Adamantia : the truth about the South African diamond fields : or, a ...

342 A. 8m~'TY POLICY.tions laid down in my despatch of May 18 ,. (quotedat the end of Chapter XIII.), he yet, upon receivingthe Governor's information that by the proclamationsof October 27th, 1M amaezation of tke diamond fields hadactluJllg ta,i", pltJce tJJitlwut tAat "formal compliance,"expressed the approval of the British Government!In a despatch dated "Downing Street, December 8,1871," Earl Kimberley thus stultifies his previous instructionsand conditions :-". . • Considering all the circumstance. - stated in your formerdespatches" (which we have seen were wlwll, untnu), "they (HerMajesty's Government) approve the step which you have taken,being COJniDoed that you would· not have acted in anticipation ofprovision being formally made by the Cape Parliameut for theanneution of Waterboer's territol'1 to the Colony, unless you hadfully satisfied yourself that there were imperative reasons againstfurther delay. I have therefore to convey to you Her :Majesty'sgracious approval and oo6fumation of this proclamation." •.•Whatever those" imperative reasons" were, whichEarl Kimberley deemed sufficient to counteract hisown previous and explicit proviso and commands, theCape Parliament (excepting only four members) entirelyfailed to discover them. Therefore Sir H.Barkly's "imperative reasons" were really not~gmore than the illegal, unconstitutional, utterly false,and untenable grounds upon which he and his ExecutiveCouncil carried out their designs by a hostileinvasion of the Orange Free State, and the forcibleseizure or annexation of its diamond fields !Of course, those hypothetical premises, the aforesaid" imperative reasons," remain open to question. Hit• rule p. 4S, Blue Book, "Further correspondence, respecting theatra.ira of the Cape of Good Hope."-London. Februa.rl 6th, 1872.Digitized by Goog Ie