SAIIA SOUTH AFRICAN DIPLOMATS ABROAD.pdf

Governor Sir George Napier, "British subjects" and nothing
more. Special proclamations were even issued to reaffirm the
authority of the Crown outside the borders of the Cape.
Only about 15 years later the British Government, through
its delegates, agreed to enter into the Sand River Convention.
This preamble to that document contains trie first halting
recognition of the right of a group of South Africans to regulate
their relations with a foreign power. It is described as :
"Minutes of a meeting held on the farm of Mr. P. A.
Venter, Sand River, on Friday the 16th day of January, 1852,
between Major J. 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 emigrant farmers
residing north of the Vaal River, on the other part. . . ."
The first real treaty on record in South Afiica, apart from
those with native chiefs or between the paramount British power
and its former subjects, was between two states. It begins:
' "Agreement between the Government of the South
African Republic and the Republic of Lydenburg, to determine
the unification of the two states,"begun on February
26 and completed at Rustenburg, on November 23, 1859."
On July 29, 1869, the earliest treaty with a foreign power
was entered into with the Kingdom of Portugal followed by one
with the Orange Free State on August T71872, and later others
with Belgium, Holland and the German Reich. $A R / O
The formalities of diplomatic intercourse and phraseology
were punctiliously observed in Pretoria.
"The South African Republic and the Orange Free
State, being desirous of drawing closer and strengthening the
bonds of mutual interest and mutual friendship, which now
so happily exist between the two Republics, and by all moment
to encourage commerce between their citizens, have mutually
agreed to enter into a Treaty of Friendship, Trade, and Extradition
of Criminals . . . ."
The Orange Free State was as enterprising as its sister
Republic, for as early as March 10, 1867, it signed a similar
treaty with Portugal. This document was signed on behalf of
the Republic by "Mr. Hendrick Antonie Lodewijk Hamelberg,
Consul-General _pf the Orange ..Free State in the Kingdom of
tKe"Netherlands and, insofar as may be required for the present
treaty, its diplomatic agent." The first formal agreement with
Britain was the Convention of Aliwal, dated February 5, 1869,
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