CO885-(13-15) — Page 436

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :-

885

14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

SIR,

X

No. 94.

(SOUTH AFRICA.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Royal Courts of Justice, October 21, 1895.

We were honoured with your commands signified in Sir R. Meade's letter of the 15th instant, stating that he was directed by you to acquaint us that a question had arison on which you desired to be favoured with our opinion respecting the action of the Government of the South African Republic in closing to a certain class of traffic drifts" (ie., river fords) on the border between the Transvaal and the Orange

"

certain Free State.

That the material facts, so far as you were aware of them, were as follows:- That in 1889 and 1890 the Government of the Cape concluded Railway Conventions with the Orange Free Stato, under which they had constructed and worked a line of railway running through the latter territory and forming an extension of the Cape Government railway from the boundary of the Colony to the boundary between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

That in 1891 the Cape Government made an agreement with the South African Republic by which they lent the latter a sum of money for the construction of an extension of the line above mentioned from the border of the Orange Free State to

Johannesburg and Pretoria.

That, in return, the Cape obtained running powers and fixed freights over the Transvaal section of the line till the end of 1894, when, the loan being repaid, the Government of the South African Republic terminated the agreement.

That in February 1894 the Natal Government concluded an agreement with the South African Republic by which the Natal Railway had been extended from Charles- town through the Republic to connect with the railway system of the latter at a point near Johannesburg.

That that line had been completed during this present month.

That besides those routes the South African Republic was also connected with the sea by a continuation of the line from Johannesburg and Pretoria, which, running castward, passed through the Portuguese territory of Lourenço Marques, and hall its terminus at Delagoa Bay.

·

That the goods traffic with the Transvaal was of the greatest importance to the Colonies of the Cape and Natal, which, with that object, had incurred very heavy expenditure in railway construction. That the Government of the South African Republic, for political reasons, favoured the Delagoa Bay route; but that, as that at present was quite unequal to carrying the whole of the traffic, their present policy was to secure the transit of the remainder through Natal. That their attitude towards the Cape was one of scarcely disguised hostility.

That in the early part of this year they raised by 66 per cent. the tariff ovor their Fection of the line on goods coming from the Cape via the Orange Free State. That the Cape met this by arranging to off-load goods on the Orange Free Stato side of the border and forward them by ox-waggon to Johannesburg; but that the South African Republic had now issued a proclamation closing as ports of entry to oversea goods the drifts" across the Vaal river in the neighbourhood of the railway by which those waggons had entered the Republic.

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That, as would be seen from the accompanying copy of a Despatch and its enclosures from the Governor of the Cape, the Cape Ministry, on the advice of the Colonial Attorney-General, contended that such action on the part of the South African Republic was a breach of Article XIII. of the London Convention of 1884; and that they had asked for the intervention of Her Majesty's Government on that ground.

That Sir R. Meade was to request that we would advise you whether, in our opinion, a remonstrance to the Government of the South African Republic could properly be based on that or any other Article of the Convention. That, should we be of the contrary opinion, Sir R. Meade was to state that you would be glad, assuming that, in view of the vital importance of the matter to the Cape, Her Majesty's Government determined in any case to make a representation to the Government of the South African Republic, if we would favour you with our advice

+1 95065.-.24. 25.-11,95.

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