say in his pocket, that the President introduced and endeavoured to force through the Raad the proposal to grant a fifteen years' extension of the monopoly.

That representations had been made by the British Government on the subject of the dynamite monopoly, had been known for some time before the Peace Negotiations (as they have been called) between the Government and the Capitalists were proposed. On February 27{49} Mr. Edouard Lippert, the original dynamite concessionaire, who it was known would receive the further sum of £150,000 if the monopoly remained uncancelled for five years, opened negotiations on behalf of the Government with certain representatives of the capitalist groups on the Rand; and it was immediately seen that the main--one might almost say sole--object of the negotiations was to safeguard the dynamite monopoly. The Government had, in fact, been placed in a very awkward position. One of the excuses for not expropriating the monopoly had been that the State had not been successful in raising a loan. In order to deal with this objection the Chamber of Mines had, in the month of February, 1899, made an offer, guaranteed by all the principal firms on the Rand, to provide the sum of £600,000 to compensate the monopolists for their actual expenditure up to date upon buildings, plant, machinery, &c., so that there should be no semblance of injustice in the treatment meted out to them. The conditions of the offer were that the dynamite monopoly should be cancelled and importation of explosives permitted under an import duty which would give the State a very large revenue at once and which in the course of a few years would provide a sinking fund sufficient to extinguish the loan of £600,000. The offer was so favourable to the State that it placed the Government in a quandary.{50} The attitude of the Volksraad, too, was distinctly hostile to the dynamite monopoly; and on top of all came the representations of the Imperial Government upon the subject. It became necessary to do something to save the threatened 'cornerstone'; hence the Peace negotiations between the Government and the capitalists.

This was another and one of the clearest examples of the 'something for nothing' policy, for it will be observed that of all the things mentioned dynamite alone was the matter to be definitely settled--and that to the satisfaction of Mr. Kruger. Long years of experience had taught the Uitlanders to examine any proposals coming from the Government with the utmost care; and the representatives of the mining industry were soon of one mind in regarding these negotiations as nothing but a trap.

Of the five men who represented the Government, viz., the President, the State Secretary (Mr. Reitz), the State Attorney (Mr. Smuts), the Foreign Plenipotentiary (Dr. Leyds), and the 'disinterested intermediary,' Mr. Lippert, it was easy enough to account for three. The President had frequently pledged himself to maintain the monopoly, and always referred to it as the corner-stone of the independence. Dr. Leyds had chosen to associate himself with the defence of the concessionaires upon all occasions, and had even gone so far, as evidence given at the Industrial Commission showed, as to misrepresent the facts in their defence. The difficulty was how to explain the association of the State Attorney and State Secretary, in whose good intentions and integrity there was a general belief. The solution was to be found in the illusory promises of reform under the heading of franchise and reorganization of the finances and other matters. These proposals, it was believed by Mr. Kruger and his party, would secure the support of the two above-named officials, as well as entice the capitalists into the trap set for them. But there were other points of advantage for Mr. Kruger. The whole scheme was in accordance with the _divide et impera_ policy. The first impression, if the scheme were accepted, would be that the capitalists had secured something for themselves by bartering away the rights of the public; so there would have been a division in Johannesburg. Another effect to be brought about by the proposed action regarding the Indians would have been to divide the Uitlanders from the Imperial Government, and the net result of it all would have been that neither the public nor the capitalists would have got anything but illusory promises and Mr. Kruger would have secured his dynamite; for had he been able to extract from the Industry an expression of approval or acquiescence, it would have given him his majority in the Volksraad in favour of the monopoly.

The following is the correspondence which passed:--

JOHANNESBURG, S.A.R., _27th March, 1899._

_To the Honourable the State Secretary, Pretoria._

HONOURABLE SIR,

Before communicating to you and the representatives of the Government whom we met the expression of our opinion and that of our London friends on the proposals submitted to us by Mr. Lippert on behalf of the Government of the S.A.R., we deem it advisable to recite shortly how we have arrived at the present position.

On the 27th of February Mr. E. Lippert called together Messrs. A. Brakhan, E. Birkenruth, and G. Rouliot, to whom he submitted a certain programme concerning the settlement of some pending questions forming the subject of grave differences between the Government of the S.A.R., on the one part, and the whole Uitlander population and the mining industry on the other part, with a view to ascertain whether these gentlemen were willing to open negotiations on the basis suggested, in order to try to come to a settlement. Upon the affirmative answer of these gentlemen, Mr. Lippert obtained an equal expression of approval from Dr. Leyds, the State Secretary, the State Attorney, and also of President Kruger. The preliminary programme at Mr. Lippert's request was then communicated by cable to our London friends. Upon receipt of a reply to the effect that our London friends were in favour of any arrangement which would produce harmony and secure administrative and financial reform, which was communicated to Mr. E. Lippert, a meeting was arranged with Dr. Leyds, Messrs. Reitz, Smuts, and Lippert, as representing the Government, on the 9th of March; but as Messrs. Brakhan, Birkenruth, and Rouliot had repeatedly mentioned that they did not consider themselves qualified to discuss matters on behalf of the general body of Uitlanders, and seeing that the programme submitted was to be considered as a whole, and either adopted or rejected as such, therefore it would be necessary to obtain the views, on the franchise question, of prominent citizens more able to express the wishes of Uitlanders on this subject; Mr. Lippert, on behalf of the Government, invited in addition Messrs. Pierce and Pistorious to be present at the meeting.

At this meeting several points were discussed, but as no definite proposal regarding franchise could be submitted, no decision was arrived at, it being made clear, however, that this was only a preliminary conversation with the object of exchanging views, and that in any case the opinion of the Uitlander population, and also that of our friends in Europe, would have to be fully ascertained.

On the 12th instant, at the request of Mr. Lippert, Messrs. Brakhan, Birkenruth, Rouliot, Pierce, Pistorious and Fitzpatrick met, and Mr. Lippert communicated to us the definite proposals of the S.A.R. Government, which were duly cabled the same day to our friends, requesting a reply before the end of the week, as the Government would have to submit the whole matter to the Raad, and we were requested to sign an agreement with the Government, and a declaration binding on ourselves and our London friends.

Their answer, suggesting a further conference with Dr. Leyds in London, was duly communicated to his Honour the State President. His Honour's reply, stating that the exchange of views had better take place here, was communicated to our European friends.

Now they have cabled us a full _précis_ of the proceedings and resolutions passed at the meeting held in London on the 16th instant, and the following is therefore the expression of our opinion as well as that of our European friends, upon the subjects which have already been discussed between the representatives of the S.A.R. Government, and ourselves.

It having been stipulated by the Government that the various matters herein dealt with shall be taken as parts of one whole plan, we have bowed to that decision, and we beg now to reply under the various heads on the understanding that no one portion may be judged as apart from the whole.

BEWAARPLAATSEN.

In furtherance of the general settlement, those of us directly concerned in the mining industry would be prepared to recommend a modification of the claims of the surface holder and a final settlement of the question on the lines suggested as preferable to the continued uncertainty, on the understanding that the basis for valuation should be arrived at by fixing, after consultation, a maximum price upon the best situated bewaarplaatsen or water-right, and that the price of all other mining rights under bewaarplaatsen, machine stands or water-rights be valued by competent engineers on the basis and in relation to the above maximum value, taking into consideration the comparative value of the outcrop claims and the diminishing value in depth; the surface holder having the preferent right to acquire the undermining rights at the price thus arrived at.

FINANCIER AND AUDITOR.

The appointment of a suitable man with efficient control and assured status would undoubtedly meet one of the most serious of the grievances, and would be universally accepted as satisfactory. The financier, in order to enjoy the confidence of all concerned, and with a view to avoid as far as possible ulterior discussion of his recommendations, should be approved of by some person belonging to a firm of well-known independent standing, such as Lord Rothschild, for instance. The financier to be a member of the Executive Council, and to formulate and approve every scheme of taxation should further or other taxation become necessary.

LOAN.

Any loan offered at reasonable rates and approved by the Finance Minister for the common good would undoubtedly receive our support; we understanding, on the other hand, that no new taxation will be imposed on the general population or the mining industry pending the appointment of the financier.

PRESS AGITATION.

There having been, as far as we know, no organized press agitation, it is impossible for us to deal with this matter, but it is clear that the criticism which has been provoked by a certain condition of affairs here would necessarily cease upon the causes of complaint being removed, and we would be prepared, in case of our coming to a settlement with the Government, to declare that the solution of the questions arrived at meets with our approval as a whole, so as to discourage further agitation in newspapers on these subjects.

POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS.

We shall at all times be willing to publicly discourage and repudiate any political organization having for its object the stirring up of strife or promoting dissension between the different nationalities inhabiting this State, and we would and will in any case do this freely and upon principle, and entirely apart from other considerations connected with this Conference, but it should be clearly understood that this declaration must not be construed as repudiating or deprecating any legitimate representations which the community or any section of them may see fit to make in matters which concern them as inhabitants of this State.

COOLIE QUESTION.

We well appreciate the dangers of uncontrolled, indiscriminate immigration of the lower class Indians, Chinese, and other coloured races, and the necessity for provision for sanitary control, and shall be most willing to aid the Government in the above objects; but we consider it impossible for us to intervene in this matter, which is governed by the London Convention with the British Government. We suggest that for the purpose of guarding against the dangers above referred to, this matter be explained to the Imperial Government as part of the whole scheme for the settlement of differences, and claim therefore an especially favourable consideration, for, in the success of this scheme, all who desire peace and prosperity in this country must be deeply concerned and willing to co-operate on generous lines. We suggest that this representation be made in such manner as may be deemed less calculated to provoke unfavourable comment, or offend susceptibilities in any quarter, and that the suggestion be viewed by all parties in its true proportions as one part of the whole scheme of settlement. Unless so viewed we should be unable to put ourselves forward in a matter at issue between the two Governments, nor of course could the proposals of the Government be taken to suggest this.

DYNAMITE.

With the principle of granting a monopoly to individuals, agencies, or corporations it is impossible for us to agree, and whatever arrangement be effected, we should have to make it clear that in this instance we are viewing the question solely as a burden--a tax which the mines are asked to definitely accept in order that an amelioration of the general conditions affecting the whole Uitlander population may be secured.

The difference between the cost at which dynamite could be imported (exclusive of Transvaal duty) and the price we are now compelled to pay amounts to over £600,000 per annum on the present rate of consumption, a sum which will increase steadily and largely in the immediate future.

Whether the mining industry should voluntarily accept such an immense burden as a set-off against terms which, whilst they would doubtless eventually favourably affect the industry, are in their immediate effects designed to satisfy the Uitlander population in their personal rights as distinct from the mining industry as a business, is a matter which would in the first place have to be submitted to the recognized elected representatives of the mining industry, and would in the second place depend upon whether the people in whose interest such sacrifice is required would accept the terms which the Government would be willing to concede as satisfying their reasonable aspirations.

It is also a matter of grave and general concern that a sum so enormous, when compared with the revenue requirements of the State, should be taken annually from the mines with little, if any, benefit to the country, when it might be utilized in part or entirely in supplementing the State revenue, and thus afford relief in other directions to every taxpayer in the country.

Notwithstanding the above considerations, however, we feel that a great monetary sacrifice might be made to secure a peaceful and permanent solution of vexed questions, and that the subject of dynamite should be submitted to the Chamber of Mines and discussed in that spirit.

Whilst we are willing, in order to bring about a general settlement of all pending questions, to recommend such a heavy sacrifice to be made, and adopt the proposal made by the Government, it would be a condition that there shall not be any extension of the concession, and that the terms of the contract shall be rigidly enforced; that the Dynamite Company shall reduce the price of dynamite to 70s. per case, giving to the Government the 5s. per case and the share of the profits to which it is entitled; and that at the end of the present agency the factory shall be taken over at a valuation which shall not include compensation for goodwill or for loss of future business.

FRANCHISE.

This is the vital point upon which a permanent and peaceful settlement must hinge, and if a satisfactory solution can be arrived at on this point, as well as on the others raised, we shall be prepared to recommend to the Industry to make the sacrifices involved in accepting the Government proposals.

We note that--

_(a)_ the proposals do not include a substantial recognition of past residence;

_(b)_ that the period is seven years;

_(c)_ that it is proposed that those who acquire citizenship under the law, if changed as proposed, shall not have the vote for the office of President, and that the oath of allegiance would be required seven years before the acquisition of limited burgher rights;

_(d)_ that the proposed new law would have to be published for a year and receive the assent of two-thirds of the enfranchised burghers of the Republic.

Whilst declaring ourselves willing to accept and recommend the acceptance of any fair scheme on constitutional reforms, we consider that such a scheme must first be laid before, and approved by, the unenfranchised community, as the rights, liberties, and privileges of the community would depend absolutely on the nature of the reform.

We have repeated on many occasions that business houses are not qualified to discuss this question on behalf of the general body of Uitlanders, and that we would not presume that we were appointed by the whole community to discuss it on their behalf. It will therefore be necessary to find means to bring the whole question before those directly affected, who are the only ones entitled to finally dispose of the matter, their acquiescence to the scheme having to be first obtained before we recommend the sacrifices which we contemplate in order to ensure a general permanent and peaceful settlement.

For your guidance we enclose an expression of opinion which has been furnished to us by some of the most prominent Uitlanders, and places before you the views of a very large and influential section of the community.

The above subjects are only those which have been discussed between the Government representatives and ourselves, but, in order to arrive at a final permanent settlement, we think that we ought to endeavour to remove all other causes of disagreement, and treat as well several other important questions left untouched; and we would beg that the Government will take the necessary steps, as far as lies in their power, to assist the industry by bringing native labourers to the goldfields, and to this end will be willing to confer with the Chamber of Mines as to the best means to be adopted; that the law relating to the sale of intoxicating liquor at present in force shall be maintained and strictly enforced. We may further state that we have every confidence in the probity and honour of the Judges of the S.A.R., and wish to place on record our desire that the independence of the Bench should be assured and maintained inviolate in the highest interests of all the inhabitants of the Republic.

We enclose copy of the cable which we sent, embodying the proposals of the Government of the S.A.R. as communicated to us by Mr. Lippert, and copy of the _précis_ and resolution passed at the meeting held in London, when the above cable was considered.

This letter conveys to you our opinion as well as that of our friends in Europe, and we should be most happy to arrange a meeting with you and any other representatives of the Government to consider and discuss the points contained therein.

We beg to assure you once more that we, as well as our European friends, are most sincerely desirous to arrive at a satisfactory settlement, securing a peaceful future and promoting the welfare of the country and the people, and trust that you will regard the expression of our opinion in that light.

We remain, honourable Sir, Yours obediently, G. ROULIOT. H.F.E. PISTORIUS. E. BIRKENRUTH. JOHN M. PIERCE. A. BRAKHAN

The foregoing embodies our views as well as that of our London houses.

(Signed) J.G. HAMILTON. W. DALRYMPLE.

The following memorandum--the one referred to in the above letter--was prepared by well-known Uitlanders whom the Government, owing to the refusal of the capitalists to deal with the franchise, had been obliged to select in order to get some pronouncement upon that question. The little ironies of life have two properties: the humour for the winner, and the hurt for the worsted. The Uitlanders had for three years enjoyed a singularly monotonous experience in ironies, but a turning came in the long lane when it became necessary for the President to suspend the operation of his three years' ban on two of the Reformers in order to get their advice upon the franchise question.

JOHANNESBURG, S.A.R., _24th March, 1899._

GENTLEMEN,

In response to the invitation from the Government of the South African Republic conveyed to us by Mr. E. Lippert, we beg to submit the enclosed memorandum upon the franchise question.

Yours faithfully, J. PERCY FITZPATRICK. H.C. HULL. W. DALRYMPLE. W.A. MARTIN. THOS. MACKENZIE. R. STORE. J.G. HAMILTON. T.J. BRITTEN. H.R. SKINNER.

_To Messrs. G. Rouliot, E. Birkenruth, A. Brakhan, J.M. Pierce, H.F.E. Pistorius Johannesburg_.

MEMORANDUM _RE_ FRANCHISE.

After such investigation as the restrictions imposed have permitted, we are of opinion that it would be quite useless to approach the Uitlander population with the Government proposal in its present form, chiefly for the following reasons:--

1. No consideration is given to the term of residence already completed.

2. The alteration of the franchise law according to lately prescribed procedure, whereby two-thirds of the burghers must signify approval, is a practical impossibility,--witness the fact that at the last Presidential election, surpassing in excitement and interest all other occasions of general voting, with the three recognized leaders in the field, and every agency at work to stimulate activity, less than two-thirds of the burghers on the register recorded their votes.

3. The present form of oath would be regarded as humiliating and unnecessary, in support of which view we instance that quite recently the Volksraad of the Orange Free State rejected upon the same grounds the proposed introduction of the same oath of allegiance.

4. The period of disqualification, during which the Uitlander would have given up his own citizenship by naturalizing and have acquired nothing in return, would be found most objectionable--especially with the experience that rights have in the past been legislated away as they were on the point of maturing.

5. In view of the unique conditions of this country, extension of the franchise without some approach to equitable redistribution of representatives would be regarded as no solution of the question and might even provoke doubts as to the _bonâ fides_ of the proposal, which would be a deplorable beginning, yet one easily to be avoided.

Regard being had to the points raised in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, and 4, we consider that as restrictive franchise legislation, apparently designed to exclude for ever the great bulk of the Uitlander population, dates its beginning from the Session of 1890, and as the various enactments bearing upon this question have been passed by successive Volksraads exercising their power to alter, add to, or revoke, previous enactments, and as the same powers are to the full enjoyed by the present Volksraad, it would be both possible and proper for the present Volksraad to annul all the legislation upon this subject from that date, and to restore and confirm the status prior to 1890, and thus satisfy the indisputable claims of those who settled in this country under certain conditions from the benefits of which they could not properly be excluded.

With regard to paragraph 5, a moderate proposal designed to give a more equitable distribution of representatives in the Volksraad would be necessary.

The above suggestions are not put forward as the irreducible minimum, nor are they designed for public use, nor intended as a proposal acceptable to the eye but impossible in fact, and thus sure of rejection. They are put forward in good faith as indicating in our opinion the lines upon which it would be possible to work towards a settlement with a reasonable prospect of success.

If the difficulties appear great the more reason there is not to put forward an unalterable proposal foredoomed to failure, but rather to try and find points of agreement which, however few and small to begin with, would surely make for eventual and complete settlement. In any case it is clear that the mere fact of a proposal to extend the franchise having been made by the Government, thus frankly recognizing the need to deal with the subject, will be hailed as a good omen and a good beginning by all fair-minded men.

The determination of the negotiators to have the position clearly stated in writing, and their fear that the use of intermediaries would end in the usual unhappy and unpleasant result--namely, repudiation of the intermediary in part or entirely--were not long wanting justification. The following is a translation of Mr. F.W. Reitz's reply:--

PRETORIA, _8th April, 1899._

_Messrs. G. Rouliot, H.F.E. Pistorius, A. Brakhan, E. Birkenruth, and John M. Pierce, Johannesburg_.

DEAR SIRS,

I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 27th March last, referring to certain proposals to the Government from representatives of the mining industry.

In order to understand the natural position it is necessary to state the facts more extensively than given in your letter.

It is wrong to say, as you do in the first paragraph of your communication, that Mr. Lippert came to you with certain proposals from the Government.

It appears also from the second paragraph of the same that Mr. Lippert came to you _suo motu_ with the object, as he informed me afterwards, to see 'if it was not possible to obtain a better understanding between the Government on the one side and the mining industry on the other.' He acted in no wise as the agent of the Government, or in the name of the Government, to make any proposals to you, but only as a friendly mediator to see how far unnecessary differences and misunderstandings could be removed.

When Mr. Lippert came to Dr. Leyds and myself, and informed us that you and other gentlemen were agreeable to his mediation, we at once agreed with his plan, being aware that there was a warm desire and continued struggle on the part of this Government to remove out of the way all friction and trouble, and that in this case especially it was our object to leave no stone unturned to get all differences settled. We were the more anxious to meet you, because his Honour the State President had decided to lay before the Volksraad certain proposals of law, which are of great importance not only for the people of the Republic, but especially for the mining population and industry. We gave Mr. Lippert to understand that should the leaders of the mining industry have no objection to his mediation, we would not be unwilling to make use of his good services in this matter.

Mr. Lippert then went to Johannesburg, and returned to us with the assurance that there was no objection to his acting as mediator, and gave us some of the subjects on which it appeared to him that it was possible to arrive at a friendly understanding.

In consequence of this, and acting on our own initiative, and not as representatives of the Government, Dr. Leyds, Mr. Smuts, and myself, met some of your leading men, as set forth in your letter.

At this meeting we informed you of the intention of the President to alter certain laws for the general good. Only with reference to the franchise we gave you no definite proposal, the matter being then still under consideration. From your side we requested only a more friendly attitude from the Press, as we were convinced that the excessive Press campaign carried on by the newspapers, which are generally considered to be owned by you, or influenced by you, however much they may forward certain interests, still, in the end, did infinite harm to the existing interests of all sections of the population. Through the continual and incessant agitation and creation of suspicion on the part of the papers, the public mind was constantly in a state of insecurity, and the fanning of the race hatred made it impossible for the Government as well as the legislature to improve the relations between the so-called Uitlanders and the old population.

We requested your friendly assistance also in the settlement of the coolie question, not because we wanted to cause friction between you and other foreign governments, but only because the policy which refers to the native and coloured questions is of the utmost importance to South Africa.

Mr. Lippert had in his programme the granting of a promise on your side that you would support the Government in the obtaining of a loan which the Government may deem necessary, and that you should bind yourselves in writing to abstain from all political organizations inimical to the Government.

These matters we did not discuss, as we considered them unnecessary and inadvisable. From your side you deemed it necessary, before answering us, first to receive the instructions of your foreign principals. Before you could give us the result the President explained his intentions at Heidelberg, and afterwards at Rustenburg and Johannesburg.

Your letter, now under consideration, contains practically a definite answer to our communication to you. I shall now consider the points of your answer separately.

BEWAARPLAATSEN.

With reference to this matter, we think that the undermining rights under bewaarplaatsen, machine stands, and water-rights should be valued on a reasonable basis, independently by the Government, and by the owner of the surface rights (should there be a difference which cannot be settled amicably, then the value can be fixed by arbitration), and that the surface owner shall have the preferent right to purchase the affected under-mining right at such a valuation. From your communication I understand that you suggest a special method of valuation. That is a detail which can be settled when the valuation is actually commenced, and which experts are better able to judge over than I am. Therefore I shall say no more on this subject.

FINANCIER AND AUDITOR.

On this subject our opinion was that the auditor should be independent of the Government, and alone responsible to the Volksraad to appoint as financier a man of standing, with a seat in the Executive Council, to advise on all matters affecting finances.

I am glad to see that you are with us, and that it gives you great satisfaction. I must express my surprise, however, over your proposal that previous to the appointment this Government must first get the approval of Lord Rothschild or any other capitalist. I can only answer that it is in no wise the intention of the Government to frame the future financial policy of this State on a capitalistic basis, and thus your request cannot be agreed to. It is quite possible to make such an appointment which will carry general approval without being subjected to such a mutual condition.

LOAN, PRESS AGITATION, POLITICAL ORGANIZATION.

With reference to these matters, I have already made it plain to you that in following the proposals of Mr. Lippert by cabling to your principals, you acted under a misunderstanding. We requested no binding declaration from you, only a moral understanding, which would be easy for you to maintain, if it was in the interests of the Uitlanders as well as the burghers of the Republic. I regret that the mistake has arisen, otherwise I cannot see that any objection can come from your side to approve of the plans of the President.

DYNAMITE.

On this question there is a small difference between the proposed policy of the President and your answer.

I only wish to add that his Honour goes further than you do, as he has declared his readiness to expropriate the Dynamite Company, under agreement with its representatives, as soon as possible. If the expropriation takes place after the expiration of the present concession then it will naturally not be on the basis of a going concern.

FRANCHISE.

On this subject I can well understand that you do not wish to take upon your shoulders the responsibility of speaking and acting for the whole of the new population. It was more your personal opinions as men of position that we wished to know. Then again, according to your assurance at the aforementioned meeting, you do not take any personal interest in the franchise question, and that you would rather leave the question to the public; your answer is therefore perfectly fair. His Honour has therefore already acted in accordance with your idea, for he has brought the question of the franchise very prominently before the public, not only at Heidelberg and Rustenburg, but also at Johannesburg.

In conclusion, I wish to refer to one matter which has caused me much pain. It was clearly and distinctly agreed and understood by you all as well as by us that both sides would treat this matter as confidential and secret, as discussions of such important matters cannot be carried on with any results on the tops of houses. What has happened? On the 28th of March I received your letter, and on the 3rd of April, whilst I was yet giving it earnest consideration and had taken all the measures to keep it secret, the contents of the same appeared in the London _Times_, while some days later your answer appeared in full in the _Cape Times_, the _Diamond Fields Advertiser_, and other papers under the influence of the capitalists. The manner in which these papers favourable to you, or controlled by you, have dealt with me in this matter has caused me (I admit it with regret) to doubt for one moment your good faith. Thinking, however, of the great interest as it were in the balance, and believing, moreover, that you never for private or party purposes intended to play with the true and lasting interests of all sections of the community, I cannot help thinking that the reply has been published through one of your subordinates, and regret that the publication has not been immediately repudiated by you publicly as a grave breach of faith. I would regret it, while there exists so few points of difference between us, that these things should bar the way through careless and wrong tactics to a permanent understanding, and trust that the hand extended to the Industry in absolute good faith will not be slighted purposely and wilfully. Owing to the publication of your reply, there exists no further reason for secrecy, and I shall hand my reply to the press.

Your obedient servant, F.W. REITZ, _State Secretary_.

The repudiation of Mr. Lippert's "official" character; the contention that the State Secretary, State Attorney, and Dr. Leyds could divest themselves of all responsibility in negotiations such as these, and claim to have been acting in their private capacity only; and the extraordinary anxiety to keep secret matters which deeply affected the public, and to the settlement of which the Government designed that the public should be committed, compelled the negotiators to produce evidence that the statements and conclusions of the Government were not warranted by the facts. The following letter, which was formally acknowledged but never answered, practically concluded the negotiations:--

JOHANNESBURG, S.A.R., _April 14, 1899._

_To the Honourable the State Secretary, Pretoria._

HONOURABLE SIR,--

We have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 8th April, 1899.

Certain of our statements being doubted and described as erroneous in your letter, we deem it advisable to go more fully into the facts which have preceded and led to this correspondence.

It may be that communications exchanged through an intermediary have been transmitted in a manner liable to convey a different impression from what was actually meant, and in order to clear any possible misunderstanding, we beg to enclose copies of all documents supplied to us by Mr. Lippert, whom we, at all times, considered as your authorized agent.

From these it will be apparent that during the negotiations we acted in perfect good faith, communicating and discussing what we justly considered were the wishes and proposals of the Government, and it will also be clear to you that every one of our statements is based on documents which we had every reason to believe were approved of by the Government.

On February 27th Mr. Lippert called together Messrs. E. Birkenruth, A. Brakhan, and G. Rouliot, to whom he stated that a settlement of certain pending questions could probably be arrived at. He said that he had ascertained the views of Dr. Leyds, Messrs. Reitz and Smuts, who had agreed to a certain programme, and he wanted to know whether we would be willing to open negotiations on that basis, in which case the three officials mentioned would see the State President and ascertain whether he would be prepared to adopt their views.

If the State President's approval could be obtained, Mr. Lippert suggested that a conference should be held to discuss the subjects mentioned in his memorandum.

This memorandum (Annexure 'A'), as explained to us by Mr. Lippert, enumerates under Clauses 1 to 5 inclusive the points which the Government expected us to concede, and the other clauses are what the Government proposed doing in return.

We were then informed that the programme must be considered as a whole, and either adopted or rejected as such, no question being considered separately, and that the matter must be kept absolutely secret.

Upon our statement that we personally would be willing to open negotiations on the basis suggested, Mr. Lippert went to Pretoria and informed the high officials above-named.

On March 1st Mr. Lippert informed us that the State President was viewing the matter favourably, and requested us to acquaint our friends by cable.

Our replies having been communicated to Mr. Lippert, a meeting was arranged on March 9th, as recited in our previous letter, at which, Mr. Lippert informed us, no new subject outside of those mentioned in his memorandum could be discussed.

Messrs. Pistorius and Pierce, being invited by Mr. Lippert to attend the meeting, were each supplied by him with a list of the questions to be discussed, forming part of the proposed settlement (Annexure 'B').

On March 12th Mr. Lippert communicated to us what he termed the definite proposals of the Government of the S.A.R., which were duly cabled to our friends in Europe (a copy of this cable has already been sent to you).

He also read to us the declaration, which he suggested we should sign on behalf of ourselves and our European friends (Annexure 'C').

A speedy reply to our cable was asked for, as Mr. Lippert had informed us that, if any settlement could be arrived at, the agreement had to be submitted to the Honourable the First Volksraad before the closing of the extraordinary session which was drawing near.

We beg to point out to you that by cabling these proposals to Europe, we could not possibly conceive that we were acting under a misconception, as the day on which they were made to us, the 12th of March, being a Sunday, the Telegraph Office was specially kept open for the purpose of dispatching the cables, which were duly received and forwarded upon production of an order from Mr. Lippert.

In our letter of March 17th to his Honour the State President, conveying the nature of our friends' reply, we mentioned the fact that the communication made to us by Mr. Lippert on behalf of the Government had been fully cabled; we stated that our friends no doubt based their suggestion to further discuss the whole of the proposals with Dr. Leyds upon the fact that the Government had stipulated that they should become parties to the proposed settlement.

In your reply of March 18th, no exception is taken to these statements; you tell us, on behalf of his Honour the State President, 'that the exchange of views can best take place direct with the Government, and here, within the Republic,' pointing out the fact 'that the session of the Volksraad was close at hand, and that therefore further delay is undesirable.'

You will thus see that we were perfectly justified in thinking that the communications made to our European friends, embodied the proposals of the Government of the South African Republic, were cabled with the knowledge and approval of the Government, and that we were requested to sign a declaration on behalf of ourselves and our friends, which declaration had to be made public.

Our letter of the 27th March conveyed to you our opinion and that of our friends, upon the subjects comprised in the programme which was submitted to us, and it is unnecessary to go over them in detail again. We beg only to offer a few remarks upon certain points raised in your letter of 8th April:--Bewaarplaatsen: We suggest a basis for the valuation of bewaarplaatsen, machine stands, and water-rights, which in our opinion ought to be adopted, in order to have a uniform and easy method of valuing these places.

Financier: Being fully aware of the complexity of financial problems and questions of taxation in this State, we are anxious that the financier appointed should be of such a standing as to command the confidence of all, so that his recommendations cannot raise any ulterior discussion. For that reason we expressed the opinion that, before making the appointment, the Government should be guided in its choice by someone belonging to a firm of well-known independent standing. We have no desire to see this Government base its future financial policy on any particular line, in the interest of, or directed against, any special section of the people. We only wish to see the financial policy established on sound recognized economic principles, with fair and equitable taxation calculated according to the proper requirements of the State.

Press Agitation--Political Organizations: We have already informed you, that so far as we know, there has been no organized press agitation, and that we should be willing at all times to deprecate the stirring up of strife between nationalities caused by any agency whatsoever. We consider it desirable to see that feeling more general, as we are convinced that exaggerated press campaigns conducted by newspapers generally reported to be influenced by the Government, and tending to create dissension amongst the various classes of the community, are calculated to cause an infinite amount of harm to the vested interests of all sections of the population.

Dynamite: In your letter of the 8th April, you appear to have lost sight of the fact that the proposed settlement was submitted to us as a whole. Mr. Lippert made it clear that, in consideration of the Government granting the measures enumerated in his memorandum, it was expected that we should abandon our present contentions, and declare ourselves satisfied with the settlement proposed by the Government. Under ordinary circumstances this would be far from meeting our desires, but we intimated to you that we should be willing to recommend to the mining industry the adoption of the proposals made to us on this subject, if by so doing we could promote a permanent satisfactory solution of all pending questions.

In conclusion, we beg to refer to the publication of our previous letter to you. It took place here on the 6th inst., in the afternoon; we immediately instituted an inquiry, and on the 8th inst., in the morning, we wrote that we were in a position to assure you that we could in no way be held responsible for the publication. We never for a moment doubted your good faith, nor that of the other gentlemen for whom the letter was meant, but thought that possibly the communication could have been made through one of your subordinates. However, not being certain of the fact, we merely repudiated any responsibility on our part, and regret that you should have publicly laid the blame on our side, without having communicated with us, asking for an explanation, if you had any suspicion.

We beg to assure you that we are as willing as ever to co-operate with you in arriving at a settlement of all pending differences in order to secure peace and prosperity in this country, and we shall be ready at all times to meet and discuss with you, or any other delegates of the Government, any matter likely to bring about a speedy and permanent solution of all questions, still bearing in mind what we mentioned in our previous correspondence, that we are not qualified to speak on behalf of the whole community.

As you have informed us that you have no objection to it, we shall give a copy of this letter to the press.

We have the honour to be, honourable Sir,

Your obedient servants, G. ROULIOT, JOHN M. PIERCE, A. BRAKHAN, E. BIRKENRUTH.

(Mr. Pistorius, being absent from town, could not sign this letter.)

ANNEXURE 'A'

MR. E. LIPPERT'S MEMORANDUM.

1. Cessation of press agitation here and in Europe.

2. Support on the coolie question.

3. Settlement of the dynamite question.

4. Loan (if required).

5. Severance from the S. A. League.

6. Appointment of State Financier and State Auditor, of European reputation, with a seat and vote on the Executive in all questions of finance.

7. No new taxation of mines until submitted by Minister of Finance.

8. Moderate valuation of bewaarplaatsen.

9. Burgher rights--five years--property test.

ANNEXURE 'B.'

Cessation of press agitation here and in Europe.

Support to the Government in its treatment of the coolie question.

Settlement of the dynamite question.

Deprecate the objects of the S.A. League.

Support the placing of a loan if Government wishes it.

Appointment of a financial adviser to the Government, of European reputation, and of an Auditor, both with seats and votes in the Executive Council on all financial matters. (This has been amended by the Government, so far as the Auditor is concerned, to retain the present Auditor, and to give him, _re_ dismissal, the same status as a Judge, and to make him directly responsible to the Volksraad.)

No fresh taxation to be levied on the mines until the Financial Adviser has laid his proposals before the Government.

Sale of the undermining rights to the holders of surface rights (bewaarplaatsen, &c.), at a moderate valuation.

Extension of the franchise by granting burgher rights after ... years of registration, coupled with a property test.

ANNEXURE 'C.'

DRAFT OF DECLARATION TO FOLLOW PROTOCOL EMBODYING THE RESOLUTIONS AGREED UPON.

... Thereupon the subscribed parties from Johannesburg, for themselves, and for the parties they represent here and in Europe, declared:--

'The passing by the Volksraad of the laws to be submitted by the Government during this session,--

'For the appointment during the present year of a Financial Adviser to the Government, of European reputation, who shall have a seat and a vote in the Executive Council on all financial matters.

'For placing the Auditor-General on the same status _re_ dismissal as the Judges, and for making him responsible directly to the Volksraad, it being agreed that until such Financial Adviser has laid his budget proposals before the Government, no fresh taxation shall be laid upon the mining industry, nor any other direct taxation.

'For granting the undermining rights under bewaarplaatsen, machine stands, and water-rights, to the present holders of the licences, covering such reserved areas at a moderate valuation; such valuation to be arrived at in the following manner: The Government to appoint a valuator, with instructions to value these rights at a fair and moderate valuation, the holder of the surface licence to appoint a valuator; if they agree, then the surface licence holder shall have the first right to the undermining rights at such valuation; if the two valuators cannot agree about a valuation, they shall appoint together an umpire; if they cannot agree about an umpire, the Chief justice of the High Court shall be asked to appoint an umpire; the decision of such umpire shall be final as to the value of the area under arbitration. If the holder of the surface licence refuses to purchase at the said valuation, the Government shall be at liberty to dispose of it elsewhere.

'For a permanent settlement of the dynamite question on one or the other bases following, namely, that the _status quo_ remain in force till the end of the contract period, the Government making use of its right to revise the prices under the terms of the agreement or that the Dynamite Company reduce the price by 5s. to 70s. for No. 1 and to 90s. for blasting gelatine, the Government undertaking to take over the works of the Dynamite Company at the end of the agreement at a valuation as provided by the offer now before the Volksraad.

'For an extension of the franchise to all white aliens in this State, in the following manner: That naturalization be granted to all seeking it, who have resided in the State for two years and who are of good behaviour and who have not suffered any dishonourable sentence by any Court, upon taking the oath of allegiance as prescribed by the existing law; upon such naturalization he shall be entitled to elect a member to the Second Volksraad, and two years after shall be entitled to be elected as a member of the Second Volksraad. A period of seven years having elapsed after naturalization, he shall by virtue of that lapse of time and without further hindrance obtain full burgher rights, the Government, however, reserve to themselves the right (in order to secure the passing of such law through the Volksraad of this and that of the session of 1900) to extend the period of naturalization for the right of voting for the election of a President. Children of naturalized aliens, who attain their majority when their father has obtained full burgher rights, have _ipso facto_ the same rights as the father. The Government shall also have the right to attach a moderate property qualification to the obtaining of these extended franchise rights. It is understood that by the laws of the State, this extended franchise can only finally be granted by the Volksraad in session 1900, after the law has been submitted to the people for twelve months, but that the period of 9 resp. 7 years shall date from the passing of the resolution to be passed by the Volksraad now in session.

will be hailed by us with great satisfaction as removing all obstacles to a friendly and peaceful development of mutual understanding and co-operation; it is our wish, and in the interest of those we represent, that the public in Europe and in South Africa be made fully aware hereof by means of the press, and that hostile agitation by means of the press here and elsewhere shall be avoided in future.

'We deprecate all attempts that may be made by political agencies to stir up strife between the different nationalities inhabiting this State, and shall not be parties to any such organizations.

'Seeing the many evils springing from indiscriminate immigration of coloured races, and having been assured that the Government will do all in its power to facilitate in other ways the supply of labour, we support the Government in its contention that the regulations concerning the treatment of "coolies and other coloured races" had best be left to them as a matter of internal concern.

'We will support the placing of a State loan recommended by the Financier in the European markets at reasonable rates, if the Government should desire us to do so in the common interest.

'Seeing the great value the Government evidently sets upon a friendly and permanent settlement of the dynamite question, which has contributed so much to disturbing the good relations, we declare ourselves satisfied with the final settlement arrived at.

'And should, after the passing of the above proposals of law as a whole by the Volksraad, the Government desire us to give publicity to this our declaration for the promotion of peace and goodwill, such publicity as the Government may desire shall be given thereto.'

While the negotiations were actually in progress, and while the Imperial Government were awaiting a reply to their dispatch, the President made two determined attempts to rush the confirmation of the dynamite monopoly through the Raad. The first proposal was for the fifteen years' extension, and the second provided for condonation of all breaches of the concession in the past and for compensation upon the expiry of the concession.

The Uitlanders had not failed to perceive that the pit dug for them might conceivably serve another purpose. They ignored these two breaches of faith on the part of the President, and pursued the negotiations; and Mr. Kruger overreached himself. Having failed with Johannesburg, and having failed in the Raad, he appealed to his burghers with the scheme of mock reform. His hope was to get such support in the country that the Volksraad in its May session would have to spare the monopoly. He did not realize that he would have to make good the things which he had offered as shams. His greed had given the opening: his hand had provided the weapon. It is not good to be too clever; and the luck had turned.

The publication of the correspondence between the Government and the capitalists created a profound impression. The series of speeches delivered by the President in support of his sham reforms only deepened that impression by providing more and more convincing evidence as to who the real intriguers and mischief-makers were. To the Uitlander public one thing became quite clear, and that was that it was the Government who wished to barter their rights away and the capitalists--the abused capitalists--who refused to do so. An attempt was immediately made to hold a large public meeting for the purpose of endorsing the attitude taken by the negotiators, but the Government refused permission to hold an open-air meeting. In their attempt to hold a meeting indoors, the Uitlanders were defeated by the building being condemned as unsafe. The Government yielded, however, before the storm of disapproval which followed their prohibition, and the State Secretary, Mr. Reitz, suggested that the Uitlanders should hold a series of small indoor meetings in different localities. The meetings were accordingly held, and they provided unmistakable evidence of the gravity of the position. By their numbers, their unanimity, their enthusiasm, and their moderation, the Uitlanders carried conviction to some and roused the grave apprehension of others. Among the latter, it is fair to infer, were President Kruger and his sympathizers in the Free State and Cape Colony.

There is one disability the existence of which the advocates of the Uitlander cause are always painfully conscious of. They know as well as any of their critics that it is no picture which is all black--that you get no perspective, no effects, without contrasts! Yet it has not been believed that they were willing to acknowledge the good that there was, and that a politic instinct no less than a sense of justice prompted a diligent effort to discover and make much of the genuinely hopeful signs. The monotony was none of their making; it was in the nature of the facts, and not of the recital; but monotony there was, and it was productive of one very bad result. The conditions, admittedly bad, came to be regarded by a good many as being only as bad as they had for a long time been known to be, leaving little hope except through the long slow influence of time, but causing no immediate anxiety or alarm. Someday a grubbing historian may read the back files of South African newspapers and marvel that such warnings should have passed unheeded, but the fact is that the Transvaal Government and its sympathizers had become indifferent to warnings followed by no results and accustomed to prophecies unfulfilled. To say that they were 'fiddling while Rome burned' is to a great extent true of those of the South African Dutch who were sincerely desirous that the Transvaal Government should reform its ways and who were not consciously aiding in the republicanizing movement; but even of them it is not an adequate description,--as the answers given to two questioners by the most prominent and one of the most prominent Bondsmen indicate. Both of them had in private conversation on different occasions acknowledged the soundness of the Uitlander cause. To the suggestion, 'Then why not say so publicly?' the less important of the two replied, 'People would only say that I am climbing down and ratting on my party.' And the more important of the two, answering a similar question, said, 'Yes, the Rev. S.J. Du Toit did that. He was the founder of the Bond; and to-day he is--nothing! If I did it, I should fall as he did.' 'Then,' said his British friend, 'what is influence worth if it cannot be used for good? Can there be said to be influence when it cannot be used at all?' 'No,' was the reply, 'I have no influence as against the cry of race: blood is thicker than water; and I have no influence at all with Kruger.' The answer to this contained the crux of the question. 'Indeed you have; but you have not the courage to exercise it. The influence of advice has failed, dare you try the influence of repudiation?' The answer was a shake of the head and 'Blood is thicker than water.' That is it! The Piper pipes and the children follow.

It is too much to believe that the conference between the High Commissioner and President Kruger was a suggestion to which the latter had to be won over either by President Steyn or Mr. Hofmeyr. It is, indeed, well-known that the idea of a meeting for the purpose of discussing matters at issue between the two Governments had been considered in Pretoria for some months before it actually took place.{51}

The news that, upon the invitation of President Steyn, the High Commissioner and President Kruger had agreed to meet at Bloemfontein, was received by the Uitlanders with relief; not hope, because it was believed that the President's object was to get something, not to give something; but sheer relief, because, come what might, the position could never again be the same as it was before the conference. Something must change; someone must yield; the unbearable strain must cease. Sir Alfred Milner--wise and just and strong--commanded the entire confidence of the Uitlanders. It was not hoped that he would succeed in effecting a settlement at such a meeting, because in the circumstances such an achievement was believed not to be humanly possible; but it was not feared that he would fail in his duty to his country and to his trust.

It is no part of the object of this volume to deal with the negotiations which took place at Bloemfontein or with the terms of settlement at the present moment under discussion; the object is to recite the circumstances and conditions which made these negotiations necessary, and which, if they fail, must lead to bloodshed.

With a barrier of insurmountable race feeling before them, the Uitlanders are hopeless of effecting a peaceful redress of their grievances except by the aid of the Suzerain power. The President and his party will not yield one iota except upon the advice of those who have the will and the power to see that that advice is followed. Such power rests in two quarters. It rests with the progressive Dutch of South Africa. They have the power, but unfortunately they have not as yet the will or they have not the courage to use it. Time after time have they been stultified by rallying to the cry of race and defending Mr. Kruger's attitude on certain points, only to find the President abandoning as untenable the position which they have proclaimed to be proper. To them have been addressed most earnest and most solemn appeals to be up and doing whilst there was yet time. From them have been extracted--in times of peace--the amplest admissions of the justice of the Uitlander case. But there is a point beyond which they will not go. They will not say to the President and his party: 'We cannot extol in you what we would condemn in ourselves. The claim of kindred cannot for ever be the stalking-horse for injustice.' That they cannot do; and thus are they bonded to the one who will raise the race cry without scruple. There is no more hopeless feature for the peaceful settlement of the Transvaal question from within than the unanimity which marks the public utterances of those who are claimed as representing Afrikander sentiment in the present crisis. Those expressions, ranging from the most violent denunciations by politicians and ministers of the gospel down to the most illogical and hysterical appeals of public writers, all, all are directed against the injured. Not a warning, not a hint--not a prayer even--addressed to the offender. They have not the sense of justice to see or they have not the courage to denounce the perpetrators of evil, but direct all their efforts to hushing the complaints of the victims. Truly it would almost appear that there is some guiding principle running through it all; something which recognizes the real sinner in the victim who complains and not in the villain who perpetrates; the something which found a concrete expression when bail was fixed at £200 for the murder of a British subject and at £1,000 for the crime of objecting to it.

No civilized body of men ever had more just cause for complaint than the Uitlanders of the Transvaal have, but they carry on their reform movement under very difficult and discouraging conditions. Those who have petitioned their Sovereign to secure for them some amelioration of their lot are branded by the head of the State as rebels for so doing, and his example is followed by all his party. Those men who organized or addressed the public meetings which were suggested by Mr. Reitz, the State Secretary, and held for the purpose of discussing a proposal publicly made by the Government, are the men whom Messrs. Dieperink and Viljoen, the members representing Johannesburg in the First and Second Volksraads, denounced as traitors who should be summarily dealt with by the Government. British subjects associated with the Uitlander cause who venture to call upon the British Agent in Pretoria or the High Commissioner in Cape Town are regarded as conspirators and are watched by spies and all their movements are reported to the Transvaal Government.{52} The recognized leaders among the Uitlanders are black-listed in the Dutch press, their names, addresses, and occupations given so that they may be identified,--marked down in the newspapers supported by the Government--as men to be dragged out and shot without trial. Uitlander newspapers have been suppressed for mere political reasons, without even the allegation that there was incitement to violence or disorder, and it is therefore not unreasonable that the impunity with which the Dutch newspapers continue this campaign month after month should be taken as the measure of the Government's complicity.

It is in these circumstances that appeal has been made to England, the only other quarter in which there rests the power to see that justice shall be done. It is an appeal which might well be based upon the broad and acknowledged right of a subject to claim in case of injustice the good offices of his own Government. But here it is based upon a special right. It is the _spirit_{53} of the Pretoria Convention which the Uitlander has invoked for many years, only to be told that the spirit is as it may be interpreted from the letter. But it is not so! Will it be suggested that the British Government contemplated such license when they granted the charter of self-government to the Transvaal or that they would have granted it had they foreseen the interpretation? Can it be said that Mr. Kruger and his colleagues contemplated it or would have dared to avow the intention if it were ever entertained? No! And he will be a bolder man than Mr. Kruger who will dispute that answer; for the President's own defence is, not that he had the intention or has the right to differentiate between races and between classes; but--that he does not differentiate. So that the issue is narrowed to this, that it is merely a question of fact!

But the appeal of British subjects in the Transvaal will claim a hearing for other reasons too! Only the blindest can fail to realize how much is at stake, materially and morally, or can fail to see what is the real issue, and how the Mother Country stands on trial before all her children, who are the Empire. Only those who do not count will refuse to face the responsibility in all seriousness, or will fail to receive in the best spirit the timely reminder of past neglect. If the reproaching truth be a hard thing to hear, it is, for those whose every impulse jumps towards championing the great Home Land, a far, far harder thing to say. Unpleasant it may be, but not without good, that England's record in South Africa--of subjects abandoned and of rights ignored, of duty neglected and of pledge unkept, of lost prestige and slipping Empire--should speak to quicken a memory and rouse the native sense of right, so that a nation's conscience will say 'Be just before you are generous! Be just to all--even to your own!'

Footnotes for Chapter XI

{49} It is stated that President Kruger, ever since the signing of the London Convention on Majuba Day--February 27--1884, has believed in certain lucky days, and has a kind of superstitious regard for anniversaries. If that be so, the incidence of events has given him something to ponder over during the last three years. Three notable schemes conceived by himself and carefully designed to strengthen his position, have by a curious coincidence matured upon dates of certain interest in Transvaal history. All three have failed disastrously. The first anniversary of the Reformers' sentence day was the occasion of the Reformers giving evidence before the Industrial Commission, which so strongly justified their case. The Peace Negotiations with the Capitalists were opened by Mr. Lippert upon the anniversary of Majuba. The Bloemfontein Conference was opened upon the Reformers' emancipation day, the expiry of the three years' silence. That his Honour really attaches importance to these things was shown when over two hundred ministers representing the Dutch Reformed Church in the Transvaal met in Pretoria to urge upon him the suppression of the Illicit Liquor trade. In all innocence they had chosen May 24 on which to present their address. Their astonishment was great when Mr. Kruger, passing lightly by the liquor question, gave the assembled pastors a thorough wigging for finding fault with his administration at all, but chiefly for their unpatriotic conduct in selecting the Queen's birthday of all days on which to expose internal differences in their country.

{50} In addressing a meeting of burghers in Heidelburg three months later the President showed to what lengths he was prepared to go in defending the monopoly when in reply to a question he denied that any such offer had been received '_by the Executive.'_ The explanation, which he did not give, is that the _Government, i.e.,_ the President and State Secretary, had received it--and withheld it from the Executive!

{51} In March the writer made the suggestion to a representative of the Pretoria Government in the hope of getting rid by a 'square talk' of the many and ever-increasing differences, and was informed that the idea had often been discussed and as often abandoned, because it contained the objectionable feature of establishing a precedent for England's interference in internal affairs.

{52} When on a visit to Cape Town in April, the writer called several times upon the High Commissioner, and learning by private advice that his movements were being reported in detail through the Secret Service Department, he informed Sir Alfred Milner of the fact. Sir Alfred admitted that the idea of secret agents in British territory and spies round or in Government House was not pleasant, but expressed the hope that such things should not deter those who wished to call on him, as he was there as the representative of her Majesty for the benefit of British subjects and very desirous of ascertaining for himself the facts of the case.

{53} Since this was written, Mr. Chamberlain, speaking in the House of Commons on July 28, 1899, has thus disposed of the question:--

'It has been broken in the spirit more than it has been broken in the letter. The whole spirit of the convention is the preservation of equality as between all the white inhabitants of the Transvaal, and the whole policy of the Transvaal has been to promote a position of inferiority on the part of certain classes. There is something even more striking than that. The conventions were, of course, the result of a previous conference. At that conference definite promises were made which made it impossible to doubt with what object the convention was signed. On May 10, 1881, at a conference between representatives of her Majesty and representatives of the Transvaal the President, Sir Hercules Robinson, asked this question:--

'"Before annexation had British subjects complete freedom of trade throughout the Transvaal? Were they on the same footing as citizens of the Transvaal?

'"Mr. Kruger replied: They were on the same footing as the burghers. There was not the slightest difference in accordance with the Sand River Convention.

'"Sir Hercules Robinson: I presume you will not object to that continuing?

'"Mr. Kruger: No. There will be equal protection for everybody.

'"Sir Evelyn Wood: And equal privileges.

'"Mr. Kruger: We make no difference so far as burgher rights are concerned. There may, perhaps, be some slight difference in the case of a young person who has just come into the country."

(Cheers.) 'Now, there is a distinct promise given by the man who is now President of the Transvaal State that, so far as burgher rights were concerned, they made and would make no difference whatever between burghers and those who came in. The root of the difficulty which I have been describing lies in the fact that this promise has not been kept.'

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX A.

PRETORIA CONVENTION.

CONVENTION FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF THE TRANSVAAL TERRITORY.

_August, 1881._

PREAMBLE.

Her Majesty's Commissioners for the Settlement of the Transvaal territory, duly appointed as such by a Commission passed under the Royal Sign Manual and Signet, bearing date the 5th of April, 1881, do hereby undertake and guarantee on behalf of Her Majesty that, from and after the 8th day of August, 1881, complete self-government, subject to the suzerainty of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, will be accorded to the inhabitants of the Transvaal territory, upon the following terms and conditions, and subject to the following reservations and limitations:--

ARTICLE I.

The said territory, to be hereinafter called the Transvaal State, will embrace the land lying between the following boundaries, to wit: [here follow three pages in print defining boundaries.]

ARTICLE II.

Her Majesty reserves to herself, her heirs and successors, (_a_) the right from time to time to appoint a British Resident in and for the said State, with such duties and functions as are hereinafter defined; (_b_) the right to move troops through the said State in time of war, or in case of the apprehension of immediate war between the Suzerain Power and any Foreign State or Native tribe in South Africa; and (_c_) the control of the external relations of the said State, including the conclusion of treaties and the conduct of diplomatic intercourse with Foreign Powers, such intercourse to be carried on through Her Majesty's diplomatic and consular officers abroad.

ARTICLE III.

Until altered by the Volksraad, or other competent authority, all laws, whether passed before or after the annexation of the Transvaal territory to Her Majesty's dominions, shall, except in so far as they are inconsistent with or repugnant to the provisions of this Convention, be and remain in force in the said State in so far as they shall be applicable thereto, provided that no future enactment especially affecting the interest of natives shall have any force or effect in the said State, without the consent of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, first had and obtained and signified to the Government of the said State through the British Resident, provided further that in no case will the repeal or amendment of any laws enacted since the annexation have a retrospective effect, so as to invalidate any acts done or liabilities incurred by virtue of such laws.

ARTICLE IV.

On the 8th day of August, 1881, the Government of the said State, together with all rights and obligations thereto appertaining, and all State property taken over at the time of annexation, save and except munitions of war, will be handed over to Messrs. Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, Martinus Wessel Pretorius, and Petrus Jacobus Joubert, or the survivor or survivors of them, who will forthwith cause a Volksraad to be elected and convened, and the Volksraad, thus elected and convened, will decide as to the further administration of the Government of the said State.

ARTICLE V.

All sentences passed upon persons who may be convicted of offences contrary to the rules of civilized warfare committed during the recent hostilities will be duly carried out, and no alteration or mitigation of such sentences will be made or allowed by the Government of the Transvaal State without Her Majesty's consent conveyed through the British Resident. In case there shall be any prisoners in any of the gaols of the Transvaal State whose respective sentences of imprisonment have been remitted in part by Her Majesty's Administrator or other officer administering the Government, such remission will be recognized and acted upon by the future Government of the said State.

ARTICLE VI.

Her Majesty's Government will make due compensation for all losses or damage sustained by reason of such acts as are in the 8th Article hereinafter specified, which may have been committed by Her Majesty's forces during the recent hostilities, except for such losses or damage as may already have been compensated for, and the Government of the Transvaal State will make due compensation for all losses or damage sustained by reason of such acts as are in the 8th Article hereinafter specified which may have been committed by the people who were in arms against Her Majesty during the recent hostilities, except for such losses or damages as may already have been compensated for.

ARTICLE VII.

The decision of all claims for compensation, as in the last preceding Article mentioned, will be referred to a Sub-Commission, consisting of the Honourable George Hudson, the Honourable Jacobus Petrus de Wet, and the Honourable John Gilbert Kotzé. In case one or more of such Sub-Commissioners shall be unable or unwilling to act, the remaining Sub-Commissioner or Sub-Commissioners will, after consultation with the Government of the Transvaal State, submit for the approval of Her Majesty's High Commissioners the names of one or more persons to be appointed by them to fill the place or places thus vacated. The decision of the said Sub-Commissioners, or of a majority of them, will be final. The said Sub-Commissioners will enter upon and perform their duties with all convenient speed. They will, before taking evidence or ordering evidence to be taken in respect of any claim, decide whether such claim can be entertained at all under the rules laid down in the next succeeding Article. In regard to claims which can be so entertained, the Sub-Commissioners will in the first instance afford every facility for an amicable arrangement as to the amount payable in respect of any claim, and only in cases in which there is no reasonable ground for believing that an immediate amicable arrangement can be arrived at will they take evidence or order evidence to be taken. For the purpose of taking evidence and reporting thereon, the Sub-Commissioners may appoint Deputies, who will, without delay, submit records of the evidence and their reports to the Sub-Commissioners. The Sub-Commissioners will arrange their sittings and the sittings of their Deputies in such a manner as to afford the earliest convenience to the parties concerned and their witnesses. In no case will costs be allowed to either side other than the actual and reasonable expenses of witnesses whose evidence is certified by the Sub-Commissioners to have been necessary. Interest will not run on the amount of any claim, except as is hereinafter provided for. The said Sub-Commissioners will forthwith, after deciding upon any claim, announce their decision to the Government against which the award is made and to the claimant. The amount of remuneration payable to the Sub-Commissioners and their Deputies will be determined by the High Commissioners. After all the claims have been decided upon, the British Government and the Government of the Transvaal State will pay proportionate shares of the said remuneration and of the expenses of the Sub-Commissioners and their Deputies, according to the amount awarded against them respectively.

ARTICLE VIII.

For the purpose of distinguishing claims to be accepted from those to be rejected, the Sub-Commissioners will be guided by the following rules, viz.:--Compensation will be allowed for losses or damage sustained by reason of the following acts committed during the recent hostilities, viz.: _(a)_ commandeering, seizure, confiscation, or destruction of property, or damage done to property; _(b)_ violence done or threats used by persons in arms. In regard to acts under _(a)_, compensation will be allowed for direct losses only. In regard to acts falling under _(b)_, compensation will be allowed for actual losses of property, or actual injury to the same proved to have been caused by its enforced abandonment. No claims for indirect losses, except such as are in this Article especially provided for, will be entertained. No claims which have been handed in to the Secretary of the Royal Commission after the 1st day of July, 1881, will be entertained, unless the Sub-Commissioners shall be satisfied that the delay was reasonable. When claims for loss of property are considered, the Sub-Commissioners will require distinct proof of the existence of the property, and that it neither has reverted nor will revert to the claimant.

ARTICLE IX.

The Government of the Transvaal State will pay and satisfy the amount of every claim awarded against it within one month after the Sub-Commissioners shall have notified their decision to the said Government, and in default of such payment the said Government will pay interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum from the date of such default; but Her Majesty's Government may at any time before such payment pay the amount, with interest, if any, to the claimant in satisfaction of his claim, and may add the sum thus paid to any debt which may be due by the Transvaal State to Her Majesty's Government, as hereinafter provided for.

ARTICLE X.

The Transvaal State will be liable for the balance of the debts for which the South African Republic was liable at the date of annexation, to wit, the sum of £48,000 in respect of the Cape Commercial Bank Loan, and £85,667 in respect of the Railway Loan, together with the amount due on 8th August, 1881, on account of the Orphan Chamber Debt, which now stands at £22,200, which debts will be a first charge upon the revenues of the State. The Transvaal State will, moreover, be liable for the lawful expenditure lawfully incurred for the necessary expenses of the Province since the annexation, to wit, the sum of £265,000, which debt, together with such debts as may be incurred by virtue of the 9th Article, will be a second charge upon the revenues of the State.

ARTICLE XI.

The debts due as aforesaid by the Transvaal State to Her Majesty's Government will bear interest at the rate of three and a half per cent., and any portion of such debt which may remain unpaid at the expiration of twelve months from the 8th August, 1881, shall be repayable by a payment for interest and sinking fund of six pounds and nine pence per cent, per annum, which will extinguish the debt in twenty-live years. The said payment of six pounds and nine pence per £100 shall be payable half yearly in British currency on the 8th February and 8th August in each year. Provided always that the Transvaal State shall pay in reduction of the said debt the sum of £100,000 within twelve months of the 8th August, 1881, and shall be at liberty at the close of any half-year to pay off the whole or any portion of the outstanding debt.

ARTICLE XII.

All persons holding property in the said State on the 8th day of August, 1881, will continue after the said date to enjoy the rights of property which they have enjoyed since the annexation. No person who has remained loyal to Her Majesty during the recent hostilities shall suffer any molestation by reason of his loyalty, or be liable to any criminal prosecution or civil action for any part taken in connection with such hostilities, and all such persons will have full liberty to reside in the country, with enjoyment of all civil rights, and protection for their persons and property.

ARTICLE XIII.

Natives will be allowed to acquire land, but the grant or transfer of such land will, in every case, be made to and registered in the name of the Native Location Commission, hereinafter mentioned, in trust for such natives.

ARTICLE XIV.

Natives will be allowed to move as freely within the country as may be consistent with the requirements of public order, and to leave it for the purpose of seeking employment elsewhere or for other lawful purposes, subject always to the pass laws of the said State, as amended by the Legislature of the Province, or as may hereafter be enacted under the provisions of the Third Article of this Convention.

ARTICLE XV.

There will continue to be complete freedom of religion and protection from molestation for all denominations, provided the same be not inconsistent with morality and good order, and no disability shall attach to any person in regard to rights of property by reason of the religious opinions which he holds.

ARTICLE XVI.

The provisions of the Fourth Article of the Sand River Convention are hereby reaffirmed, and no slavery or apprenticeship partaking of slavery will be tolerated by the Government of the said State.

ARTICLE XVII.

The British Resident will receive from the Government of the Transvaal State such assistance and support as can by law be given to him for the due discharge of his functions; he will also receive every assistance for the proper care and preservation of the graves of such of Her Majesty's forces as have died in the Transvaal, and if need be for the expropriation of land for the purpose.

ARTICLE XVIII.

The following will be the duties and functions of the British Resident:

_Sub-section_ 1.--He will perform duties and functions analogous to those discharged by a Chargé d'Affaires and Consul-General.

_Sub-section_ 2.--In regard to natives within the Transvaal State, he will (_a_) report to the High Commissioner, as representative of the Suzerain, as to the working and observance of the provisions of this Convention; (_b_) report to the Transvaal authorities any cases of ill-treatment of natives or attempts to incite natives to rebellion that may come to his knowledge; (_c_) use his influence with the natives in favour of law and order; and (_d_) generally perform such other duties as are by this Convention entrusted to him, and take such steps for the protection of the person and property of natives as are consistent with the laws of the land.

_Sub-section_ 3.--In regard to natives not residing in the Transvaal, (_a_) he will report to the High Commissioner and the Transvaal Government any encroachments reported to him as having been made by Transvaal residents upon the land of such natives, and in case of disagreement between the Transvaal Government and the British Resident as to whether an encroachment had been made, the decision of the Suzerain will be final (_b_) the British Resident will be the medium of communication with native chiefs outside the Transvaal, and, subject to the approval of the High Commissioner, as representing the Suzerain, he will control the conclusion of treaties with them; and (_c_) he will arbitrate upon every dispute between Transvaal residents and natives outside the Transvaal (us to acts committed beyond the boundaries of the Transvaal) which may be referred to him by the parties interested.

_Sub-section_ 4.--In regard to communications with foreign Powers, the Transvaal Government will correspond with Her Majesty's Government through the British Resident and the High Commissioner.

ARTICLE XIX.

The Government of the Transvaal State will strictly adhere to the boundaries defined in the First Article of this Convention, and will do its utmost to prevent any of its inhabitants from making any encroachment upon lands beyond the said State. The Royal Commission will forthwith appoint a person who will beacon off the boundary line between Ramatlabama and the point where such line first touches Griqualand West boundary, midway between the Vaal and Hart rivers; the person so appointed will be instructed to make an arrangement between the owners of the farms Grootfontein and Valleifontein on the one hand, and the Barolong authorities on the other, by which a fair share of the water supply of the said farms shall be allowed to flow undisturbed to the said Barolongs.

ARTICLE XX.

All grants or titles issued at any time by the Transvaal Government in respect of land outside the boundary of Transvaal State, as defined, Article I., shall be considered invalid and of no effect, except in so far as any such grant or title relates to land that falls within the boundary of the Transvaal State, and all persons holding any such grant so considered invalid and of no effect will receive from the Government of the Transvaal State such compensation either in land or in money as the Volksraad shall determine. In all cases in which any native chiefs or other authorities outside the said boundaries have received any adequate consideration from the Government of the former South African Republic for land excluded from the Transvaal by the First Article of this Convention, or where permanent improvements have been made on the land, the British Resident will, subject to the approval of the High Commissioner, use his influence to recover from the native authorities fair compensation for the loss of the land thus excluded, and of the permanent improvement thereon.

ARTICLE XXI.

Forthwith, after the taking effect of this Convention, a Native Location Commission will be constituted, consisting of the President, or in his absence the Vice-President of the State, or some one deputed by him, the Resident, or some one deputed by him, and a third person to be agreed upon by the President or the Vice-President, as the case may be, and the Resident, and such Commission will be a standing body for the performance of the duties hereinafter mentioned.

ARTICLE XXII.

The Native Location Commission will reserve to the native tribes of the State such locations as they may be fairly and equitably entitled to, due regard being had to the actual occupation of such tribes. The Native Location Commission will clearly define the boundaries of such locations, and for that purpose will, in every instance, first of all ascertain the wishes of the parties interested in such land. In case land already granted in individual titles shall be required for the purpose of any location, the owners will receive such compensation either in other land or in money as the Volksraad shall determine. After the boundaries of any location have been fixed, no fresh grant of land within such location will be made, nor will the boundaries be altered without the consent of the Location Commission. No fresh grants of land will be made in the districts of Waterberg, Zoutpansberg, and Lydenburg until the locations in the said districts respectively shall have been defined by the said Commission.

ARTICLE XXIII.

If not released before the taking effect of this Convention, Sikukuni, and those of his followers who have been imprisoned with him, will be forthwith released, and the boundaries of his location will be defined by the Native Location Commission in the manner indicated in the last preceding Article.

ARTICLE XXIV.

The independence of the Swazies within the boundary line of Swaziland, as indicated in the First Article of this Convention, will be fully recognized.

ARTICLE XXV.

No other or higher duties will be imposed on the importation into the Transvaal State of any article the produce or manufacture of the dominions and possessions of Her Majesty, from whatever place arriving, than are or may be payable on the like article the produce or manufacture of any other country, nor will any prohibition be maintained or imposed on the importation of any article the produce or manufacture of the dominions and possessions of Her Majesty, which shall not equally extend to the importation of the like articles being the produce or manufacture of any other country.

ARTICLE XXVI.

All persons other than natives conforming themselves to the laws of the Transvaal State (_a_) will have full liberty with their families to enter, travel, or reside in any part of the Transvaal State; (_b_) they will be entitled to hire or possess houses, manufactures, warehouses, shops, and premises; (_c_) they may carry on their commerce either in person or by any agents whom they may think to employ; (_d_) they will not be subject in respect of their persons or property, or in respect of their commerce or industry to any taxes, whether general or local, other than those which are or may be imposed upon Transvaal citizens.

ARTICLE XXVII.

All inhabitants of the Transvaal shall have free access to the Courts of Justice for the protection and defence of their rights.

ARTICLE XXVIII.

All persons other than natives who established their domicile in the Transvaal between the 12th day of April, 1877, and the date when this Convention comes into effect, and who shall within twelve months after such last-mentioned date have their names registered by the British Resident, shall be exempt from all compulsory military service whatever. The Resident shall notify such registration to the Government of the Transvaal State.

ARTICLE XXIX.

Provision shall hereafter be made by a separate instrument for the mutual extradition of criminals, and also for the surrender of deserters from Her Majesty's forces.

ARTICLE XXX.

All debts contracted since the annexation will be payable in the same currency in which they may have been contracted; all uncancelled postage and other revenue stamps issued by the Government since the annexation will remain valid, and will be accepted at their present value by the future Government of the State; all licenses duly issued since the annexation will remain in force during the period for which they may have been issued.

ARTICLE XXXI.

No grants of land which may have been made, and no transfer of mortgage which may have been passed since the annexation, will be invalidated by reason merely of their having been made or passed since that date. All transfers to the British Secretary for Native Affairs in trust for natives will remain in force, the Native Location Commission taking the place of such Secretary for Native Affairs.

ARTICLE XXXII.

This Convention will be ratified by a newly-elected Volksraad within the period of three months after its execution, and in default of such ratification this Convention shall be null and void.

ARTICLE XXXIII.

Forthwith, after the ratification of this Convention, as in the last preceding Article mentioned, all British troops in Transvaal territory will leave the same, and the mutual delivery of munitions of war will be carried out. Articles end. Here will follow signatures of Royal Commissioners, then the following to precede signatures of triumvirate.

We, the undersigned, Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, Martinus Wessel Pretorius, and Petrus Jacobus Joubert, as representatives of the Transvaal Burghers, do hereby agree to all the above conditions, reservations, and limitations under which self-government has been restored to the inhabitants of the Transvaal territory, subject to the suzerainty of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, and we agree to accept the Government of the said territory, with all rights and obligations thereto appertaining, on the 8th day of August; and we promise and undertake that this Convention shall be ratified by a newly-elected Volksraad of the Transvaal State within three months from this date.

APPENDIX B.

LONDON CONVENTION.

A CONVENTION BETWEEN HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.

_February, 1884._

Whereas the Government of the Transvaal State, through its Delegates, consisting of Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, President of the said State, Stephanus Jacobus Du Toit, Superintendent of Education, and Nicholas Jacobus Smit, a member of the Volksraad, have represented that the Convention signed at Pretoria on the 3rd day of August, 1881, and ratified by the Volksraad of the said State on the 25th October, 1881, contains certain provisions which are inconvenient, and imposes burdens and obligations from which the said State is desirous to be relieved, and that the south-western boundaries fixed by the said Convention should be amended, with a view to promote the peace and good order of the said State, and of the countries adjacent thereto; and whereas Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, has been pleased to take the said representations into consideration: Now, therefore, Her Majesty has been pleased to direct, and it is hereby declared, that the following articles of a new Convention, signed on behalf of Her Majesty by Her Majesty's High Commissioner in South Africa, the Right Honourable Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, Governor of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and on behalf of the Transvaal State (which shall hereinafter be called the South African Republic) by the above-named Delegates, Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, Stephanus Jacobus Du Toit, and Nicholas Jacobus Smit, shall, when ratified by the Volksraad of the South African Republic, be substituted for the articles embodied in the Convention of 3rd August, 1881; which latter, pending such ratification, shall continue in full force and effect.

ARTICLES.

ARTICLE I.

The Territory of the South African Republic will embrace the land lying between the following boundaries, to wit:

Beginning from the point where the north-eastern boundary line of Griqualand West meets the Vaal River, up the course of the Vaal River to the point of junction with it of the Klip River; thence up the course of the Klip River to the point of junction with it of the stream called Gansvlei; thence up the Gansvlei stream to its source in the Drakensberg; thence to a beacon in the boundary of Natal, situated immediately opposite and close to the source of the Gansvlei stream; thence in a north-easterly direction along the ridge of the Drakensberg, dividing the waters flowing into the Gansvlei stream from the waters flowing into the sources of the Buffalo, to a beacon on a point where this mountain ceases to be a continuous chain; thence to a beacon on a plain to the north-east of the last described beacon; thence to the nearest source of a small stream called 'Division Stream'; thence down this division stream, which forms the southern boundary of the farm Sandfontein, the property of Messrs. Meek, to its junction with the Coldstream; thence down the Coldstream to its junction with the Buffalo or Umzinyati River; thence down the course of the Buffalo River to the junction with it of the Blood River; thence up the course of the Blood River to the junction with it of Lyn Spruit or Dudusi; thence up the Dudusi to its source; thence 80 yards to Bea. I., situated on a spur of the N'Qaba-Ka-hawana Mountains; thence 80 yards to the N'Sonto River; thence down the N'Sonto River to its junction with the White Umvulozi River; thence up the White Umvulozi River to a white rock where it rises; thence 800 yards to Kambula Hill (Bea. II.); thence to the source of the Pemvana River, where the road from Kambula Camp to Burgers' Lager crosses; thence down the Pemvana River to its junction with the Bivana River; thence down the Bivana River to its junction with the Pongolo River; thence down the Pongolo River to where it passes through the Libombo Range; thence along the summits of the Libombo Range to the northern point of the N'Yawos Hill in that range (Bea. XVI); thence to the northern peak of the Inkwakweni Hills (Bea. XV.); thence to Sefunda, a rocky knoll detached from and to the north-east end of the White Koppies, and to the south of the Musana River (Bea. XIX.); thence to a point on the slope near the crest of Matanjeni, which is the name given to the south-eastern portion of the Mahamba Hills (Bea. XIII.); thence to the N'gwangwana, a double-pointed hill (one point is bare, the other wooded, the beacon being on the former) on the left bank of the Assegai River and upstream of the Dadusa Spruit (Bea. XII.); thence to the southern point of Bendita, a rocky knoll in a plain between the Little Hlozane and Assegai Rivers (Bea. XI.); thence to the highest point of Suluka Hill, round the eastern slopes of which flows the Little Hlozane, also called Ludaka or Mudspruit (Bea. X.); thence to the beacon known as 'Viljoen's,' or N'Duko Hill; thence to a point north-east of Derby House, known as Magwazidili's Beacon; thence to the Igaba, a small knoll on the Ungwempisi River, also called 'Joubert's Beacon,' and known to the natives as 'Piet's Beacon' (Bea. IX.); thence to the highest point of the N'Dhlovudwalili or Houtbosch, a hill on the northern bank of the Umqwempisi River (Bea. VIII.); thence to a beacon on the only flat-topped rock, about 10 feet high and about 30 yards in circumference at its base, situated on the south side of the Lamsamane range of hills, and overlooking the valley of the great Usuto River; this rock being 45 yards north of the road from Camden and Lake Banagher to the forests on the Usuto River (sometimes called Sandhlanas Beacon) (Bea. VII.); thence to the Gulungwana or Ibubulundi, four smooth bare hills, the highest in that neighbourhood, situated to the south of the Umtuli River (Bea. VI.), thence to a flat-topped rock, 8 feet high, on the crest of the Busuku, a low rocky range south-west of the Impulazi River (Bea. V.); thence to a low bare hill on the north-east of, and overlooking the Impulazi River, to the south of it being a tributary of the Impulazi, with a considerable waterfall, and the road from the river passing 200 yards to the north-west of the beacon (Bea. IV.); thence to the highest point of the Mapumula range, the water-shed of the Little Usuto River on the north, and the Umpulazi River on the south, the hill, the top of which is a bare rock, falling abruptly towards the Little Usuto (Bea. III.); thence to the western point of a double-pointed rocky hill, precipitous on all sides, called Makwana, its top being a bare rock (Bea. II.); thence to the top of a rugged hill of considerable height falling abruptly to the Komati River, this hill being the northern extremity of the Isilotwani range, and separated from the highest peak of the range Inkomokazi (a sharp cone) by a deep neck (Bea. I.). (On a ridge in the straight line between Beacons I. and II. is an intermediate beacon.) From Beacon I. the boundary runs to a hill across the Komati River, and thence along the crest of the range of hills known as the Makongwa, which runs north-east and south-west, to Kamhlubana Peak; thence in a straight line to Mananga, a point in the Libombo range, and thence to the nearest point in the Portuguese frontier on the Libombo range; thence along the summits of the Libombo range to the middle of the poort where the Komati River passes through it, called the lowest Komati Poort; thence in a north by easterly direction to Pokioens Kop, situated on the north side of the Olifant's River, where it passes through the ridges; thence about north-north-west to the nearest point of Serra di Chicundo; and thence to the junction of the Pafori River with the Limpopo or Crocodile River; thence up the course of the Limpopo River to the point where the Marique River falls into it. Thence up the course of the Marique River to 'Derde Poort,' where it passes through a low range of hills, called Sikwane, a beacon (No. 10) being erected on the spur of said range near to, and westward of, the banks of the river; thence, in a straight line, through this beacon to a beacon (No. 9), erected on the top of the same range, about 1,700 yards distant from beacon No. 10; thence, in a straight line, to a beacon (No. 8) erected on the highest point of an isolated hill, called Dikgagong, or 'Wildebeest Kop,' situated south-eastward of, and about 3-1/3 miles distant from a high hill, called Moripe; thence, in a straight line, to a beacon (No. 7) erected on the summit of an isolated hill or 'koppie' forming the eastern extremity of the range of hills called Moshweu, situated to the northward of, and about two miles distant from, a large isolated hill called Chukudu-Chochwa; thence, in a straight line, to a beacon (No. 6) erected on the summit of a hill forming part of the same range, Moshweu; thence, in a straight line, to a beacon (No. 5) erected on the summit of a pointed hill in the same range; thence, in a straight line, to a beacon (No. 4) erected on the summit of the western extremity of the same range; thence, in a straight line, to a beacon (No. 3) erected on the summit of the northern extremity of a low, bushy hill, or 'koppie,' near to and eastward of the Notwane River; thence, in a straight line, to the junction of the stream called Metsi-Mashware with the Notwane River (No. 2); thence up the course of the Notwane River to Sengoma, being the poort where the river passes through the Dwarsberg range; thence, as described in the Award given by Lieutenant-Governor Keate, dated October 17, 1871, by Pitlanganyane (narrow place), Deboaganka or Schaapkuil, Sibatoul (bare place), and Maclase, to Ramatlabama, a pool on a spruit north of the Molopo River. From Ramatlabama the boundary shall run to the summit of an isolated hill called Leganka; thence, in a straight line, passing north-east of a Native Station, near 'Buurman's Drift,' on the Molopo River, to that point on the road from Mosiega to the old drift, where a road turns out through the Native Station to the new drift below; thence to 'Buurman's Old Drift'; thence, in a straight line, to a marked and isolated clump of trees near to and north-west of the dwelling-house of C. Austin, a tenant on the farm 'Vleifontein,' No. 117; thence, in a straight line, to the north-western corner beacon of the farm 'Mooimeisjesfontein,' No 30; thence, along the western line of the said farm 'Mooimeisjesfontein,' and in prolongation thereof, as far as the road leading from 'Ludik's Drift,' on the Molopo River, past the homestead of 'Mooimeisjesfontein,' towards the Salt Pans near Harts River; thence, along the said road, crossing the direct road from Polfontein to Sehuba, and until the direct road from Polfontein to Lotlakane or Pietfontein is reached; thence, along the southern edge of the last-named road towards Lotlakane, until the first garden ground of that station is reached; thence, in a south-westerly direction, skirting Lotlakane, so as to leave it and all its garden ground in native territory, until the road from Lotlakane to Kunana is reached; thence along the east side, and clear of that road towards Kunana, until the garden grounds of that station are reached; thence, skirting Kunana, so as to include it and all its garden ground, but no more, in the Transvaal, until the road from Kunana to Mamusa is reached; thence, along the eastern side and clear of the road towards Mamusa, until a road turns out towards Taungs; thence, along the eastern side and clear of the road towards Taungs, till the line of the district known as 'Stellaland' is reached, about 11 miles from Taungs; thence, along the line of the district Stellaland, to the Harts River, about 24 miles below Mamusa; thence, across Harts River, to the junction of the roads from Monthe and Phokwane; thence, along the western side and clear of the nearest road towards 'Koppie Enkel,' an isolated hill about 36 miles from Mamusa, and about 18 miles north of Christiana, and to the summit of the said hill; thence, in a straight line, to that point on the north-east boundary of Griqualand West as beaconed by Mr. Surveyor Ford, where two farms, registered as Nos. 72 and 75, do meet, about midway between the Vaal and Harts Rivers, measured along the said boundary of Griqualand West; thence to the first point where the north-east boundary of Griqualand West meets the Vaal River.

ARTICLE II.

The Government of the South African Republic will strictly adhere to the boundaries defined in the first Article of this Convention, and will do its utmost to prevent any of its inhabitants from making any encroachments upon lands beyond the said boundaries. The Government of the South African Republic will appoint Commissioners upon the eastern and western borders, whose duty it will be strictly to guard against irregularities and all trespassing over the boundaries. Her Majesty's Government will if necessary appoint Commissioners in the native territories outside the eastern and western borders of the South African Republic to maintain order and prevent encroachments.

Her Majesty's Government and the Government of the South African Republic will each appoint a person to proceed together to beacon off the amended south-west boundary as described in Article I of this Convention; and the President of the Orange Free State shall be requested to appoint a referee to whom the said persons shall refer any questions on which they may disagree respecting the interpretation of the said Article, and the decision of such referee thereon shall be final. The arrangement already made, under the terms of Article 19 of the Convention of Pretoria, of the 3rd August, 1881, between the owners of the farms Grootfontein and Valleifontein on the one hand, and the Barolong authorities on the other, by which a fair share of the water supply of the said farms shall be allowed to flow undisturbed to the said Barolongs, shall continue in force.

ARTICLE III.

If a British officer is appointed to reside at Pretoria or elsewhere within the South African Republic to discharge functions analogous to those of a Consular officer, he will receive the protection and assistance of the Republic.

ARTICLE IV.

The South African Republic will conclude no treaty or engagement with any State or nation other than the Orange Free State, nor with any native tribe to the eastward or westward of the Republic, until the same has been approved by Her Majesty the Queen.

Such approval shall be considered to have been granted if Her Majesty's Government shall not, within six months after receiving a copy of such treaty (which shall be delivered to them immediately upon its completion), have notified that the conclusion of such treaty is in conflict with the interests of Great Britain or of any of Her Majesty's possessions in South Africa.

ARTICLE V.

The South African Republic will be liable for any balance which may still remain due of the debts for which it was liable at the date of Annexation--to wit, the Cape Commercial Bank Loan, the Railway Loan, and the Orphan Chamber Debt--which debts will be a first charge upon the revenues of the Republic. The South African Republic will moreover be liable to her Majesty's Government for £250,000, which will be a second charge upon the revenues of the Republic.

ARTICLE VI.

The debt due as aforesaid by the South African Republic to Her Majesty's Government will bear interest at the rate of three and a half per cent, from the date of the ratification of this Convention, and shall be repayable by a payment for interest and Sinking Fund of six pounds and ninepence per £100 per annum, which will extinguish the debt in twenty-five years. The said payment of six pounds and ninepence per £100 shall be payable half-yearly in British currency at the close of each half-year from the date of such ratification: Provided always that the South African Republic shall be at liberty at the close of any half-year to pay off the whole or any portion of the outstanding debt.

Interest at the rate of three and a half per cent, on the debt as standing under the Convention of Pretoria shall as heretofore be paid to the date of the ratification of this Convention.

ARTICLE VII.

All persons who held property in the Transvaal on the 8th day of August 1881 and still hold the same, will continue to enjoy the rights of property which they have enjoyed since the 12th April, 1877. No person who has remained loyal to Her Majesty during the late hostilities shall suffer any molestation by reason of his loyalty; or be liable to any criminal prosecution or civil action for any part taken in connection with such hostilities; and all such persons will have full liberty to reside in the country, with enjoyment of all civil rights, and protection for their persons and property.

ARTICLE VIII.

The South African Republic renews the declaration made in the Sand River Convention, and in the Convention of Pretoria, that no slavery or apprenticeship partaking of slavery will be tolerated by the Government of the said Republic.

ARTICLE IX.

There will continue to be complete freedom of religion and protection from molestation for all denominations, provided the same be not inconsistent with morality and good order; and no disability shall attach to any person in regard to rights of property by reason of the religious opinions which he holds.

ARTICLE X.

The British Officer appointed to reside in the South African Republic will receive every assistance from the Government of the said Republic in making due provision for the proper care and preservation of the graves of such of Her Majesty's Forces as have died in the Transvaal; and, if need be, for the appropriation of land for the purpose.

ARTICLE XI.

All grants or titles issued at any time by the Transvaal Government in respect of land outside the boundary of the South African Republic, as defined in Article I, shall be considered invalid and of no effect, except in so far as any such grant or title relates to land that falls within the boundary of the South African Republic; and all persons holding any such grant so considered invalid and of no effect will receive from the Government of the South African Republic such compensation, either in land or in money, as the Volksraad shall determine. In all cases in which any Native Chiefs or other authorities outside the said boundaries have received any adequate consideration from the Government of the South African Republic for land excluded from the Transvaal by the first Article of this Convention, or where permanent improvements have been made on the land, the High Commissioner will recover from the native authorities fair compensation for the loss of the land thus excluded, or of the permanent improvements thereon.

ARTICLE XII.

The independence of the Swazis, within the boundary line of Swaziland, as indicated in the first Article of this Convention, will be fully recognized.

ARTICLE XIII.

Except in pursuance of any treaty or engagement made as provided in Article 4 of this Convention, no other or higher duties shall be imposed on the importation into the South African Republic of any article coming from any part of Her Majesty's dominions than are or may be imposed on the like article coming from any other place or country; nor will any prohibition be maintained or imposed on the importation into the South African Republic of any article coming from any part of Her Majesty's dominions which shall not equally extend to the like article coming from any other place or country. And in like manner the same treatment shall be given to any article coming to Great Britain from the South African Republic as to the like article coming from any other place or country.

These provisions do not preclude the consideration of special arrangements as to import duties and commercial relations between the South African Republic and any of Her Majesty's colonies or possessions.

ARTICLE XIV.

All persons, other than natives, conforming themselves to the laws of the South African Republic _(a)_ will have full liberty, with their families, to enter, travel, or reside in any part of the South African Republic; _(b)_ they will be entitled to hire or possess houses, manufactories, warehouses, shops, and premises; _(c)_ they may carry on their commerce either in person or by any agents whom they may think fit to employ; _(d)_ they will not be subject, in respect of their persons or property, or in respect of their commerce or industry, to any taxes, whether general or local, other than those which are or may be imposed upon citizens of the said Republic.

ARTICLE XV.

All persons, other than natives, who established their domicile in the Transvaal between the 12th day of April, 1877, and the 8th August, 1881, and who within twelve months after such last-mentioned date have had their names registered by the British Resident, shall be exempt from all compulsory military service whatever.

ARTICLE XVI.

Provision shall hereafter be made by a separate instrument for the mutual extradition of criminals, and also for the surrender of deserters from Her Majesty's Forces.

ARTICLE XVII.

All debts contracted between the 12th April, 1877, and the 8th August, 1881, will be payable in the same currency in which they may have been contracted.

ARTICLE XVIII.

No grants of land which may have been made, and no transfers or mortgages which may have been passed between the 12th April, 1877, and the 8th August, 1881, will be invalidated by reason merely of their having been made or passed between such dates.

All transfers to the British Secretary for Native Affairs in trust for natives will remain in force, an officer of the South African Republic taking the place of such Secretary for Native Affairs.

ARTICLE XIX.

The Government of the South African Republic will engage faithfully to fulfil the assurances given, in accordance with the laws of the South African Republic, to the natives at the Pretoria Pitso by the Royal Commission in the presence of the Triumvirate and with their entire assent, (1) as to the freedom of the natives to buy or otherwise acquire land under certain conditions, (2) as to the appointment of a commission to mark out native locations, (3) as to the access of the natives to the courts of law, and (4) as to their being allowed to move freely within the country, or to leave it for any legal purpose, under a pass system.

ARTICLE XX.

This Convention will be ratified by a Volksraad of the South African Republic within the period of six months after its execution, and in default of such ratification this Convention shall be null and void.

Signed in duplicate in London this 27th day of February, 1884.

HERCULES ROBINSON. S.J.P. KRUGER. S.J. DU TOIT. N.J. SMIT.

APPENDIX C.

PRESIDENT KRUGER'S AFFAIRS IN THE RAADS.

1889.

PRESIDENT.

_July_.--His Honour accepts a loan of £7,000 from the State funds at 2-1/2 per cent. interest (current rate being about 6 per cent.).

1890.

_July 4_.--The PRESIDENT said: Mr. Taljaard yesterday threw in my teeth that I took advantage of my position to benefit my own relations. I assure you that I have not done anything of the kind. Unfortunately, one of my relatives who is a speculator has got a concession, which I am in duty bound to carry out. But I am deeply grieved that Mr. Taljaard said what he did say. In future, I can assure you not a single member of my family shall receive a single office. I will not even make one of them a constable. I have children myself, but I have left them on the farm rather than put them in office to draw money from the State.

1891.

_May_.--In answer to a request that President Kruger would allow his name to be used as patron of a ball in honour of Her Majesty's birthday:

SIR,

In reply to your favour of the 12th instant, requesting me to ask His Honour the State President to consent to his name being used as a patron of a ball to be given at Johannesburg on the 26th inst., I have been instructed to inform you that His Honour considers a ball as Baal's service, for which reason the Lord ordered Moses to kill all offenders; and as it is therefore contrary to His Honour's principles, His Honour cannot consent to the misuse of his name in such connection.

I have, etc., F. ELOFF, _Pr. Secretary._

1892.

FIRST RAAD.

PRESIDENT.

_May 24_.--It was resolved that a dam be constructed on the President's farm 'Geduld' at a cost of £4,500, at the expense of the Treasury.

SECOND RAAD.

The Public Works Department report that the road across the President's farm 'Geduld,' estimated to cost £1,500, had actually cost £5,000. Mr. MEYER stated that this road was of absolutely no use to anyone but the owner of the farm!

FIRST RAAD.

_June 15_.--Letter from Mr. Mare, Deacon, on behalf of the United Church, Pretoria, complaining that of the twelve erven given by Government to the Church, they had been deprived of four, which had been handed over to the President's Church, the Gerevoormede or Dopper, and two of these had again been transferred to the President himself.

_June 16_.--After a lengthy discussion it was resolved that the President is entirely exonerated. The Raad further expressed its disapproval of this conduct of a Christian Church, whose duty it should be to foster Christian love, and set an example to the burghers.

FIRST RAAD.

_August 2_.--A memorial was read from Lichtenburg, praying for a stringent investigation into the Report of the Estimates Committee of 1890, in which it was stated that of £140,000 spent on the Pretoria streets, vouchers for £22,000 were missing. The Raad decided on the President's stating that nothing was wrong with the accounts to send the memorialists a copy of the resolution of last year.

1893.

_July 17_.--The PRESIDENT said it was simply murdering the erection of factories to say there should be no concessions. He denied that factories could be erected without concessions. If the Raad wished to throw out all concessions, well and good. That simply meant the fostering of industries in other countries.

STANDS SCANDAL.{54}

_August 3_.--The PRESIDENT said that speculation, when fairly conducted, was justifiable, and the Government had acted according to the circumstances, and in the interests of the State. The Government had no private interests in view, but thought the sale was quite justifiable.

The Minister of Mines was then attacked for granting stands to Raad officials when higher offers had been made.

Footnote for Appendix C

{54} By this name is known the series of transactions in which Government land in Johannesburg was sold out of hand to certain private individuals at a nominal figure, many thousands of pounds below the then market value.

APPENDIX D.

VOLKSRAAD DEBATES.

_Extracts from the Published Reports._

1889.

_May 8_.--On the application of the Sheba G. M. Co. for permission to erect an aërial tram from the mine to the mill,

Mr. GROBLAAR asked whether an aërial tram was a balloon or whether it could fly through the air.

The only objection that the Chairman had to urge against granting the tram was that the Company had an English name, and that with so many Dutch ones available.

Mr. TALJAARD objected to the word 'participeeren' (participate) as not being Dutch, and to him unintelligible: 'I can't believe the word is Dutch; why have I never come across it in the Bible if it is?'

_June 18_.--On the application for a concession to treat tailings,

Mr. TALJAARD wished to know if the words 'pyrites' and 'concentrates' could not be translated into the Dutch language. He could not understand what it meant. He had gone to night-school as long as he had been in Pretoria, and even now he could not explain everything to his burghers. He thought it a shame that big hills should be made on ground under which there might be rich reefs, and which in future might be required for a market or outspan. He would support the recommendation on condition that the name of the quartz should be translated into Dutch, as there might be more in this than some of them imagined.

REDUCTION OF IMPORT DUTIES ON EATABLES.

_June 20_.--Mr. WOLMARANS said the diggers simply did not want to buy from the Boers; there was plenty of meat and bread in the land, and the Boers could not get good prices for their cattle.

Mr. VAN HEERDEN could not see how the inhabitants of the State would benefit in the least by lowering the tariff.

Messrs. LOMBAARD and WOLMARANS both declared that when duties were at their highest groceries etc. were at their cheapest.

Mr. TALJAARD thought that members who were in favour of lowering the tariff did not act for the benefit of the country.

1890.

_May 29_.--A discussion of considerable length took place on a petition from burghers of Gatsrand, Potchefstroom district, praying that at least two-thirds of the Government money now lying idle in the banks should be given out to agriculturists as loans, and the remainder for other purposes.

_July 2_.--His Honour was asked why he did not suppress all sweepstakes and races.

The PRESIDENT said gambling and lotteries were in conflict with the Word of God, but it was also the duty of man to have exercise and to exercise his horses. For that reason an exception had been made in the Bill as to horse-races, etc.

INCREASE OF OFFICIALS' SALARIES.

_July 7_.--The PRESIDENT supported the increase. He promised the Raad--and he had done this before--that whenever there was a falling off in the revenue, he would at once reduce the salaries. He had said this before, and if members did not believe him let them call him a liar at once.

1891.

SECOND RAAD.

_June 5_.--Mr. ESSELEN objected to minutes not being full enough.

Mr. TALJAARD accused Mr. Esselen of insulting the Raad.

A discussion ensued on minutes, in which certain proposals which had been rejected had not been incorporated. Several members said that the incorporation of proposals that had been rejected would entail some members being held up to the scorn of the public.

ESTIMATES.

_June 24_.--Two hundred vouchers were found to be missing from the yearly accounts, and no explanation could be given. Also £13,000 had been given on loan to the Boeren Winkel (Boer General Store--a private mercantile venture).

_July 27_.--Mr. MARE maintained that the Public Works were badly administered.

The PRESIDENT dashed down the papers in front of him and stalked out of the Raad, after emphatically denying that money had been wasted.

_July 27_.--At the debate on the question of appointing a State financier, who could among other things be held responsible for the disappearance of vouchers, the Auditor-General said that he did not want an official of that nature, who would be always snivelling about his books.

CLAUSE TWENTY-THREE OF THE GOLD LAW.

_August 5_.--The PRESIDENT said that owners of properties had quite sufficient privileges already, and he did not want to give them more.

Mr. LOMBAARD said the Gold Fields wanted too much. The revenue from the Gold Fields was already less than the expenditure. He was of opinion that the best course would be to let the Gold Fields go to the devil and look after themselves.

1892

SECOND RAAD.

_May 6._--Protracted discussion arose on the Postal Report, the Conservatives being opposed to erecting pillar-boxes in Pretoria on the ground that they were extravagant and effeminate.

OOM DYLE (Mr. TALJAARD) said that he could not see why people wanted to be always writing letters. He wrote none himself. In the days of his youth he had written a letter, and had not been afraid to travel fifty miles and more on horseback and by wagon to post it; and now people complained if they had to go one mile.

FIRST RAAD.

_May 21_.--On the question of abolishing the post of Minute-Keeper to the Executive the President fell into a passion with Mr. Loveday who thought a Minute-Keeper unnecessary, and left the Raad in a temper.

_June 13_.--The PRESIDENT said the reason why he did not subsidize some papers by giving them advertisements was that they did not defend the Government. It was the rule everywhere to give advertisements to papers which supported the Government.

PRESIDENT AND GENERAL.

_July 21_.--General JOUBERT tenders his resignation as Chairman of the Chicago Exhibition Committee. He had written again and again to the President and State Secretary for an intimation of the Government's intention with regard to the amount on the Estimates, but his communications were treated with silent contempt.

The PRESIDENT made a long speech, in which he said he felt great grief at being thus falsely charged by the General, who was also a member of the Executive. Still he would only bless those who spitefully used him and would not blacken the General.

SECOND RAAD.

_July 21_.--After the resolution had been taken on Mr. Van Niekerk's proposition regarding compensation for claims not yet worked out (Clause 60 of Gold Law), the PRESIDENT was still speaking, and objecting to the recording of Van Niekerk's objection to the passing of the Gold Law Clause Amendment, when Mr. ESSELEN called 'Order, Order!' several times.

The PRESIDENT said he was insulted by Mr. Esselen and would withdraw unless he apologized.

The Raad adjourned, as Mr. Esselen refused.

FIRST RAAD.

LOCUST EXTERMINATION.

_July 21_.--Mr. Roos said locusts were a plague, as in the days of King Pharaoh, sent by God, and the country would assuredly be loaded with shame and obloquy if it tried to raise its hand against the mighty hand of the Almighty.

Messrs. DECLERQ and STEENKAMP spoke in the same strain, quoting largely from the Scriptures.

The CHAIRMAN related a true story of a man whose farm was always spared by the locusts, until one day he caused some to be killed. His farm was then devastated.

Mr. STOOP conjured the members not to constitute themselves terrestrial gods and oppose the Almighty.

Mr. LUCAS MEYER raised a storm by ridiculing the arguments of the former speakers, and comparing the locusts to beasts of prey which they destroyed.

Mr. LABUSCHAGNE was violent. He said the locusts were quite different from beasts of prey. They were a special plague sent by God for their sinfulness.

_July 26_.--Mr. DE BEER attacking the railways said they were already beginning to eat the bitter fruits of them. He was thinking of trekking to Damaraland, and his children would trek still further into the wilderness out of the reach of the iron horse.

_August 16_.--Mr. DE BEER said he saw where all the opposition to duties came from. It was English blood boiling to protect English manufacture.

1893.

_June 21_.--A memorial was read from certain burghers of Waterberg about children beating their parents, and praying that such children should not be allowed to become officials of the State or sit in Volksraad!

Mr. DE BEER--the Member for Waterberg--who in the days of his hot youth is said to have given his father a sound thrashing, and is the one aimed at by the memorialists, denied all knowledge of the memorial.

CHARLESTOWN EXTENSION.

_August 24_.--Mr. WOLMARANS opposed the line, as it would compete with the Delagoa Bay Railway, for which the State was responsible.

Mr. LE CLERQ maintained that the Cape Free State line was against the interests of the burghers, as a tremendous number of cattle were brought into the State from outside countries.

Mr. MALAN said he would never vote for this line.

Mr. ROOS referred to the sacred voice of the people, which he said was against railways.

The extension was eventually approved of.

1894.

FIRST RAAD.

_May 14_.--A debate took place upon the clause that members should appear in the House clad in broadcloth and having white neckties.

Mr. JAN DE BEER complained of the lack of uniformity in neckties. Some wore a Tom Thumb variety, and others wore scarves. This was a state of things to be deplored, and he considered that the Raad should put its foot down and define the size and shape of neckties.

JAM CONCESSION.

_August 28_.--The PRESIDENT said he was against concessions generally speaking, but there were cases where exceptions should be made. There was for instance the Jam Concession. The manufacture of jam ought to be protected.

REDUCTION OF POSTAGE FROM TWOPENCE TO ONE PENNY THROUGHOUT THE REPUBLIC.

_August 22_.--Mr. WOLMARANS opposed the reduction, saying the Postal Department would probably show a deficit at the end of the year. And besides who would benefit? Certainly not the farmers.

Mr. LOMBAARD also was against the reduction.

Mr. DE LA REY said speculators could afford to pay the present rates of postage, and as the reduction would only benefit the townspeople, let matters remain unaltered. If he resided in a town and speculated he would be able to pay twopence.

Mr. SCHUTTE said the Postal Department was run at a loss at present, and if they further reduced the tariff things would go very badly with them.

Reduction rejected, 13 to 9.

INCREASE OF REPRESENTATION.

_September 6_.--The PRESIDENT throughout the debate maintained that there was no advantage to be gained by increased representation, and that business could be more quickly transacted with a small number of members. He disagreed with those members who wished to give big towns representatives as the Raad would be swamped with town members.

After the rejection of various proposals the PRESIDENT rose and pointed out it would mean ruination to the country if the Raad resolved to increase the number of the members, and amidst some confusion he left, declining to occupy the Presidential chair, muttering that the Raad was large enough already and if it were increased it would be a shame.

EDUCATION QUESTION.

_September 7_.--The Committee reported that a number of memorials had been received, praying that more hours weekly should be devoted to the English language. Counter memorials had also been received. The Committee advised the Raad not to grant the request of more hours for English.

Mr. LOMBAARD thought the Raad was bound to refuse the request, and it would be useless to discuss the matter.

Mr. DE BEER could see no harm in granting the request, in fact it was their duty to do so.

Mr. SPIES considered there was no necessity to teach English in the State. Trade did not require it, and they could get on very well without English. Let the English remain in their own country.

The PRESIDENT was opposed to extending the hours. He did not object to English being taught, but then it must not interfere with the language of the country to the prejudice of the latter language. He had schools upon his farm, and parents objected to their children being taught English in those schools. After a very little while they could write English as well as or better than their own language, and neglected Dutch for English. _The Dutch language could not be maintained against English in competition._

Mr. WOLMARANS also spoke against the English language saying that if they went through the list of those who had signed the memorial for the annexation of the Transvaal by the English, they would find without exception that those who signed were English-speaking. He was against children being taught English so early, as when they were taught young their minds became poisoned with English views.

Mr. OTTO agreed with the spirit of the Committee's report. This was a Dutch country, with Dutch laws, and why should they be asked to exchange the Dutch language for the English? What had the English done for the country that this should be asked?

The CHAIRMAN thought many members made too much of the English language already. One language was sufficient, and if a man was properly educated in his own tongue that should suffice.

Mr. LE CLERQ and Mr. PRINSLOO both cautioned the Raad against foreign languages in their schools.

Mr. LOVEDAY pointed out the absurdity of saying that the National Independence depended upon one language only being used, and pointed to the American and Swiss Republics as examples.

Mr. LOMBAARD in the course of a violent speech said those people who wanted English taught in the State-aided schools were aiming at the independence of the State. They wanted to bring dissension in the midst of the burghers by teaching new and wrong ideas, and they became indignant because the burghers would not allow it. He was ashamed that members should argue in favour of injuring their independence: English should not be taught in the State-aided schools.

The law remained unaltered by 12 to 10.

1895.

_July 26_.--The matter of purchasing diamond drills cropping up, the PRESIDENT said it was true that the two industries mining and agriculture went hand in hand, but it must be remembered that every fresh goldfield opened meant a fresh stream of people and extra expenses. He hoped the Raad would excuse him referring to it, but the Raad took away the revenue and still asked for money. There was the reduction of postage; now it was asked to spend money on boring machines, when each new field meant so much extra expense. Machines for water boring were cheap and not fitted with diamonds like those for mining, which required to be handled by experts. It must be remembered that money voted for agricultural purposes was spent here, while for the gold industry it was sent away. The Raad must be careful how the money was voted.

FIRST RAAD.

FIRING AT THE CLOUDS TO BRING DOWN RAIN CONSIDERED IMPIOUS.

_August 5_.--A memorial was read from Krugersdorp praying that the Raad would pass a law to prohibit the sending up of bombs into the clouds to bring down rain, as it was a defiance of God and would most likely bring down a visitation from the Almighty.

The Memorial Committee reported that they disapproved of such a thing, but at the same time they did not consider they could make a law on the subject.

Mr. A.D. WOLMARANS said he was astonished at this advice, and he expected better from the Commission. If one of their children fired towards the clouds with a revolver they would thrash him. Why should they permit people to mock at the Almighty in this manner? It was terrible to contemplate. He hoped that the Raad would take steps to prevent such things happening.

The CHAIRMAN (who is also a member of the Memorial Commission) said the Commission thought that such things were only done for a wager.

Mr. ERASMUS said they were not done for a wager but in real earnest. People at Johannesburg actually thought that they could bring down the rain from the clouds by firing cannons at them.

Mr. JAN MEYER said such things were actually done in Johannesburg. Last year during the drought men were engaged to send charges of dynamite into the clouds. They fired from the Wanderers' Ground and from elsewhere, but without result. Then some one went to Germiston and fired at a passing cloud; but there was no rain. The cloud sailed away, and the heavens became clear and beautifully blue. He had reported the matter to the Government.

Mr. DU TOIT (Carolina) said he had heard that there were companies in Europe which employed numbers of men to do nothing but shoot at the clouds simply to bring down rain. It was wonderful that men could think of doing such things; they ought to be prohibited here. He did not consider that the Raad would be justified in passing a law on the subject, however; but he thought all the same that they should express their strongest disapproval of such practices.

Mr. BIRKENSTOCK ridiculed the idea of people forcing rain from the clouds. In some of the Kaffir countries they had witch-doctors who tried to bring down rain; whether they succeeded or not was a different matter. Still, if people were foolish enough to try and force the clouds to discharge rain, the Legislature ought not to interfere to prevent them. He did not agree with the idea of firing at the clouds, but did not consider that an Act should be passed to prevent it.

The CHAIRMAN said if such things were actually done--and he was unaware of it--those who did it ought to be prevented from repeating it.

After a further discussion, Mr. A.D. WOLMARANS moved: 'That this Raad, considering the memorial now on the Order, resolves to agree with the same, and instructs the Government to take the necessary steps to prevent a repetition of the occurrences referred to.'

SECOND RAAD.

BARMAIDS.

The article for the abolition of barmaids was dealt with.

Mr. WATKINS declared himself strongly against such an article. He could not see why females should be prevented from dispensing liquor. Such a clause would prevent many respectable young women from making a living.

Mr. PRETORIUS said there were many memorials on this subject, and in compliance with the wish expressed therein the article was inserted in the Liquor Law. Of course, it was for the Raad to decide.

Mr. RENSBURG spoke strongly against the clause. According to it the proprietor's wife would be prevented from going behind the counter. He would not deny that there were some barmaids who were not strictly virtuous, but to accuse them as a class of being dangerous was going too far. Many of the memorials were signed by women. These memorials were drawn by men whom he considered were hypocrites, and they ought to be ashamed of themselves for their narrow-mindedness.

Mr. VAN STADEN said he did not like to take the bread out of the mouths of a great many women.

Mr. KOENIG suggested that they could become chambermaids.

APPENDIX E.

MALABOCH.

_September 4_.--An Executive resolution was read, stating that the Executive had decided to deprive Malaboch of his rights of chieftainship, and keep him in the custody of the Government, and that his tribe be broken up and apprenticed out to burghers, each burgher applying to have one or two families upon payment of £3 per family per annum. The Executive wished the Raad to approve of this; the Government had the right to do this according to law. This was without prejudice to the trial before the High Court. Perhaps when the Krijgsraad assembled it would be decided to try him before the High Court on charges of murder and rebellion.

Mr. JEPPE thought this was a matter for the High Court, and counselled the Raad to adopt that course, giving the chief a public trial.

The PRESIDENT said the Executive acted strictly in accordance with the law; it was not necessary for the Government to send the case to the High Court, as it had the power to decide native cases. For instance, in the case of Lo Bengula and his headmen, they were not tried by any High Court.

Mr. MEYER thought they should give Malaboch a fair trial.

Finally Mr. MEYER moved, and Mr. JEPPE seconded, that Executive resolution be accepted for notice.

APPENDIX F.

THE GREAT FRANCHISE DEBATE.

The following extract is made from the Report of the great Franchise Debate, published in the Johannesburg _Star_, August 17, 1895:

EXTENSION OF THE FRANCHISE.--MONSTER UITLANDER PETITIONS.--WHAT THE BURGHERS WISH.

Petitions were read praying for the extension of the franchise. The petitioners pointed out that they were all residents in the Republic, that the increase of the wealth of the country and the status of the country were due to their energy and wealth, that the number of the non-enfranchised far exceeded the number of the burghers, that taxation was so arranged that the non-enfranchised bore four-fifths of the taxes. The memorialists pointed out that one of the Republican principles was equality, but that notwithstanding the numerously signed memorials the Raad decided last year to make the Franchise Law so stringent that a new-comer could never obtain the franchise, and his children could only obtain it under severe conditions. They pointed out the danger of this, and prayed for admission under reasonable conditions.

The petitions came from every part of the country, including all the Boer strongholds, and some were signed by influential officials. One petition from Johannesburg was signed by 32,479 persons, and the total signatures amounted to 35,483.

Memorials to the same effect were read from a large number of farming districts, signed by 993 full burghers, who were anxious that the franchise should be extended to law-abiding citizens. These memorials contained the names of prominent farmers. There were nineteen of these last-named memorials, four of which came from different parts of the Pretoria district and three from Potchefstroom.

A memorial was read from Lydenburg, suggesting that ten years' residence in the country and obedience to the law be the qualification. This was signed by about a hundred burghers.

A number of memorials were read from Rustenberg, Waterberg, Piet Retief, Utrecht, Middelberg, Zoutpansberg, and Krugersdorp, signed by about 500 burghers, stating that while they valued the friendship of the peace-abiding Uitlanders they petitioned the Raad not to extend the franchise or alter last year's law.

A memorial from Krugersdorp was to the effect that the franchise should not be extended until absolutely necessary, and then only in terms of Art. 4 of the Franchise Law of 1894. This was signed by thirteen persons.

One was read from the Apies River and Standerton, praying that the children of Uitlanders born here should not be granted the franchise.

Memorials from other places, with 523 signatures, prayed that the existing Franchise Law should be strictly enforced.

Several petitions against the prohibition of the Election Committee were read.

A further memorial from the Rand was read, containing 5,152 signatures, pointing out that they objected to the memorial issued by the National Union, and they wanted the system of one-man-one-vote and the ballot system adopted before they asked for the franchise.

THE COMMITTEE'S RECOMMENDATIONS.

The Memorial Committee recommended that the law remain unaltered, because the memorials signed by full burghers requested no extension to take place.

Mr. LUCAS MEYER, who was chairman of the Memorial Commission, submitted a report, stating that he was in the minority and differed from his fellow-committeemen. There was not a single member of the Raad who would use his powers more towards maintaining the independence of the country than himself, but he was fully convinced that the Raad had as bounden duty to propose an alteration to last year's law. Proposals to do so had to emanate from the Raad. A large majority of memorialists who prayed for the extension were not burghers, but even those burghers who petitioned the Raad against the extension asked the Raad not to do so at present. That showed that they were convinced that sooner or later the extension would have to take place--cautiously perhaps, but the extension would come. Even the committee, the majority of whom were against him, recognised this. He repeated that it was his opinion that the time would come. Let the Raad then submit the proposal to the country, and if the majority of the burghers were against it, the Raad would have to stand or fall with the burghers; but at any rate they would be acting according to the will of the country, and could not be blamed for possible consequences. Recently the President said something had to be done to admit a portion of the people who were behind the dam, before the stream became so strong that the walls would be washed away and the country immersed in water. He hoped the Raad would favourably consider his proposal.

Mr. TOSEN said that when the proposals came to extend the franchise, such proposals had to come from old burghers, and so far the old burghers had not signified their willingness that this should be done. On the contrary, a large number of them were against it. They did not wish to exclude the new-comers for all eternity, but just now they should make no concession. It stood to reason that the new-comers could not have so much interest in the country as the old inhabitants. He cautioned the Raad against accepting the recommendations of Mr. Meyer. _It would be contrary to Republican principles_. Yes, he repeated it would be contrary to the principles of Republicanism, and were newcomers admitted to the franchise the old burghers would be deprived of all their rights. They would not dare to vote or exercise any of their privileges. Those persons who signed the petition for the franchise said they were peaceful and law-abiding citizens, _but they gave a sign that they were not law-abiding, because they were against the law. The Election Law was there, and they should abide by it._

The CHAIRMAN called the speaker to order and advised him to keep to the point, whether it was desirable to extend the franchise or not.

Mr. TOSEN said he was cut short, but in a few words he would say that he would resist to the bitter end any attempt to alter the law as it at present stood. He spoke on behalf of his constituents and himself.

Mr. JEPPE, in the course of his speech, said: Who are the people who now demand from us a reasonable extension of the franchise? There are to begin with almost a thousand old burghers who consent to such extension. There are in addition 890 petitioners, also old burghers, who complain that the franchise has been narrowed by recent legislation. There are 5,100, chiefly from the Rand, who ask for extension subject to the ballot, the principle of which has already been adopted by you, and there is lastly a monster petition, bearing 35,700 names, chiefly from the Rand goldfields: and in passing I may mention that I have convinced myself that the signatures to it, with very few exceptions perhaps are undoubtedly genuine. Well, this petition has been practically signed by the entire population of the Rand. There are not three hundred people of any standing whose names do not appear there. It contains the name of the millionaire capitalist on the same page as that of the carrier or miner, that of the owner of half a district next to that of a clerk, and the signature of the merchant who possesses stores in more than one town of this Republic next to that of the official. It embraces also all nationalities: the German merchant, the doctor from Capetown, the English director, the teacher from the Paarl--they all have signed it. So have--and that is significant--old burghers from the Free State, whose fathers with yours reclaimed this country; and it bears too the signatures of some who have been born in this country, who know no other fatherland than this Republic, but whom the law regards as strangers. Then too there are the newcomers. They have settled for good: they have built Johannesburg, one of the wonders of the age, now valued at many millions sterling, and which, in a few short years, will contain from a hundred to a hundred and fifty thousand souls; they own half the soil, they pay at least three-quarters of the taxes. Nor are they persons who belong to a subservient race. They come from countries where they freely exercised political rights which can never be long denied to free-born men. They are, in short, men who in capital, energy and education are at least our equals. All these persons are gathered together, thanks to our law, into one camp. Through our own act this multitude, which contains elements which even the most suspicious amongst us would not hesitate to trust, is compelled to stand together, and so to stand in this most fatal of all questions in antagonism to us. Is that fact alone not sufficient to warn us and to prove how unstatesmanlike our policy is? What will we do with them now? Shall we convert them into friends or shall we send them away empty, dissatisfied, embittered? What will our answer be? Dare we refer them to the present law, which first expects them to wait for fourteen years and even then pledges itself to nothing, but leaves everything to a Volksraad which cannot decide until 1905? It is a law which denies all political rights even to their children born in this country. Can they gather any hope from that? Is not the fate of the petition of Mr. Justice Morice, whose request, however reasonable, could not be granted except by the alteration of the law published for twelve months and consented to by two-thirds of the entire burgher population, a convincing proof how untenable is the position which we have assumed? Well, should we resolve now to refuse this request, what will we do when as we well know must happen it is repeated by two hundred thousand one day. You will all admit the doors must be opened. What will become of us or our children on that day, when we shall find ourselves in a minority of perhaps one in twenty, without a single friend amongst the other nineteen, amongst those who will then tell us they wished to be brothers, but that we by our own act made them strangers to the Republic? Old as the world is, has an attempt like ours ever succeeded for long? Shall we say as a French king did that things will last our time, and after that we reck not the deluge? Again I ask what account is to be given to our descendants and what can be our hope in the future?

Mr. DE CLERCQ opposed the extension.

Mr. JAN DE BEER said he could not agree to the prayer for extension. The burghers would decide time enough when the dam was too full, or when fresh water was wanted. He had gone through the memorials, and some that wished an extension were unknown to him, even those who signed from his district. Very few persons were in favour of the extension. If the burghers wished it he would give it, he would agree to it. The people coolly asked the Raad to extend the franchise to 80,000 persons, men who were not naturalized and had nothing to lose. He did not mind extending the franchise to a few. When it was a small case he did not object, but when it came to giving away their birthright wholesale he kicked. He did not object to give the burgher right to _persons who shot Kaffirs_, or he had better say, persons who went into the native wars on behalf of the Transvaal, because they shed their blood for the country; but people who came here only to make money and that only did not deserve the franchise. Let them look at that book of signatures on the table with the 70,000 names. Who were they? (Laughter, and cries of 'Too much.') Well, 38,000 then. He had 'too much.' They were the persons, the millionaires side by side with mining workers whom Mr. Jeppe spoke of, but where did they find these people side by side? Nowhere! No, he would not grant an extension of the franchise.

The PRESIDENT said he wished to say a few words on the subject, and the first thing he had to say was that those persons who signed the monster petition were unfaithful and not law-abiding.

Mr. JEPPE: I deny that.

The PRESIDENT: Yes--I repeat unfaithful.

Mr. JEPPE (excitedly): I say they are not!

The CHAIRMAN: Order, order!

The PRESIDENT then endeavoured to qualify his remarks by reasserting that these people were disrespectful and disobedient to the law, because they were not naturalized. 'Now,' asked His Honour triumphantly, 'can you contradict that? No, you cannot. No one can. The law says that they must be naturalized, and they are not.' Speeches had been made that afternoon, His Honour proceeded, urging that the rich should be made burghers and not the poor. Why not the poor as well as the rich, if that were the case? But he was against granting any extension, saving in cases like that he mentioned the other day. Those who went on commando were entitled to it, but no others. Those persons who showed they loved the country by making such sacrifices were entitled to the franchise, and they should get it. These memorials were being sent in year by year, and yearly threats were made to them if they did not open the flood-gates. If the dam was full before the walls were washed over, a certain portion of the water had to be drained off. Well, this had been done in the case of commando men. They were the clean water which was drained off and taken into the inner dam which consisted of clean water, but he did not wish to take in the dirty water also. No, it had to remain in the outer dam until it was cleaned and purified. The Raad might just as well give away the independence of the country as give all these new-comers, these disobedient persons, the franchise. These persons knew there was a law, but they wished to evade it; they wished to climb the wall instead of going along the road quietly, and these persons should be kept back. He earnestly cautioned the Raad against adopting Mr. L. Meyer's proposal.

Mr. D. JOUBERT said excitement would not avail them. They had to be calm and deliberate. Now, what struck him was first who would give them the assurance, were they to admit the 35,000 persons who petitioned them for the franchise, that they would maintain the independence of the country inviolate and as a sacred heritage? They had no guarantee. He could not agree with the request of the petition (here the speaker became excited, and gesticulating violently, continued), and he would never grant the request if the decision was in his hands.

Mr. A.J. WOLMARANS said that his position on this question was that he would not budge an inch.

Mr. JAN MEYER impugned the genuineness of the petition, and said he had represented Johannesburg in the Raad for some time, and could tell them how those things were worked. They were nearly all forgeries. He stated that as there were only 40,000 people in Johannesburg it was impossible that 38,000 of them signed. Therefore they were forgeries. The speaker concluded by saying that as long as he lived he would never risk the independence of the country by granting the franchise, _except in accordance with the law_. It was unreasonable to ask him to give up his precious birthright in this thoughtless manner. He could not do it--he would not do it!

Mr. PRINSLOO said that he had gone through the petitions from Potchefstroom, and certainly he had to admit that many of the signatures were not genuine, for he found on these petitions the names of his next-door neighbours, who had never told him a word about their signing such petitions.

Mr. OTTO again addressed the Raad, endeavouring to prove that memorials from Ottos Hoop contained many forgeries. He said that he did not consider the Johannesburg people who signed in that wonderful and fat book on the table to be law-abiding, and he would have none of them. The Raad had frequently heard that if the franchise were not extended there would be trouble. He was tired of these constant threats. He would say, 'Come on and fight! Come on!' (Cries of 'Order!')

Mr. OTTO (proceeding): I say, 'Come on and have it out; and the sooner the better.' I cannot help it, Mr. Chairman, I must speak out. I say I am prepared to fight them, and I think every burgher of the South African Republic is with me.

The CHAIRMAN (rapping violently): Order, order!

Mr. OTTO: Yes, this poor South African Republic, which they say they own three-fourths of. They took it from us, and we fought for it and got it back.

The CHAIRMAN: Order!

Mr. OTTO: They called us rebels then. I say they are rebels.

Loud cries of 'Order!'

Mr. OTTO: I will say to-day, those persons who signed the memorials in that book are rebels.

The CHAIRMAN: Will you keep order? You have no right to say such things. We are not considering the question of powers, but the peaceful question of the extension of the franchise to-day; and keep to the point.

Mr. OTTO: Very well I will; but I call the whole country to witness that you silenced me, and would not allow me to speak out my mind.

The PRESIDENT said they had to distinguish between trustworthy persons and untrustworthy, and one proof was their going on commando, and the other was their becoming naturalized. People who were naturalized were more or less worthy, and if they separated themselves from the others who would not get naturalized, and petitioned the Raad themselves, the Raad would give ear to their petition. He strongly disapproved of the Raad being deceived in the manner it had been by the forged signatures.

Mr. R.K. LOVEDAY, in the course of an address dealing exhaustively with the subject, said: The President uses the argument that they should naturalize, and thus give evidence of their desire to become citizens. I have used the same argument, but what becomes of such arguments when met with the objections that the law requires such persons to undergo a probationary period extending from fourteen to twenty-four years before they are admitted to full rights of citizenship, and even after one has undergone that probationary period, he can only be admitted to full rights by resolution of the First Raad? Law 4 of 1890, being the Act of the two Volksraads, lays down clearly and distinctly that those who have been eligible for ten years for the Second Raad _can_ be admitted to full citizenship. So that, in any case, the naturalized citizen cannot obtain full rights until he reaches the age of forty years, he not being eligible for the Second Raad until he is thirty years. The child born of non-naturalized parents must therefore wait until he is forty years-of age, although at the age of sixteen he may be called upon to do military service, and may fall in the defence of the land of his birth. When such arguments are hurled at me by our own flesh and blood--our kinsmen from all parts of South Africa--I must confess that I am not surprised that these persons indignantly refuse to accept citizenship upon such unreasonable terms. The element I have just referred to--namely, the Africander element--is very considerable, and numbers thousands hundreds of whom at the time this country was struggling for its independence, accorded it moral and financial support, and yet these very persons are subjected to a term of probation extending from fourteen to twenty-four years. It is useless for me to ask you whether such a policy is just and reasonable or Republican, for there can be but one answer, and that is 'No!' Is there one man in this Raad who would accept the franchise on the same terms? Let me impress upon you the grave nature of this question, and the absolute necessity of going to the burghers without a moment's delay, and consulting and advising them. Let us keep nothing from them regarding the true position, and I am sure we shall have their hearty co-operation in any reasonable scheme we may suggest. This is a duty we owe them, for we must not leave them under the impression that the Uitlanders are satisfied to remain aliens, as stated by some of the journals. I move amongst these people, and learn to know their true feelings, and when public journals tell you that these people are satisfied with their lot, they tell you that which they know to be false. Such journals are amongst the greatest sources of danger that the country has. We are informed by certain members that a proposition for the extension of the franchise must come from the burghers, but according to the Franchise Law the proposition must come from the Raad, and the public must consent. The member for Rustenberg says that there are 9,338 burghers who have declared that they are opposed to the extension of the franchise. Upon reference to the Report, he will find that there are only 1,564 opposed to the extension. Members appear afraid to touch upon the real question at issue, but try to discredit the memorials by vague statements that some of the signatures are not genuine, and the former member for Johannesburg, Mr. J. Meyer, seems just as anxious to discredit the people of Johannesburg as formerly he was to defend them.

The CHAIRMAN advanced many arguments in favour of granting the franchise to the Uitlander, but nevertheless concluded by stating that as the Raad with few exceptions were against the extension, he would go with the majority. He was not, he said, averse to the publication of Mr. Meyer's proposition, because the country would have to decide upon it; still he could not favour the extension of the franchise in the face of what had been said during the debate. Let the Raad endeavour to lighten the burden of the alien in other respects. Let the alien come to the Raad with his grievances, and let the Raad give a patient ear unto him, but he really was not entitled to the franchise.

The PRESIDENT again counselled the Raad not to consent to the publication of Mr. Meyer's proposal. He did not want it put to the country. This business had been repeated from year to year until he was tired of it. And why should they worry and weary the burghers once more by asking them to decide upon Mr. Meyer's motion? There was no need for it. There was no uncertainty about it. The burghers knew their minds, and their will, which was supreme, was known. The way was open for aliens to become burghers; let them follow that road and not try to jump over the wall. They had the privilege of voting for the Second Raad if they became naturalized, and could vote for officials, and that was more than they could do in the Cape Colony. In the Colony they could not vote for a President or any official. They were all appointed. They could only vote for Raad members there. And why should they want more power here all at once? What was the cause of all this commotion? What were they clamouring for? He knew. They wanted to get leave to vote for members of the First Raad, which had the independence of the country under its control. He had been told by these people that 'if you take us on the same van with you, we cannot overturn the van without hurting ourselves as well as you.' '_Ja_,' that was true, '_maar_,' the PRESIDENT continued, they could pull away the reins and drive the van along a different route.

Mr. JEPPE, again speaking, said there was one matter he must refer to. That was his Honour's remarks about the petitioners, calling them disobedient and unfaithful. The law compels no one to naturalize himself. How then could these petitioners have disobeyed it? Of course we should prefer them to naturalize. But can we be surprised if they hesitate to do so? Mr. Loveday has told you what naturalization means to them.

The PRESIDENT agreed that these people were not obliged by law to naturalize, but if they wanted burgher rights they should do so, when they would get the franchise for the Second Raad; and upon their being naturalized let them come nicely to the Raad and the Raad would have something to go to the country with, and they would receive fair treatment; but, if they refused naturalization and rejected the Transvaal laws, could they expect the franchise? No. Let Mr. Jeppe go back and give his people good advice, and if they were obedient to the law and became naturalized they would not regret it; but he could not expect his people to be made full burghers if they were disobedient and refused naturalization. Let them do as he advised, and he (the President) would stand by them and support them.

Mr. JEPPE said: His Honour has again asked me to advise the people of Johannesburg what to do regarding the extension of the franchise. He says they must first naturalize and then come again. Then he holds out hopes that their wishes will be met. Why then does he not support Mr. Meyer's proposal, which affects naturalized people only? What is it I am to advise the people of Johannesburg? I have had many suggestions from different members. You, Mr. Chairman, seem to support the hundred men from Lydenburg who suggest ten years' residence as a qualification. Mr. Jan Meyer suggests that those who came early to the goldfields should memorialize separately, and he would support them. Others say that only those who are naturalized should petition, and that if a few hundreds petitioned instead of 35,000, their reception would be different. Well, we have had one petition here wherein all these conditions were complied with. It was not signed by anyone who had not been here ten years, or who is not naturalized, or who could at all be suspected of being unfaithful, nor could any exception be taken to it on the ground of numbers, since it was signed by one man only, Mr. Justice Morice, and yet it was rejected. Gentlemen, I am anxiously groping for the light; but what, in the face of this, am I to advise my people?

Mr. JAN DE BEER endeavoured to refute Messrs. Jeppe's and Loveday's statements, when they said a man could not become a full member until he was forty. They were out of their reckoning, because a man did not live until he was sixteen. He was out of the country. In the eyes of the law he was a foreigner until he was sixteen. (Laughter.) The member adduced other similar arguments to refute those of Messrs. Jeppe and Loveday, causing much laughter.

Mr. LOVEDAY replied to the President, especially referring to his Honour's statement that he (Mr. Loveday) was wrong when he said that a person would have to wait until he was forty before he could obtain the full rights. He (Mr. Loveday) repeated and emphasized his statements of yesterday.

The CHAIRMAN said there was no doubt about it. What Mr. Loveday said regarding the qualifications and how long a man would have to wait until he was qualified to become a full burgher was absolutely correct. It could not be contradicted. The law was clear on that point. There was no doubt about it.

Mr. JAN DE BEER: Yes; I see now Mr. Loveday is right, and I am wrong. The law does say what Mr. Loveday said. It must be altered.

The debate was closed on the third day, and Mr. Otto's motion to accept the report of the majority of the Committee, to refuse the request of the memoralists, and to refer them to the existing laws, was carried by sixteen votes to eight.

APPENDIX G.

TERMS OF DR. JAMESON'S SURRENDER.

_Sir Hercules Robinson to Mr. Chamberlain._

Received April 6, 1896.

_Government House, Capetown, March 16, 1896._

SIR,

I have the honour to transmit for your information a copy of a despatch from Her Majesty's Acting Agent at Pretoria, enclosing a communication from the Government of the South African Republic, accompanied by sworn declarations, respecting the terms of the surrender of Dr. Jameson's force, a summary of which documents I telegraphed to you on the 12th instant.

At my request, Lieutenant-General Goodenough has perused these sworn declarations, and informs me 'that,' in his opinion, 'Jameson's surrender was unconditional, except that his and his people's lives were to be safe so far as their immediate captors were concerned.'

I have, etc., HERCULES ROBINSON, _Governor and High Commissioner._

Enclosed in above letter.

_From H. Cloete, Pretoria, to the High Commissioner, Capetown._

_Pretoria, March 11th, 1896._

SIR,

I have the honour to enclose for the information of your Excellency a letter this day received from the Government, a summary of which I have already sent your Excellency by telegraph.

I have, etc., H. CLOETE.

_Department of Foreign Affairs, Government Office, Pretoria, March 10, 1896._

Division A., R.A., 1056/1896, B., 395/96.

HONOURABLE SIR,

I am instructed to acknowledge the receipt of the telegram from his Excellency the High Commissioner to you, dated 6th instant, forwarded on by you to his Honour the State President, and I am now instructed to complete with further data my letter to you of 4th instant, B.B., 257/96, which I herewith confirm, containing the information which the Government then had before it respecting the surrender, and which was furnished in view of your urgent request for an immediate reply.

In order to leave no room for the slightest misunderstanding, and to put an end to all false representations, the Government has summoned not only Commandant Cronjé, but also Commandant Potgieter, Commandant Malan, Field-Cornet Maartens, Assistant Field-Cornet Van Vuuren, and others, whose evidence appears to be of the greatest importance, and places the matter in a clear and plain light.

The information which the Government has found published in the papers is of the following purport:

'THE DOORNKOP SURRENDER: ALLEGED CORRESPONDENCE.

'_London, Monday,_ 11.15 _a.m._

'Mr. Hawksley, the Chartered solicitor, who is defending Dr. Jameson, published the following letter to-day, which passed between Sir John Willoughby and Mr. Cronjé, the Dutch Commandant at the time of the Krugersdorp surrender:

'_From Willoughby to Commandant._

'"We surrender, providing you guarantee a safe conduct out of the country for every member of the force."

'_From Cronjé to Willoughby._

'"Please take notice, I shall immediately let our officers come together to decide upon your communication."

'_From Cronjé to Willoughby._

'"I acknowledge your letter. The answer is, If you will undertake to pay the expenses you have caused to the Transvaal, and will lay down your arms, then I will spare the lives of you and yours. Please send me reply to this within thirty minutes."'

I have now the honour to enclose for the information of His Excellency the High Commissioner and the British Government sworn declarations of:

1. Commandant Cronjé, substantiated by Field-Cornet Maartens and Assistant Field-Cornet Van Vuuren.

2. Commandant Potgieter.

3. Commandant Malan.

4. J.S. Colliers, substantiated by B.J. Viljoen, and the interpreter, M. J. Adendorff.

These sworn declarations given before the State Attorney agree in all the principal points, and give a clear summary of all the incidents of the surrender, and from the main points thereof it appears, _inter alia_:

That the second letter, as published above, and which is alleged to be from Cronjé to Willoughby, was not issued from Cronjé, but from Commandant Potgieter, who has undoubtedly taken up the proper standpoint, and has followed the general rule in matters of urgency, such as the one in hand, and where the Commandant-General was not present in person on the field of battle, first and before treating wishing to consult with his co-commandants in as far as was possible.

That a note such as appears in his declaration was sent by Commandant Cronjé.

That neither Commandant Malan nor Commandant Potgieter were present at the despatch of it.

That the reply thereon from Willoughby was received by Commandant Cronjé, as appears in that declaration.

That Commandant Cronjé then, in compliance with the note sent by Commandant Potgieter, as well as the other commandants and officers mentioned in the declaration of Cronjé, rode up.

That Commandant Cronjé then explained his own note.

That thereupon also Commandant Malan joined his co-commandants and officers, and at this time Commandants Malan, Cronjé, and Potgieter were present.

That after consultation, and with the approval of Commandants Cronjé and Potgieter, Commandant Malan, by means of the interpreter Adendorff, had the following said to Dr. Jameson:

'This is Commandant Malan. He wishes you distinctly to understand that no terms can be made here. We have no right to make terms here. Terms will be made by the Government of the South African Republic. He can only secure your lives to Pretoria, until you are handed over to Commandant-General at Pretoria.'

That Dr. Jameson agreed to these terms and accepted them.

That thereupon by order of Dr. Jameson the arms were then also laid down.

That Commandant Trichardt then appeared with the orders of the Commandant-General to himself.

It now appears that these orders are those which were contained in the telegram of which I already sent you a copy by my above-quoted letter of the 4th March, 1896, and which, after the final regulation of matters such as had then taken place, was not further acted upon because as regards the surrender negotiations were in fact carried on in accordance with the orders of the Commandant-General.

While putting aside the question of the surrender there is little to be said about the other points contained in the telegram under reply, there is one which is considered of sufficient importance by this Government to even still draw the attention of His Excellency the High Commissioner thereto. His Excellency says: 'I may therefore explain that an armistice had been agreed to pending my arrival.'

The Government here can only think of one other misunderstanding, they having at the time of the disturbances at Johannesburg never recognized any acting party, for which reason therefore the concluding of an armistice was an impossibility.

In conclusion, I have to tender thanks both to His Honour the Secretary of State and His Excellency the High Commissioner for the unprejudiced manner in which they, as against insinuations of a low character, have made known their feelings with respect to the good faith shown by His Honour the State President in his negotiations in connection with the question of the surrender of Dr. Jameson's force.

I have, etc., C. VAN BOESCHOTEN, _Acting State Secretary_.

_His Honour H. Cloete, Acting British Agent, Pretoria._

_Appeared before me,_ HERMANUS JACOB COSTER, _State Attorney and ex-officio J.P. of the South African Republic_, PIETER ARNOLDUS CRONJÉ, _Commandant of the Potchefstroom District, who makes oath and states:_

I was, together with H.P. Malan (Commandant of the Rustenburg District), and F.J. Potgieter (Commandant of the Krugersdorp District), one of the commanding officers of the burgher forces in the fights against Jameson. When I noticed the white flag, I instantly ordered De la Rey to approach the enemy. Instead of De la Rey, Hans Klopper, one of the men of Commandant Potgieter, went. He brought back a note from Willoughby to me. The contents of the note were that if we left them to themselves he promised to withdraw over the boundary. In reply I sent him per Hans Klopper the following note:

'John Willoughby,--I acknowledge your note, and this serves as reply, that if you guarantee the payment of the expenses which you have occasioned the South African Republic and surrender your flag together with your weapons I will spare the life of you and yours. Please send reply within thirty minutes.'

When this reply was written by me neither Malan nor Potgieter were present. Thereupon he answered that he accepted the terms, and surrendered himself fully with all his arms into my hands. After receiving Willoughby's answer, I rode to Jameson's troops in order to meet the other commandants, in accordance with a note sent by Commandant Potgieter to the enemy. I went with Field-Cornets Maartens and Van Vuuren to Jameson's troops, and met Jameson. When I met him I gave him to clearly understand our agreement namely that he must plainly understand that the last clause was that I guaranteed his life and that of his men until I had handed him over to General Joubert. Thereupon I asked him if he was willing to lay down his flag and his arms, to which he replied, 'I have no flag; I am willing to lay down my arms.' Thereupon I asked him if he could declare upon oath that he had no flag, whereupon he declared under oath that he had no flag. Then Commandant Malan arrived, and then the three commanding officers, Malan, Potgieter and I, were present on the spot.

Before I began speaking to Malan, Jameson called Willoughby to be present. Thereupon Malan and I spoke together about the surrender of Jameson. Whereupon Malan said, 'We can't decide anything here. Jameson must surrender unconditionally, and he must be plainly given to understand that we cannot guarantee his life any longer than till we have handed him over to General Joubert.' I fully agreed with Malan, and the interpreter Adendorff was then instructed by the three commandants jointly to convey plainly in English to Jameson what the three commandants had agreed upon. After this had been done, Jameson bowed, took his hat off, and said in English that he agreed to the terms. Thereupon he issued orders to Willoughby to command the subordinate officers to lay down their arms. Then the arms were laid down. Later on, after the arms had been laid down, Commandant Trichardt arrived with orders from the Commandant-General, and his terms were the same as those we had already laid down.

P.A. CRONJÉ.

Sworn before me on this 7th day of March, 1896.

H. J. COSTER, _State Attorney and Ex-officio J.P._

* * * * * * *

We, the undersigned, Jan. Thos. Maartens, Field-Cornet of the Ward Gatsrand, District Potchefstroom, and Daniel Johannes Jansen van Vuuren, Assistant Field-Cornet of the Ward Bovenschoonspruit, declare under oath that we were present at everything stated in the foregoing sworn declaration of Commandant P.A. Cronjé, and that that declaration is correct and in accordance with the truth.

JAN. MAARTENS, D.J.J. VAN VUUREN.

Sworn before me on this the 7th day of March, 1896.

H. J. COSTER, _State-Attorney and ex-officio J.P._

* * * * * * *

_Appeared before me_, HERMANUS JACOB COSTER, _State Attorney and ex-officio J.P. of the South African Republic_, FREDERICK JACOBUS POTGIETER, _Commandant of the Krugersdorp District, who makes oath and states:_

On the morning of January 2, I received a written report from the enemy in which was stated that he would surrender, but that he must be allowed to go back over the line. I answered thereon in writing that I would call the officers together and would then immediately notify him. The report received by me I immediately transmitted to Commandant Cronjé. A short time after I saw Commandant Cronjé with the burghers going towards the enemy. I thereupon also went towards the enemy and met Commandant Cronjé there. I then attended the discussion as set forth in the declaration given by J.T. Celliers, dated March 6, 1896, and confirmed by Messrs. Michiel Joseph Adendorff and Benjamin Johannes Vilgoen.

The purport of that discussion is correctly rendered.

F.J. POTGIETER, _Commandant, Krugersdorp_.

This sworn before me on this the 6th day of March, 1896.

H.J. COSTER, _State Attorney and ex-officio J.P._

* * * * * * *

_Appeared before me_, HERMANUS JACOB COSTER, _State Attorney and ex-officio J.P. of the South African Republic_, HERCULES PHILIPPUS MALAN, _who makes oath and states:_

I was together with P.A. Cronjé, Commandant of the Krugersdorp District, one of the commanding forces in the fights against Jameson. On the morning of January 2, a despatch rider from Commandant Potgieter came up and informed me that Jameson had hoisted the white flag, and that I must quickly attend a meeting with the other commandants. When I came up to Jameson I found Cronjé and Potgieter there; and, as I saw that Cronjé had been speaking to Jameson, I asked Cronjé 'What is the subject you have been speaking about? I also wish to know it.' Cronjé told me that he had agreed with Jameson that Jameson would pay the expenses incurred by the State, and that he (Cronjé) would spare the lives of Jameson and his people till Pretoria was reached.

Thereupon I answered, 'We cannot make any terms here. We have not the power to do so. Jameson must surrender unconditionally, and we can only guarantee his life until he is delivered over by us into the hands of the Commandant-General. Then he will have to submit to the decision of the Commandant-General and the Government.' When I had said this, Commandant Potgieter answered, 'I agree with that.' And Commandant Cronjé said, 'So be it, brothers.' Thereupon the interpreter (Adendorff) was instructed to translate to Jameson what had been spoken. He did so. Jameson thereupon took off his hat, bowed, and replied in English that he agreed thereto. Jameson then ordered Willoughby, who was present from the moment that I arrived, to command the subordinate officers to disarm the men, and thereupon the arms were given up.

H.P. MALAN, _Commandant._

Sworn before me on this the 9th day of March, 1896.

H.J. COSTER, _State Attorney and ex-oficio J.P._

* * * * * * *

_Appeared before me_, HERMANUS JACOB COSTER, _State Attorney and ex-officio J.P. of the South African Republic_, JAN STEPHANOS CELLIERS, _of Pretoria, who makes oath and states:_

I came up to Jameson and his troops on the second of January (after Jameson had hoisted the white flag), together with B.G. Viljoen, Krugersdorp, and another Viljoen, whose place of residence is unknown to me. I asked one of Jameson's troopers where he was. He showed me the direction and the place where Jameson was. Jameson thereupon approached me, and I greeted him. While this took place Commandant Cronjé, the interpreter (Adendorff), and another man whose name is unknown to me, came. Cronjé was thereupon introduced by Adendorff, who spoke English, to Jameson. Thereupon Cronjé said to Jameson, 'I understand that you and your men will surrender yourselves with your flag and everything you possess?' Jameson said thereupon, 'I fight under no flag.'

Cronjé then replied, 'Then I must believe you upon your word that you have no flag?' Jameson then said, 'I declare under oath that I possess no flag.' This conversation was interpreted word for word by Adendorff. Shortly afterwards Commandant Malan also arrived there. He asked, 'What is up here? Tell me the news also.' Then Cronjé told Malan that Jameson would surrender conditionally, whereupon Malan said in effect, 'There can be no question of a conditional surrender here, because we have no right to make terms. The surrender must take place unconditionally. If terms must be made, it must take place at Pretoria. We can only guarantee his life and that of his men as long as they are under us, and until the moment when they are handed over to the Commandant.'

General Cronjé answered thereupon, 'So be it, brother.' Then Adendorff asked if he had to interpret this to Jameson, whereupon Malan said, 'Yes,' and thereupon said in English to Jameson, 'This is Commandant Malan. He wishes you to distinctly understand that no terms can be made here. We have no right to make terms here. Terms will be made by the Government of the South African Republic. He can only secure your lives to Pretoria, until you are handed over to the Commandant-General at Pretoria.'

In reply, Jameson took off his hat, bowed, stepped backwards and said, 'I accept your terms.' Thereupon Jameson ordered Willoughby to command the subordinate officers that the troopers should lay down their arms. The arms were then laid down.

J.S. CELLIERS.

Sworn before me on the 6th March, 1896.

H.J. COSTER, _State-Attorney and ex-officio J.P._

We, the undersigned, Benjamin Johannes Viljoen and Michiel Joseph Adendorff, the persons mentioned in the preceding declaration, declare under oath that the facts stated therein, which we witnessed, as stated above, are true and correct.

B.J. VILJOEN. M.J. ADENDORFF.

Sworn before me on the 6th March, 1896.

H.J. COSTER, _State-Attorney and ex-officio J.P._

* * * * * * *

COLONIAL OFFICE TO WAR OFFICE.

_Downing Street, April 21, 1896._

SIR,

I am directed by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain to request that you will lay before the Marquis of Lansdowne the undermentioned papers on the subject of the surrender of Dr. Jameson's force to the Boers.

1. A despatch from Sir Hercules Robinson, enclosing sworn declarations taken by the Government of the South African Republic. A telegraphic summary of these declarations was laid before Dr. Jameson, whose observations are contained in--

2. A letter from the solicitor for Dr. Jameson and his fellow defendants.

3. A despatch from Sir Hercules Robinson, enclosing a sworn statement.

Lord Lansdowne will observe from Sir H. Robinson's despatch of the 16th March that the declarations taken by the Government of the South African Republic were submitted to the General Officer commanding at the Cape, who gave his opinion that the surrender was unconditional.

Mr. Chamberlain would be obliged if Lord Lansdowne would submit these papers to his military advisers, and obtain from them their opinion as to the terms of the surrender, which Mr. Chamberlain thinks was completed on Sir John Willoughby's acceptance of Commandant Cronjé's terms, and was therefore subject to these terms and conditions.

I am, etc., R. H. MEADE.

* * * * * * *

WAR OFFICE TO COLONIAL OFFICE.

Received April 28, 1896.

_War Office, London, S.W., April 27, 1896._

SIR,

I am directed by the Secretary of State for War to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 21st inst., on the subject of the surrender of Dr. Jameson's force to the Boers.

In reply, the Marquis of Lansdowne, having consulted with his military adviser, desires me to observe that, whatever position Mr. Cronjé may hold in the Transvaal army, he decidedly on the occasion in question acted as an officer in authority, and guaranteed the lives of Dr. Jameson and all his men if they at once laid down their arms.

The terms prescribed were accepted by Dr. Jameson's force, and they surrendered and laid down their arms, and no subsequent discussion amongst the Transvaal officers could retract the terms of this surrender.

I am therefore to acquaint you, for the information of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that the Secretary of State for War concurs with Mr. Chamberlain in considering that the surrender was completed on Sir John Willoughby's acceptance of Commandant Cronjé's terms, and was subject to these terms and conditions.

I am, etc, ARTHUR L. HALIBURTON.

APPENDIX H.

SIR JOHN WILLOUGHBY'S REPORT TO THE WAR OFFICE.

The subjoined document is printed in the form in which it was supplied to the author by a journalist, to whom it had been given as a fair statement of the case. The marginal remarks are the notes made by a member of the Reform Committee to whom it was shown.

OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE EXPEDITION THAT LEFT THE PROTECTORATE AT THE URGENT REQUEST OF THE LEADING CITIZENS OF JOHANNESBURG WITH THE OBJECT OF STANDING BY THEM AND MAINTAINING LAW AND ORDER WHILST THEY WERE DEMANDING JUSTICE FROM THE TRANSVAAL AUTHORITIES. By SIR JOHN C. WILLOUGHBY, BART., Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding Dr. Jameson's Forces.

[After they had dated the 'urgent' letter, and had wired to Dr. Harris (December 27): 'We will make our own notation by the aid of the letter which I shall publish.']

On Saturday, December 28, 1895, Dr. Jameson received a Reuter's telegram showing that the situation at Johannesburg had become acute. At the same time reliable information was received that the Boers in the Zeerust and Lichtenburg districts were assembling, and had been summoned to march on Johannesburg.

[The same time as he got the telegrams from Johannesburg and messages by Heany and Holden on no account to move.]

Preparations were at once made to act on the terms of the letter dated December 20, and already published, and also in accordance with verbal arrangements with the signatories of that letter--viz., that should Dr. Jameson hear that the Boers were collecting, and that the intentions of the Johannesburg people had become generally known, he was at once to come to the aid of the latter with whatever force he had available, and without further reference to them, the object being that such force should reach Johannesburg without any conflict.

[Twaddle--in the face of Hammond's, Phillips's and Sam Jameson's wire not to move]

At 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, December 29, everything was in readiness at Pitsani Camp.

The troops were paraded, and Dr. Jameson read the letter of invitation from Johannesburg.

He then explained to the force _(a)_ that no hostilities were intended; _(b)_ that we should only fight if forced to do so in self-defence; _(c)_ that neither the persons nor property of inhabitants of the Transvaal were to be molested; _(d)_ that our sole object was to help our fellow-men in their extremity, and to ensure their obtaining attention to their just demands.

Dr. Jameson's speech was received with the greatest enthusiasm by the men, who cheered most heartily.

The above programme was strictly adhered to until the column was fired upon on the night of the 31st.

Many Boers, singly and in small parties, were encountered on the line of march; to one and all of these the pacific nature of the expedition was carefully explained.

[Start from Pitsani.]

The force left Pitsani Camp at 6.30 p.m., December 29, and marched through the night.

At 5.15 a.m. on the morning of the 30th the column reached the village of Malmani (39 miles distant from Pitsani).

[Junction effected at Malmani with B.B.P.]

Precisely at the same moment the advanced guard of the Mafeking Column (under Colonel Grey) reached the village, and the junction was effected between the two bodies.

For details of the composition of the combined force, as also for general particulars of the march to Krugersdorp, see sketch of the route and schedule attached (marked A. and B. respectively).

[Defile at lead-mines passed.]

From Malmani I pushed on as rapidly as possible in order to cross in daylight the very dangerous defile at Lead Mines. This place, distant 71 miles from Pitsani, was passed at 5.30 p.m., December 30.

I was subsequently informed that a force of several hundred Boers, sent from Lichtenburg to intercept the force at this point, missed doing so by three hours only.

[Letter from Commandant-General.]

At our next 'off-saddle' Dr. Jameson received a letter from the Commandant-General of the Transvaal demanding to know the reason of our advance, and ordering us to return immediately. A reply was sent to this, explaining Dr. Jameson's reasons in the same terms as those used to the force at Pitsani.

[Letter from High Commissioner.]

At Doornport (91 miles from Pitsani), during an 'off-saddle' early on Tuesday morning, December 31, a mounted messenger overtook us, and presented a letter from the High Commissioner, which contained an order to Dr. Jameson and myself to return at once to Mafeking and Pitsani.

[Reasons for not retreating.]

A retreat by now was out of the question, and to comply with these instructions an impossibility. In the first place, there was absolutely no food for men or horses along the road which we had recently followed; secondly, three days at least would be necessary for our horses, jaded with forced marching, to return; on the road ahead we were sure of finding, at all events, some food for man and beast. Furthermore, we had by now traversed almost two-thirds of the total distance; a large force of Boers was known to be intercepting our retreat, and we were convinced that any retrograde movement would bring on an attack of Boers from all sides.

It was felt, therefore, that to ensure the safety of our little force, no alternative remained but to push on to Krugersdorp to our friends, who we were confident would be awaiting our arrival there.

Apart from the above considerations, even had it been possible to effect a retreat from Doornport, we knew that Johannesburg had risen, and felt that by turning back we should be shamefully deserting those coming to meet us.

[They could not possibly _know_ it, because the rising--_i.e._ the public arming and moving of men--only began at the very hour they claim to have _known_ it, and because the first news from Johannesburg only reached them 24 hours later by the two cyclists 'Oh what a tangled web we weave, when--']

Finally, it appeared to us impossible to turn back, in view of the fact that we had been urgently called in to avert a massacre, which we had been assured would be imminent in the event of a crisis such as had now occurred.

[_Vide_ the telegrams and messages to stop! How noble!]

[Boer scouts.]

Near Boon's store, on the evening of the 31st, an advanced patrol fell in with Lieutenant Eloff, of the Krugersdorp Volunteers. This officer, in charge of a party of 15 scouts, had come out to gain intelligence of our movements. He was detained whilst our intentions were fully explained to him, and then released at Dr. Jameson's request.

[First skirmish New Year's Eve.]

At midnight (New Year's Eve), while the advanced scouts were crossing a rocky wooded ridge at right angles to and barring the line of advance, they were fired on by a party of 40 Boers, who had posted themselves in this position. The scouts, reinforced by the advanced guard, under Inspector Straker, drove off their assailants after a short skirmish, during which one trooper of the M.M.P. was wounded.

At Van Oudtshoorn's, early on the following morning (January 1), Dr. Jameson received a second letter from the High Commissioner, to which he replied in writing.

At 9.30 a.m. the march was resumed in the usual day formation. After marching two miles, the column got clear of the hills and emerged into open country.

[10.15 a.m.]

About this time Inspector Drury, in command of the rearguard, sent word that a force of about 100 Boers was following him about one mile in rear. I thereupon reinforced the rearguard, hitherto consisting of a troop and one Maxim, by an additional half-troop and another Maxim.

[11 a.m.]

About 5 miles beyond Van Oudtshoorn's store the column was met by two cyclists bearing letters from several leaders of the Johannesburg Reform Committee. These letters expressed the liveliest approval and delight at our speedy approach, and finally contained a renewal of their promise to meet the column with a force at Krugersdorp.{55} The messengers also reported that only 300 armed Boers were in the town.

This news was communicated to the troops, who received it with loud cheers.

When within two miles of Hind's store, the column was delayed by extensive wire-fencing, which ran for one and a half miles on either side of the road, and practically constituted a defile.

While the column was halted and the wire being cut, the country for some distance on both sides was carefully scouted.

By this means it was ascertained that there was a considerable force of Boers (1) on the left front, (2) in the immediate front (retreating hastily on Krugersdorp), (3) a third party on the right flank.

The force which had been following the column from Van Oudtshoorn's continued to hover in the rear.

Lieutenant-Colonel White, in command of the advanced guard, sent back a request for guns to be pushed forward as a precaution in case of an attack from the Boers in front. By the time these guns reached the advanced guard, the Boers were still retreating some two miles off. A few rounds were then fired in their direction. Had Colonel White, in the first instance, opened fire with his Maxims on the Boers, whom he surprised watering their horses close to Hind's store, considerable loss would have been inflicted; but this was not our object, for with the exception of the small skirmish on the previous night, the Boers had not as yet molested the column, whose sole aim was to reach Johannesburg if possible without fighting.

[1.30 p.m.]

At this hour Hind's store was reached.

Here the troops rested for one and a half hours.

Unfortunately, hardly any provisions for men and horses were available.

[3 p.m.]

An officers' patrol, consisting of Major Villiers (Royal Horse Guards) and Lieutenant Grenfell (1st Life Guards) and six men, moved off for the purpose of reconnoitring the left flank of the Boer position, while Captain Lindsell, with his permanent force of advanced scouts, pushed on as usual to reconnoitre the approach by the main road. At the same time I forwarded a note to the Commandant of the forces in Krugersdorp to the effect that, in the event of my friendly force meeting with opposition on its approach, I should be forced to shell the town, and that therefore I gave him this warning in order that the women and children might be moved out of danger.

[Friendly!]

To this note, which was despatched by a Boer who had been detained at Van Oudtshoorn, I received no reply.

At Hind's store we were informed that the force in our front had increased during the forenoon to about 800 men, of whom a large number were entrenched on the hillside.

[4.30 p.m.]

Four miles beyond Hind's store, the column following the scouts, which met with no opposition, ascended a steep rise of some 400 feet, and came full in view of the Boer position on the opposite side of a deep valley, traversed by a broad "sluit" or muddy water course.

Standing on the plateau or spur, on which our force was forming up for action, the view to our front was as follows:

Passing through our position to the west ran the Hind's store--Krugersdorp Road traversing the valley and the Boer position almost at right angles to both lines.

Immediately to the north of this road, at the point where it disappeared over the sky-line on the opposite slope, lay the Queen's Battery House and earthworks, completely commanding the valley on all sides and distant 1,900 yards from our standpoint.

Some 1,000 yards down the valley to the north stood a farmhouse, surrounded by a dense plantation, which flanked the valley.

Half-way up the opposite slope, and adjacent to the road, stood an iron house which commanded the drift where the road crossed the above-mentioned watercourse.

On the south side of the road, and immediately opposite the last-named iron house, an extensive rectangular stone wall enclosure with high trees formed an excellent advanced central defensive position. Further up the slope, some 500 yards to the south of this enclosure, stretched a line of rifle-pits, which were again flanked to the south by 'prospecting' trenches. On the sky-line numbers of Boers were apparent to our front and right front.

Before reaching the plateau we had observed small parties of Boers hurrying towards Krugersdorp, and immediately on reaching the high ground the rearguard was attacked by the Boer force which had followed the column during the whole morning.

I therefore had no further hesitation in opening fire on the Krugersdorp position.

[4.30 p.m.]

The two seven-pounders and the 12-1/2 pounder opened on the Boer line, making good practice under Captain Kincaid-Smith and Captain Gosling at 1,900 yards.

[It must have been here that the waggon-loads of dead Boers weren't found.]

[5 p.m.]

This fire was kept up until 5 p.m. The Boers made practically no reply, but lay quiet in the trenches and battery.

Scouts having reported that most of the trenches were evacuated, the first line consisting of the advanced guard (a troop of 100 men), under Colonel White advanced. Two Maxims accompanied this force; a strong troop with a Maxim formed the right and left supports on either flank.

Lieutenant-Colonel Grey, with one troop B.B.P. and one Maxim, had been previously detailed to move round and attack the Boers' left.

The remaining two troops, with three Maxims, formed the reserve and rearguard.

The first line advance continued unopposed to within 200 yards of the watercourse, when it was checked by an exceedingly heavy cross-fire from all points of the defence.

Colonel White then pushed his skirmishers forward into and beyond the watercourse.

The left support under Inspector Dykes then advanced to prolong the first line to the left, but, diverging too much to his left this officer experienced a very hot flanking fire from the farmhouse and plantation, and was driven back with some loss.

Colonel Grey meanwhile had pushed round on the extreme right and come into action.

[5.30 p.m.]

About this time Major Villiers' patrol returned and reported that the country to our right was open, and that we could easily move round in that direction.

It was now evident that the Boers were in great force, and intended holding their position.

Without the arrival of the Johannesburg force in rear of the Boers--an event which I had been momentarily expecting--I did not feel justified in pushing a general attack, which would have certainly entailed heavy losses on my small force.

[When Celliers and Rowlands left them at 11 a.m. they had not expected anyone. _Vide_ Cellier's report and Colonel H.E. White's letter.]

[6.15 p.m.]

I accordingly left Inspector Drury with one troop and one Maxim to keep in check the Boers who were now lining the edge of the plateau to our left, and placed Colonel Grey with two troops B.B.P., one 12-1/2 pounder, and one Maxim to cover our left flank and continue firing on the battery and trenches south of the road.

I then made a general flank movement to the right with the remaining troops.

Colonel Grey succeeded in shelling the Boers out of their advanced position during the next half-hour, and blew up the battery house.

[Flank movement.]

Under this cover the column moved off as far as the first houses of the Randfontein group of mines, the Boers making no attempt to intercept the movement.

Night was now fast approaching, and still there were no signs of the promised help from Johannesburg. I determined, therefore, to push on with all speed in the direction of that town, trusting in the darkness to slip through any intervening opposition.

Two guides were obtained, the column formed in the prescribed night order of march, and we started off along a road leading direct to Johannesburg.

At this moment heavy rifle and Maxim fire was suddenly heard from the direction of Krugersdorp, which lay 1-1/2 miles to the left rear.

We at once concluded that this could only be the arrival of the long-awaited reinforcements, for we knew that Johannesburg had Maxims, and that the Staats'-Artillerie were not expected to arrive until the following morning. To leave our supposed friends in the lurch was out of the question. I determined at once to move to their support.

[Long awaited! Why, this was only 6 hours since the cyclists left.]

Leaving the carts escorted by one troop on the road I advanced rapidly across the plateau towards Krugersdorp in the direction of the firing, in the formation shown in the accompanying sketch.

After advancing thus for nearly a mile the firing ceased, and we perceived the Boers moving in great force to meet the column. The flankers on the right reported another force threatening that flank.

Fearing that an attempt would be made to cut us off from the ammunition carts, I ordered a retreat on them.

It was now clear that the firing, whatever might have been the cause thereof, was not occasioned by the arrival of any force from Johannesburg.

[This is really magnificent!]

Precious moments had been lost in the attempt to stand by our friends at all costs, under the mistaken supposition that they could not fail to carry out their repeated promises,{56} renewed to us by letter so lately as 11 a.m. this same day. It was now very nearly dark. In the dusk the Boers could be seen closing in on three sides--viz., north, east, and south. The road to Johannesburg appeared completely barred, and the last opportunity of slipping through, which had presented itself an hour ago when the renewed firing was heard, was gone not to return.

[Bivouac, January 1.]

Nothing remained but to bivouac in the best position available.

But for the unfortunate circumstance of the firing, which we afterwards heard was due to the exultation of the Boers at the arrival of large reinforcements from Potchefstroom, the column would have been by this time (7 p.m.) at least four or five miles further on the road to Johannesburg, with an excellent chance of reaching that town without further opposition.

I moved the column to the edge of a wide vley to the right of the road, and formed the horses in quarter-column under cover of the slope. The carts were formed up in rear and on both flanks, and five Maxims were placed along the front so as to sweep the plateau.

The other three Maxims and the heavy guns were posted on the rear and flank faces.

The men were then directed to lie down between the guns and on the side; sentries and cossack posts were posted on each face. Meantime the Boers had occupied the numerous prospecting trenches and cuttings on the plateau at distances from 400 to 800 yards.

[9 p.m.]

At 9 p.m. a heavy fire was opened on the bivouac, and a storm of bullets swept over and around us, apparently directed from all sides except the south-west.

The troops were protected by their position on the slope below the level of the plateau, so that the total loss from this fire, which lasted about twenty minutes, was very inconsiderable.

The men behaved with admirable coolness, and were as cheery as possible, although very tired and hungry and without water.

We were then left unmolested for two or three hours.

[Midnight.]

About midnight another shower of bullets was poured into the camp, but the firing was not kept up for long.

Somewhat later a Maxim gun opened on the bivouac, but failed to get our range.

[Thursday, January 2.]

At 3.30 a.m. patrols were pushed out on all sides, while the force as silently and rapidly as possible was got ready to move off.

At 4 a.m. a heavy fire was opened by the Boers on the column, and the patrols driven in from the north and east sides.

Under the direction of Major R. White (assisted by Lieutenant Jesser-Coope) the column was formed under cover of the slope.

Soon after this the patrols which had been sent out to the south returned, and reported that the ground was clear of the Boers in that direction.

The growing light enabled us to ascertain that the Boers in force were occupying pits to our left and lining the railway embankment for a distance of one and a half miles right across the direct road to Johannesburg.

I covered the movements of the main body with the B.B.P. and two Maxims under Colonel Grey along the original left front of the bivouac, and two troops M.M.P., under Major K. White on the right front.

During all this time the firing was excessively heavy; however the main body was partially sheltered by the slope.

Colonel White then led the advance for a mile across the vley without casualty, but on reaching the opposite rise near the Oceanic Mine, was subjected to a very heavy long-range fire. Colonel White hereupon very judiciously threw out one troop to the left to cover the further advance of the main body.

This was somewhat delayed, after crossing the rise, by the disappearance of our volunteer guide of the previous night.

Some little time elapsed before another guide could be obtained.

In the meantime, Lieutenant-Colonel Grey withdrew his force and the covering Maxims out of action under the protection of the M.M.P. covering troops, and rejoined the main body.

[5 a.m.]

At this juncture Colonel Grey was shot in the foot, but most gallantly insisted on carrying on his duties until the close of the action.

Sub-Inspector Cazalet was also wounded here, but continued in action until he was shot again in the chest at Doornkop.

While crossing the ridge the column was subjected to a very heavy fire, and several men and horses were lost here.

I detailed a rearguard of one troop and two Maxims, under Major R. White, to cover our rear and left flank, and move the remainder of the troops in the ordinary day formation as rapidly forward as possible.

In this formation a running rear and flank guard fight was kept up for ten miles. Wherever the features of the ground admitted, a stand was made by various small detachments of the rear and flank guard. In this manner the Boers were successfully kept a distance of 500 yards, and repulsed in all their efforts to reach the rear and flank of the main body.

In passing through the various mines and the village of Randfontein we met with hearty expressions of goodwill from the mining population, who professed a desire to help if only they had arms.

[8 a.m.]

Ten miles from the start I received intelligence from Colonel Grey, at the head of the column, that Doornkop, a hill near the Speitfontein mine, was held by 400 Boers, directly barring our line of advance.

I repaired immediately to the front, Colonel White remaining with the rear-guard.

On arriving at the head of the column, I found the guns shelling a ridge which our guide stated was Doornkop.

The excellent dispositions for the attack made by Colonel Grey were then carried out.

The B.B.P., under Major Coventry, who I regret to say was severely wounded and lost several of his men, attacked and cleared the ridge in most gallant style and pushed on beyond it.

About this time Inspector Barry received the wound which we have learnt with grief has subsequently proved fatal.

Chief-Inspector Bodle at the same time, with two troops M.M.P., charged, and drove off the field a large force of Boers threatening our left flank.

The guide had informed us that the road to the right of the hill was impassable, and that there was open and easy country to the left.

This information was misleading. I afterwards ascertained that without storming the Boer position there was no road open to Johannesburg except by a wide detour of many miles to the right.

[8.30 a.m.]

At this moment Dr. Jameson received a letter from the High Commissioner again ordering us to desist in our advance. Dr. Jameson informed me at the same time of the most disheartening news, viz., that he had received a message stating that Johannesburg would not or could not come to our assistance, and that we must fight our way through unaided.

Thinking that the first ridge now in our hands was Doornkop, we again pushed rapidly on, only to find that in rear of the ridge another steep and stony kopje, some 400 feet in height, was held by hundreds of Boers completely covered from our fire.

This kopje effectually flanked the road over which the column must advance at a distance of 400 yards. Scouting showed that there was no way of getting round this hill.

Surrounded on all sides by the Boers, men and horses wearied out, outnumbered by at least six to one, our friends having failed to keep their promises to meet us, and my force reduced numerically by one-fourth, I no longer considered that I was justified in sacrificing any more of the lives of the men under me.

[Wonderfully considerate! seeing how they deliberately risked the lives of thousands in Johannesburg when they started.]

As previously explained, our object in coming had been to render assistance, without bloodshed if possible, to the inhabitants of Johannesburg. This object would in no way be furthered by a hopeless attempt to cut our way through overwhelming numbers, an attempt, moreover which must without any doubt have entailed heavy and useless slaughter.

[9.15 a.m.]

With Dr. Jameson's permission, I therefore sent word to the Commandant that we would surrender provided that he would give a guarantee of safe conduct out of the country to every member of the force.

To this Commandant Cronjé replied by a guarantee of the lives of all, provided that we would lay down our arms and pay all expenses.

In spite of this guarantee of the lives of all, Commandant Malan subsequently repudiated the guarantee in so far as to say that he would not answer for the lives of the leaders, but this was not until our arms had been given up and the force at the mercy of the Boers.

I attribute our failure to reach Johannesburg in a great measure to loss of time from the following causes:

(1) The delay occasioned by the demonstration in front of Krugersdorp, which had been assigned as the place of junction with the Johannesburg force.

(2) The non-arrival of that force at Krugersdorp or of the guides to the Krugersdorp-Johannesburg section of the road, as previously promised by Johannesburg.

(3) The delay consequent on moving to the firing of the supposed Johannesburg column just before dark on Wednesday evening.

[How is it that nothing was said of this to Celliers and Rowland; nothing in the Letter of Colonel White and Dr. Jameson which they wrote at 11 a.m. Wednesday; nothing in the message sent by Bugler Vallé, who was despatched on Thursday before daybreak _after_ the Krugersdorp light? How is it that if the forces were to meet at Krugersdorp Dr. Jameson telegraphed to Dr. Wolff to meet him _en route,_ so as to decide whether to turn off _20 miles before reaching Krugersdorp_ and march direct on Pretoria or go into Johannesburg first?]

I append (1) a sketch-map of the route from Pitsani to Krugersdorp, marked A. This distance (154 miles) was covered in just under 70 hours, the horses having been off-saddled ten times. The 169 miles between Pitsani and Doornkop occupied 86 hours, during 17 of which the men were engaged with the Boers, and were practically without food or water, having had their last meal at 8 a.m. on the morning of the 1st January at Van Oudtshoorn's, 17 miles from Krugersdorp.

The average weight carried by each horse was 16 stone.

(2) List of officers engaged in the expedition and composition of the force marked B. From this it will be seen that there was a total of 494 men and officers (exclusive of staff).

(3) Plans of engagements at Krugersdorp and Doornkop, and of the bivouac on the night of January 1st.

I cannot close this narrative without testifying to the very great gallantry and endurance of all officers, non-commissioned officers, and troopers under my command in the field and on the march under most trying circumstances.

COMPOSITION OF FORCE.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Willoughby, Royal Horse Guards Commanding. Major Hon. Robert White, Royal Welsh Fusiliers Senior Staff Officer. Major C. Hyde Villiers, Royal Horse Guards Staff Officer. Captain Kincaid-Smith, Royal Artillery Artillery Staff Officer. Captain Kennedy, B.S.A.C.'s Service Quartermaster. Captain E. Holden, Derbyshire Yeomanry Assistant Quarter-Master. Surgeon Captain Farmer, B.S.A. Co. } Surgeon Captain Seaton Hamilton, late 1st Life } Medical Officers. Guards } Lieutenant Grenfell, 1st Life Guards Remount Officer. Lieutenant Jesser-Coope, B.S.A. Co. Transport Officer. Captain Lindsell, late Royal Scots Fusiliers In charge Scouts. Major J.B. Stracey, Scots Guards } Major Heany, B.S.A. Co. } Officers temporarily Captain Foley } attached to Staff. Lieutenant Harry R. Holden, late Grenadier } Guards }

OFFICERS OF MASHONALAND MOUNTED POLICE.

Lieutenant-Colonel Hon. H.F. White, Grenadier Guards Commanding. Inspector Bodle (late 6th Dragoons) 2nd in command. Inspector Straker, commanding A Troop. Inspector Dykes, commanding B Troop. Inspector Barry, commanding C Troop. Inspector Drury, commanding D Troop. Sub-Inspectors Scott and Cashel, A Troop. Sub-Inspectors Tomlinson and Chawner, B Troop. Sub-Inspectors Cazalet and Williams, C Troop. Sub-Inspectors Murray and Constable, D Troop. Artillery Troop--Inspector Bowden and Sub-Inspector Spain. Regimental Sergeant--Major Abbott.

BECHUANALAND BORDER POLICE.

Lieutenant-Colonel Raleigh Grey, 6th Dragoons Commanding. Major Hon. Charles Coventry 2nd in command. Captain Gosling, commanding G Troop. Sub-Lieutenants Hoare and Wood, commanding G Troop. Captain Munroe, commanding K Troop. Sub-Lieutenant McQueen, commanding K Troop. Medical Officer Surgeon Garraway. Veterinary Surgeon Lakie. M.M. Police officers and men 372 Pitsani Staff 13 camp. Colony boys (leading horses, etc.) 65 Horses 480 Mules 128 One 12-1/2-pounder, 6 Maxims, 6 Scotch carts, 1 Cape cart, 2 grain waggons. B.B. Police officers and men 122 Mafeking Staff 1 column. Drivers and leaders 10 Horses 160 Mules 30 Two 7-pounders, 2 Maxims, 2 Scotch carts, 2 Cape carts.

Officers and men 494 Totals. Staff 14 Drivers, leaders, etc. 75 Horses 640 Mules 158 M.H. Maxims 8 12-1/2-pounder 1 7-pounder 2 Scotch carts 8 Cape carts 3

AMMUNITION.

Rounds. Carried by men and natives 50,000 Lee-Met. Carried in Scotch carts and Cape carts 54,000 rifle. ------- Total 104,000 =======

On the guns 17,000 Maxim. In carts 28,000 ------- Total 45,000 =======

On limber 44 12-1/2 On one Scotch cart 80 pounders. ------- Total 124 =======

On limbers 70 7-pounders. In Scotch carts 172 ------- Total 242 =======

The rifle ammunition used was that supplied by the Maxim firm for their guns and also pellet powder.

The powder used with the 12-1/2-pounder was that known as 'ballistite.' Rocket signals and limelights were carried, but not used.

EQUIPMENT CARRIED.

On the Person. (a) Rifle (10 rounds). (b) Bandolier (60 rounds). (c) Haversack (1/2 day's ration). (d) Water-bottle filled.

On the Saddle. (a) Nosebag (5 lb. grain). (b) Cloak on wallet. (c) Rifle bucket. (d) Patrol tin (with grocery ration). (e) Leather axe-holder (every fourth man).

Near-side wallet, 30 rounds and 1/2 day's rations.

Off-side wallet, 20 rounds, tin dubbin, hold-all, and towel.

Average weight carried by horse = 16 stone.

Average weight carried by Scotch carts = 1,600 lb.

Footnotes for Appendix H

{55} The letters are published in their proper place, and readers can satisfy themselves as to whether they justify the above inference.

{56} Note. July, 1899. In the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons (No. 311 of 1897), page 298, are the following:--

Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman: "Did you understand that you were to meet a considerable force at Krugersdorp coming from Johannesburg?"

Sir John Willoughby: _Not when we started_ from Pitsani, but certainly after the letters received from the cyclists.

APPENDIX I.

MANIFESTO.

If I am deeply sensible of the honour conferred upon me by being elected chairman of the National Union, I am profoundly impressed with the responsibilities attached to the position. The issues to be faced in this country are so momentous in character that it has been decided that prior to the holding of a public meeting a review of the condition of affairs should be placed in your hands, in order that you may consider matters quietly in your homes. It has also been decided that it will be wise to postpone the meeting which was to have taken place on the 27th December until the 6th day of January next.

On that day you will have made up your minds on the various points submitted to you, and we will ask you for direction as to our future course of action. It is almost unnecessary to recount all the steps which have been taken by the National Union, and I shall therefore confine myself to a very short review of what has been done.

THE THREE PLANKS.

The constitution of the National Union is very simple. The three objects which we set before ourselves are: (1) The maintenance of the independence of the Republic, (2) the securing of equal rights, and (3) the redress of grievances. This brief but comprehensive programme has never been lost sight of, and I think we may challenge contradiction fearlessly when we assert that we have constitutionally, respectfully, and steadily prosecuted our purpose. Last year you will remember a respectful petition, praying for the franchise, signed by 13,000 men, was received with contemptuous laughter and jeers in the Volksraad. This year the Union, apart from smaller matters, endeavoured to do three things.

THE RAAD ELECTIONS.

First we were told that a Progressive spirit was abroad, that twelve out of twenty-four members of the First Volksraad had to be elected, and we might reasonably hope for reform by the type of broad-minded men who would be elected. It was therefore resolved that we should do everything in our power to assist in the election of the best men who were put up by the constituencies, and everything that the law permitted us to do in this direction was done.

DISAPPOINTED HOPES.

The result has been only too disappointing, as the record of the debates and the division list in the Volksraad prove. We were moreover told that public speeches in Johannesburg prevented the Progressive members from getting a majority of the Raad to listen to our requests, that angry passions were inflamed, and that if we would only hold our tongues reform would be brought about. We therefore resolved in all loyalty to abstain from inflaming angry passions, although we never admitted we had by act or speech given reason for legislators to refuse justice to all. Hence our silence for a long time.

THE RAILWAY CONCESSION NEXT.

We used all our influence to get the Volksraad to take over the railway concession, but, alas! the President declared with tears in his voice that the independence of the country was wrapped up in this question, and a submissive Raad swept the petitions from the table.

THE FRANCHISE PETITION.

Our great effort however was the petition for the franchise, with the moderate terms of which you are all acquainted. This petition was signed by more than 38,000 persons. What was the result? We were called unfaithful for not naturalizing ourselves, when naturalization means only that we should give up our original citizenship and get nothing in return, and become subject to disabilities. Members had the calm assurance to state, without any grounds whatever, that the signatures were forgeries; and, worst of all, one member in an inflammatory speech challenged us openly to fight for our rights, and his sentiment seemed to meet with considerable approval. This is the disappointing result of our honest endeavours to bring about a fusion between the people of this State, and the true union and equality which alone can be the basis of prosperity and peace. You all know that as the law now stands we are virtually excluded for ever from getting the franchise, and by a malignant ingenuity our children born here are deprived of the rights of citizenship unless their fathers take an oath of allegiance, which brings them nothing but disabilities.

THE BITTER CRY OF THE 'UITLANDER.'

We are the vast majority in this State. We own more than half the land, and, taken in the aggregate, we own at least nine-tenths of the property in this country; yet in all matters affecting our lives, our liberties, and our properties, we have absolutely no voice. Dealing now first with the legislature, we find taxation is imposed upon us without any representation whatever, that taxation is wholly inequitable, _(a)_ because a much greater amount is levied from the people than is required for the needs of Government; _(b)_ because it is either class taxation pure and simple, or by the selection of the subjects, though nominally universal, it is made to fall upon our shoulders; and _(c)_ because the necessaries of life are unduly burdened.

ABUSE OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.

Expenditure is not controlled by any public official independent of the Government. Vast sums are squandered, while the Secret Service Fund is a dark mystery to everybody. But, essential as the power to control taxation and expenditure is to a free people, there are other matters of the gravest importance which are equally precious. The Legislature in this country is the supreme power, apparently uncontrolled by any fixed Constitution. The chance will of a majority in a Legislature elected by one-third of the people is capable of dominating us in every relation of life, and when we remember that those who hold power belong to a different race, speak a different language, and have different pursuits from ourselves, that they regard us with suspicion, and even hostility; that, as a rule, they are not educated men, and that their passions are played upon by unscrupulous adventurers, it must be admitted that we are in very grave danger.

TRIBUTE TO THE MODERATES.

I think it is but just to bear tribute to the patriotic endeavours of a small band of enlightened men in the Volksraad who have earnestly condemned the policy of the Government and warned them of its danger. To Mr. Jeppe, Mr. Lucas Meyer, the De Jagers, Mr. Loveday, and a few others in the First Raad, leaving out the second Raad, we owe our best thanks, for they have fought our battle and confirmed the justice of our cause. But when we look to the debates of the last few years, what do we find? All through a spirit of hostility, all through an endeavour not to meet the just wants of the people, not to remove grievances, not to establish the claim to our loyalty by just treatment and equal laws, but to repress the publication of the truth, however much it might be required in the public interest, to prevent us from holding public meetings, to interfere with the Courts, and to keep us in awe by force.

THE POWERS OF THE EXECUTIVE.

There is now threatened a danger even graver than those which have preceded it. The Government is seeking to get through the Legislature an Act which will vest in the Executive the power to decide whether men have been guilty of sedition, and to deport them and confiscate their goods. The Volksraad has by resolution affirmed the principle, and has instructed the Government to bring up a Bill accordingly next session. To-day this power rests justly with the courts of law, and I can only say that if this Bill becomes law the power of the Executive Government of this country would be as absolute as the power of the Czar of Russia. We shall have said goodbye finally to the last principle of liberty.

PRESIDENT KRUGER INDICTED.

Coming to the Executive Government, we find that there is no true responsibility to the people, none of the great departments of State are controlled by Ministerial officers in the proper sense, the President's will is virtually supreme, and he, with his unique influence over the legislators of the House, State-aided by an able if hostile State Secretary, has been the author of every act directed against the liberties of the people. It is well that this should be recognized. It is well that President Kruger should be known for what he is, and that once for all the false pedestal on which he has so long stood should be destroyed. I challenge contradiction when I state that no important Act has found a place on the Statute-book during the last ten years without the seal of President Kruger's will upon it; nay, he is the father of every such Act. Remember that all legislation is initiated by the Government, and, moreover, President Kruger has expressly supported every Act by which we and our children have been deprived by progressive steps of the right to acquire franchise, by which taxation has been imposed upon us almost exclusively, and by which the right and the liberty of the Press and the right of public meeting have been attacked.

THE JUDGES AND THE LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECT.

Now we come to the judicial system. The High Court of this country has, in the absence of representation, been the sole guardian of our liberties. Although it has on the whole done its work ably, affairs are in a very unsatisfactory position. The judges have been underpaid, their salaries have never been secure, the most undignified treatment has been meted out to them, and the status and independence of the Bench have on more than one occasion been attacked. A deliberate attempt was made two years ago by President Kruger and the Government to reduce the bench to a position subordinate to the Executive Government, and only recently we had in the Witfontein matter the last of the cases in which the Legislature interfered with vested rights of action. The administration of justice by minor officials, by native commissioners, and by field-cornets, has produced, and is producing, the gravest unrest in the country; and, lastly, gentlemen,

THE GREAT BULWARK OF LIBERTY,

the right to trial by jurymen who are our peers, is denied to us. Only the burgher or naturalized burgher is entitled to be a juryman; or, in other words, anyone of us is liable to be tried upon the gravest charge possible by jurymen who are in no sense our peers, who belong to a different race, who regard us with a greater or lesser degree of hostility, and whose passions, if inflamed, might prompt them, as weak human creatures, to inflict the gravest injustice, even to deprive men of their lives. Supposing, in the present tense condition of political feeling, any one of us were tried before a Boer jury on any charge having a political flavour about it, should we be tried by our peers, and should we have a chance of receiving even-handed justice?

THE SECRET SERVICE FUND.

When we come to the Administration, we find that there is the grossest extravagance, that Secret Service moneys are squandered, that votes are exceeded, that the public credit is pledged, as it was pledged in the case of the Netherlands Railway Company, and later still in the case of the Selati Railway, in a manner which is wholly inconsistent with the best interests of the people.

SQUANDERING THE PUBLIC REVENUE.

The Delagoa Bay festivities are an instance of a reckless disregard of a Parliamentary vote; £20,000 was voted for those useless festivities--about £60,000 was really expended, and I believe certain favoured gentlemen hailing from Holland derived the principal benefit. It is said that £400,000 of our money has been transferred for some extraordinary purpose to Holland. Recently £17,000 is said to have been sent out of the country with Dr. Leyds for Secret Service purposes, and the public audit seems a farce. When the Progressive members endeavoured to get an explanation about large sums of money they were silenced by a vote of the majority prompted by President Kruger. The administration of the public service is in a scandalous condition.

A CORRUPT LEGISLATURE.

Bribery and corruption are rampant. We have had members of the Raad accepting presents of imported spiders and watches wholesale from men who were applying for concessions, and we have the singular fact that in every instance the recipient of the gift voted for the concession. We have the President openly stating that such acceptance of presents was wholly moral. We have a condition of affairs in which the time of the meeting of the Volksraad is looked upon as the period of the greatest danger to our interests, and it is an open secret that a class of man has sprung up who is in constant attendance upon the members of the Volksraad, and whose special business appears to be the 'influencing' of members one way or the other. It is openly stated that enormous sums of money have been spent, some to produce illegitimate results, some to guard against fresh attacks upon vested rights. The Legislature passed an Act solemnly denouncing corruption in the public service. One man, not an official, was punished under the law, but nothing has ever been done since to eradicate the evil.

AND A TAINTED CIVIL SERVICE.

I think thousands of you are satisfied of the venality of many of our public servants. I wish to guard against the assumption that all public servants are corrupt. Thank God there are many who are able and honourable men, and it must be gall and wormwood to these men to find the whole tone of the service destroyed, and to have themselves made liable to be included under one general denunciation. But there can be no health in an administration, and the public morals must be sapped also, when such things as the Smit case, and the recent Stiemens case, go unnoticed and unpunished.

TWO GLARING CASES.

I think it right to state openly what those cases are. N.J. Smit is the son of a member of the Government. He absented himself for months without leave. He was meantime charged in the newspapers with embezzlement. He returned, was fined £25 for being absent without leave, and was reinstated in office. He is now the Mining Commissioner of Klerksdorp. He has been charged in at least two newspapers--one of them a Dutch newspaper, _Land en Volk_, published within a stone's throw of the Government Office--with being an 'unpunished thief,' and yet the Government have taken no notice of it, nor has he thought fit to bring an action to clear himself. In the Stiemens case two officials in the Mining Department admitted in the witness-box that they had agreed to further the application of a relative for the grant of a piece of public land at Johannesburg on condition that they were each to receive one quarter of the proceeds. A third official, the Landdrost of Pretoria, admitted that he had received £300 for his 'influence' in furthering the application; yet no notice had been taken by the Government of their scandalous conduct, and sad to say the judges who heard the case did not think it their duty to comment strongly upon the matter. I have in my possession now a notarial deed which proves that the Railway Commissioner, the Landdrost, and the Commandant of Pretoria are members of a syndicate whose avowed object is, or was, to wrest from the companies their right to the 'bewaarplaatsen.' This shows what is going on, and what is the measure of safety of title to property. Those who should guard our rights are our worst enemies. In a law introduced by the present Government, the Government, instead of the Courts, are the final judges in cases of disputed elections. No Election Committees are allowed. This operates against candidates opposed to the Government, because the Government has virtually a vast standing army of committee men, henchmen, officials being allowed openly to take part in swaying elections, and the Government being in a position, by the distribution of contracts, appointments, purchase of concessions, the expenditure of Secret Service money and otherwise, to bring into existence and maintain a large number of supporters who act as canvassers always on the right side in times of elections.

NATIVE AFFAIRS.

The administration of native affairs is a gross scandal and a source of immense loss and danger to the community. Native Commissioners have been permitted to practise extortion, injustice, and cruelty upon the natives under their jurisdiction. The Government has allowed petty tribes to be goaded into rebellion. We have had to pay the costs of the 'wars,' while the wretched victims of their policy have had their tribes broken up, sources of native labour have been destroyed, and large numbers of prisoners have been kept in goal for something like eighteen months without trial. It was stated in the newspapers that, out of 63 men imprisoned, 31 had died in that period, while the rest were languishing to death for want of vegetable food. We have had revelations of repulsive cruelty on the part of field-cornets. We all remember the Rachman case, and the April case, in which the judges found field-cornets guilty of brutal conduct to unfortunate natives; but the worst features about these cases is that the Government has set the seal of its approval upon the acts of these officials by paying the costs of the actions out of public funds, and the President of the State a few days ago made the astounding statement in regard to the April case, that, notwithstanding the judgment of the High Court, the Government thought that Prinsloo was right in his action, and therefore paid the costs. The Government is enforcing the 'plakkerswet,' which forbids the locating of more than five families on one farm. The field-cornets in various districts have recently broken up homes of large numbers of natives settled on 'Uitlanders'' lands, just at the time when they had sown their crops to provide the next winter's food. The application of this law is most uneven, as large numbers of natives are left on the farms of the Boers. Quite recently a well-known citizen brought into the country at great expense some hundreds of families, provided them with land, helped them to start life, stipulating only that he should be able to draw from amongst them labour at a fair wage to develop his properties. Scarcely had they been settled when the field-cornet came down and scattered the people, distributing them among Boer farms. The sources of the native labour supply have been seriously interfered with at the borders by Government measures, and difficulties have been placed in the way of transport of natives by railway to the mines. These things are all a drain upon us as a State, and many of them are a burning disgrace to us as a people.

THE EDUCATION SCANDAL.

The great public that subscribes the bulk of the revenue is virtually denied all benefit of State aid in education. There has been a deliberate attempt to Hollanderise the Republic, and to kill the English language. Thousands of children are growing up in this land in ignorance, unfitted to run the race of life, and there is the possibility that a large number of them will develop into criminals. We have had to tax ourselves privately to guard against these dangers, and the iniquity of denying education to the children of men who are paying taxes is so manifest that I pass on with mingled feelings of anger and disgust.

RAILWAYS.

This important branch of the public service is entirely in the hands of a corporation domiciled in Holland. This corporation holds a concession, of course under which not only was there no adequate control over expenditure in construction, but it is entitled to charge and is charging us outrageous tariffs. How outrageous these are will be seen from the admission made by Mr. Middelberg that the short section of 10 miles between Boksburg and Krugersdorp is paying more than the interest on the cost of the construction of the whole line of railway to Delagoa Bay. To add these to its general revenue, of which 10 per cent, is set aside as a sinking fund, and then to take for itself 15 per cent. of the balance, the Company reports annually to the Raad from Amsterdam in a language which is practically foreign to it, and makes up its accounts in guelders, a coinage which our legislators I venture to say know nothing of; and this is independence. We are liable as guarantors for the whole of the debt. Lines have been built entirely on our credit, and yet we have no say and no control over these important public works beyond the show of control which is supposed to be exercised by the present Railway Commissioner. The Company in conjunction with the Executive Government is in a position to control our destinies to an enormous extent, to influence our relations internally and externally, to bring about such friction with the neighbouring States as to set the whole of South Africa in tumult. Petitions have been presented to the Raad, but the President has constantly brushed these aside with the well-worn argument that the independence of the State is involved in the matter. It is involved in the matter, as all who remember the recent Drifts question will admit. I have been told that it is dangerous for the country to take over the railway, because it would afford such an immense field for corruption. Surely this is the strongest condemnation of the Government by its friends, for if it is not fit to run a railway, how can it be fit to manage a whole State? The powers controlling this railway are flooding the public service with Hollanders to the exclusion of our own people, and I may here say that in the most important departments of the State we are being controlled by the gentlemen from the Low Country. While the innocent Boer hugs to himself the delusion that he is preserving his independence, they control us politically through Dr. Leyds, financially through the Netherlands Railway, educationally through Dr. Mansvelt, and in the Department of Justice through Dr. Coster.

CUSTOMS AND TRADE.

The policy of the Government in regard to taxation may be practically described as protection without production. The most monstrous hardships result to consumers, and merchants can scarcely say from day to day where they are. Twice now has the Government entered into competition with traders who have paid their licences and rents and who keep staffs. Recently grain became scarce. The Government were petitioned to suspend the duties, which are cruelly high, in order to assist the mining industry to feed its labourers. The Government refused this request on the plea that it was not in a position to suspend duties without the permission of the Volksraad, and yet within a few days we find that the Government has granted a concession to one of its friends to import grain free of duty and to sell it in competition with the merchants who have had to pay duties. I do not attempt to deal with this important question adequately, but give this example to show how the Government regards the rights of traders.

MONOPOLIES.

It has been the steady policy of the Government to grant concessions. No sooner does any commodity become absolutely essential to the community than some harpy endeavours to get a concession for its supply. There is scarcely a commodity or a right which has not been made the subject of an application for the grant of a concession. We all remember the bread and jam concession, the water concession, the electric lighting concession, and many others, but I need only point to the dynamite concession to show how these monopolies tend to paralyse our industries. There may be some of you who have not yet heard and some who have forgotten the facts connected with this outrage upon public rights.

STORY OF THE DYNAMITE CONCESSION.

Some years ago, Mr. Lippert got a concession for the sole right to manufacture and sell dynamite and all other explosives. He was to manufacture the dynamite in this country. For years he imported dynamite under the name of Guhr Impregne duty free. He never manufactured dynamite in the country, and upon public exposure, the Government was compelled to cancel the concession, the President himself denouncing the action of the concessionnaire as fraudulent. For a time we breathed freely, thinking we were rid of this incubus, but within a few months the Government granted virtually to the same people another concession, under which they are now taking from the pockets of the public £600,000 per annum, and this is a charge which will go on growing should the mining industry survive the persistent attempts to strangle it. How a body charged with the public interests could be parties to this scandalous fleecing of the public passes comprehension. Then, the curious feature about the matter is that the Government gets some petty fraction of this vast sum, and the concessionnaires have on this plea obtained enormous advances of public moneys from the Government, without security, to carry on their trade. Shortly, the concessionnaires are entitled to charge 90s. a case for dynamite, while it could be bought if there were no concession for about 30s. a case. It may be stated incidentally, that Mr. Wolmarans, a member of the Government, has been for years challenged to deny that he is enjoying a royalty of 2s. on every case of dynamite sold, and that he has up to the present moment neglected to take up the challenge. Proper municipal government is denied to us, and we all know how much this means with regard to health, comfort, and the value of property. The Statute Books are disfigured with enactments imposing religious disabilities; and the English language, the language spoken by the great bulk of the people, is denied all official recognition. The natural result of the existing condition of things is that the true owners of the mines are those who have invested no capital in them--the Government, the railway concessionnaires, the dynamite concessionnaires, and others. The country is rich, and under proper government could be developed marvellously, but it cannot stand the drain of the present exactions. We have lived largely upon foreign capital, and the total amount of the dividends available for shareholders in companies is ridiculously small as compared with the aggregate amount of capital invested in mining ventures. Some day the inevitable result upon our credit and upon our trade will be forced upon us.

HATRED OF THE SAXON.

There is no disguising the fact that the original policy of the Government is based upon intense hostility to the English-speaking population, and that even against the enfranchised burgher of this State there is the determination to retain all power in the hands of those who are enjoying the sweets of office now, and naturally the grateful crowd of relations and friends and henchmen ardently support the existing _régime_; but there are unmistakable signs, and the President fears that the policy which he has hitherto adopted will not be sufficient to keep in check the growing population. It seems the set purpose of the Government to repress the growth of the industry, to tax it at every turn, to prevent the working classes from settling here and making their homes and surrounding themselves with their families, and there is no mistaking the significance of the action of the President when he opposed the throwing open of the town lands of Pretoria on the ground that 'he might have a second Johannesburg there,' nor that of his speech upon the motion for the employment of diamond drills to prospect Government lands, which he opposed hotly on the ground that 'there is too much gold here already.'

THE POLICY OF FORCE.

We now have openly the policy of force revealed to us. £250,000 is to be spent upon the completing of a fort at Pretoria, £100,000 is to be spend upon a fort to terrorize the inhabitants of Johannesburg, large orders are sent to Krupp's for big guns, Maxims have been ordered, and we are even told that German officers are coming out to drill the burghers. Are these things necessary or are they calculated to irritate the feeling to breaking point? What necessity is there for forts in peaceful inland towns? Why should the Government endeavour to keep us in subjection to unjust laws by the power of the sword instead of making themselves live in the heart of the people by a broad policy of justice? What can be said of a policy which deliberately divides the two great sections of the people from each other, instead of uniting them under equal laws, or the policy which keeps us in eternal turmoil with the neighbouring States? What shall be said of the statecraft, every act of which sows torments, discontent, or race hatred, and reveals a conception of republicanism under which the only privilege of the majority of the people is to provide the revenue, and to bear insult, while only those are considered Republicans who speak a certain language, and in greater or less degree share the prejudices of the ruling classes?

A STIRRING PERORATION.

I think this policy can never succeed, unless men are absolutely bereft of every quality which made their forefathers free men; unless we have fallen so low that we are prepared to forget honour, self-respect, and our duty to our children. Once more, I wish to state again in unmistakable language what has been so frequently stated in perfect sincerity before, that we desire an independent republic which shall be a true republic, in which every man who is prepared to take the oath of allegiance to the State shall have equal rights, in which our children shall be brought up side by side as united members of a strong commonwealth; that we are animated by no race hatred, that we desire to deprive no man, be his nationality what it may, of any right.

THE CHARTER OF THE UNION.

We have now only two questions to consider: _(a)_ What do we want? _(b)_ how shall we get it? I have stated plainly what our grievances are, and I shall answer with equal directness the question, 'What do we want?' We want: (1) the establishment of this Republic as a true Republic; (2) a Grondwet or Constitution which shall be framed by competent persons selected by representatives of the whole people and framed on lines laid down by them--a Constitution which shall be safe-guarded against hasty alteration; (3) an equitable franchise law, and fair representation; (4) equality of the Dutch and English languages; (5) responsibility of the Legislature to the heads of the great departments; (6) removal of religious disabilities; (7) independence of the courts of justice, with adequate and secured remuneration of the judges; (8) liberal and comprehensive education; (9) efficient civil service, with adequate provision for pay and pension; (10) free trade in South African products. That is what we want. There now remains the question which is to be put before you at the meeting of the 6th January, viz., How shall we get it? To this question I shall expect from you an answer in plain terms according to your deliberate judgment.

CHARLES LEONARD, _Chairman of the Transvaal National Union._

APPENDIX K.

THE CASE OF THE CHIEFTAINESS TOEREMETSJANI

On the reports which have appeared the case or cases of Toeremetsjani _v_. P.A. Cronjé, Jesaja _v_. P.A. Cronjé and D.J. Schoeman, Segole _v_. P.A. Cronjé and J.A. Erasmus, have attracted, as well they might, a good deal of attention. The following _résumé_ and commentary were compiled by a legal gentleman who was present during the trial, but not professionally employed in it.

The facts revealed in the evidence (writes our correspondent) speak pretty well for themselves, but they were brought out into lurid prominence in the cross-examination of Commandant Cronjé by Mr. Justice Jorissen. In order to make the case quite clear, it is as well to state for the benefit of those who are not intimately acquainted with things in the Transvaal that this Mr. Cronjé, who is now the Superintendent-General of Natives, is the same Cronjé concerning whose action in regard to Jameson's surrender there was so much discussion. After the Jameson Raid, President Kruger, pursuing his policy of packing the Executive with his own friends, decided to put Cronjé upon the Executive, for which purpose he induced General Joubert to resign his position as Superintendent-General of Natives. The President's intention becoming known to Raad members, the strongest possible objection was expressed to this course as being wholly unconstitutional and in direct conflict with the Grondwet; the President in the first place having no right to add to the number of Executive members and no authority for appointing any person to fill a vacancy if there were one. Notice of motion was promptly given in the Raad to instruct the Executive not to take the proposed course, as the Raad felt that the privilege and power of appointing members on the Executive rested with them alone. Twenty-four hours' notice was requisite to bring a matter up for discussion before the Raad. President Kruger hearing that notice had been given promptly called a meeting of the Executive and appointed Mr. Cronjé in defiance of the notice of motion, so that when the motion came on for discussion on the following day he replied to the Raad's instruction that it was too late to discuss the matter, the appointment having been made. Mr. Cronjé, therefore, appears on the scene on this occasion without much to prejudice the unbiassed reader in his favour. The circumstances of the surrender of the Potchefstroom garrison, which was secured by treacherously suppressing the news of the armistice between the two forces (a treachery for which public reparation was afterwards exacted by Sir Evelyn Wood), the treatment of certain prisoners of war (compelled to work for the Boers exposed to the fire and being shot down by their own friends in the garrison), the summary execution of other prisoners, the refusal to allow certain of the women to leave the British garrison, resulting in the death of at least one, are matters which although sixteen years old are quite fresh in the memory of the people in the Transvaal. The condition of Dr. Jameson's surrender revived the feeling that Mr. Cronjé has need to do something remarkable in another direction in order to encourage that confidence in him as an impartial and fair-minded man which his past career unfortunately does not warrant. Commandant Trichard, mentioned in this connection as a witness, was one of the commandants who refused to confirm the terms accorded by Cronjé to Jameson. Mr. Abel Erasmus is a gentleman so notorious that it would be quite unnecessary to further describe him. He is the one whom Lord Wolseley described as a fiend in human form, and threatened to "hang as high as Haman." Abel Erasmus is the man who had desolated the Lydenburg district; the hero of the cave affair in which men, women, and children were closed up in a cave and burnt to death or suffocated; a man who is the living terror of a whole countryside, the mere mention of whose name is sufficient to cow any native. Mr. Schoeman is the understudy of Abel Erasmus, and is the hero of the satchel case, in which an unfortunate native was flogged well-nigh to death and tortured in order to wring evidence from him who, it was afterwards discovered, knew absolutely nothing about the affair. The Queen, or Chieftainess, Toeremetsjani, is the present head of the Secocoeni tribe and the head wife of the late chief, Secocoeni. This tribe, it will be remembered, was the one which successfully resisted the Boers under President Burger and Commandant Paul Kruger--a successful resistance which was one of the troubles leading directly to the abortive annexation of the Transvaal. The Secocoeni tribe were afterwards conquered by British troops, and handed over to the tender mercies of the Boer Government upon the restoration of its independence.

It is necessary to bear these facts in mind in order to realise the hideous significance of the unvarnished tale.

Now to the trial.

Mr. Advocate WESSELS, who acted for the natives, gauging pretty accurately what the defence would be, called two witnesses to prove the _prima facie_ case. Jesaja, one of the indunas flogged, whose case was first on the roll, proved that he was flogged by order of Commandant Cronjé without any form of trial, and without any charge or indictment being made against him, and that he received twenty-six lashes, the extra one being given because he declined to say 'Thank you' for the twenty-five. Commandant Trichard next gave evidence, and from him Mr. WESSELS elicited that Cronjé had gone through no form of trial, but handed over Jesaja and the other twelve indunas to be flogged by Erasmus and Schoeman.

Advocate: Do you positively swear that Commandant Cronjé specified the sentence of twenty-five lashes each?

Witness: Yes.

Which answer was quite in accordance with the pleas of Erasmus and Schoeman, who stated specifically that they administered the lashes in accordance with the orders and sentence given by Commandant Cronjé. The Court held that a sufficient _prima facie_ case had been made out by the plaintiff, and that the onus now lay on the defendants to prove their case. The witnesses called were Commandant Cronjé and Mr. Stiemens, secretary to the former. Mr. Stiemens in his evidence fully corroborated Trichard's evidence as to the passing of the sentence by Cronjé upon the indunas and the absence of any form of trial; and nothing more need be said about this witness. With Mr. Cronjé's evidence, however, it is necessary to deal at length. Mr. Cronjé admitted under cross-examination that he had not observed any particular form of trial, although, as was pointed out, the law dealing with native trials stated specifically 'that the rules which govern procedure in civilized courts shall be followed as closely as possible.' He stated that as regards the Chieftainess, he called her up and read over to her 'point by point' 'the indictment under which she was charged,' which indictment, however, as he admitted, consisted merely of a letter of complaint written by Field-cornet Schoeman to him as Superintendent-General of Natives. He claimed that no form of trial was necessary, inasmuch as he acted under the authority of the President, who has supreme power over natives, and was not obliged to observe any particular form of trial. 'Point by point I read the charge,' to use his own words, 'against the woman, and point by point I could see by her demeanour that she was guilty.' As regards the thirteen indunas, Mr. Cronjé admitted that he did not know whether these were indunas. He considered them guilty, not because they had done anything, but because in their position as advisers of the Chieftainess they ought to have advised her better than they appeared to have done. Instructions had therefore been given to arrest these indunas, and they had caught as many as they could. There was no evidence to show that they were indunas, or that they were ever in a position to advise or had advised the Chieftainess; in fact, it was admitted that they were a lot of thirteen caught out of a tribe as one might catch so many sheep out of a flock. Mr. Cronjé denied that he had sentenced these men, and repeatedly stated that he had handed them over to Erasmus and Schoeman, to be dealt with according to law.

Mr. WESSELS cross-examined the witness upon this point as follows:--

Advocate: I believe Commandant Trichard accompanied you on this commission?

Witness: Yes.

Advocate: He was present throughout the whole proceeding?

Witness: Yes.

Advocate: He had every opportunity of knowing what took place and what was said?

Witness: Yes.

Advocate: You will be surprised to hear that Mr. Trichard states that you actually passed sentence upon the thirteen indunas in such words as, 'I hand you over to the Native Commissioner and Field-cornet to be dealt with according to law. And you instigators will get twenty-five lashes each between the shoulders.' Do you positively deny that you said anything about twenty-five lashes?

Witness: Yes, I deny it.

Advocate: Do you deny that you gave any indication or opinion as to what ought to be done with these men?

Witness: Yes.

Advocate: Well, Mr. Cronjé, I want to know which of you two the Court is to believe, you or Commandant Trichard?

Witness: Commandant Trichard has made a mistake.

Advocate: No, no, no, Mr. Cronjé, that won't do; there are no mistakes in this business. I want you to tell the Court which of you two men under oath is lying and which is telling the truth.

Witness: Commandant Trichard is lying.

(At this point there was some commotion in Court caused by Commandant Trichard jumping up and making use of some expressions towards the witness. The matter ended in a rather fierce altercation after the Court adjourned.) It is only necessary to add that Mr. Stiemans, who followed Cronjé, fully corroborated Trichard's evidence. There were many other interesting points brought out by Mr. WESSELS in his cross-examination, but it is unnecessary to further detail this part of the proceedings, as the same ground was covered by Mr. Justice Jorissen, who took the witness in hand and whose cross-examination brought out the salient features of the case with extreme vividness and dramatic effect. The Judge first dealt with that portion of the evidence relating to the so-called 'trial' of the Chieftainess.

Judge: Mr. Cronjé, in your evidence just now you said that you read over to this woman the charge that was laid against her. 'Point by point' you say you read it to her, and 'point by point you could see by her demeanour that she was guilty.' Is that so?

Witness: Yes.

Judge: Very well, Mr. Cronjé, I will take the indictment, 'point by point,' as you did. Point the first, Mr. Cronjé. (The Judge here read the first of the seven clauses in Schoeman's letter which formed the indictment.) Now kindly explain to me what there was in the woman's demeanour which conveyed to you the idea that she was guilty on this point.

The witness became considerably embarrassed and did not answer.

Judge: No answer, Mr. Cronjé? Well, we will take point No. 2. (The judge dealt with all the seven clauses in a similar manner, the witness failing to make any answer throughout. After the last point had been dealt with and remained unanswered, the Judge addressed the witness again amid a most impressive silence in Court).

Judge: Mr. Cronjé, 'point by point' I have read to you the indictment as you read it to the woman; 'point by point' I have asked you to give me certain information; 'point by point' you have failed to make any answer. Well, Mr. Cronjé, I can only tell you this, 'point by point' I shall set that down in my notes. (After an interval, during which the Judge filled in his notes, the examination was resumed.)

Judge: Now, Mr. Cronjé, as I understand it, it was in consequence of Field-cornet Schoeman's complaint to you as Superintendent-General of Natives that you were sent by the Government to investigate the matter?

Witness: Yes.

Judge: You called the woman up before you and read to her the charges.

Witness: Yes.

Judge: You brought no evidence against her?

Witness: No.

Judge: You did not call upon Schoeman to produce any evidence against her?

Witness: No.

Judge: His letter of complaint to you seemed sufficient?

Witness: Yes.

Judge: You did not give her any opportunity to bring evidence?

Witness: It was not necessary.

Judge: Oh, dear no; I quite understand that 'you could tell from her demeanour that she was guilty.' But as a matter of form you did not hear any evidence on her behalf?

Witness: No.

Judge: You just sentenced her out of hand.

Witness: I sentenced her to pay a fine.

Judge: And then as regards the thirteen indunas, if they were indunas, as you deny sentencing them we need not refer further to that point, but I put this to you--there was no evidence brought against them?

Witness: No.

Judge: There was nothing to show that these men had ever advised the woman or were in a position to advise her; in fact, as far as the evidence goes, there was nothing to show that they even belonged to the tribe, but in your opinion they ought to have advised her differently, and you therefore sentenced them to twenty-five lashes each.

Witness: I did not sentence them, but handed them over to the proper authorities to be dealt with according to law.

Judge: Oh, no, Mr. Cronjé, that is not how the case appears to me. You came up to these people in the capacity of Judge, to do justice as between man and man according to your lights, to follow the procedure that is observed in civilized courts, to represent the strength, the rights, and the responsibilities of this Republic, and if we are to accept your evidence as true, you did not try the men whom you were to have tried. You heard evidence neither for nor against them, but you handed them over to--to whom, Mr. Cronjé? Not to the proper authorities, but to Erasmus and Schoeman, the other parties in the case which you were sent up to try. It seems to me, Mr. Cronjé, that this is a case without parallel.

There was no answer from the witness.

Judge: One point more, Mr. Cronjé, and I have finished. When you handed over these men to be dealt with, did you notify them that they had the right of appeal from any sentence that might be imposed upon them?

Witness: Yes, I did.

Judge: Right! Now, Mr. Cronjé, did you notify Erasmus and Schoeman that they should stay execution of the sentence pending the hearing of any appeal?

After considerable pause the witness was understood to say "No."

Judge: You did not tell these officials to stay execution?

Witness: No.

Judge: Then you merely gave these natives the right to appeal against the sentence of lashes after they should have received the lashes?

There was no answer from the witness.

Judge: That will do, Mr. Cronjé. I do not think that these people have much reason to thank you for the leave to appeal.

Cronjé was followed in the witness-box by Stiemens, whose evidence is already referred to, and the Court then adjourned.

The next morning, shortly before the opening of the Court, the State Attorney came down on behalf of the Government and arranged with Plaintiffs' Counsel to adjourn for the day to enable parties to try and settle the three cases out of Court. The Court thereupon adjourned at the request of parties, and during the day the three cases were settled on the following basis: The Government refunds Toeremetsjani the £147 10s. with interest at 6 per cent, from the date of payment by her to Erasmus, and pays her costs, to be taxed as between attorney and client.

The Defendants Cronjé, Erasmus, and Schoeman, pay each of the thirteen indunas who were flogged £25 as compensation, and pay the costs of Jesaja and Segole, to be taxed as between attorney and client.

POSTSCRIPT.

One last touch of irony is needed to complete the story of the suits brought by the Chieftainess Toeremetsjani and her indunas against Messrs. Erasmus, Schoeman, and the rest. It seems that these same gentlemen have actually been appointed by the Government to 'investigate matters' in the district where these Kaffirs live. Poor Toeremetsjani and the unfortunate indunas, as a contemporary remarks, may be expected to give a grovelling welcome. No more High Court for them.

The natives, by the way, interviewed since their return to the kraals, state that they have not yet received the settlement arranged.

In connection with the above sample of justice to the natives it is as well to recall another recent incident which has lately taken place. Some natives being severely mishandled by the local authorities, and being in consequence destitute of means to proceed against them in law, applied to Court for leave to sue _in forma pauperis_. This leave was granted. Immediately upon this becoming known petitions were got up among the Boers, with the result that the Volksraad some six weeks ago took a resolution instructing the Government to immediately bring in a law forbidding the judges to grant such leave, and making it impossible for a native to sue Government or any white person _in forma pauperis_. Comment (concludes the correspondent who sets out these various facts) is superfluous.

APPENDIX L.

59, HOLBORN VIADUCT, LONDON, E.C. _6th May, 1897._

REPORT ON THE LETTER WRITTEN ON A TORN TELEGRAM FORM SIGNED "F.R.", BY MR. T.H. GURRIN, EXPERT IN HANDWRITING.

Mr. THOMAS HENRY GURRIN, of 59, Holborn Viaduct, London, E.C., is a professional expert in handwriting, recognized and employed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Home Office, and the authorities at Scotland Yard, and is constantly engaged by them in that capacity. He is also frequently engaged in the same capacity by the Bank of England and other public bodies.

He has acted as handwriting expert in a very large number of civil and criminal cases at sessions, assizes, and before the High Courts, for over twelve years past, and can conscientiously say that his experience in the identification of genuine handwriting and the detection of forged and altered documents is very extensive.

Mr. Gurrin begs respectfully to submit the following report:--

'Having been instructed by Mr. Braunstein, solicitor, of 27, Great George Street, Westminster, I have examined a photograph of torn portions of a letter written on a telegram form of the South African Republic.

'My attention has been directed to the evidence of Major Sir J.C. Willoughby, appearing at page 302 of the Minutes, in which he has given his version of the missing portions of this document.

'I have compared this version of the missing words with the vacant spaces, and I find that the words supplied in question 5,571 would occupy, as near as can be estimated, the missing spaces, judging from the other writing in the document.

'I read the first portion of the document as follows:--

'"Dear Dr., "The rumour of massacre in" "Johannesburg that started you to our" "relief was not true. We are all right;" "feeling intense; we have armed" "a lot of men. Shall (not 'I shall') be very glad" "to see you. We are not in possession of" "town."

'Major Sir J.C. Willoughby reads line 6, "We (or the Boers)." It cannot possibly be "the Boers," as the first letter is clearly a portion of a capital "W," and corresponds with the first portion of the "W" as made at line 3; and further, there would be no room for the two words "the Boers," between the portion of the letter "W" and the word "not."

'Again, I am of opinion that the last word in line 6 was "of," as there is still visible an ascending curved stroke corresponding to that with which the writer terminates the letter "f."

'With reference to the rest of the version as contained in question 5,573, I respectfully submit that the missing words supplied are absolutely inconsistent with the spaces which these words would occupy if written naturally by the same writer.

'The words "I will bring at least three hundred" do not correspond with the still existing marks on line 7. The portion of a letter appearing in the middle of the line would not, as far as I can judge, be a part of any of the words suggested which would come at the centre of that line. It might be a part of a capital "W," or an initial "p," or it might be a final "d" turned back to the left, and the last letter in the line looks as though it was intended for an "e." In support of this theory, I compare it with the "e" at the end of the word "true" in line 3, and the "e" at the end of "intense," line 4. The writer, when making a final "d," makes the latter portion of the letter something like this, but in the instances in this document he exerts more pressure than we find here, see, for instance, the "d" in "started," at line 2, the "d" in "glad," in line 5, and "d" in "armed," line 4. Besides, I cannot think that this can be the end of the word "hundred," as, judging from the length of the word "started," the word "hundred" would have occupied from the third vertical line, and this would certainly leave no room for the other words suggested in the version given by Major Sir J.C. Willoughby, viz.: "We will bring at least, or about three." If the words "will send out some," or "we will send out some," are written in line 7 after the word "town," adopting, as nearly as possible, the space that would have been occupied by the writer for these words, they will just fill the line. In like manner, with regard to line 8, there is just room after the words "men to" for the two words "meet you," and the small mark appearing before the full stop might have been the terminal of the letter "u," but it would have been impossible to get into this small space the words "meet you at Krugersdorp," and even if the words "meet you at" were omitted, and if it be assumed that the word which originally stood there was "Krugersdorp," then the mark appearing before the full stop could not by any theory be construed as having been a portion of the letter "p," as I have examined various specimens of Colonel Rhodes' handwriting, and have seen him write specimens containing the letter "p" and find that he does not terminate a "p" with any stroke of this description, but that he terminates it inside the oval portion of the letter near the downstroke. With regard to the rest of the line, the last two letters appear to have been "ne," and there is a dot just in the position that would apparently have been occupied by the dot had the previous letter been "i." Consequently, I am of opinion that the theory that the words "will send," or "we will send out some men to meet you," "you are a fine fellow," is perfectly consistent with the spaces left in the torn document, but that the theory that the words which were originally in the spaces were "I will bring at least or about three hundred men to meet you at Krugersdorp, you are a gallant fellow," is not only inconsistent with the amount of space available, but does not fit in with the letters and portions of letters still visible.

'T.H. GURRIN.'

Contents of the letter according to a statement signed by Dr. Jameson, Sir John Willoughby, Major Robert White and Colonel Raleigh Grey:--

'The rumour of massacre in Johannesburg that started you to our relief was not true. We are all right, feeling intense. We have armed a lot of men. I shall be very glad to see you. We (or the Boers) are not in possession of the town. I will bring at least, or about, 300 men to meet you at Krugersdorp. You are a gallant fellow.'

According to Colonel Francis Rhodes and Mr. Lionel Phillips, the contents are as follows:--

'The rumour of massacre in Johannesburg that started you to our relief was not true. We are all right, feeling intense. We have armed a lot of men. Shall be very glad to see you. We are not in possession of the town. We will send out some men to meet you. You are a fine fellow.'

'We, the undersigned, were present in the Reform Committee's room when Colonel Rhodes despatched the letter to Dr. Jameson, which commences, "Dear Dr.--The rumour of massacre." We read the letter, but cannot now recall the exact words on the missing fragments; but we do hereby declare on oath that there was no offer of 300 men, nor of any other specific number of men, nor was the word Krugersdorp mentioned. The spirit of the letter was to suggest that a few men should or would be sent in the character of a complimentary escort to show Dr. Jameson his camp.

'GEO. W. FARRAR. 'S.W. JAMESON.

'As witness-- 'J. Percy FitzPatrick. 'Johannesburg, _10th April, 1897_.'

End of Project Gutenberg's The Transvaal from Within, by J. P. Fitzpatrick