Knaplund~A Study in British Colonial Policy 
17 
The many serious problems which confronted the various states 
could not possibly be solved by piecemeal measures. Three roads 
were open: ‘^The make-shift regime of the High Commissioner, 
the jarring separatism of the States of South America, the noble 
union of the States of North America. ’ Although recommending 
union. Lord Selborne disclaimed any intention of attempting to 
force it upon the colonists. In his opinion ‘‘no healthy movement 
towards federation can emanate from any authority other than the 
people of South Africa themselves.”^® This official and temperate 
analysis of conditions which most thinl^ing men admitted were 
serious had a marked effect upon public opinion and encouraged 
those who worked for union. An active educational propaganda 
was inaugurated and it continued till the goal had been reached.”^^ 
By 1907 it was generally felt that South Africa approached 
a crossroad. The existing customs union and railway agreements 
failed to satisfy the different colonies.'^® Since 1905 both the Cape 
Colony and Natal had experienced an economic depression which 
yearly grew more acute. Large deficits were accumulated and 
both colonies demanded higher tariff and railway rates. The 
finances of the Transvaal were, on the other hand, in a flourishing 
condition and here the people clamored for a lowering of the 
rates."^® 
As a result the government of the Transvaal served notice. 
May, 1907, to terminate the customs union and the railway agree¬ 
ment. A conference took place at Pretoria in the following year. 
Agreement could be reached only on a series of resolutions, to be 
submitted to the colonial parliaments, which declared that ‘ ‘ an early 
union under the Crown of Great Britain” was desirable, and sug¬ 
gested that delegates should be appointed to consider and report 
on the most desirable form of such a union and prepare a draft 
constitution.®® 
Ibid., pp. 12-61. It was published as a pamphlet in July of the same year with the 
title, A Review of the Mutual Relations of the British South African Colonies (Cape 
Town, 1907). 
P., 1907, LVII, cd. 3564, p. 6. 
^^Ibid., p. 5. 
R. H. Brand, The Union of South Africa (Oxford, 1909), p. 31. 
Ibid., pp. 25-27; Paul Lederer, Die EntwicTclung der sudafricanische Union auf 
Verlcehrpolitischer Grundlage (Leipzig, 1910). J. Conacher, Report upon the Distribu¬ 
tion of Oversea Traffic Between the South African Railways (Pretoria, 1908) ; H. E. 
S. Fremantle, The New Nation (London, 1909), p. 6; P.P., 1907, LVII, cd. 3564, pp. 
35, 36; The Government of South Africa, I, pp. 195—229, 280—282. 
The Times, May 4 and 9, 1908; Fremantle, The New Nation, p. 154. 
The Times, May 6, 1908; Sir E. Walton, The Inner History of the National Con¬ 
vention of South Africa (New York, 1912), p. 26. 
