Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/616

 192 STATE PAPEES— TRANSVAAL. [1899.

29. The condition of your Majesty's subjects in this State has indeed become well-nigh intolerable.

30. The acknowledged and admitted grievances of which your Majesty's subjects complain prior to 1895 not only are not redressed, but exist to-day in an aggravated form. They are still deprived of all political rights ; they are denied any voice in the government of the country ; they are taxed far above the requirements of the country— the revenue of which is misapplied and devoted to objects which keep alive a continuous and well-founded feeling of irritation, without in any way advancing the general interest of the State. Maladministra- tion and peculation of public moneys go hand in hand, without any vigorous measures being adopted to put a stop to the scandal. The education of Outlander children is made subject to impossible con- ditions. The police afford no adequate protection to the lives and property of the inhabitants of Johannesburg ; they are rather a source of danger to the peace and safety of the Outlander population.

31. A further grievance has become prominent since the beginning of the year. The power vested in the Government by means of the Public Meetings Act has been a menace to your Majesty's subjects since the enactment of the Act in 1894. This power has now been applied in order to deliver a blow that strikes at the inherent and inalienable birthright of every British subject — namely, his right to petition his Sovereign. Straining to the utmost the language and intention of the law, the Government have arrested two British subjects who assisted in presenting a petition to your Majesty on behalf of 4,000 fellow-subjects. Not content with this, the Government, when your Majesty's loyal subjects again attempted to lay their grievances before your Majesty, permitted their meeting to be broken up and the objects of it to be defeated by a body of Boers, organised by Government officials and acting under the protection of the police. By reason, therefore, of the direct as well as the indirect, act of the Government, your Majesty's loyal subjects have been prevented from publicly ventilating their grievances and from laying them before your Majesty.

32. Wherefore your Majesty's humble petitioners humbly beseech your Most Gracious Majesty to extend your Majesty's protection to your Majesty's loyal subjects resident in this State, and to cause an inquiry to be made into grievances and complaints enumerated and set forth in this humble petition, and to direct your Majesty's represen- tative in South Africa to take measures which will secure the speedy reform of the abuses complained of, and to obtain substantial guarantees from the Government of this State for a recognition of their rights as British subjects.

And your Most Gracious Majesty's petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray, etc.,

W. Wybergh, etc., P. O. Box 317, Johannesburg, South African Republic, and others.