HC Deb 21 February 1870 vol 199 c590
MR. GILPIN

said, he would beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, If it be true, as stated in the South African Papers, that the Provisional Treaty between Sir Philip Wodehouse and the Boers of the Orange Fee State, by which a friendly tribe of natives has been deprived of a considerable extent of territory, has been sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government; and, if so, what provision has been made by Sir Philip Wodehouse for the protection of those who were thus driven from their homes; and, if there be any objection to lay a Copy of the Treaty and Correspondence upon the Table of the house?

MR. MONSELL

said, in reply, that he had that evening laid on the table the Papers asked for by his hon. Friend, and they would afford much fuller information than the house was now in possession of on this complicated subject. In reference to the first part of the Question, he would remind his hon. Friend that in 1866, after the war between Basuto and the Orange Free State, in which the former was defeated, a treaty was imposed on the vanquished which confiscated every portion of their land. The conditions of the treaty were so onerous on the defeated party that war broke out again between them, and the Orange Free State was again victorious. Sir Philip Wodehouse interfered, but he warned the people of Basuto that a considerable sacrifice of their property would be inevitable. Sir Philip Wodehouse met the President of the Orange Free State, and a treaty was drawn up and referred to the Home Government for its approbation. So anxious was the Home Government to in even way protect the to rights of Basuto that the treaty was not at once approved, but was sent back to Sir Philip Wodehouse for further information. He, however, wrote in reply to the Home Government that the treaty was, on the whole, as favourable to Basuto as any which there was any; chance of procuring. He had also written to say that all the more valuable parts of the territory of Basuto had been got back, except an angle near the Caledon River, and that for the portions not restored an equivalent would be had by those who had been deprived of them.