A Century of Wrong

by Jan Christiaan Smuts

Her Majesty's Government now proceeds to discuss certain laws of this Republic, with the object of showing that the Uitlander population is also oppressed by the legislature of this country, the Press Law, the Aliens Expulsion Law, and Law No. 1 of 1897 being especially instanced. But it can also be proved that the population of the gold fields have no solid grounds of complaint in regard to the laws in question.

Respecting the existing Press Laws, No. 26 of 1896, and No. 14 of 1898, it is necessary to remark that no printer, issuer, or editor of a newspaper can be prosecuted unless he has made himself guilty of criminal libel, so that the principle of the Grondwet of 1858 has in this respect been rigidly adhered to. Her Majesty's Government will at once see that these laws cannot in any way bear harshly upon the writing public, a fact which is clearly borne out by the way in which the newspapers of this country are edited. Nowhere else in the world has the liberty of the Press so degenerated into license. No newspaper in any country in the world would for one moment dare to speak of the Government, the Legislature, and authorities of the country as the Star, the Transvaal Leader, and similar newspapers do every day in this Republic.

The imaginary nature of these grievances is not dispelled by the fact that the power is vested in the State President of prohibiting either entirely or provisionally the circulation of any printed matter which is contrary to good morals or public order, because the very same Supreme Court, which in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government only exists at the mercy of this Government, has pronounced that it has no power to prohibit the circulation of any newspaper; the freedom of the regular Press thus remains as unrestricted as under the old Grondwet.

As a matter of fact, any person who has any practical experience of the Press of this Republic will regard the accusation as ridiculous, and as evincing an entire ignorance of the true facts. This power has not been exercised by the Judges on many occasions, but only once, and in that instance the High Court annulled the decision.

With regard to the Aliens Expulsion Law, this, like the Press Law, ought to be estimated according to its spirit and operation. Since this law has come into force the State President has only on one occasion made use of the power vested in him of expelling an undesirable individual, and his action was endorsed by the approval of the Press and the public of the country. As similar laws exist in nearly every civilised country in the world, it is difficult to see why such a law in this Republic should prove so objectionable in the eyes of Her Majesty's Government.

With regard to Law No. 1 of 1897, and the dismissal of Chief Justice Kotze by virtue of its provisions, this Government can only state that it was with the bitterest regret that it felt itself compelled, in consequence of the arbitrary action of the said Chief Justice, to take comprehensive measures in order to prevent absolute constitutional and judicial disorder and chaos. It was an instance where a Chief Justice in conflict with a law existing for, at least, forty years, and in direct contradiction of his own decisions, suddenly adopted and applied a new principle, which affected the legality of the laws of the Republic, and produced real constitutional chaos. Would not any other Government under similar circumstances have done exactly what this Republic did, namely, pass a special law in this unusual case, in order to remove the exceptional difficulties?

This law was only applicable to this particular instance, and became inoperative immediately after its application; and this Government cannot understand how suspicion can therefore fall upon the impartial administration of Justice in this Republic. If the Government had acquiesced in the position taken up by the late Chief Justice, then all titles dependent upon Volksraad resolutions would have been called in question, which would not only have dealt a heavy blow to existing rights, but also have plunged the administration of Justice in great uncertainty and doubt.

By this law the Judges, instead of being brought under the influence of the Executive Council, were really placed in the same constitutional position as any Judge in the Supreme Court of England, who is unable to question the validity of any law.

This Government has now traversed the various contentions of Her Majesty's Government, which have been submitted in order to prove that the policy of this Government, with regard to the Uitlander population and the administration of the laws, especially on the gold fields, are the causes of the strained relationship at present existing between the two Governments.

This Government believes that this explanation and answer will clearly show that these causes are in no way sufficient to have resulted in the aforesaid tension. It is of opinion that the source of evil must be sought for elsewhere, and it trusts that Her Majesty's Government will not take it in bad part if it now proceeds to explain what the real root of the evil is from its point of view; and in the first place it remarks as a very noticeable and prominent fact that although there are thousands of subjects of other Powers in Johannesburg, there are few complaints heard from them or from their Governments about the so-called grievances of the Uitlanders. If these grievances existed in reality, and if they pressed equally on all so-called Uitlanders (and Her Majesty's Government does not contend that in this respect a difference is made between British subjects and subjects of other Powers), how does it happen that the complaints always come from British subjects, and that the subjects of other Powers, as a rule, express their sympathy with this Government and promise it their support?