Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/642

 218 STATE PAPEES— TEANSVAAL.

and in the whole of South Africa have been excited, and a condition of extreme tension has been created, while her Majesty's Government could no longer agree to the legislation respecting franchise and the resolution respecting representation in this republic, and finally, by your note of September 25, 1899, broke off all friendly correspondence on the subject, and intimated that they must now proceed to formulate their own proposals for a final settlement, and this Government can only see in the above intimation from her Majesty's Government a new violation of the Convention of London, 1884, which does not reserve to her Majesty's Government the right to a unilateral settlement of a question which is exclusively a domestic one for this Government, and has already been regulated by it.

On account of the strained situation and the consequent serious loss in an interruption of trade in general which the correspondence re- specting the franchise and representation in this Republic carried in its train, her Majesty's Government have recently pressed for an early settlement, and finally pressed, by your intervention, for an answer within forty-eight hours (subsequently somewhat modified) to your note of September 12, replied to by the note of this Government of September 15, and your note of September 25, 1899, and thereafter further friendly negotiations broke off, and this Government received the intimation that the proposal for a final settlement would shortly be made, but although this promise was once more repeated no pro- posal has up to now reached this Government. Even while friendly correspondence was still going on an increase of troops on a large scale was introduced by her Majesty's Government and stationed in the neighbourhood of the borders of this Republic. Having regard to oc- currences in the history of this Government, which it is unnecessary here to call to mind, this Government felt obliged to regard this military force in the neighbourhood of its borders as a threat against the independence of the South African Republic, since it was aware of no circumstances which could justify the presence of such military force in South Africa and in the neighbourhood of its borders. In answer to an inquiry with respect thereto addressed to his Excellency the High Commissioner, this Government received, to its great astonish- ment, in answer, a veiled insinuation that from the side of the Republic (van Republikeinsche zeyde) an attack was being made on her Majesty's colonies, and at the same time a mysterious reference to possibilities whereby it was strengthened in its suspicion that the independence of this Republic was being threatened. As a defensive measure it was therefore obliged to send a portion of the burghers of this Republic in order to offer the requisite resistance to similar possibilities. Her Majesty's unlawful intervention in the internal affairs of this Republic, in conflict with the Convention of London, 1884, caused by the extra- ordinary strengthening of troops in the neighbourhood of the borders of this Republic, has thus caused an intolerable condition of things to arise whereto this Government feels itself obliged, in the interest not only of this Republic but also [P] of all South Africa, to make an end as soon as possible, and feels itself called upon and obliged to press earnestly and with emphasis for an immediate termination of this state of