Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/190

 182] ENGLISH HI8T0EY. [adg.

The knot must be loosened, to use Mr. Balfour's words, or else we shall have to find other ways of untying it ; and if we do that, if we are forced to that, then T would repeat now the warning that was given by Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords, and I would say, if we are forced to make further preparations, and if this delay continues much longer, we shall not hold ourselves limited by what we have already offered, but, having taken this matter in hand, we will not let it go until we have secured conditions which once for all shall establish which is the paramount Power in South Africa, and shall secure for our fellow-subjects there, at all events, those equal rights and equal privileges which were promised to them by President Kruger when the independence of the Transvaal was granted by the Queen, and which is really the least that in justice ought to be accorded to them. If a rupture which we have done everything in our power to avoid should be forced upon us, I am confident that we shall have the support of the vast majority of the people of the United Kingdom, and I will go further, and say the vast majority of the people of the British empire."

In view of this utterance from the minister directly respon- sible for the negotiations with the Transvaal, it was felt on all hands that a much graver situation had arisen than any hitherto reached since the peace of 1881. So serious a view would not at once have presented itself if regard had been had merely to Mr. Chamberlain's official reply to the proposals which he had before him on August 26. The despatches embodying them, and his answer through Sir A Milner — all telegraphic — were issued from the Colonial Office on September 1. Dr. Reitz's first note, dated August 19, suggested the following plan for the consideration of her Majesty's Government, as an alter- native to the joint inquiry proposed by Mr. Chamberlain on their behalf at the end of July : (1) " A five years' retrospective franchise " as proposed by Sir A. Milner on June 1, 1899. (2) Eight new seats in the Volksraad to the population of the Witwatersrand, thus with the two sitting members for the goldfields giving to the population thereof ten representatives in a Baad of thirty-six, and in future the representation of the goldfields of the Transvaal not to fall below the proportion of one-fourth of the total. (3) The new burghers equally with the old burghers to be entitled to vote at the election for State President and Commandant-General. (4) The Transvaal Gov- ernment would always be prepared to take into consideration such friendly suggestions regarding the details of the franchise law as her Majesty's Government, through the British agent, might wish to convey to it.

So much for the concessions. The conditions were stated in the fifth paragraph of Dr. Reitz's despatch, which ran thus : " In putting forward the above proposals the Government of the South African Republic assumes — (a) That her Majesty's Gov-