Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/634

 210 STATE PAPEKS— TEANSVAAL. [1899.

in any way on this subject. The question has taken me by surprise. I did not come here contemplating a discussion on it, but I must say if it could be satisfactorily arranged, excluding the interference of the foreigner, it would seem to me to open a way out of many difficulties. But all the same I adhere firmly to my proposal that we should first try and settle on the scheme which the President would accept as regards the matter which I put forward. If we can come to some understanding about that, then let us consider what we can do in the way of ensuring that this conference shall be a final settlement of questions between the two Governments, and that future difficulties, if they arise, -shall settle themselves by an automatic process."

But I again insisted that I would not bargain for the franchise either with arbitration or anything else. The former must be discussed first and independently of other questions. The conference then pro- ceeded on the franchise question and broke down on it. At the very close of the conference, and after all that is stated in report before you, he told me that he hoped to hear from her Majesty's Government about arbitration. I replied: "I have nothing to propose to her Majesty's Government on the subject. I have nothing before me ; there is a general expression of opinion on the minutes of the con- ference, but I do 'not regard anything which has passed here as a proposal on the subject to her Majesty's Government which requires an answer."

C— 9,518, issued August 26. DESPATCH FROM MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

Downing Street, July 27, 1899.

Sib, — The successive modifications which have been made by the Government of the South African Republic since the conference of Bloemfontein in the proposals for admitting the Outlanders to some share of representation in the government of the country have followed each other with so much rapidity, and have been so difficult to under- stand as reported by telegraph, that her Majesty's Government have been unable to communicate with you fully on the different phases of this question as they have been in turn presented. Happily, each new scheme seems to have been an advance and improvement upon that which preceded it, and her Majesty's Government hope that the latest proposals passed by the Volksraad may prove to be a basis for a settle- ment on the lines which you laid down at the conference, and which her Majesty's Government have approved.

Before examining these proposals, it will be convenient to state the objects which her Majesty's Government have desired to secure, and the reasons which have led them to press their views on the Govern- ment of the South African Republic.

Her Majesty's Government authorised you to meet President Kruger in conference in the hope that you might, in concert with him, arrive at an arrangement which they could accept as a reasonable concession to the just demands of the Outlander population of the South African Republic They trusted that, following upon such an amicable settle-