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forming what was left to Zululand of the old disputed territory," and would deny their sub- jection to the Boers. They have asked the assistance of Her Majesty's Government in the hope, as I understand, that Her Majesty's Govern- ment will interfere on their behalf, and will restrain the Boers from occupying any portion of the Zulu country beyond that part which the Usutu leaders are willing to give in return for the services which the Boers rendered them, under the compact, against Usibebu,- a strange request to make to a Government in defiance of whose authority and of whose conditions the compact against Usibebu was arranged; and, at the same time that they make this request for the assistance of Her Majesty's Government against the Boers, they ask that Her Majesty's Government will give up the Reserve Territory and will establish Dinuzulu as king of the whole Zulu country, including Usibebu's territory thus wrongfully acquired, and including the Reserve Territory which is under British authority.
4. The claims, therefore, of the Boers on the one side, and the claims of the Usutu leaders on the other side, are utterly at conflict with one another, and both are irreconcileable with our interests. The claims of the Usutu chiefs are in truth beyond all measure extravagant, and they are, there is little doubt, the result of the bad advice received by them from Natal. Left to themselves, the Usutus have, I may observe, no chance of resisting the Boers. They may give the latter, indeed, a great deal of trouble. They may harass the farmers. There may be serious disorders and serious loss of life, but as to the ultimate issue there can be no question.
5. The main object of our intervention should be to prevent these calamities, to bring about an adjustment between the claims of the Boers and the rights of the people of Central Zululand, and at the same time to protect our own interests which are gravely compromised by the present state of things. In attempting to secure this object we must be prepared for difficulties which will be raised, both by the Boers and by the Usutu chiefs; but the difficulties are not, I think, insuperable, and they are nothing in comparison with the importance of our saving the natives of Central Zululand from the ruin which their leaders have brought upon them, and our own interests from the injury with which they are threatened.
6. I concluded my former Memorandum with an expression of opinion that the first step to be taken by us will be to enter into communication with the Boers. My reasons for this opinion, which I hold notwithstanding my unqualified disapproval of the Boer action in Zululand, are first, that two communications, with a request for
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