Regering en tot handhaving van de algemeene veiligheid van Zuid Afrika, orde en rust, ten opzigte van de Naturallen. Locale Wetten der Z.A. Rep. I. 683. No. 197. GOUVERNEMENTS KENNISGEVING. Ter algemeene informatie wordt onderstaand Uitv. Raadsbesluit, dd. 11 April 1877, art. 7, hiermede gepubliceerd. GOUVERNEMENTSKANTOOR, Aan de order: THOS. BURGERS, Staatspresident. GOUVERNEMENTSKANTOOR, Z.A. Republiek, Brief van Harer Britsche Majesteits Specialen Commissaris, dd. 9 April 1877, kennis gevende dat Zijne Excellentie tot het besluit is gekomen, om zonder verzuim het Britsch gezag te proclameren over de Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek. Besloten Dat nademaal H.B. Majesteits Regering bij de Conventie van Zandrivier in 1852, plegtig de onafhankelijkheid van het volk ten noorden van de Vaalrivier heeft gewaarborgd, en dat nademaai de Regering van de Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek zich niet bewust is ooit eenige reden tot eene vijandige handeling te hebben gegeven aan H. Majesteits Regering, noch ooit eenigen grond voor zulk een daad van onverwijld geweld; dat, nademaal deze Regering zich steeds the general security, order and peace of South Africa with regard to the natives. No. 197. GOVERNMENT NOTICE. For general information the following resolution of the Executive Council, dated 11th April 1877, art. 7, is published herewith. THOS. BURGERS, State President. GOVERNMENT Office, PRETORIA, IIth April 1877. On the agenda : GOVERNMENT OFFICE, S.A. REPUBLIC, A letter from Her Britannic Majesty's Special Commissioner, dated 9 April 1877, notifying that His Excellency has decided to proclaim British authority over the South African Republic without delay. Decided: That whereas H.B. Majesty's Government at the Sand River Convention of 1852 has solemnly guaranteed the independence of the nation to the north of the Vaal River, and whereas the Government of the South African Republic is not aware that it has ever given to H. Majesty's Government any cause for a hostile act or any ground for such an act of bereid heeft getoond en nog bereid is alles te doen wat van haar met regt en billijkheid kan gevorderd worden, tevens alle oorzaken van ontevredenheid die er mogen bestaan uit den weg te ruimen; aangezien tevens zij bij herhaling zich volkomen bereid heeft verklaard om met H.M. Regering zoodanige tractaten te sluiten of verbindtenissen aan te gaan als noodig moge geoordeeld worden voor de algemeene beveiliging van de blanke bevolking van Zuid Afrika, en gewillig is zoodanige verbindtenissen stiptelijk na te komen; aangezien dat volgens publieke verklaringen van H.M. Minister van Kolonien, Lord Carnarvon, er geene begeerte bestaat bij de Britsche Regering om het volk der Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek tegen zijn zin onder haar gezag te dwingen; en nademaal het volk, hetzij door memoriën of anderzins, bij groote meerderheid duidelijk heeft te kennen gegeven, er niet toe genegen te zijn; en nademaal de Regering overtuigd is niet in staat te zijn tegenover de overmagt van Groot Britannie de regten en onafhankelijkheid des volks met het zwaard te handhaven, en bovendien in geenen deele een stap wenscht te nemen, waardoor de blanke inwoners van Zuid Afrika in het aangezigt van den gemeenschappelijken vijand tegenover elkander zouden worden verdeeld of in vijandelijke aanraking met elkander komen, tot groot onheil van de gansche Christelijke bevolking van Zuid Afrika, vóór dat allereerst tot het laatste middel toe is beproefd om langs vreedzamen weg en vriendschappelijke bemiddeling de regten des volks te verzekeren-zoo protesteert de Regering ten sterkste tegen deze handelwijze van H.M. Specialen Commissaris en besluit uncompromising violence; and whereas this Government has always shown itself willing and is still willing to do everything that can in justice and equity be demanded of them, and to remove all causes of dissatisfaction that may exist; considering also that they have repeatedly declared themselves fully prepared to enter into such treaties or agreements with H.M.'s Government as may be deemed necessary for the general security of the white population of South Africa, and as they are willing to observe strictly such agreements; considering that according to public declarations of H.M.'s Minister of Colonies, Lord Carnarvon, there exists on the part of the British Government no desire to force the people of the South African Republic under its authority against their will; and whereas the people have by petitions as well as in other ways clearly indicated that they are not so inclined; and whereas the Government is convinced that it is not able to maintain with the sword the rights and the independence of the people against the superior power of Great Britain, and moreover by no means wishes to take a step by which the white inhabitants of South Africa would be divided against each other in the face of the common enemy, or would come into hostile contact with one another, greatly to the detriment of the whole Christian population of South Africa, before having first attempted to assure the rights of the people in a peaceful manner and by friendly mediation, Therefore the Government most strongly protests against this action of H.M.'s Special Commissioner, and decides further tevens eene commissie van afgevaardigden onverwijld naar Europa en Amerika te zenden, met volmagt en instructie om, des vereischt, een derden persoon bij zich te voegen, ten einde te beproeven aldaar in de eerste plaats de belangen en wenschen des volks voor H.M. Regering te leggen, en zoo dit geen gewenscht gevolg moge hebben, hetgeen de Regering diep zou betreuren, en alsnog niet kan gelooven, dan te trachten de vriendschappelijke hulp en bemiddeling van andere mogendheden in te roepen, en allereerst van die, welke de onafhankelijkheid van dezen Staat hebben erkend. Tot leden van die commissie worden benoemd, de WelEd. Gestr. heeren Dr. E. J. P. Jorissen, Staatsprocureur, en S. J. P. Kruger, Vice-President van de Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek. Locale Wetten der Z.A. Rep. I. 698. immediately to send a commission of delegates to Europe and America, empowered and instructed to add a third person to their number should this seem necessary, in order first of all to attempt to lay the interests and the wishes of the people before H.M.'s Government, and should this not have the desired effect,-which would deeply grieve the Government, and which as yet they can not believe will happen, then to try to call in the friendly assistance and mediation of other Powers, beginning with those who have acknowledged the independence of this State. As members of that commission are appointed Dr. E. J. P. Jorissen, the State Attorney, and S. J. P. Kruger, Vice-President of the South African Republic. No. 198. ANNEXATION OF THE S.A. REPUBLIC TO THE BRITISH EMPIRE. [12 April 1877.] Proclamation. By His Excellency Sir THEOPHILUS SHEPSTONE, Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, Her Majesty's Special Commissioner for certain purposes in South Africa. WHEREAS at a meeting held on the sixteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, at the Sand River, between Her Majesty's Assistant Commissioners, Major Hogge and C. M. Owen, Esq., on the one part, and a deputation from the emigrant farmers then residing north of the Vaal River, at the head of which was Commandant-General A. W. J. Pretorius, on the other part, the said Her Majesty's Assistant Commissioners did "guarantee in the fullest manner on the part of the British Government to the emigrant farmers north of the Vaal River the right to manage their own affairs, and to govern themselves according to their own laws, without any interference on the part of the British Government": And whereas the evident objects and inciting motives of the Assistant Commissioners in granting such guarantee or permission to persons who were Her Majesty's subjects, were "to promote peace, free trade and friendly intercourse with and among the inhabitants of the Transvaal, in the hope and belief that the territory which a few years afterwards, namely, in February 1858, became known by the style and title of "The South African Republic," would become a flourishing and self-sustaining State, a source of strength and security to neighbouring European communities, and a point from which Christianity and civilisation might rapidly spread towards Central Africa : And whereas the hopes and expectations upon which this mutual compact was reasonably and honourably founded have been disappointed, and the circumstances as set forth more at length in my Address to the people, of to-day's date, hereunto attached,1 show that increasing weakness in the State itself on the one side and more than corresponding growth of real strength and confidence among the native tribes on the other, have produced their natural and inevitable consequences, as will more fully appear from a brief allusion to the facts that, after more or less of irritating contact with aboriginal tribes to the north, there commenced about the year 1867 gradual abandonment to the natives in that direction of territory settled by burghers of this State, in well-built towns and villages, and on granted farms; that this was succeeded by the extinction of all effective rule over extensive tracts of country included within the boundaries of the State, and as a consequence of the practical independence, which still continues, of large native tribes residing therein who had until then considered themselves subjects: That some few farmers, unwilling to forfeit homes which they had created for their families, and to which they held grants from the Government of the Transvaal, which grant had, however, ceased, and still fail to protect them in their occupation, made terms with the native chiefs, and now occupy their farms on conditions of periodical payments to those chiefs, notwithstanding the acknowledgment which such payments involve : That this decay of power and ebb of authority in the north is being followed by similar processes in the south under yet more dangerous circumstances, people of this State residing in that direction having been compelled within the last three months at the bidding of native chiefs, and at a moment's notice, to leave their farms and homes, their standing crops, some of which were ready for reaping, and other property, 1 Attempts to find this Address have not been successful. all to be taken possession of by natives, but that the Government is more powerless than ever to vindicate its assumed rights, or to resist the declension that is threatening its existence. That all confidence in its stability once felt by surrounding and distant European communities has been withdrawn. That commerce is well-nigh destroyed. That the country is in a state of bankruptcy. That the white inhabitants, discontented with their condition, are divided into factions. That the Government has fallen into helpless paralysis from causes which it has been and is unable to control or counteract. And that the prospect of the election of a new President, so far from allaying the general anxiety, or from inspiring hope in the future, is looked forward to by all parties as most likely to result in civil war, with its attendant anarchy and bloodshed. That the condition above described affords strong temptation to neighbouring native powers, who are known to be anxious and ready to do so, to make attacks and inroads upon the state, which from its weakness it cannot repel, and from which it has hitherto been saved by the restraining influence of the British Government, exercised from Natal by Her Majesty's representative in that colony, in the hope, yet unfulfilled, that a friendly understanding might be arrived at between the Government of the Transvaal and the complaining native chiefs: That the Sicocoeni war, which would have produced but little effect upon a healthy constitution, has not only proved suddenly fatal to the resources and reputation of the Republic, but has shown itself to be a culminating point in the history of South Africa, in that a Makatee or Basuto tribe, unwarlike, and of no account in Zulu estimation, successfully withstood the strength of the state, and disclosed for the first time to the native tribes outside the Republic, from the Zambesi to the Cape, the great change that had taken place in the relative strength of the white and the black races. That this disclosure at once shook the prestige of the white man in South Africa, and placed every European community in peril. That this common danger has caused universal anxiety, has given to all concerned the right to investigate its causes, and to protect themselves from its consequences, and has imposed the duty upon those who have the power to shield enfeebled civilisation from the encroachments of barbarism and inhumanity : And whereas the inherent weakness of this Government and state, from causes above alluded to, and briefly set forth, and the fact that the past policy of the Republic has not only failed to conciliate the friendship and goodwill, but has forfeited the respect of the overwhelming native populations |