Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/220

 212] ENGLISH HISTORY. [ocr.

with every word of that passage and asked whether, things being so, it could be contended that an inquiry ought to be opened while " arms, ammunition and food were pouring into the Transvaal and distress all round increasing every day."

With regard to the complaint made as to the non-delivery of the proposals of the British Government for a final settle- ment, Mr. Chamberlain suggested that if counter proposals from this country, which must have partaken of the character of an ultimatum, were delayed, it was not unconnected with the hope that at the eleventh hour the Transvaal would see fit to make some change in its attitude towards us. Sir Wm. Harcourt had said that this ultimatum, which had never been sent to President Kruger, ought to be published. His curiosity would not be gratified, for the ultimatum was buried; but this was certain — that on the termination of hostilities the terms imposed upon the Boers would be very different from those of that undelivered ultimatum. When the cheers which greeted this statement had subsided, Mr. Chamberlain challenged any one to discover in all these negotiations any sign of provo- cation or desire for war on the part of her Majesty's Govern- ment. He was more afraid of being charged with having been patient to the point of weakness. Referring to the allegation that the Government had not sent reinforcements to the Cape soon enough, he explained that the garrison had been gradually increased to 25,000 men, and other defensive measures had been taken in response to the representations of the colonies. As to the colony of Natal, it deserved our lasting gratitude for so completely identifying itself with the mother country. Explaining why an army corps "had not been de- spatched sooner, he said the Government had been influenced by a desire to have the co-operation of the Opposition. The Government had been as anxious for peace as anybody could be, but there were things more important even than peace, and for its sake they could not betray their country or allow our paramountcy in South Africa to be impaired.

Sir Edward Clarke, reluctantly dissociating himself from his party, severely condemned the course of the negotiations in the light of Mr. Chamberlain's speech. He contended that for any British minister, since the negotiations issuing in the Convention of 1884, to assert that we had a suzerainty over the Transvaal was "a breach of national faith." They could not doubt, Sir E. Clarke said, Mr. Chamberlain's statement that he had been working for peace. " But if that were so, a more clumsy correspondence had never been placed on the records of diplomatic action."

On the other hand, Mr. Haldane, the Liberal member for Haddingtonshire, maintained that if her Majesty's Government had not interfered and moved, the oppressed Englishmen in the Transvaal would themselves have moved ; if the British Govern- ment had not come to them they would have gone away from