Part 1 (1/2)
Selected Official Doc.u.ments of the South African Republic and Great Britain.
by Various.
PREFACE.
The universal interest in the affairs of the South African Republic is responsible for the idea that a selection of doc.u.ments ill.u.s.trative of the South African controversy will be appreciated by American readers.
The doc.u.ments which are here reprinted are by no means un.o.btainable; but, to the general reader, they have been hitherto quite inaccessible.
Only the largest public libraries have the proper sources of information, and even with these books at hand the student has been forced to delve in a ma.s.s of irrelevant material for the hidden object of his desire.
The present compilation has been made in the hope of meeting the immediate demands of the public. To avoid c.u.mbersomeness, many important doc.u.ments have necessarily been omitted; yet as far as possible, the editors have given a complete series of doc.u.ments. The arrangement is partly chronological, and we hope altogether logical. Commencing with the London Convention of 1884, which defines the status of the South African Republic in its relations with Great Britain, we follow with the revised Const.i.tution of 1889, and its complementary law of June 23, 1890, which granted representation in a second Volksraad to burghers of two years' standing. The latest legislation concerning the right of franchise is given in the enactment of July, 1899. This law, together with negotiations looking toward further concessions to the Uitlander population forms the subject of our third chapter. No agreement having been reached, and numerous complications having arisen, conspicuously the movements of British troops, the Ultimatum of President Kruger on October 9, precipitated a state of war.
In presenting this Ultimatum President Kruger knew that the Republic would not have to fight alone, but that there would be practically a war of the South African Dutch against the English. The declaration of the Orange Free State to Great Britain will therefore be of interest, as expressing the grounds of sympathy between the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and the latter's view of the _causa belli_.
Lastly we add the const.i.tution of the Orange Free State that the political status of the two republics may be appreciated by comparison of their const.i.tutions.
The doc.u.ments have been compiled from the _Codex van de Locale Wetten der Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek. Groningen, 1894_; _The Political Laws of the South African Republic. London and Cape Town, 1896_; and the _State Papers of Great Britain, London, 1884-99_.
WAs.h.i.+NGTON, _February 10, 1900_.
CHAPTER I.
CONVENTION OF LONDON, _February 27, 1884_.
_A Convention Between Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the South African Republic._
Whereas, The Government of the Transvaal State, through its Delegates, consisting of Stepha.n.u.s Johannes Paulus Kruger, President of the said State, Stepha.n.u.s Jacobus Du Toit, Superintendent of Education, and Nicholas Jacobus Smit, a member of the Volksraad, have represented that the Convention signed at Pretoria on the 3rd day of August 1881, and ratified by the Volksraad of the said State on the 25th October 1881, contains certain provisions which are inconvenient, and imposes burdens and obligations from which the said State is desirous to be relieved, and that the southwestern boundaries fixed by the said Convention should be amended, with a view to promote the peace and good order of the said State, and of the countries adjacent thereto; and whereas, Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, has been pleased to take the said representations into consideration: Now, therefore, Her Majesty has been pleased to direct, and it is hereby declared, that the following articles of a new Convention, signed on behalf of Her Majesty by Her Majesty's High Commissioner in South Africa, the Right Honorable Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Governor of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and on behalf of the Transvaal State (which shall hereinafter be called the South African Republic) by the above named Delegates, Stepha.n.u.s Johannes Paulus Kruger, Stepha.n.u.s Jacobus Du Toit, and Nicholas Jacobus Smit, shall, when ratified by the Volksraad of the South African Republic, be subst.i.tuted for the articles embodied in the Convention of 3rd August 1881; which latter, pending such ratification, shall continue in full force and effect.
ARTICLES.
ARTICLE I, II.
(Articles I and II relate entirely to the settlement of the boundary lines of the Republic.)
ARTICLE III.
If a British officer is appointed to reside at Pretoria or elsewhere within the South African Republic to discharge functions a.n.a.logous to those of a Consular officer, he will receive the protection and a.s.sistance of the Republic.
ARTICLE IV.
The South African Republic will conclude no treaty or engagement with any State or nation other than the Orange Free State, nor with any native tribe to the eastward or westward of the Republic, until the same has been approved by Her Majesty the Queen.
Such approval shall be considered to have been granted if Her Majesty's Government shall not, within six months after receiving a copy of such treaty (which shall be delivered to them immediately upon its completion), have notified that the conclusion of such treaty is in conflict with the interests of Great Britain or any of Her Majesty's possessions in South Africa.
ARTICLE V.
The South African Republic will be liable for any balance which may still remain due of the debts for which it was liable at the date of Annexation, to wit, the Cape Commercial Bank Loan, the Railway Loan, and the Orphan Chamber Debt, which debts shall be a first charge upon the revenues of the Republic. The South African Republic will moreover be liable to Her Majesty's Government for 250,000, which will be a second charge upon the revenues of the Republic.
ARTICLE VI.