Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/621

 1899.] STATE PAPERS— TEANSVAAL. 197

subjects resident in the South African Republic, in which they pray for her Majesty's intervention with a view to the removal of the grievances of which they complain. This petition has been laid before her Majesty, who was graciously pleased to receive it, and I have now the honour to convey to you the views of her Majesty's Government on the subject.

Her Majesty's Government cannot remain indifferent to the com- plaints of British subjects resident in other countries, and if these are found to be justified, her Majesty's Government are entitled to make representations with a view to securing redress.

This ordinary right of all Governments is strengthened in the present case by the peculiar relations established by the conventions between this country and the Transvaal, and also by the fact that the peace and prosperity of the whole of South Africa, including her Majesty's possessions, may be seriously affected by any circumstances which are calculated to produce discontent and unrest in the South African Republic.

Her Majesty's Government have, therefore, made an investigation, based on the information already in their possession, into the subject of the petition now before them.

The unrest and discontent amongst the Outlander inhabitants of the South African Republic is of long standing. The root of the matter lies in the policy pursued from the first by the Government of the South African Republic towards an immigrant population which is generally believed to far outnumber the burghers, and which forms, at all events, a very large proportion of the white inhabitants. To the industry and intelligence of this part of the community is due the enormous increase in the prosperity of the country, an increase which may be measured by the fact that whereas in 1885 the revenue was 177,876*., it amounted in 1898 to no less than 3,983,560/., the principal items of which, such as customs 1,066,994/., prospecting licences 321,651/., railway receipts 668,951/., not to mention others of smaller amount, must be contributed mainly by the Outlander.

It was pointed out in my despatch to your predecessor of February 4, 1896, that the newcomers in the South African Republic have, contrary to the policy adopted in most civilised countries where immigration has played an important part in building up the population, been denied all effective voice in the affairs of the State ; and all political power and the right to levy taxation is the monopoly of a minority composed almost entirely of men engaged in pastoral and agricultural pursuits, whose knowledge of the conditions and necessities of the Out- landers must be of the vaguest nature. The Outlanders are not only debarred for many years from voting in the election of President and of members of the First Volksraad, which is the highest authority in the State, and the only one whose decisions are not subject to veto or revision, and at the same time made to bear the heaviest part of the burden of taxation, but they are not even permitted to control their own municipal affairs, the law creating a municipality for Johannesburg being altogether inadequate for this purpose. In order to obtain the insignificant privileges attached to naturalisation, they are compelled

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