Part 11 (2/2)

”As this meeting is of opinion that, with a view to the prevailing disturbances in this camp, the Commissioners ought at once, with the Diggers' Committee, to make such amendments in the existing unsatisfactory state of the law as will as far as possible prevent the thefts of diamonds by native labourers, and their purchase by unprincipled dealers, and will also make such alterations in the law so as to promote the general welfare.”

In the Cape Parliament, commencing the 5th June, 1872, Mr. Merriman said:--

”The Fields ... were annexed and a form of government was introduced there which could not be more ludicrous. A sort of irresponsible Commission (the Rovers junta) was established, in which the members could not agree, and were not responsible to anybody; he could imagine nothing more ridiculous or which worked worse. The Orange Free State had given the people a sort of representation, but the first act of our Government was to abolish all the Commissions, and the result was that the people were burdened with an irresponsible body.

”The Orange Free State had appointed a responsible official ... who was efficient ... while we had established a court twenty miles away from the most populated part; whereby grinding expenses had been entailed on those who sought justice, just as if it was the only object of the British Government to pile up heavy law costs.”

Mr. Knight said: ”One of the chief reasons why he was against Annexation was that nine-tenths of the population on the fields would hold up their hands to get rid of the present Government because they felt that they were far better off before they were annexed.”

Mr. Buchanan declared: ”He himself, when he visited the Diamond Fields, had wandered from camp to camp, and from the one sorting table to the other, and had talked with the diggers in order to acquaint himself as to their feelings about various matters, and he had obtained the conviction that there was a great deal of feeling against the British Government.”

In the subsequent debate in the Cape Parliament Mr. J.H. Brown said, in regard to Mr. Orpen's motion: ”That the diggers look with the greatest contempt on the Government which was there now, and that this Government was quite as much hated as it deserved to be.”--(_Diggers' Gazette_, 12th July, 1872).

In the _Diamond News_ of the 8th October, 1872, one reads:--

”Newspaper after newspaper comes out, and those who have a claim upon land look eagerly to see 'what is happening about the land?' and all the information the newspaper gives is that David Arnot, Esq., claims half the country, and that Francis Orpen, Esq., the Surveyor, has decided that 30 must be paid before the case of any claimant can be taken into consideration. It is Arnot and Orpen and land; and land and Orpen and Arnot, week after week. They appear to be made one for the other, and for nothing and n.o.body else.

”Half a newspaper is filled with lists of claims of the said David, and it becomes daily clearer and clearer that the great head chief of Griqualand West cannot be Mr. Waterboer, but must be David Arnot--because all the claims and all the kopjes have been provided for, and all are for Mr. Arnot and n.o.body else.

”The impression is everywhere that British protection is invoked not for British interests, nor for the interests of Britons working on the fields here, but for the sake of two gentlemen who hold the reins with far more power than ought to be given to anyone who is entrusted with the administration of this country.

”Who has ever heard of a Government which binds itself to give the surveyors.h.i.+p of a new country to one man only? Mr. Francis Orpen is decidedly a first-cla.s.s man in his profession ... but that does not justify any Government in agreeing that he, and he only, is to keep the survey of this territory entirely in his own hands. Everyone knows what that must lead to.”

APPENDIX C.

THE REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S DISPATCH ON GRIEVANCES.

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, PRETORIA.

_26th September_, 1899.

SIR,

The Government of the South African Republic has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of a certain dispatch dated 10th May, 1899, addressed to His Excellency the High Commissioner by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in consequence of a pet.i.tion sent to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. 21,684 signatures appear on this pet.i.tion, and are said to have been affixed thereto by an equivalent number of British subjects resident at Johannesburg, in this Republic.

This Government notes that Her Majesty's Government have thought fit, on the grounds of the information already in their possession, to make investigation into the subject matter of the aforesaid pet.i.tion, and, as a result of such investigation, to express to this Government their views on the administration of the internal affairs of this Republic, which said views they have at the same time communicated to the memorialists as an answer to their pet.i.tion.

This Government may be permitted to point out that the Convention of London of 1884, entered into between this Republic and the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, guarantees to the South African Republic full and free internal administration without any interference from anyone whatever. As Lord Derby notifies in his dispatch of the 15th February, 1884:--

”Your Government will be left free to govern the country without interference, and to conduct its diplomatic intercourse, and shape its foreign policy, subject only to the requirements embodied in the fourth article of the new draft--that any treaty with a foreign State shall not have effect without the approval of the Queen.”

In his despatch of the 4th February, 1896, the Colonial Secretary, Mr.

Chamberlain, states:--

”In the next place, it is necessary that I should state clearly and unequivocally what is the position which Her Majesty's Government claim to hold toward the Government of the South African Republic. Since the Convention of 1884, Her Majesty's Government recognised the South African Republic as a free and independent Government as regards all its internal affairs not touched by the Convention.”

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