Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/204

 196] ENGLISH HISTORY. [sept.

borders than our colonies gladly did to the Dutch inhabitants who came to them. This did not in itself seem much to ask, and it would have been amply sufficient, in his judgment, to secure for ever peace and racial co-operation. But the directors of the Transvaal policy apparently thought that their interests and their ambitions lay in a different direction, and they had consistently, and without rest, pursued a policy diametrically opposed to that which Mr. Balfour held would have been for their best and most permanent interests.

Mr. Balfour added : "If I am judging aright, those responsible for the policy of the Dutch Republic refuse to give way on a point on which we cannot and will not give way. The interests of South Africa, the interests of civili- sation, the interests of national honour, all make such a course impossible. "

Two days later (Sept. 30) the Duke of Devonshire, at New Mills, caused a slight revival of hope that President Kruger would recognise the real absence of any sinister designs on the part of the British Government. " The obstacle which seems to stand in the way of a peaceful settlement of our diffi- culties with the South African Republic,' * said the duke, " appears to be the rooted conviction they have that in the demands which we have made we cherish some designs hostile to their independence and self-government. That any such apprehensions on their part are absolutely unfounded has been asserted as strongly as it can be asserted, both officially in our despatches, and unofficially by members of the Government, and nothing which I can say can add to the force of those assertions. . . . The stage of negotiations which we have at present reached is that we see no longer any advantage in pressing further the proposals we have made in regard to the franchise and the admission of the Outlanders to a share in the Assembly which governs the affairs of the South African Republic. Those proposals have never been an essential point of difference between us and the South African Republic. . . . "They have not been received in a spirit which leads us, or can lead us, to hope that they will lead to a solution of the question. We have, therefore, been driven back to the necessity of formu- lating ourselves the requirements which we consider ourselves entitled to make, not only under the conventions, but in virtue of the inherent duty of every State to protect its own citizens, and for the maintenance of peace and good order in South Africa. Those requirements will, I think, be found moderate in themselves, and under any other circumstances I should cherish the most earnest hope that they would be favourably received."

This speech moved a body of amateur politicians, who regarded Mr. Chamberlain's policy as harsh and disingenuous, to telegraph to President Kruger that the Duke of Devonshire was a man who could be thoroughly relied upon, and to express