Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/111

 1899.] Transvaal Affairs. [103

In the House of Commons this assurance was amplified by the Under-Secretary, Mr. Brodrick, who, in reply to a question (May 9), said that the Yang-tsze basin had been defined by the Government as the provinces adjoining the Yang-tsze Eiver and Ho-nan and Che-kiang. The Government claimed that no portion of the territory should be leased, mort- gaged or alienated to any other Power. The treaty rights of Great Britain under the Treaty of Tien-tsin were not in any way abrogated to the north of the great wall. A few days later (May 15), he further informed the House that a demand for a railway to Pekin was stated to have been made to the YamGn by the Bussian Government; but it was understood that the YamGn had declined up to the present to grant the concession. The proposed extension of the Manchunan Bail- way did not in any way affect the basin of the Yang-tsze.

It was in the Lower House also that questions were put with regard to events passing in the Transvaal. Mr. Chamber- lain, in reply to questions from Sir Charles Cameron (Bridgeton, Glasgow), admitted (April 28) that communications had passed between the Imperial Government and the President of the Transvaal relative to the dynamite concession, which the former held to be a breach of Article 14 of the London Convention of 1884. Almost simultaneously it became known that a petition from over 21,000 British subjects in the Transvaal, complaining of oppression and unjust treatment had been transmitted to the Queen. Mr. Chamberlain stated (May 1), that, having regard to the position which this country occupied in relation to the South African Bepublic, there could be no doubt as to the propriety of receiving the petition; the High Commissioner having considered that the general genuineness of the figures could be proved. At a later date (May 18), he announced the approaching interview between Sir A. Milner and President Kruger, which had been brought about through the interven- tion of President Steyn of the Free State. Its aim would be to arrive at the settlement of the difficulties which threatened the good relations which her Majesty desired should constantly exist between this country and the South African Bepublic.

If the President and officials of the latter were similarly in- spired, the means adopted by them to show their desire for friendly intercourse were somewhat peculiar. A number of persons in Johannesburg were summarily arrested on a charge of high treason, and in the telegrams allowed to pass under official control grades in the British Army were assigned to the various prisoners, who for a while were not allowed to communicate with counsel. The president of the South African League, which body it was desired to implicate publicly, repudiated any knowledge of the conspirators and of the arrested enlistment of men to take arms against the republic. It was subsequently admitted that the case had been got up by agents of the Government with the privity of some high officials, that