Sir Alfred and President Kruger in course of conversation had an outing on "the Irish question," the President saying: "I say that by taking the oath of naturalization, whereby they become entitled to elect members for the Second Raad, they become lawful burghers, and at that moment they get more than they get in their own country. In their own country they cannot, within such a short period, choose ministers, magistrates, or similar officials; but they do this with me, and are they not to be regarded as full burghers because they cannot yet elect certain officials? The only difference is that they cannot yet exercise the full franchise. In England, for instance, the Irish also have not their own administration."
His Excellency.—"Yes, they have."
President—"When?"
His Excellency.—"The Irish have always sent a full number of representatives to the Imperial Parliament, even in excess of what was due to them on a basis of population. If we were to apply the Irish principle to the South African Republic the Rand would send about fifty members to the First Volks Raad."
The conference came to nothing. President Kruger asserting to the last substantially, that if the English-speaking people whom he styled the "strangers" and the "newcomers," got any political rights at once, no matter how restricted, it would put his "blood-bought country into the hands of strangers."
Grievances of the Uitlanders a Burning Question
Mr. Conyngham Greene, Her Majesty's agent at Pretoria, wrote to the State Secretary of the South African Republic June 26, 1899, that Sir Alfred Milner "desires me to say that, as he pointed out to the President at Bloemfontein, he considers that the question of finding a remedy for the grievances of the Uitlanders is the burning question of the moment, and that this has to be disposed of before other matters can be discussed. The adoption by the Government of the South African Republic of measures calculated to lead to an improvement in the position of the Uitlanders would so improve the general situation that outstanding differences between the two Governments could be considered in a calmer atmosphere, and would be more capable of adjustment. Under these circumstances, it might be possible to devise a scheme for referring at least a certain number of differences to arbitration. But as the Government of the South African Republic has not seen its way to meet Her Majesty's Government on the question of primary importance, the High Commissioner can see no use in approaching the delicate and complicated subject of arbitration at the present time. Over and above this, His Excellency does not consider the scheme now proposed to be a practicable one. To make no mention of other objections, the constitution of the suggested Arbitration Court, which would leave every decision virtually in the hands of a President, who, it is provided, shall not be a subject of either of the arbitration parties, does not conform to the fundamental principle which, as Sir Alfred Milner more than once stated at Bloemfontein, Her Majesty's Government would regard as a conditio sine qua non to the acceptance of any scheme of arbitration."
A COMMANDO OF BOERS CHARGING COLONEL BADEN-POWELL'S FORCES AT MAFEKING