too high under the existing concession, and that a diminution in price
was desirable either by cancellation of the concession, or by testing
the legality of the concession in the High Court.
(2). That the tariffs of the Netherlands Railway Company for the
carriage of coal and other articles were too high, and that it was
necessary to expropriate the railway.
(3). That the import duties on necessaries of life were too high, and
that the cost of living in Johannesburg for workmen was too high.
(4). That stringent measures ought to be adopted in order to prevent
gold thefts, and that the law for the total prohibition of drink to
native labourers ought to be more strictly enforced, and that there
ought to be a more stringent application of the Pass Law (under which
the traffic of the native labourers was regulated).
(5). With the object of carrying out the measures specified in Section
4, the Commission recommended that an Advisory Board should be nominated
for the Witwatersrand gold fields for the purpose of advising the
Government as to the enforcement of the said regulations.
[Sidenote: Results of the Commission.]
To what extent was effect given to these recommendations?
[Sidenote: Dynamite.]
1. As far as dynamite is concerned, it appeared that there was no chance
of contesting the concession in the law courts with any success. Nor did
the Volksraad or the Government feel justified in cancelling, without
the consent of the owners, a contract which had been solemnly entered
into, and upon which enormous sums of money had been expended. The
Mining Industry was naturally eager for cancellation, even without
adequate compensation; but the public were not at that time aware of a
fact which was made public some months later, namely, that the De Beers
Corporation intended to erect a dynamite manufactory, and that this
agitation of the Capitalists was intended to obtain for themselves the
control of this great source of income. People, however, knew that the
Messrs. Chamberlain were interested in the English ammunition and
dynamite house of Kynoch, but they hesitate to assume that the Colonial
Secretary was actuated in his Transvaal policy by considerations of
private financial interest.
The Government and Volksraad of the South African Republic adopted the
wiser plan of lowering the price of dynamite to such an extent as to
make it about equal to the local European price plus a protective tariff
of 20s. per case.
It may here be remarked that Mr. Chamberlain, knowing how unpopular the
Dynamite Concession was in the South African Republic, intimated to the
Government of the South African Republic, in a very threatening manner,
that the Concession was in conflict with the London Convention.
The answer of the Government to this communication was so crushing that
Mr. Chamberlain did not again return to the subject. In this he was, no
doubt, also actuated by the fact that the most renowned English and
European jurists had advised that the concession was in no sense a
breach of the Convention. This, however, only became known later, and it
is merely referred to now so as to show that no stone was left unturned
in order to find a means of humiliating the South African Republic.
[Sidenote: The Netherlands Railway Company.]
2. With regard to the Netherlands South African Railway Company, it
would appear that the Capitalists have altered their opinion, and now
think that the administration of the Company is as good as can
reasonably be expected, and that expropriation is now unnecessary.
Perhaps, from their point of view, it would be better to buy up the
shares of the Company, and thus become themselves masters, instead of
the Government, of this source of income.
Respecting the Railway tariff, it is fair to assume that the cause of
dissatisfaction has disappeared, for no complaints are now heard since
the tariff was lowered in accordance with the recommendations of the
Commission.
[Sidenote: Reduction of import duties]
This change in the tariff, together with the abolition of duties on
nearly all necessaries of life have made a difference of about £700,000
in the income of the State during the last year. It will be admitted
that this is an enormous item in comparison with the total income of
the South African Republic. The above tends to show how anxious the
Government of the South African Republic has been to remove all
grievances as soon as it was proved that they actually existed.
[Sidenote: Liquor, Pass, and Gold Thefts Laws.]
3. As regards the administration of the Liquor Law, the Pass Law, and
the Law dealing with Gold thefts, neither the Government nor the
Volksraad felt at liberty to adopt the recommendation as to constituting
an Advisory Board on the Witwatersrand. They decided to go deeper to the
roots of the evil, and so altered the administration of the Laws that
the evidences of dissatisfaction have disappeared. Indeed, no one ever
hears of gold thefts now, and the representative bodies of the mining
industry have repeatedly expressed their satisfaction with the
administration of the Pass Law, and especially with that of the Liquor
Law.
[Sidenote: The Liquor Law.]
In this very Liquor Law we have a test of a good administration. From
the very nature of the drink question it is one of the most difficult
laws that a Government can be called upon to administer, and the measure
of success which has attended the efforts of the Government and its
officials proves conclusively that the charges of incompetency so
frequently brought against the Government of the South African Republic
were devoid of truth, and were only intended to slander and to injure
the Republic. A combined meeting of the Chamber of Mines, the Chamber of
Commerce, and the Association of Mine Managers--the three strongest and
most representative bodies on the Witwatersrand Gold Fields--passed the
following resolutions,[40] which speak for themselves:--
1. This combined Meeting, representing the Chamber of Mines, the
Chamber of Commerce, and the Mine Managers' Association, desires
to express once more its decided approval of the present Liquor
Law, and is of opinion that prohibition is not only beneficial to
the Natives in their own interest, but is absolutely necessary
for the Mining Industry, with a view of maintaining the
efficiency of labour.
2. This Meeting wishes to express its appreciation of the efforts
made to suppress the Illicit Liquor Trade by the Detective
Department of this Republic since it has been placed under the
administration of the State Attorney, and is of opinion that the
success which has crowned these efforts fully disproves the
contention that the Liquor Law is impracticable.
The first resolution was carried by an overwhelming majority, and the
second unanimously.
Compare this declaration of the representatives of the Mining and
Commercial interests of the Witwatersrand with the allegation repeated
by Mr. Chamberlain in his great "grievance" dispatch of the 10th May,
1899[41]--that the Liquor Law had never been strictly enforced, but that
this law was simply evaded, and that the Natives at the mines were
supplied with drink in large quantities.
When Mr. Chamberlain wrote these words they were absolutely untrue, and,
like all his grievances, are of an imaginary character.
The results have clearly shown that the Government was quite correct in
its conclusion that it was better to alter the administration of the
laws complained of, than to adopt a principle (the advisory board), the
consequences and eventual outcome of which no one was able to foresee.
[Sidenote: The South African League.]
The agitation in connection with the report of the Industrial Commission
was followed by a great calm. If it had not been that the handling of
the Swazie difficulty by the British Government gave colour to
suspicion, one might have thought that there was no cloud upon the
horizon. To a superficial observer, the two Governments seemed to be on
the best and most friendly footing, and some of us actually began to
think that the era of the fraternal co-operation of the two races in
South Africa had actually dawned, and that the cursed Raid and its
harvest of race hatred and division would be forgotten. Certain
circumstances, however, indicated clearly that the enemy was occupied in
a supreme effort to cause matters to culminate in a crisis.
The South African League, a political organisation which sprang up out
of, and owed its origin to, the race hatred which the Jameson Raid had
called into being, and at the head of which Mr. Rhodes himself stands (a
fact which places Capitalistic influence in a very clear light), began
towards the latter part of last year to agitate against the Government
in the most unheard-of way.
The individuals who stood at the head of this institution in
Johannesburg were such that very little attention was paid to the
League. It was, however, soon clearly shown that not only was the
movement strongly assisted by the Capitalists, and strongly supported
all along the mines, but that there was a close relationship in a
mysterious way with Cape Town and London. The events of the last few
months have brought this out very clearly. Meetings were arranged,
memorials to Her Majesty about grievances were drawn up, and an active
propaganda was preached in the Press; this all proved in a convincing
way that a carefully planned campaign had been organised against the
Republic.
As the Government of the South African Republic has set forth the trend
of the agitation as well as the connection of the British Government
with it in an official despatch, it is desirable to quote the language
itself:--[42] "But this Government wishes to go further. Even in regard
to those Uitlanders who are British subjects it is a small minority
which, under the pretext of imaginary grievances, promotes a secret
propaganda of race hatred, and uses the Republic as a basis for
fomenting a revolutionary movement against this Government. Ministers of
Her Majesty have so trenchantly expressed the truth about this minority
that this Government wishes to quote the very words of these Ministers,
with the object of bringing the actual truth to the knowledge of Her
Majesty's Government, as well as to that of the whole world, and not for
the purpose of making groundless accusations."
"The following words are those of the Ministers of the Cape Colony, who
are well acquainted with local conditions, and fully qualified to
arrive at a conclusion":--
"In the opinion of Ministers the persistent action, both beyond and
within this Colony, of the political body styling itself the South
African League in endeavouring to foment and excite, not to smooth and
allay ill-will between the two principal European races inhabiting South
Africa, is well illustrated by these resolutions, the exaggerated and
aggravated terms of which disclose the spirit which informs and inspires
them."
"His Excellency's Ministers are one in their earnest desire to do all in
their power to aid and further a policy of peaceful progress throughout
South Africa, and they cannot but regard it as an unwise propagandism,
hostile to the true interests of the Empire, including this Colony as an
integral part, that every possible occasion should be seized by the
League and its promoters for an attempt to magnify into greater events
minor incidents, when occurring in the South African Republic, with a
prospect thereby of making racial antagonism more acute, or of rendering
less smooth the relations between Her Majesty's Government or the
Government of this Colony and that Republic."
"Race hatred is, however, not so intense in South Africa as to enable a
body with this propaganda, aiming at revolutionary objects, to obtain
much influence in this part of the world; and one continually asks
oneself the question--'How is it that a body, so insignificant both in
regard to its principles and its membership, enjoys such a large measure
of influence?' The answer is that this body depends upon the protection
and the support of Her Majesty's Government in England, and that both
its members and its organs in the Press openly boast of the influence
they exert over the policy of Her Majesty's Government. This Government
would ignore such assertions; but when it finds that the ideas and the
shibboleths of the South African League are continually echoed in the
speeches of members of Her Majesty's Government, when it finds that blue
books are compiled chiefly from documents prepared by officials of the
South African League, as well as from reports and leading articles
containing 'malignant lies' taken from the press organs of that
organisation, thereby receiving an official character, then this
Government can well understand why so many of Her Majesty's right-minded
subjects in this part of the world have obtained the impression that the
policy advocated by the South African League is supported by Her
Majesty's Government, and is thus calculated to contribute to the
welfare and blessing of the British Empire."
"If this mistaken impression could be removed, and if it could be
announced as a fact that the South African League, as far as its actions
in the South African Republic are concerned, is only an organisation
having as its object the fomentation of strife and disorder and the
destruction of the independence of the Country, then it would very soon
lose its influence, and the strained relations existing between the two
Governments would quickly disappear. The Africander population of this
country would not then be under the apprehension that the interests of
the British Empire _imperatively demand_ that the Republic should be
done away with, and its people be either _enslaved or exterminated_.
Both sections of the white inhabitants of South Africa would then return
to the fraternal co-operation and fusion which was beginning to manifest
itself when the treacherous conspiracy at the end of 1895 awakened the
passions on both sides."
As a result of the continual agitation of the South African League,
three occurrences were selected and elevated by Mr. Chamberlain into
culminating instances of the Uitlander grievances. To give the world a
clear insight into the nature of the grievances in general, extracts are
given from the official accounts both of the British and the Republican
account of these occurrences. There were three--the "Lombard affair,"
with reference to the maltreatment of coloured British subjects at
Johannesburg; the "Edgar case," in connection with the shooting of an
English subject by a police official; and the "Amphitheatre occurrence,"
in regard to a disorderly meeting of the South African League.
[Sidenote: _a._ The Lombard Incident.]
With regard to the "Lombard incident," Mr. Chamberlain says:--[43] "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 with much cruelty, and it
is even alleged that one woman was prematurely confined, 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 enquiry 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 unparalleled. 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."
The answer of the Government of the South African Republic was as
follows:--[44] "With reference to the Lombard case, this Government
wishes to point out that no complaint was lodged with any official in
this Republic for a full month after the illtreatment of Cape coloured
people was alleged to have taken place, and that neither the Government
nor the public was aware that anything had taken place. The whole case
was so insignificant that some of the people who were alleged to have
been illtreated declared, under oath, at a later period before a court
of investigation that they would never have made any complaint on their
own initiative. What happened, however?
"About a month after the occurrence the South African League came to
hear of it; some of its officials sent round to collect evidence from
the parties who were alleged to have been illtreated, and some sworn
declarations were obtained by the help of Her Majesty's Vice-Consul at
Johannesburg (between whom and this League a continual and conspicuous
co-operation has existed). Even then no charge was lodged against the
implicated officials with the judicial authorities of the country, but
the case was put in the hands of the Acting British Agent at Pretoria.
"When the allegations were brought under the notice of this Government,
they at once appointed a commission of enquiry, consisting of three
members, namely, Landdrost Van der Berg, of Johannesburg, Mr. Andries
Stockenstrom, barrister-at-law, of the Middle Temple, head of the
Criminal Section of the State Attorney's Department, and Mr. Van der
Merwe, Mining Commissioner, of Johannesburg; gentlemen against whose
ability and impartiality the Uitlander population of the Republic have
never harboured the slightest suspicion, and with whose appointment the
Acting British Agent also expressed his entire satisfaction. The
instructions given to those officials were to thoroughly investigate the
whole case, and to report the result to the Government; and they
fulfilled these instructions by sitting for days at a time, carefully
hearing and sifting the evidence of both sides. Every right-minded
person readily acknowledges that far greater weight ought to be attached
to the finding of this Commission than to the declarations of the
complainants, who contradicted one another in nearly every particular,
and who caused the whole enquiry to degenerate into a farce."
"According to the report, nothing was proved as to the so-called
illtreatment; the special instances of alleged illtreatment turned out
to be purely imaginary; but it was clearly proved and found that the
complainants had acted contrary to law, and the Commission only
expressed disapproval of the fact that the arrests and the investigation
had taken place at night, and without a proper warrant. It fills this
Government with all the greater regret to observe that Her Majesty's
Government bases its charges on _ex parte_, groundless, and, in many
respects, false declarations of complainants who have been set in motion
by political hatred, and that it silently ignores the report of the
Commission."
[Sidenote: _b._ The Edgar Case.]
Mr. Chamberlain represented the Edgar case in the following way:--[45]
"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
endorsed by the Judge, is that four policemen breaking into a man's
house at night without a warrant, on the mere statement of one person,
which subsequently turned out to be untrue, that the man had committed a
crime, are justified in killing him there and then because, according to
their own account, he hits one of them with a stick. If this is
justification, then almost any form of resistance to the police is
justification for the immediate killing of the person resisting, who may
be perfectly innocent of any offence. This would be an alarming doctrine
anywhere. It is peculiarly alarming when applied to a city like
Johannesburg, where a strong force of police armed with revolvers have
to deal with a large alien unarmed population, whose language in many
cases they do not understand. The emphatic affirmation of such a
doctrine by Judge and jury in the Edgar case cannot but increase the
general feeling of insecurity amongst the Uitlander population, and the
sense of injustice under which they labour. It may be pointed out that
the allegation that Edgar assaulted the police was emphatically denied
by his wife and others, and that the trial was conducted in a way that
would be considered quite irregular in this country, the witnesses for
the defence being called by the prosecution, and thereby escaping
cross-examination."
The answer of the Government of the South African Republic was:--[46]
"The Edgar case is referred to by your Government as the most striking
recent instance of arbitrary action by officials, and of the support of
such action by the Courts," and this case is quoted as a conclusive
test of the alleged judicial maladministration of this Republic; it
will, therefore, be of interest to pause for a moment and consider it.
What are the true facts?
"A certain Foster, 'an Englishman,' was assaulted and felled to the
ground, without any lawful cause, by a man named Edgar during the night
of the 18th December, 1898; he lay on the ground as if dead, and
ultimately died in the hospital. Edgar escaped to his room, and some
police came on the scene, attracted by the screams of the bystanders.
Amongst the police was one named Jones. When they saw the man who had
been assaulted lying as if dead, they went to Edgar's apartment in order
to arrest him as a criminal (he had, indeed, rendered himself liable for
manslaughter, and apparently for murder). As he was caught in the very
act, the police officers were, according to the Laws, not only of this
Republic, but of all South Africa and of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, justified in breaking open the door in order to
arrest the culprit. While doing so, Edgar, with a dangerous weapon,
struck Jones a severe blow. Under the stress of necessity the latter
shot Edgar, from the effects of which he died. The question is not if
Jones was justified in taking this extreme step, for the State Attorney
of the Republic had already given effect to his opinion that this was a
case for the jury by prosecuting him for manslaughter. The question is
solely whether any jury in any country in the world would have found a
man guilty of any crime under the circumstances set forth, and whether,
if they did not find him guilty, the fact of their doing so would have
been stamped and branded as a flagrant and remarkable instance of the
maladministration of Justice.
"This Government is convinced that the English judicial administration
affords numberless instances where the facts are as strong as in this
case, and it cannot see why an occurrence which could happen in any part
of the world would be especially thrown in their teeth in the form of an
accusation.
"This Government does not wish to pass over in silence the censure which
has been passed by Her Majesty's Government on the Public Prosecutor of
Johannesburg, by whom the prosecution of this case was conducted; the
fact that being of pure English blood, that he received his legal
training in London, that he is generally respected by the Uitlander
population on account of his ability, impartiality, and general
character, will naturally not be of any weight with Her Majesty's
Government against the facts of his action in calling witnesses for the
prosecution who were intended for the defence, and thus rendering an
imaginary cross-examination abortive.