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

PROOF OF SIR H. BARKLY'S MISSTA1'EMENTS. 355self 10 ,.,/vIittg 10 tUlow 1M clai"., of tM Fru SIIIt, 10 b, IUbmitt,~ to.rbiWtIlion of fin, ,or' (II), this attempt to shift the responsibilityfor the result to the British Government and its agents . . .appears to me perfectly flltile."-(Si,. H. Barldy to PruideTtl Bra"d,March 20th, 1871.)(a) Here is another most deliberate and inexcusableperversion of the truth! Have we not seen that·President Brand had already frequently offered tosubmit the right of his country to the Campbell lands,as well as the question of British intervention, tothe "decilion of anu independent power"? Sir H.Barklyof course ignores the fact that, although theFree State had paid the Chief, Adam Kok, in hardcash for the' purchase of the Campbell lands, still,in order to meet him in an amicable spirit, its Governmenthad, in response to his unfair demands, offeredto put its right to arbitration!Early in February, Mr. Campbell, the specialmagistrate illegally appointed to the diamond fieldsby General Hay, issued the aggressive noticesreferred to in President Brand's despatch of March9th, whereby he publicly declared his intention of'invading Free State territory by virtue of Waterboer'sauthority. Early ill March the Government of theOrange Free State called out a commando of 1,000men, with 4 guns, aud moved that force to a positionwithin a few miles of Pniel, in order to guard thefrontier, prevent either the threatened invasion of" 100 armed and mounted police . . . on thePniel side of the river," or the establishment of anyauthority in the name of Waterboer.News of this action reached Sir H. Barkly on thesame day he wrote the last of his arbitration dictums2 A 2Digitized by Goog Ie