CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



121 



tion reported that the new convention made an 

 end of the British suzerainty and restored full 

 self-government to the republic. Mr. Chamber- 

 lain, in answering Dr. Leyds, on Dec. 15, 1898, 

 took the ground that, while the articles of the 

 convention of 1884 substituted a fresh definition 

 of suzerainty, the preamble of the convention of 

 1881 remained unchanged. Secretary Reitz, Dr. 

 Leyds's successor, on May 9, 1899, reaffirmed the 

 view of the Transvaal Government that the con- 

 vention of 1881 was entirely abrogated. By the 

 convention of 1884, which superseded it, certain 

 limited and specified rights were guaranteed to 

 Great Britain without there being any further 

 mention of self-government, and thus it follows 

 that the existing absolute self-government is not 

 derived from conventions, but from the inherent 

 right of the republic as a sovereign international 

 state. Mr. Chamberlain declared that the claim 

 to be a sovereign international state was not 

 warranted either by law or history, and wholly 

 inadmissible. He repeated the views of former 

 ministers that the Sand river convention of 1852 

 itself was not a treaty between two contracting 

 powers, but a declaration that the emigrant 

 farmers beyond the Yaal river, w r ho prior to 

 that were British subjects, would be permitted 

 to manage their own affairs without interfer- 

 ence; that annexation in 1877 brought the Sand 

 river convention to an end; that the convention 

 of 1881 restored freedom of action to the Trans- 

 vaal so far as was not inconsistent with the 

 rights expressly reserved to the suzerain power, 

 the term suzerainty being chosen as most con- 

 venient for describing superiority over a state 

 possessing independent rights of government sub- 

 ject to reservations with reference to certain 

 specified matters. He quoted Lord Derby's ex- 

 planation in the House of Lords in answer to 

 a statement that the object of the convention 

 of 1884 was to abolish the suzerainty of the 

 British Crown, that the w r ord suzerainty was 

 vague and not capable of a precise legal defini- 

 tion, and that, therefore, they had abstained 

 from using it in the new convention ; but whether 

 you call it a protectorate, or a suzerainty, or the 

 recognition of England as a paramount power, 

 the substance is retained when the state that 

 exercises the suzerainty has a right to veto nego- 

 tiations into which the dependent state may enter 

 with foreign powers. During the interviews at 

 Bloemfontein the State President put forward 

 other requests besides the one for the arbitra- 

 tion of disputes arising under the convention 

 the unfortunate convention, he called it, because 

 the Boers and the English could in no wise un- 

 derstand it in the same manner. He desired the 

 incorporation of Swaziland, which Sir Henry 

 Loch had proposed to allow after seven years, a 

 period to which the Boer Government at that 

 time obiected. He pressed for the payment of 

 indemnity for the Jameson raid, for which the 

 Government had demanded 078,000 for material 

 and 1,000,000 for moral or intellectual dam- 

 ages. The second part of the claim Mr. Cham- 

 berlain had declined to consider. The actual 

 expenses and losses the British Government ac- 

 cepted responsibility for, and these the Britis-h 

 South Africa Company would be required to 

 pay; but when an itemized statement was fur- 

 nished on request the company's secretary ques- 

 tioned most of the details and demanded vouch- 

 ers. The company having proposed to submit 

 the claim for material damages to arbitration, 

 Mr. Chamberlain, on May 13, 1899, made a propo- 

 sition to that effect. The President in his plea 

 for general arbitration suggested that the coolie 



law, which required Indians to reside in stations, 

 but to which the British Government objected 

 because they are British subjects, entitled under 

 the London convention to equal freedom with 

 burghers, although similar laws in the colonies 

 are allowed, would be a fit subject for arbitra- 

 tion; also the Swaziland convention. Without 

 arbitration the President could not go to the 

 Volksraad with proposals for giving the franchise 

 to Uitlanders; but if they could agree on a plan 

 regarding the franchise, and dispose of the ques- 

 tions of the indemnity for the Jameson raid and 

 the extension of Transvaal administration to 

 Swaziland, then in the future, arbitration being 

 accepted, all questions arising between the Gov- 

 ernment and the British subjects who do not 

 want to become burghers could be arbitrated, and 

 the British Government would no longer inter- 

 fere with the internal government of the republic. 

 The franchise proposals of Sir Alfred Milner were 

 considered by President Kriiger to be tanta- 

 mount to giving over the country to strangers, 

 and the suggestion of an advisory board of Uit- 

 landers to instruct the Government as to the 

 demands and requirements of the Rand popula- 

 tion to be equal to establishing the rule of for- 

 eigners over the republic. Notwithstanding the 

 failure of the conference, President Kriiger sub- 

 mitted his new franchise proposals, making them 

 more liberal than his Bloemfontein memorandum 

 suggested. The income qualification was reduced 

 to 100. The renunciation of former allegiance 

 was no longer required, nor was the consent of 

 two thirds of the applicant's neighbors. Young 

 men born in the country whose fathers are natu- 

 ralized were given the same status as their fa- 

 thers, and must register with the field cornet 

 from the age of sixteen. The President also pro- 

 posed increased representation of the gold fields 

 in accordance with his promise. The members 

 of the Reform party of 1895 who had not re- 

 ceived dishonoring sentences would not be ex- 

 cluded from the franchise. The Government in 

 all its various franchise plans retained the dis- 

 cretionary power to confer full burgher rights 

 on Uitlanders who have not completed their 

 stipulated term of residence. Popular meetings 

 were held on the Rand and throughout the re- 

 public and colonies, at which the Imperialists 

 expressed approval of Sir Alfred Milner's posi- 

 tion, the Afrikanders of that of President Kriiger. 

 Immediately after the conference an exodus 

 of women and children and many men began to 

 take place from Johannesburg, and as the pros- 

 pect of an armed conflict grew more imminent 

 the flight was attended with panic and disorder. 

 The Government franchise proposals were con- 

 sidered by meetings of burghers in every dis- 

 trict, for, as President Kriiger explained at the 

 Bloemfontein conference, and gave as his strong- 

 est reason for dreading an overwhelming flood 

 of new burghers, the Constitution of the republic 

 requires tliat such questions be submitted to the 

 people, and makes the will of the majority when 

 formulated in memorials the supreme law, to 

 which the Volksraad must bow. At these meet- 

 ings the franchise project was either approved 

 or left to the judgment of the Volksraad. War 

 preparations went on actively on both sides. 

 Even during the conference President Kriiger de- 

 manded an explanation of the strengthening of 

 garrisons on the Natal border. Sir Alfred Mil- 

 ner too wanted to know why Afrikanders had 

 been armed with new rifles, and the President 

 explained that when it was found at the time 

 of the Jameson raid that many were unarmed 

 guns were provided for them, and then all wanted 



