§ BARON HENRY DE WORMSasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether Sir T. Shepstone issued a proclamation on behalf of Her Majesty's Government on the 12th of April 1877, which contained the following words:
All bonâ fide concessions and contracts with governments, companies, or individuals by which the State is now hound, will be honourably maintained and respected, and the payment of the debts of the State must be provided for;whether the fact that Her Majesty's Government propose to place the Transvaal under the suzerainty of Her Majesty is held to free this Country from the obligation of fulfilling the above promise; whether he is aware that the Railway material purchased by the Transvaal Government in 1876 for a sum of £71,813, which was the security for the payment of the principal and interest of the Railway Loan, has been sold by the authority of Her Majesty's Government for a sum greatly below its value, having afterwards been resold at a large profit; and, what steps Her Majesty's Government propose to take for compensating the bondholders for the loss they have thereby sustained?
MR. GLADSTONESir, the Question of the hon. Member appears to indicate an impression that the words used by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, which are correctly quoted, were intended to convey an engagement on the part of the British Government with respect to the Consolidated Fund; if there be such an impression, I believe it would be an entire misapprehension. The engagement given by Sir Theophilus Shepstone was given entirely on behalf of the Colonial Government, which had replaced the Government of the South African Republic as it was called. The question as to the sale of certain rails I can answer only as a matter of information, and not as in any way clashing with what I have just stated. I learn that the rails in question were sold for the best price that could be had for them, and they were sold in consequence of their being held under a lien to a creditor of the Company, who had the power to take them. Of course, it has been the duty of Her Majesty's Government to look to this matter in the communications now going on. 529 The Convention for the settlement of the Transvaal, which will probably be signed in a very short time by the Boer Leaders, but which will have to be submitted for ratification to the Volksraad, will contain provisions under which, as I understand, it will be declared that the loan is a first charge on the revenues of the Transvaal State.