THE TRANSVAAL SITUATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3738, 12 May 1899, Page 6

THE TRANSVAAL SITUATION.

' J'ilE VOLKSRAAD HOLDS SECRi'.T SITTINGS. MORE PROTESTING OUTLANDERS. PRETORIA, Thursday. Mr T. W. Reitz, Secretary of State, in the Transvaal Government, declares that the situation'has improved this week. Five thousand additional Transvaal oatlanders have signed the petition to the Queen since it was announced that the outlanders were largely signing a coun-ter-petition expressing confidence in the Boer Government. The Volksraad has held a series of secret sittings. ■ . President Kruger is granting farms to indigent Boers on the ground that the Republic must provide for its defenders. A CONFERENCE PROJECTED. (Received May 12, 1 a.m.)) LONDON, Thursday. It is expected that, having regard to the grievances of the outlanders and their petition to tho Queen, together with the prevailing discontent in the Transvaal, a conference will shortly take place at Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, between Mr Kruger, President of tho Republic, and Sir Alfred Milner, Governor of Cape Colony, and High Commissioner, of Brjtish South Africa-, for the purpose of discussing tho affairs of tho Transvaal.

A SPEECH BY PRESIDENT KRUGER. . The official report of Com Paul’s speech contains this passage dealing with the franchise grievance :—“ President Kruger* said the law now stipulated for a residence of fourteen years before full burghership can be obtained. Two years’ residence was required before papers of naturalisation could be taken out, then ■two more years before residents were eligible for tire Second Raad, and a further ten years before an alien could vote or be eligible for the"Pirst Raad. ’ The President said he would propose to the Volksraad during the coming May session to reduce the last period of ten years to five; so that an alien entering the State after the law had been amended would only have to wait nine years for the full franchise instead of fourteen, while aliens who were already in the Republic and had resided over two years in the country could claim full burgher rights within seven years. This, of course, was contingent upon aliens first of all taking an oath of allegiance to the Republic, which oath should be on. the same lines as the one required in the United States of America.” MR CHAMBERLAIN AND THE TRANSVAAL. JUST HOW THE MATTER STANDS. In the course of the discussion on the vote on account, Sir E. Ashmead Bartlett raised the question of the existing situation in the Transvaal. 'Mr Chamberlain, in reply, demanded to know whether Sir Ellis wanted the Government to send an ultimatum to President Kruger. If that were not so, did lie want the Government to go to war with the Transvaal? Ideas of this sort were not borne out by the commercial representatives of the Uitlanders. In this connection the right lion, gentleman quoted from a speech of the President of the Johannesburg Chamber of Mines, in which that gentleman said that the , Chamber was opposed to a policy of pin-pricks. Mr Chamberlain admitted that Mr Kruger’s pledges made at the time of the Jameson Raid had not been fulfilled ; and ho also characterised the promises by the President as disappointing and illusory. He also admitted that until matters were mended in the Transvaal there existed a danger to the future prosperity of the whole of South Africa. However, so far as he know, the London Convention had not been infringed. Ho had tried friendly advice without success. From all be knew, the time was not opportune for further suggestions. and, indeed, it would not be dignified for bun to make further suggestions at the present moment, when he was aware that they would have no effect. Ho strongly urged tbe r idea of the establishment of a representative municipality in Johannesburg, being convinced that this would go a long way towards modifying the grievances of the Uitlanders.