Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/625

 1899.] STATE PAPERS— TRANSVAAL. 201

this recommendation were (as is clear from the evidence given and from their report) that the existing administration was utterly in- efficient, or, as they said with regard to the illicit sale of liquor, " A miserable state of affairs exists, and a much stronger application of the law is required." This stronger application of the law has never been made, and according to a statement made on January 26 by the Presi- dent of the Chamber of Mines, the Liquor Law is simply defied, and drink is supplied in unlimited quantities to the natives employed in the mines. The industry has petitioned for the establishment of the board recommended by the Industrial Commission, even proposing that all the members should be nominated by the Government, but without result.

Whatever force there may be in the complaints in regard to the legislation of the Republic, the general inefficiency of the administra- tion, which is so clearly shown in the report of the Industrial Com- mission, and continues to be demonstrated by debates in the Volksraads on alleged scandals, probably contributes as much to cause discontent as the legislation itself. It not only seriously affects the financial prosperity of the Republic, but is a continual menace to the security of the lives and property of the Outlander population, for, grave as are the criticisms which may reasonably be offered on the financial administra- tion, they are of small importance in comparison with the complaints which are made of the administration of justice and of the arbitrary and illegal action of officials, especially of the police.

As an instance of such arbitrary action, the recent maltreatment of coloured British subjects by Field-Cornet Lombard may be cited. This official entered the houses of various coloured persons without a warrant at night, dragged them from their beds, and arrested them for being without a pass. The persons so arrested were treated witn much cruelty, and it is even alleged that one woman was prematurely con- fined, and a child subsequently died from the consequences of the fright and exposure. Men were beaten and kicked by the orders of the field-cornet, who appears to have exercised his authority with the most cowardly brutality. The Government of the Republic being pressed to take action, suspended the field-cornet, and an inquiry was held, at which he and the police denied most of the allegations of violence, but the other facts were not disputed, and no independent evidence was called for the defence. The Government have since reinstated Lombard. Unfortunately, this case is by no means un- paralleled. Other British subjects, including several from St. Helena and Mauritius, have been arbitrarily arrested, and some of them have been fined, without having been heard in their own defence, under a law which does not even profess to have any application to persons from those colonies. However long-suffering her Majesty's Government may be in their anxious desire to remain on friendly terms with the South African Republic, it must be evident that a continuance of incidents of this kind, followed by no redress, may well become intolerable.

But perhaps the most striking recent instance of arbitrary action by officials, and of the support of such action by the courts, is the well- known Edgar case. The effect of the verdict of the jury, warmly en-