AFRICA, SOUTHERN, COLONIES IN. 



1899, a total length of 1,990 miles, not including 

 350 miles not yet completed. Of private railroads 

 there were 358 miles. The cost of the Government 

 lines was 20.222,263, an average of 10,162 a 

 mile. The receipts for 1898 were 2,953,090; ex- 

 penses, 2,012,390. The number of passengers car- 

 ried was 10,013,432: tons of freight, 1,507,600. 



The postal traffic in 1898 was 23,339,379 letters, 

 9,862,080 newspapers, 750,568 postal cards, 2,303,400 

 books and samples, and 525,660 parcels. 



The length of telegraph lines on Jan. 1, 1899, 

 was 7,224 miles. The number of dispatches in 

 1898 was 2,321,082; receipts, 143,438; expenses, 

 132,867. 



The Cape Rebels. The invasion of Cape Col- 

 ony by Kepublican commandos was followed in 

 the districts bordering on the Orange river and 

 those north of that river by the adhesion of a 

 large proportion of the inhabitants. Whenever a 

 commando entered a town the Free State flag 

 was hoisted, a meeting was held in the court- 

 house or the market place, and a proclamation was 

 read annexing the district. The commandant then 

 made a speech, in which he explained to the peo- 

 ple that the people must thenceforward obey the 

 Free State laws, though for the present they would 

 be under martial law. A local landrost was ap- 

 pointed, and those who refused to accept Repub- 

 lican rule were given a few days in which to 

 leave the district. Their property was often 

 commandeered, and those who stayed were com- 

 mandeered themselves besides giving up whatever 

 of their possessions were required for military 

 purposes, and were compelled to join the Boer 

 commandos. Some thousands of Cape Colonists 

 became burghers of the South African Republic, 

 and joined the Transvaal army immediately be- 

 fore or just after the outbreak of hostilities. When 

 the Free State commandos encamped on their own 

 side of the Orange river preparatory to their in- 

 vasion of Cape Colony other thousands from the 

 northern and western districts joined them. And 

 when they crossed the river and proclaimed the 

 annexation of the northern part of the colony 

 they were augmented by at least their own num- 

 bers of colonial Boers and sympathizers. In Vry- 

 burg, Barkly West, and other districts north of 

 the Orange river as many colonists volunteered in 

 the Transvaal and Orange Free State commandos 

 as in the older parts of Cape Colony. Sir Alfred 

 Milner calculated that in January, 1900, more than 

 10,000 Cape Colonists were fighting against the 

 British, and the rebellion had not yet reached its 

 height. It broke out spontaneously in places w r here 

 no Boer commandos had appeared, and was spread- 

 ing secretly when a vigilant military police, aided 

 by loyal colonists, put a stop to the movement in 

 the districts still in British occupation. When 

 the invasion of the Free State by Lord Roberts 

 drew away most of the burghers for the defense 

 of their own soil, and when the British occupa- 

 tion of Bloemfontein convinced the majority of 

 the rebellious colonists of the hopelessness of the 

 Boer cause and the gradual reconquest of the an- 

 nexed districts by the British forces rendered them 

 powerless to serve the cause further in Cape Col- 

 ony, the bulk of them returned quietly to their 

 homes or made their submission, and only a com- 

 paratively few ardent ones marched northward 

 with the retreating Boer columns. The question 

 of the treatment to be extended to those who 

 had borne arms against the Queen or given active 

 aid to the enemy seemed one of vital importance 

 to the Cape ministers, and it w r as one that could 

 not be solved without the concurrence of the im- 

 perial authorities. They submitted a minute, 

 which Sir Alfred Milner forwarded on April 28, 



proposing the appointment of a judicial commis- 

 sion, comprising two judges of the Supreme Court 

 and a barrister acceptable to the Secretary of State, 

 for the trial of persons implicated in the rebellion, 

 the commission to be vested with the powers of 

 both judge and jury and to decide on a verdict 

 by a majority vote. A few days later they sent 

 an appeal for clemency for all except the principal 

 offenders, whose trials would mark the magnitude 

 of their offense, and whose punishment would 

 serve as a deterrent, pointing out that the insur- 

 rection was a consequence of invasion and gen- 

 erally subsided as soon as the invading force was 

 withdrawn, and that it was accompanied with 

 few, if any, cases of outrage or murder and no 

 great destruction of private property. The inter- 

 ests of sound policy and public morality demanded, 

 instead of a general proscription of the misguided 

 men who joined the ranks of the rebels, that the 

 Imperial Government should issue as an act of 

 grace a proclamation of amnesty for all persons 

 chargeable for high treason except the leaders 

 selected for trial. The agitation and unrest pre- 

 vailing in the colony was due to uncertainty re- 

 garding their fate, and the future well-being of 

 the colony depended on a policy of well-considered 

 clemency, which would have the best possible 

 effect on the loyal majority of the Dutch popula- 

 tion, which had shown commendable self-restraint, 

 and would help to unite the white races, between 

 which harmony was a necessity in view of the 

 large and increasing barbarian population. The 

 rebellion was of a milder type than the one in 

 Lower Canada, where moderation was adopted 

 with the happiest results in 1838. Mr. Chamber- 

 lain, in his reply, argued that amnesty would 

 place rebels in a better position than those who 

 have risked life and property in the determina- 

 tion to remain loyal, and while sympathizing with 

 a policy of clemency to rebels he held justice to 

 loyalists to be an obligation of duty and honor, 

 and that it was necessary in the interests of future 

 peace to show that rebellion can not be indulged 

 in with impunity or prove profitable to the rebel 

 even if unsuccessful. Even those who were tools 

 of others who had deceived them should learn 

 individually that rebellion is a punishable offense. 

 He distinguished between different categories of 

 rebels: ringleaders and promoters; those who have 

 committed outrages or looted property ; those who 

 have committed acts contrary to the usages of 

 civilized warfare, such as abuse of the white flag, 

 firing on hospitals, etc.; those who have openly 

 and willingly waged war against the imperial 

 forces; those who have confined themselves to aid- 

 ing the enemy by giving information or furnish- 

 ing provisions; and those who can prove that they 

 have acted under compulsion. Recognizing the 

 difficulty of indicting for high treason all who had 

 taken part in the rebellion, he suggested the ex- 

 pediency of investigating either the proposed judi- 

 cial commission or a separate commission with 

 powers to schedule the names of persons impli- 

 cated in the rebellion under these various heads: 

 the first three categories to be tried for high 

 treason before the judicial commission, the fourth 

 and fifth to be fined and disfranchised on pleading 

 guilty, and the last to be merely disfranchised. 

 The Secretary of State would not consider the 

 Canadian rebellion a precedent because it was a 

 rising in time of peace for the remedy of grievances 

 and was not a formidable affair, whereas the Cape 

 Colonists had gone over to the Queen's enemies 

 and entailed danger and heavy losses on the troops. 

 As to the duration of disfranchisement, he pro- 

 posed that it should be for life. Mr. Chamberlain 

 did not wait for the full text of the proposals of 



