THE RAID ON THE TRANSVAAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10128, 11 May 1896, Page 5

THE RAID ON THE TRANSVAAL.

STATEMENT BY DR. JAMESON. THE CHARTERED COMPANY AND . .MR. RHODES. SPEECHES BY SIR W. HARCOURT AND MR. CHAMBERLAIN. FURTHER CYPHER REVELS TIONS. Press Association.—Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. London, May 8. Mr. Hawksley, solicitor, lias published a statement at the request of Dr. Jameson, exonerating the Chartered Company from complicity in the raid. The directors of the Company have cabled to Mr, Cecil Rhodes statins? that President Kruger's revelations had caused universal excitement, in consequence of which they hesitated to accept his resignation, Mr. Rhodes replied asking them to defer a final decision on the matter, and the directors have agreed ts do so. London, May 9. In the House of Commons, Sir W. Harcourt declared that cyphers recently discovered among the effects of the raiders of i'& Transvaal proved that the Uitlanders' reforms were merely a stockjobbing dodge which Mr. Cecil Rhodes had actuated. The power of settlement in the Transvaal and the removal of the racial difficulty was impossible whilst such was controlled by the South African Chartered Company. He demanded the removal of Mr. Rhodes and a reform of the Chartered Company's board of directors.

Mr. Chamberlain, in reply, said that it was the Government policy to maintain the paramount State and re-unite the races. No doubt there were faults on both sides, and he. declared that the Boers were constantly breaking the convention. It was not, he said, the intention of the Government to recall Sir Hercules Robinson from the Cape Colony, but summoning him to London was only for the purpose of consultation. Referring to the statement that Sir Jacobus De Wet, the British Consul at Pretoria, had been recalled, he explained that that gentleman had had a long term of office, and by his close attention to official matters was entitled to a well-earned rest. He thought there was only one opinion as to Mr. Rhodes'? complicity in the Transvaal raid. It would be unfair to fo"get his great services to South African matters. He offered no opinion as to the acceptance of Mr. Rhodes's resignation, when the judiciary had finished a searching enquiry into the Chartered Company by a committee of Lords and Commons.

The speech was generally well received, though the opposition were clamorous for Sir H. Robinson's removal.

Additional cyphers, also extracts from White's note-book, show that Colonel Rhodes in November demanded that the entire Government must be in the hands of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, and that the Rand were arranging a thousand men to assist Dr. Jameson's entry on December 29. Capetown, May 9. The House of Assembly has unanimously passed a resolution to the effect that it hopes Sir Hercules Robinson will speedily return. Berlin, May 9. An inspired article in a paper states that President Kruger possesses a proclamation of the Reform Committee which was in effect that Mr. Chas. Lennard was to be president, Mr. Lionel Phillips, Secretary of State, and Mr. J. H. Hammond, Attorney General. It adds that the revolution failed owing to disagreement among the Reformers and Mr. Rhodes, who was confident of his action being sanctioned, and if successful he would claim the presidency of the South African States.