CO885-(15-16) — Page 2

4173

S.

لم

No. 19.

(SOUTH AFRICA.)

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 88

885

15 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

The following is a copy of a despatch from the General Officer to the Under Secretary of State for War :-

From the General Officer Commanding Lines of Communication, South Africa, to the Under Secretary of State for War, War Office, London, S.W.

Cape Town, 30th: December, 1899.

SIR,

1. I HAVE the honour to forward a communication received from His Excellency the High Commissioner regarding the "seizure" and "detention" by the military or colonial authorities of goods in transit to the Transvaal and Orange Free State.

2. On the outbreak of hostilities, I ascertained that quantities of stores, consigned to the Transvaal and Orange Free State, were landed on railway trucks, which, in con- As soon as these trucks reached a sequence of the war, had been stopped at the border.

station which had been placed under Martial Law by His Excellency's Proclamation, I directed that they should be off loaded, and their contents, consisting mainly of food stuffs, requisitioned or commandeered. I adopted this course; firstly, because the trucks were urgently required for military purposes, and secondly, because the enemy were com mandeering the property of British subjects residing in the two States. Besides, I considered that some of the goods which might be useful for feeding the troops, were likely to deteriorate if kept for any length of time.

3. The consignors have in several instances demanded payment of the goods in question, but having no evidence to the contrary, I have assumed that the goods were the property of the firms or individuals, to whom they were addressed, and I have there- fore refused to make any payments, at any rate until the war is over.

4. Considerable quantities of stores and supplies consigned to inhabitants of the Transvaal and Orange Free State are still detained in the Custom Houses in this Colony, having been stopped by the Colonial Authorities. These goods will, I understand from His Excellency's letter, be handed back to the owners or their agents, on their giving Batisfactory guarantees that the goods will not be consumed in the enemy's country."

5. Over any goods, contraband of war, arriving at colonial ports in vessels of any nationality, or goods destined for the enemy's Government, or its agents arriving in British vessels, the Military authorities appear to have no jurisdiction; such goods will, no doubt, be dealt with by the Naval or Colonial authorities.

6. I would be glad, however, to be informed whether my action in refusing to pay the consignors for goods consigned to subjects of the Transvaal or Free State, and requisitioned by the Military authorities whilst in transit, is approved of.

I have, &c.,

FRED. FORESTIEr Walker,

Lieut.-General,

Commanding Lines of Communication, South Africa.

The War Department desire to be advised by the Law Officers as to the propriety of the course adopted by the General Officer.

SIR,

LAW OFFICERS TO COLONIAL OFFICE.

Law Officers' Department, Royal Courts of Justice, February 5, 1900.

WE were honoured with your commands signified in Mr. C. P. Lucas's letter of the 27th ultimo, stating that he was directed by you to request that we would advise bim on certain questions as to the position occupied by the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, respectively, in relation to this country, on which a clear understanding would require to be arrived at in the event of their being either conquered by, or surrendered unconditionally to, the Queen's forces, and thereafter being effectively held and occupied.

That it would be convenient to recapitulate briefly the successive stages in the political history of those territories.

THE ORANGE FREE STATE.

That the Queen's sovereignty was declared over the territories north of the Orange River by Proclamation dated the 3rd February, 1848. That in that Proclamation it was declared, with regard to the Queen's subjects, that they should be governed by the Laws, Ordinances, &c., of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope;" and that, as an assurance to the natives that they would be protected, it was proclaimed that the native Chiefs were "under the sovereignty of Her Majesty as the paramount and exclusive authority in all international disputes as to territory, or in any cause whatever tending to interrupt the general peace and harmony of South Africa." That that claim to paramountey had never been modified or abandoned either by any subsequent instrument or in practice. That by Letters Patcut dated the 22nd March, 1851, the territories were constituted a distinct and separate Government, to be administered by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope.

That by a Proclamation dated the 30th January, 1854, the Queen "abandoned for herself, her heirs and successors, all dominiou and sovereignty over the said Orange River territory, and ordered her officers and Ministers, military and civil, to be with all convenient speed withdrawn from the said territory.”

That that Proclamation was followed by the Convention of Bloemfontein, dated the 23rd February, 1854, which, inter alia, “finally freed the inhabitants of the Orange River territory from their allegiance to the British Crown," declaring them "to all intents and purposes a free and independent people, and their Government to be treated and considered thenceforth a free and independent Government.

That the status of the Orange Free State as thus established had continued unaltered up to the present time. That it had concluded Treaties with foreign Powers on an equal footing and without any interference or intervention on the part of the

British Government.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC,

That by the Sand River Convention of 1852 “the emigrant farmers beyond the Vaal River," who had originally quitted the Cape Colony in 1835, and though not relieved of their allegiance as British subjects, were admitted to be living beyond the Queen's dominions, were "guaranteed in the fullest manner, on behalf of the British Government, the right to manage their own affairs and to govern themselves without. any interference on the part of Her Majesty the Queen's Government; and that no encroachments shall be inade by the said Government on the territory beyond to the north of the Vaal River.”

That the emigrant farmers not long after this styled themselves "The Dutch African Republic," and in the year 1858 altered that designation to "The South African Republic." That as such Republic they acted and were recognized by foreign Powers as an independent State, making Treaties with Portugal and Belgium on a sovereign footing. That that continued to be the position of the South African Republic until

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