As
is known, the conference between Sir Alfred Milner and President Krüger,
assisted by President Steyn, took place at Bloemfontein during the first
days of June last (1899), and resulted in the refusal to a demand of a five
years' franchise made on behalf of the Transvaal Uitlanders, which refusal
was some time later modified by enacting a law admitting them to full
burgher rights after a probation of seven years, but coupled with
restrictive forms and conditions which made that measure unacceptable. Some
time before that conference the old Free Stater already mentioned obtained
several prolonged interviews with the hon. State Secretary Reitz, at
Pretoria, with the object of dissuading the Transvaal Government from
conferring with Sir Alfred Milner while as yet no sufficient friendly
rapprochement had been reached and no advance had been made as to mutually
approved bases upon which to confer. He strongly deprecated the idea of
granting "full" burgher rights to Uitlanders, but held that their needs and
wishes could be met by allowing their interests to be amply represented
without impinging upon the special privileges which should be reserved for
the burgher status proper. He was finally invited by Mr. Reitz to submit his
scheme in writing, with the promise that it should receive careful
consideration. That old Free Stater complied, and supplied President Krüger
with a duplicate separately as well. The scheme ran in substance as follows:
"Modus vivendi"
The population of the Transvaal to be divided into two classes, pending the
continued presence of the large floating portion consisting of Uitlanders
who derive their subsistence from the mining industries, viz.:—
1st Class.—The fixed or burgher estate.
2nd Class.—The floating or alien estate or Guests.
The 1st Volksraad to be elected by burghers only, and to represent the
highest legislative and administrative powers.
The 2nd Volksraad to be elected by Uitlanders and burghers, and to be
vested with all such reasonable legislative powers as will cover the
domestic, industrial, and vocative interests of both burghers and guests.
The Uitlander franchise shall be limited to representation in the 2nd
Volksraad, and be extended under usual fair conditions of eligibility to all
white persons after two years' residence, retrospectively reckoned.
Aliens may be admitted to full burgher rights and vote for 1st Volksraad,
President, and Commandant-General, after five years' residence, if approved
of by two-thirds of the burghers of his ward, possesses landed property to
the value of £1,000, and has not been convicted here or elsewhere of any
degrading crime.
Members of both Volksraads and for public service shall be eligible without
respect of creed.
The exploitation of mines shall be subject to a tax of 25 per cent.,
reckoned upon the yearly net profits, such revenue to be applied at the
discretion of the 1st Volksraad solely for the benefit of the burgher
estate—schools, hospitals, universities, pensions, by means of permanent
endowments.
The Government of the Transvaal undertakes:—
1. There shall be no identification or co-operation permitted, on
the part of any of the Transvaal people, with the association known as the
Afrikaner Bond, or any such-like political complot.
2. The recognition of British paramountcy over South Africa,
including the Transvaal, in so far as it does not clash with the intentions
and provisions set forth in the conventions of 1881 and 1884, and does not
extend to interference with or curtailment of complete internal autonomy.
3. Renunciation of indemnity claim re Jameson incursion.
4. To regulate the question of coloured British subjects resident in
the Transvaal upon a genial basis, irrespective of the Bloemfontein
arbitration award upon that subject.
5. Poll and war taxes shall be abolished.
6. Dual rights equal with the Dutch language shall be accorded to
the English language, similarly as is done in the Cape Colony for Dutch.
7. The railways and dynamite factory to be expropriated as soon as
possible—the loans required thereto to be amortized within twenty years, and
pending those expropriations the freights upon coal and oversea goods shall
be reduced 10 per cent, and the price of explosives 20s. per case, these
reductions to be met from the revenue accruing to the burgher estate from
the tax upon mining profits.
8. To join a general Customs union upon equitable conditions.
9. Restore the High Court to independent power in terms of
constitution.
The sequel has shown that Bond counsels prevailed over the suggestions of
that old Free Stater. As to the seven years' franchise offered under the
pretence and colour of meeting Sir Alfred Milner's demand, it had clearly
been intended to serve as a decoy and stop-gap pending the contemplated war
of conquest, and to mask Bond duplicity while further preparations were to
be completed in diplomacy abroad and in the seditious conspiracy in the
Colonies. Natal was at that time swarming with Boer emissaries, and
Transvaal artillery officers with Hollander engineers in disguise were seen
inspecting Laing's Nek tunnel and other strategic points in that colony.
Not knowing at the time that State Secretary Reitz was an inveterate
Bondman, that old Free State patriot had roundly denounced to him the
wickedness of Bond aims, and added the remark that the establishment of a
united Boer Republic apart from British supremacy in South Africa was a
deceptive dream.
England has a mission in Africa—that of the Boers can only be subordinate
to it. It would need the aid of a powerful maritime combination to supplant
England. The case of America does not present an analogy; there England only
was actually interested, but here various other nations were concerned in
their respective huge investments. They would have a voice in the business.
Armed intervention would lead to a big European war and extreme misery to
entire Africa—just what the devil wants, but not the investor.
Indiscriminate franchise will cause the loss of national independence, and
so might ultimately cosmopolize and obliterate their distinctive
nationality, but so would also a war with England, with the total sacrifice
of their independence into the bargain. Let the Government rather prove to
England its sincere friendship and agree to deal well by the Uitlanders,
treating them as privileged guests, then the unhappy strain in relations
will cease. Above all, renounce that wicked Afrikaner Bond with its motto of
conquest. The demand for franchise is England's device of self-protection
against Bond designs. England will desist from that demand if we renounce
the Bond and prove our friendship.
That old Free Stater had moreover expressed his most earnest conviction that
a modus vivendi upon the lines suggested would find ready consideration as
an alternative to the five years' franchise demand, and that the British
Government would hail with the utmost satisfaction and relief any tentative
towards a sound rapprochement based upon the contentment of the Boer people
within the areas of their Republics and which would terminate Bond
aspirations for Boer supremacy in South Africa. Had he been permitted, the
old Free Stater would gladly have called upon the British agent at Pretoria,
Mr. Conyngham Greene, and felt confident that the modus vivendi would lead
finally to a complete cessation of British interference and to best
relations and prosperous conditions for all instead. He also cautioned the
Government at Pretoria, giving chapter and verse, against counting upon "the
arm of man." They would find they had trusted on reeds—it would be so in
regard to any foreign help, and even in regard to men of their own nation in
the Cape Colony.
During one of the interviews Mr. Reitz had remarked that he had a special
theory in regard to the situation; but it varied from that of the President,
who, in reality, was King, and whose will overcame all opposition.
