The Transvaal Raid.

Opunake Times, Volume VII, Issue 298, 16 July 1897, Page 2

The Transvaal Raid.

RHODES AND OTHERS CENSURED. London, July 14. The report of the Transvaal Raid Enquiry Committee is published. It admits the existence of great discontent at Johannesburg, but holds that Cecil Rhodes was not justified in subsidising, organising, and stimulating an armed insurrection against the Transvaal, and employing the forces of the South African Chartered Company to carry out such insurrection. The Committee find that though Dr Jameson entered (he Transvaal without Rhodes’ direct sanction Rhodes’ heavy responsibility remains as he controlled a great combination of infe est and used them to support the revolution. He deceived Lord Rosemead and his own Ministry at the Cape and the directors of the Chartered Company, while he led his subordinates to believe that his superiors approved his plans. The report acquits the majority of the Charted Company’s directors, but holds that Maguire (Rhodes’ agent in London) was aware of Rhodes’ views, while Alfred Beit prominently shared in the negotiations.

Lord Losemead is exonerated from any guilty knowledge of the intended raid.

Sir Graham Bower, Imperial Secretary to the High Commission at the Cape, is strongly condemned.

The Committee further decided that the Colonial Office received no information conveying any warning of the intended incursion.

The Committee fully accept Mr Chamberlain’s statement denying any knowledge of the affair, and exonerate the Colonial Office officials. F. J. Newton, Resident Commissioner at Bechuaualand—who during the enquiry admitted having be m aware of Dr Jameson’s intentions and giving him assistance without informing Lord Rosemead—is censured. Mr Libouchere in a minority report regrets that the alleged complicity of the Colonial Office was not probed to the bottom. He condemns the severity of the sentences passed upon the officers who took part with Dr Jameson in the invasion, and suggests that their commissions should be restored.