State Secretary of the South African Republic WITH PREFACE BY W.T. STEAD "Audi Alteram Partem" LONDON: "REVIEW OF REVIEWS" OFFICE, MOWBRAY HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET, W.C. "In this awful turning point of the history of South Africa, on the eve of the conflict which threatens to exterminate our people, it behoves us to speak the truth in what may be, perchance, our last message to the world." Such is the raison d'être of this book. It is issued by State Secretary Reitz as the official exposition of th

BROTHER AFRICANDERS! Once more in the annals of our bloodstained history has the day dawned when we are forced to grasp our weapons in order to resume the struggle for liberty and existence, entrusting our national cause to that Providence which has guided our people throughout South Africa in such a miraculous way. The struggle of now nearly a century, which began when a foreign rule was forced upon the people of the Cape of Good Hope, hastens to an end; we are approaching the last act in that

An ordinary person would have thought that the only upright way of carrying a policy of restitution into effect would have been for the British Government to have returned to the provisions of the Sand River Convention. If the Annexation was wrong in itself—without taking the Boer victories into consideration—then it ought to have been abolished with all its consequences, and there ought to have been a restitutio in integrum of that Republic; that is to say, the Boers ought to have been placed i

I have now reviewed all the facts connected with the history of our oppression and persecution during the past hundred years. The allegations I have made are not invented, but are based upon the statements of the most reliable witnesses, nearly all of them of British nationality; they are facts that have been declared incontestable before the tribunal of history. As far as the more recent occurrences since 1898 are concerned, I may state that I have had personal knowledge of all the negociations

LORD DERBY'S DISPATCH ON THE CONVENTION OF 1884. To MESSRS. KRUGER, DU TOIT, AND SMIT. DOWNING STREET, 15 February , 1884. GENTLEMEN, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th inst., in which you intimate your readiness to accept the arrangement proposed by me at our recent interview, whereby the debt of the Transvaal State to Her Majesty's Government would be reduced by £127,000. I will not delay to recommend this proposal to the consideration of Her Majesty's Gove

THE ANNEXATION OF THE DIAMOND FIELDS. In his speech at the opening of the Cape Parliament on the 18th April, 1872, Sir Henry Barkly said:— "The Sovereignty of Her Majesty was therefore proclaimed and brought into operation with the full consent of the diggers , and the Government has since been carefully and efficiently administered, notwithstanding considerable difficulties." The Diamond News of the 1st May, 1872, says, in referring to this speech:— "Of the three short paragraphs which immediat

THE REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S DISPATCH ON GRIEVANCES. DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, PRETORIA. 26th September , 1899. SIR, The Government of the South African Republic has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of a certain dispatch dated 10th May, 1899, addressed to His Excellency the High Commissioner by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in consequence of a petition sent to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. 21,684 signatures appear on this petition, and are s

THE FINAL DISPATCH OF MR. STATE SECRETARY REITZ. ENCLOSURE. DEPARTMENT FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, GOVERNMENT OFFICE, PRETORIA, 3rd March , 1899. Sir, Acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 11th inst. re the meeting of the South African League held in the Amphitheatre at Johannesburg on the 14th January, 1899, I have the honour to communicate the following to you. The complaint that the Government, or its duly authorised officials, have acted with partiality in this matter is entirely devoid o

CONVENTIONS BETWEEN HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN AND THE TRANSVAAL OR SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. SAND RIVER CONVENTION, 1852. Minutes of a meeting held in the place of Mr. P.A. Venter, Sand River, on Friday, the sixteenth day of January, 1852, between Major W. Hogge and C.M. Owen, Esq., Her Majesty's Assistant Commissioners, for the settling and adjusting of the affairs of the eastern and north-eastern boundaries of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope on the one part, and the following deputation from the