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

PRESIDENT BRAND'S JUST PROPOSALS. 353offers "to' refer the following questions to the deci8ionof an!! independent power":" 1st. "Whether, under the present circumstances, Her Majesty'sGovernment can, consistently with the true intent and meaning andthe spirit of Article 2 of the Convention" (quoted in Chapter III.)" accede to t4e request of Captain Waterboer" (to be received as aBritish subject, and the lands he cltJimMl, inoluding all the diamondfields, to be declared British); and,," 2ndly. To decide, as arbitrator, on the validity of the titleof the Orange Free State Government to the Campbell lands;that is, the lands on the north or the Vaal River."-(Pr"itlmtDraM to 8ir H. Darkly, March 4th, 1871.)To th~ above reasonable and legitimate proposition,Sir H. Barkly thus replies:" I oannot but regard tile communication" (quoted above, andrepeated by the President in a despatch dated March 7th) "underacknowledgment as virtually putting an end to further negotiatioD8for an amioable adjustment"!-( 8ir H. Barkly to Pr,,1adtmt lJraM,March 8th, 1871.)Sir H. Barkly expresses this opinion because theFree State would not ignore its own existence by submittingits 143 farms within the line olaimed by Waterboer'sip8e dizit to arbitration; beoause its Governmentrefused to allow, in the meantime, the jurisdiction ofthe British magistrates (whom we have seen wereillegaIIyappointed by General Hay) to be exercisedover the said territory; and because, as every independentStat6 has an undoubted right to do, the FreeState demanded foreign arbitration in preference tothat of British officials who had already becom~parties to the case!In dignified and statesmanlike language PresidentBrand made answer:"Our Government regrets that it cannot, consistently with its2 ADigitized by Goog Ie