Grofs britannien. Nr. 12019. the Mining Industry, and the reasons which, in the opinions of men well qualified to judge, had led up to it. || 12. The Government at last appointed a Commission consisting of its own officials, which was empowered to enquire into the industrial conditions of the mining population, and to suggest such a scheme for the removal of existing grievances as might seem advisable and necessary. || 13. On the 5th of August the Commission issued their report, in which the reasons for the then state of depression were fully set forth, and many reforms were recommended as necessary for the well-being of the community. Among them it will be sufficient to mention the appointment of an Industrial Board, having its seat in Johannesburg, for the special supervision of the Liquor Law, and the Pass Law, and to combat the illicit dealing in gold and amalgam. || 14. The Government refused to accede to the report of the Commission, which was a standing indictment against its administration in the past, but referred the question to the Volksraad, which in turn referred it to a Select Committee of its own members. The result created consternation in Johannesburg, for, whilst abating in some trifling respects burdens which bore heavily on the mining industry, the Committee of the Raad, ignoring the main recommendations of the Commission, actually advised an increased taxation of the country, and that in a way which bore most heavily on the Uitlander. The suggestions of the Committee were at once adopted, and the tariff increased accordingly. || 15. At the beginning of 1897 the Government went a step further in their aggressive policy towards the Uitlander, and attacked the independence of the High Court, which, until then, Your Majesty's subjects had regarded as the sole remaining safeguard of their civil rights. Early in that year Act No. 1 was rushed through the Volksraad with indecent haste. This high-handed Act was not allowed to pass without criticism; but the Government, deaf to all remonstrance, threatened reprisals on those professional men who raised their voices in protest, and finally, on the 16th of February, 1898, dismissed the Chief Justice, Mr. J. G. Kotze, for maintaining his opinions. His place was filled shortly afterwards by Mr. Gregorowski, the Judge who had been especially brought from the Orange Free State to preside over the trial of the Reform prisoners in 1896, and who, after passing of the Act above referred to, had expressed an opinion that no man of self-respect would sit on the Bench whilst that law remained on the Statute Book of the Republic. All the Judges at the time this law was passed condemned it in a formal protest, publicly read by the Chief Justice in the High Court, as a gross interference with the independence of that tribunal. That protest has never been modified or retracted and of the five Judges who signed the declaration three still sit on the Bench. || 16. The hostile attitude of the Government towards Your Majesty's subjects has been accentuated by the building of forts not only around Pretoria, but also overlooking Johannesburg. The existence of these forts is a source of constant menace and irritation to British subjects, and does much Grofs to keep alive that race-feeling which the Government of this State professes Nr. 12019. to deprecate. This feeling of hostility has infected the general body of britannien. Burghers. Most noticeable is the antagonistic demeanour of the police and of the officials under whom they immediately act. 17. The constitution and personnel of the police force is one of the standing menaces to the peace of Johannesburg. It has already been the subject of remonstrance to the Government of this Republic, but hitherto without avail. An efficient police force cannot be drawn from a people such as the burghers of this State; nevertheless, the Government refuses to open its ranks to any other class of the community. As a consequence, the safety of the lives and property of the inhabitants is confided in a large measure to the care of men fresh from the country districts, who are unaccustomed to town life and ignorant of the ways and requirements of the people. When it is considered that this police force is armed with revolvers in addition to the ordinary police truncheons, it is not surprising that, instead of a defence, they are absolutely a danger to the community at large. 17a. Trial by jury exists in name, but the jurors are selected exclusively from among the burghers. Consequently in any case where there is the least possibility of race or class interests being involved, there is the gravest reason to expect a miscarriage of justice. || 18. Encouraged and abetted by the example of their superior officers, the police have become lately more aggressive than ever in their attitude towards British subjects. As, however remonstrances and appeals to the Government were useless, the indignities to which Your Majesty's subjects were daily exposed from this source had to be endured as best they might. Public indignation was at length fully roused by the death at the hands of a police constable of a British subject named Tom Jackson Edgar. 19. The circumstances of this affair were bad enough in themselves, but were accentuated by the action of the Public Prosecutor, who, although the accused was charged with murder, on his own initiative reduced the charge to that of culpable homicide only, and released the prisoner on the recognisances of his comrades in the police force, the bail being fixed originally at £200, or less than the amount which is commonly demanded for offences under the Liquor Law, or for charges of common assault. || 20. This conduct of a high State official caused the most intense feeling to prevail in Johannesburg. It was then thought that the time had arrived to take some steps whereby British subjects might for the future be protected from the indignities of which they had so long complained. It was therefore decided to make an appeal direct to Your Most Gracious Majesty, setting forth the grievances under which Your Majesty's subjects labour. A petition was accordingly prepared and presented to Your Majesty's Vice-Consul on the 24th of December, 1898, by some 4000 or 5000 British subjects. The behaviour of those present was orderly and quiet, and everything was done to prevent any infringement of the Public Meetings Law. || 21. Owing to a Grofs Nr. 12019. technical informality, Your Majesty's Representative declined to transmit the britannien. petition to Your Majesty. || 22. Immediately it became known that the petition would not go forward to Your Majesty, the Government, ordered the arrest of Messrs. Clement Davies Webb and Thomas Robery Dodd, respectively the Vice-President and Secretary of the Transvaal Province of the South African League, under whose auspices the petition had been presented, on a charge of contravening the Public Meetings Act by convening a meeting in the open air. They were admitted to bail of £ 1000 each, five times the amount required from the man charged with culpable homicide. || 23. Thereupon Your Majesty's subjects, considering the arrest of these two gentlemen a gross violation of the rights of British subjects and an attempt to strain unduly against them a law which had already been represented to the Government as pressing most heavily upon the Uitlander population, decided to call a public meeting in an enclosed place, as permitted by the law, for the purpose of ventilating their grievances, and endorsing a fresh petition to Your Majesty. || 24. Prior to holding the meeting the South African League ascertained from the Government, through the State Attorney, that, as in their opinion the meeting was perfectly legal in its objects, the Government had no intention of prohibiting it. || 25. The meeting took place on the 14th of January, 1899, at the Amphitheatre, a large iron building capable of holding from 3000 to 4000 people. Prior to the advertised hour of opening an overwhelmingly large body of Boers, many of whom were police in plain clothes and other employees of the Government, forced an entrance by a side door, and practically took complete possession of the building. They were all more or less armed, some with sticks, some with police batons, some with iron bars, and some with revolvers. 26. The mere appearance of the speakers was the signal for disorder to commence; the Boers would not allow the meeting to proceed, but at once commenced to wreck the place, breack up the chairs, and utilise the broken portions of them as weapons of offence against any single unarmed Englishman they could find. || 27. There were present several Government officials, Justices of the Peace, and Lieutenants of Police in uniform, and the Commandant of Police, but they were appealed to in vain, and the work of destruction proceeded, apparently with their concurrence. Several Englishmen were severely injured by the attacks of the rioters, but in no case was an arrest effected, although offenders were pointed out and their arrest demanded; nor, indeed, was any attempt made by the police to quell the riot. Up to the present time no steps have been taken by the Government towards prosecuting the ringleaders of the disturbance, nor has a single arrest been made, notwithstanding the fact that the police officials who were present at the meeting admitted that some of the rioters were well known to them. || 28. Those of Your Majesty's subjects who were present at the meeting were unarmed and defenceless, and seeing that the rioters had the support of the police and of Grofsbritannien. some of the higher officials of the State, they refrained from any attempt at Nr. 12019. retaliation, preferring to rely upon more constitutional methods, and to lay a full statement of their grievances before Your Most Gracious Majesty. || 29. The condition of Your Majesty's subjects in this State has indeed become well nigh intolerable. || 30. The acknowledged and admitted grievances of which Your Majesty's subjects complain prior to 1895 not only are not redressed, but exist to-day in an aggravated form. They are still deprived of all political rights, they are denied any voice in the government of the country, they are taxed far above the requirements of the country, the revenue of which is misapplied and devoted to objects which keep alive a continuous and well founded feeling of irritation, without in any way advancing the general interest of the State. Maladministration and peculation of public monies go hand in hand, without any vigorous measures being adopted to put a stop to the scandal. The education of Uitlander children is made subject to impossible conditions. The police afford no adequate protection to the lives and property of the inhabitants of Johannesburg; they are rather a source of danger to the place and safety of the Uitlander population. || 31. A further grievance has become prominent since the beginning of the year. The power vested in the Government by means of the Public Meetings Act has been a menace to Your Majesty's subjects since the enactment of the Act in 1894. This power has now been applied in order to deliver a blow that strikes at the inherent and inalienable birthright of every British subject, namely, his right to petition his Sovereign. Straining to the utmost the language and intention of the law, the Government have arrested two British subjects who assisted in presenting a petition to Your Majesty on behalf of 4000 fellow subjects. Not content with this, the Government, when Your Majesty's loyal subjects again attempted to lay their grievances before Your Majesty, permitted their meeting to be broken up and the objects of it to be defeated by a body of Boers, organised by Government officials and acting under the protection of the police. By reason, therefore, of the direct, as well as the indirect, act of the Government Your Majesty's loyal subjects have been prevented from publicly ventilating their grievances, and from laying them before Your Majesty. || 32. Wherefore Your Majesty's humble petitioners humbly beseech Your Most Gracious Majesty to extend Your Majesty's protection to Your Majesty's loyal subjects residens in this State, and to cause an enquiry to be made into grievances and complaints enumerated and set forth in this humble petition, and to direct Your Majesty's Representative in South Africa to take measures which will secure the speedy reform of the abuses complained of, and to obtain substantial guarantees from the Government of this State for a recognition of their rights as British subjects. || And Your Most Gracious Majesty's petitioners as in duty. bound will ever pray, &c., &c. W. Wybergh, &c., P. O. Box. 317, Johannesburg, South African Republic, And Others. Nr. 12020. Südafrikan. Nr. 12020. SÜDAFRIKANISCHE REPUBLIK. Rede des Präsidenten über die Beschwerde der Ausländer. "Standard and Diggers' News“, Rustenburg, March 27, 1899. The following verbatim report has been personally revised, and is offiRepublik. cially authorised by His Honour President Kruger: 27. März 1899. Rustenburg, March 25th (Special). — This afternoon a crowded meeting of burghers was held in the Dopper Schoolroom. On the platform were the President, Mr. Schalk Burger, Mr. du Plessis, of the Volksraad, and other leading men. The President addressing the burghers, said that the law provided that the President of the Republic must go amongst the burghers and give them an opportunity of laying their interests before him. The custom was for the burghers to ask questions and for him to answer them, one subject at a time. Now, for once he wished to reverse the order of things. He had so many things to bring to the notice of the burghers that he wished to open the proceedings by making clear the declarations of his policy on certain subjects. Later on those who liked to ask him questions could do so. He would ask the meeting whether it was agreeable to his doing this. There were cries of assent, so the President, proceeding, said that the first point on which he wished to speak to them was the appointment of a State Financier; the second, on the franchise; the third, on the dynamite question; and the fourth, on bewaarplaatsen on the gold fields. To take the subjects in the order given, he would deal with the State Financier first. He wanted to obtain an expert financial adviser from Europe. He had sent a man home to study and qualify for that position, but he was not yet prepared for it. In the meantime, there was a necessity to get an outside man. He must be thoroughly competent. His duties would be to specify to what extent things could be lent and what things ought to be taxed. He must take charge of the financial administration, direct the finances of the State, must be an independent man, not actually a member of the Executive, but the Executive must take his advice, while he would report to the Volksraad. Such officer of State existed in all countries, and it was most necessary that the Republic should not be backward in this respect. It was essential that the man should be a proved expert. Mr. Joubert, the former Inspector of Offices, had gone home to study. He was the man he had referred to at first, but at present there was no burgher who could be appointed. When he returned he would be appointed to the position, provided he was declared competent by an expert. He (the President) hoped to succeed in getting an able man for the financial administration of the State, [which] was not what it should be. He must prove to the world that he did not want to remove one tax merely to make way for another. He did not desire to oppress the poor. He must ascertain who were the best able to bear the burden of taxation and apply it accordingly. He hoped that the burghers would assist |