780 



SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 



on July 27, proposed a joint commission of in- 

 quiry to examine the question whether it would 

 give such substantial and immediate representa- 

 tion as would serve for a satisfactory basis of 

 settlement (see CAPE COLONY). The Government 

 of the South African Republic objected to a 

 joint inquiry as prejudicial to the independence 

 of the Transvaal in internal affairs. Accordingly, 

 negotiations were opened between Dr. Smuts, the 

 State attorney, and Conyngham Greene, the 

 British agent, with a view of ascertaining what 

 proposals would be acceptable to the British Gov- 

 ernment. If it would end the tension, the Trans- 

 vaal Government was willing to give to the Uit- 

 landers a five years' retrospective franchise, such 

 as Sir Alfred Milner had demanded at Bloem- 

 fontein, and to increase the representation of the 

 Rand from 2 to 10 seats in a Yolksraad of 36 

 members, which was more liberal than the pro- 

 posal of the High Commissioner; to grant also a 

 like increase in the representation of the mining 

 community in the Second Yolksraad, if desired, 

 and to guarantee that its proportional representa- 

 tion should in the future never be diminished. 

 These offers would be made only on the assump- 

 tion that the British Government would agree 

 that a precedent should not be formed by their 

 present intervention for similar action in future, 

 and that no future interference in the internal 

 affairs of the Republic would take place contrary 

 to the terms of the London convention; and also 

 that the British Government would not insist 

 further upon the assertion of suzerainty, the con- 

 troversy on this subject being tacitly allowed to 

 drop. In regard to arbitration, it was assumed 

 that it would be conceded, the foreign element 

 being excluded and only British or South African 

 jurists being admissible as arbitrators. Mr. 

 Greene's notes mention the right of the new 

 burghers to vote for President and Commandant 

 General, and of the new members of the Yolksraad 

 to use their own language. Dr. Smuts denied 

 that he had made such offers. Mr. Greene found 

 the proposals such as he could recommend for 

 the acceptance of his Government. As regards 

 suzerainty, he felt sure that the British Govern- 

 ment could not and would not abandon the right 

 which the preamble of the convention of 1881 

 gave, but would have no desire to hurt Boer sus- 

 ceptibilities by publicly asserting it so long as 

 no reason to do so were given by the Government 

 of the South African Republic. Sir Alfred Milner 

 having telegraphed that the proposals would be 

 considered on their merits, they were drafted in 

 a formal communication which was dispatched 

 to London on Aug. 19. Mr. Chamberlain sug- 

 gested that the additional concessions contained 

 in Mr. Greene's minutes be added, but the Trans- 

 vaal Government declined to make any alteration 

 or amplification of the offered terms. On Aug. 28 

 Mr. Chamberlain sent a dispatch declining the 

 conditions attached to the offer of a five years' 

 franchise. The State Secretary, F. W. Reitz, in 

 his reply on Sept. 2, intimated that his Govern- 

 ment had been led to believe that the offer with 

 the conditions attached thereto would be ac- 

 cepted. As the proposal had been rejected, the 

 Transvaal Government considered that it had 

 lapsed. If the British Government chose to make 

 a unilateral inquiry into the working of the 

 seven years' franchise, the Transvaal Govern- 

 ment was ready to submit to the Volksraad any 

 proposals that might be suggested which could 

 make the franchise law clearer or more effective, 

 though such inquiry appeared to it to be prema- 

 ture. In regard to a joint commission, assuming 

 that it was not intended to interfere in the in- 



ternal affairs of the Republic or to establish prece- 

 dent, the Government of the South African Re- 

 public would be glad to learn from the British 

 Government how it proposed that the commission 

 should be constituted, and when and where it 

 should meet. As to the suzerainty question, Mr. 

 Reitz dec-hired that his Government, though abid- 

 ing by the views it had formerly expressed, had 

 neither asked nor intended that the British Gov- 

 ernment should abandon any right that it really 

 might have, on the ground either of the conven- 

 tion of 1M84 or of international law, to inter- 

 vene for the protection of British subjects in the 

 Transvaal. In regard to arbitration, he desired 

 to know what subjects the British Government 

 was unwilling to submit to the court, since the 

 assurance of a final settlement of all questions in 

 dispute, or that might arise, might be frustrated 

 by these limitations. On Sept. 8, after a Cabinet 

 council had ominously been convened, Mr. Cham- 

 berlain replied that the British Government was 

 not willing to drop the question of suzerainty, be- 

 cause the Government of the South African !; 

 public had claimed the status of a sovereign in- 

 ternational state. The British Government would 

 not go back to the seven years' franchise, as the 

 Transvaal Government had itself recognized Unit 

 its previous offer might with advantage IM- en- 

 larged. The latest offer would be acceptable, 

 provided that the inquiry, whether joint or uni- 

 lateral, showed that it was not incumbered by 

 conditions that would nullify the intention to 

 give substantial and immediate representation to 

 the Uitlanders. It was assumed that they would 

 be permitted to use their own language* in the 

 Yolksraad. The acceptance of these condition- 

 would remove the tension, and in all probability 

 render unnecessary any further intervention on 

 the part of the British Government to secure the 

 redress of grievances which the Uit landers them 

 wives would be able to bring to the noti<<- <>f the 

 Executive and of the Raad. An immediate Mini 

 definite reply was urged. If it were fa \<>r;il>]e. 

 the details of arbitration could be arranged by a 

 conference, Uitlander grievances and questions of 

 interpretation l>eing excluded from the considera- 

 tion of the tribunal. If the reply were negative 

 or inconclusive, the British <H>\ eminent reserved 

 to itself the right to consider the situation de 

 woro, and to formulate its own proposals for a 

 final settlement. 



On Sept. 16 a dispatch was sent by the Trans- 

 vaal Government de< hiring that the* proposal of 

 Aug. 19 had been induced by suggestions given 

 by the British agent, which had been aeeepted 

 iii good faith and <>n express request as equiva- 

 lent to an assurance that they would be accept- 

 able to the British Government. At the opening 

 of the Orange Free State Yolksraad President 

 Steyn said that the Transvaal had been decoyed 

 into making an offer which it otherwise would 

 not have made. In its reply the Transvaal Gov- 

 ernment said that it was prepared to recommend 

 the Yolksraad and people to run the clanger to 

 the independence of the State involved in giving 

 an immediate vote in the Legislature to a lame 

 number of inpouring Uitlanders, in order to avoid 

 the greater danger to its independence of the con- 

 tinuous and threatening claim of suzerainty, the 

 interference of the British Government in the in- 

 ternal affairs of the Republic, and the want of an 

 automatically working manner of regulating dif- 

 ferences between the two governments. Mr. 

 Reitz could not understand why the British Gov- 

 ernment should refuse to agree to the joint in- 

 quiry into the existing franchise that it had pro- 

 posed as soon as the Transvaal Government sig- 



