CAB37-17 — Page 186

+

Page 186

Page 186

find it possible to attain them as fully as we may desire: but they are the objects which we should keep in view in communicating with the Boers and with the Usutu leaders, and which we should seek to secure.

These should be our objects, because their attainment will serve the interests in which we are concerned the interests, namely, of the Zulu people themselves, of the Reserve Territory, of the Zulu natives of Natal, of the Colony of Natal, and of the Swazi people.

14. The question of establishing a protectorate over Swaziland is indeed separate from the Zulu question proper; but I name it here as indirectly connected with the Zulu question. It will become, I apprehend, a matter of importance to reach Swaziland, and the only way by which we shall be able to reach it will be through Zululand,

15. In order to attain the objects above- mentioned we must deal, as I think, in the first place with the Boers who are in occupation of a portion of the country and assert certain other claims, because to do this offers the best hope of effecting an arrangement in a manner that will be at all satisfactory.

We should endeavour to arrive at some prelimi- nary understanding with them which will serve as a basis for an arrangement.

16. We desire to bring about a reduction of the area of territory claimed by the Boers, to limit that reduced area to a certain part of the country adjoining the Transvaal and removed from the sea, and to bring the whole country under us. The attainment of these objects implies a certain concession by the Boers of the claims of which they consider themselves possessed. The advan- tages, however, that they would receive if they came to an arrangement with us that secured those objects would be by no means inconsiderable. Their position, after all, is not at present a very secure or solid one. They are liable at any time to be disturbed by the Zulus, and although they would eventually put down the latter with a strong hand they would be exposed meanwhile to much inconvenience and unsettlement. Their means of carrying on the government of the country which they claim to hold as an inde- pendent territory are unsatisfactory; and so long as we withhold our recognition from them their tenure of the country rests, so to speak, on an uncertain title.

17. An arrangement that would secure to us the objects which we desire would, if it brought the Boers under our rule and authority, secure to them also great advantages:-the advantages derivable from the possession of a good title within the reduced area of land, from the establishment of a more settled form of govern- ment, and from greater security against disorder.

Page 186

Page 186