14,312.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.885
Reference :-
13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
SIR,
No. 51.
(SOUTH AFRICA.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
We were honoured with Mr. Wingfield's letter of the 11th ultimo, stating that he was directed to request our opinion upon the following matter:-
Royal Courts of Justice, 10th August 1885.
That in 1884 Her Majesty assumed a Protectorate over Bechuanaland, in South Africa, and that finding in the autumn that it was necessary to enforce Her authority, She appointed Sir Chas. Warren to be Special Commissioner for that country, under a Commission, of which a copy was enclosed. That that officer was also placed in military command of a force sent out with the object of repressing disorders caused by the actions of armed bodies of men from the adjacent South African Republic and elsewhere.
That in order to provide some judicial machinery for the territory included in the Protectorate, an Order in Council under the Foreign Jurisdiction Acts 1843 to 1878. was passed on the 27th of January 1885, empowering the High Commissioner (Sir H. Robinson) to establish Courts within certain geographical limits.
That a copy of that Order was enclosed, together with printed copies of three Reports of the late Law Officers, dated 3rd August 1880, 15th November 1884, and 23rd December 1884.
That the Order in Council was duly published at Cape Town on the 6th March 1885, and thereupon came into operation.
That the country lying within the limits of the Order might be divided into three classes :-
(a.) The territories of the Chiefs Mankoroane and Montsioa.
(b.) The territories of certain other Native Chiefs.
(c.) A portion of territory known as Stellaland.
That by virtue of treaties with the Chiefs Mankoroane and Montsioa, which were recited in the Order in Council, Her Majesty had, it was apprehended, acquired full and definite legal jurisdiction over all persons within the territories of those Chiefs, with large powers of legislation and administration; and that Mr. Wingfield was to state that the primary object of the Order in Council was to provide a Court to deal with the case of a British subject named Bethell, who had been murdered in the territory of Montsioa.
That in the territories of the other Chiefs referred to above Her Majesty had not acquired jurisdiction by treaty, but that having taken these Chiefs and their territories under Her protection, it was apprehended that She had, by sufferance or other lawful means, acquired power and jurisdiction which She might enforce by Order in Council under the Foreign Jurisdiction Acts over British subjects, and over any Natives living under Her protection.
That Stellaland was formerly Native territory, but was now the territory of certain persons who, as volunteers assisting certain contending Native Chiefs, named Montsion and Mankoroane, had possessed themselves of the land and had formed an independent republic, and had appointed officers of Government. That our attention was invited to the documents printed at pp. 55 and 67 of Blue Book C.--3419.
That British officials had exercised much influence in the country; and that on the 8th of September 1884 an agreement was come to between the Stellaland officials and Mr. C. J. Rhodes, British Commissioner, that, "pending the annexation to the Cape "Colony, Stellaland shall continue its own government; however, recognising Her Majesty's Protectorate, and subject to the conditions that all Executive Acts must "be taken in concert with and with the consent of the Commissioner of "Bechuanaland."
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That that agreement was again approved on the 24th December 1884, at a meeting between Mr. Rhodes and the Stellaland officials; and that it might be taken that a Civil Government existed in Stellaland on the 14th February 1885.
That on that day Sir Charles Warren, who was in Stellaland with a body of Her Majesty's forces, issued a Proclamation (printed in the accompanying Blue Book, (-4432) to which our attention was specially invited.
A 15027.--45. 95.-12/83.