In August, 1881, a more formal convention was held at Pretoria, when it was agreed that the Transvaal government should be independent in the management of its internal affairs; that the Republic should respect the independence of the Swazies, a tribe of natives on the eastern border of the Transvaal; that British troops should be allowed to pass through the territory of the Republic in time of war; and that the British sovereign should be acknowledged as suzerain of the Republic and have a veto power over all treaties between the government of the Transvaal and foreign nations.
Several of the stipulations in this convention were very distasteful to Paul Kruger and other leading spirits in the Transvaal, and also to the volksraad. Negotiations for desired changes were continued until 1884, when, on the 27th of February, a revision called the London Convention [[176]]was made and signed, formulating the obligations of the Republic as follows:
RAAD ZAAL (GOVERNMENT BUILDING), PRETORIA.
The Sovereign of Great Britain was to have, for the space of six months after their date, a veto power over all treaties between the Republic and any native tribes to the eastward and westward of its territory, and between it and any foreign state or nation except the Orange Free State.
The stipulations of the two previous conventions respecting slavery, those of 1852 and 1881, were to be observed by the Republic.
And the Republic was to accord to Great Britain the treatment of a most favored nation, and to deal kindly with strangers entering its territory.
Nothing whatever was said in this latest convention of the suzerainty of the British Sovereign mentioned in that of 1881, and, as this instrument, negotiated in London with Lord Derby, the Colonial Secretary, was understood to take the place of all former conventions, the Africanders of the Transvaal have contended very reasonably that the omission is sufficient evidence of the renunciation of suzerainty by the British government. Furthermore, by the London Convention of 1884, the British crown for the first time conceded to the Transvaal the title of “The [[177]]South African Republic,” by which name it has ever since been designated in all diplomatic transactions and correspondence between it and other states. [[178]]