Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/639

 1899.] STATE PAPEES— TRANSVAAL. . 215

to take away with one hand what has been given with the other. The provision that the alien desirous of burghers hip shall produce a certificate under Article I. (section A) of the draft law, of continuous registration during the period required for naturalisation is an instance of this, for it has been stated that the registration law has been allowed to fall into desuetude, and that but few aliens, however long resident in the country, have been continuously registered.

Her Majesty's Government feel assured that the President, having accepted the principle for which they have contended, will be prepared to reconsider any detail of his scheme which can be shown to be a possible hindrance to the full accomplishment of the object in view. They trust, therefore, that many of the conditions now retained may be revised, and that the residential qualification may be further re- duced, since, in its present form, it will differentiate unfavourably the conditions of naturalisation in the Transvaal from those existing in other civilised countries.

Her Majesty's Government assume that the concessions now made to the Outlanders are intended in good faith to secure for them some approach to the equality which was promised in 1881 ; but the points they have still to urge for the consideration of the Government of the South African Republic are of great importance, and require a further interchange of views between the two Governments. These points involve complicated details and questions of a technical nature, and her Majesty's Government are inclined to think that the most con- venient way of dealing with them would be that they should in the first instance be discussed by delegates appointed by you and by the Government of the South African Republic, who should report the result of their consultation, and submit their recommendations to you and to that Government.

If a satisfactory agreement on these points can be reached in this way and placed on record, her Majesty's Government are of opinion that it should be accepted by the Outlanders, who in this case will be entitled to expect that it will not be nullified or reduced in value by any subsequent alterations of the law or acts of administration.

The settlement of this most important subject will greatly facilitate an understanding in other matters which have been the source of con- tinuous and ever-increasing correspondence between your predecessors and yourself and her Majesty's Government. There have been, during the last few years, a number of instances in which her Majesty's Government contend that the conventions between this country and the South African Republic have been broken by the latter in the letter as well as in the spirit. There are other cases again in which there may have been no actual infraction of the letter of the conven- tions, but in which injury has been inflicted on British subjects for which redress is required on their behalf.

With a view to the settlement of some, at least, of these questions, the Government of the South African Republic has met the representa- tions of her Majesty's Government with an offer to submit them to the arbitration of some foreign Power. In view of the relations established by the Conventions of Pretoria and London, her Majesty's Government