120 



CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



the independence of the country: the franchise 

 to be confined to persons of good character pos- 

 sessing a certain amount of property; finally, 

 that there should be some increase of seats in 

 the districts where the Uitlanders principally 

 reside. The President considered this proposal 

 tantamount to handing over his country to for- 

 eigners. He desired to make any arrangement 

 regarding the franchise contingent on the British 

 agreeing to arbitrate differences between the two 

 governments, but the High Commissioner insisted 

 on discussing it apart from all other questions. 

 The President then presented a counter-proposal, 

 according to which newcomers who apply for 

 naturali/.ation. commit no act against the law 

 or the independence of the republic, possess fixed 

 property or an income of 200. and take an 

 oath similar to that of the Orange Free State, 

 which does not require formal renunciation of 

 previous allegiance, should receive the full fran- 

 chise five years after naturalization that is, 

 seven years after their first arrival on proof 

 of having registered continuously and obeyed the 

 laws: further, that residents since 1890 who be- 

 come naturalized could become full burghers two 

 years thereafter, and those who had been resi- 

 dents for two years or more could receive im- 

 mediate naturalization after six months' notice 

 and full citizenship at the end of five years. As 

 this plan gave none of the clamorous Uitlanders 

 the suffrage under two and a half years, since 

 only the adherents of the Boer party were already 

 naturalized, Sir Alfred Milner rejected it as in- 

 adequate. He thought that a man ought to be 

 admitted to full citizenship at once, and not 

 wait a number of years after abandoning his 

 old citizenship. It would be a considerable time 

 before any number of Uitlanders worth men- 

 tioning could vote for the First Volksraad, and 

 then they \vould only command one or two seats. 

 The old burghers ought not to be swamped, but 

 as long as the newcomers had no representatives 

 in the First Volksraad they would as a body re- 

 main an inferior caste. He suggested giving local 

 self-government to the Rand, but the President 

 refused to entertain the idea, as it would be 

 equivalent to setting up another government in 

 the country. President Kriiger offered later to 

 recommend to the First Volksraad an increase 

 in number of its members, whereby the gold 

 fields would be represented by 5 members in- 

 stead of 2, and the new population would in ad- 

 dition exercise considerable influence on elections 

 in other districts where they were registered. 

 He stated that persons already naturalized five 

 years would be immediately entitled to the full 

 franchise. He pointed out that even in Cape 

 Colony citizenship did not necessarily bring with 

 it the full franchise; that by naturalization the 

 new population obtained the right to vote for 

 the Second Volksraad, and could thereby make 

 their influence felt on questions affecting their 

 particular interests, as the First Volksraad sel- 

 dom reviewed the work of the Second Volksraad 

 where it concerns the interests of the mining 

 community; that naturalized citizens have the 

 right to serve as jurymen and to select local 

 officials. British subjects becoming burghers 

 would be better off than before, he argued, be- 

 cause in Great Britain and important colonies 

 enfranchised citizens do not elect the members 

 of the highest legislative chamber. He consid- 

 ered that his plan would bring about the gradual 

 fusion of the two sections, but that of the High 

 Commissioner would result in an immediate 

 overmastering of the old citizens. As regards 

 the alternative plan of local government for the 



gold fields, a wide measure of self-government 

 had already been accorded, a-nd the Volksraad 

 would doubtless be willing to extend it, so long 

 as it did not constitute an impcrium in imperio. 

 At the last sitting the High Commissioner ob- 

 jected to the exclusion from, the franchise of 

 the persons who had taken part in the revolu- 

 tionary disturbance of 1895. Three new members 

 for the gold fields he thought too few. He aimed 

 at immediate representation for the Uitlanders 

 to relieve the tension. The situation was grave, 

 and no small measure would any longer be of 

 use. The President replied that his franchise 

 proposal went as far as was possible in the in- 

 terests of the people and the state, and in prin- 

 ciple it was impossible for him to depart from 

 it. In regard to arbitration, he suggested a plan 

 that would avoid the intervention of a foreign 

 government, to which the British Government 

 would not consent under any conditions; this 

 was to refer matters in dispute between the two 

 governments to three arbitrators, two of them 

 South African jurists selected respectively by 

 the two governments, the third to be chosen by 

 the other two, and to be neither a British subject 

 nor a citizen of the South African Republic. 

 Sir Alfred Milner said that he would approve 

 the principle of arbitration if it were possible to 

 avoid foreign intermediation; but the President's 

 did not, because the third member of the tri- 

 bunal, who would be the real arbitrator, must be 

 a foreigner. Before separating the President 

 made the final proposal to recommend his fran- 

 chise scheme to the Volksraad if the High Com- 

 missioner would recommend his request about 

 arbitration to the British Government, with the 

 expectation that it should be granted, otherwise 

 the people of the republic could not be expected 

 to approve the comprehensive proposal w r ith re- 

 gard to the franchise. Sir Alfred Milner declined 

 to enter into any engagement, and the conference 

 ended, leaving both parties where they were in 

 the beginning. 



When arbitration was first suggested by the 

 Transvaal Government Mr. Chamberlain rejected 

 it as incompatible with the Queen's suzerainty. 

 Dr. Leyds, the then State Secretary, denied that 

 suzerainty existed. In the preamble of the con- 

 vention of Pretoria, which restored self-govern- 

 ment to the Transvaal in 1881, suzerain rights 

 were reserved to Great Britain, and these were 

 specified in that convention as the incompetency 

 of the Transvaal to negotiate directly with for- 

 eign powers, the right to maintain a British 

 resident at Pretoria, having control of external 

 and certain internal affairs, and the right of 

 conducting British troops N through Transvaal 

 territory. Commissioners were sent to London 

 in 1883 to request modifications of the conven- 

 tion, and their principal task was to obtain the 

 abolition of suzerainty. At their urgent request 

 Lord Derby omitted the word from the new 

 convention, declaring it meaningless, though he 

 objected to an article specifically revoking suzer- 

 ain rights. The rights themselves were, .however, 

 revoked, except that of vetoing within six months 

 any treaty concluded by the South African Re- 

 public with any foreign power. The deputation 

 explained to Lord Derby that the convention of 

 1881 was a unilateral document framed by a 

 royal commission in which the Boers were not 

 represented, and that they wanted to replace it 

 with a new agreement of the nature of the origi- 

 nal Sand river treaty, thus changing the relation 

 of a dependency by public law and restoring that 

 of two contracting powers. 



On their return to the Transvaal the deputa- 



