HC Deb 19 February 1883 vol 276 cc314-5
MR. DAWNAY

asked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether the countries adjoining the west and south-west borders of the Transvaal are not in a peaceable condition; whether any steps have been taken, or will be taken, to arrest and punish the English deserters who took part with the marauding force of the Boers in the attacks on the chiefs Montsioa and Mankoroane; whether the Government of the Transvaal have, in accordance with Article 19 of the Transvaal Convention, done their utmost to prevent its inhabitants from making encroachments upon lands lying beyond the said State; and, if not, whether they will be held responsible, in respect of restoration of cattle, or of compensation to the despoiled chieftains, for the depredations committed by Transvaal subjects assembled on Transvaal territory; and, whether Her Majesty's Government are prepared and intend to impress upon the Government of the Transvaal that no breach of the 19th Article of the Transvaal Convention will, under any circumstances, be permitted or overlooked?

MR. EVELYN ASHLEY

In answer to the first part of the Question, I cannot say that the countries adjoining the west and south-west borders of the Transvaal are now in a peaceable condition. As to the second, I can only repeat what I have already stated on several occasions—that the proposals made to the Cape Government, the Transvaal Government, and the Orange Free State, to join in organizing a mounted police force to act temporarily in the disturbed district, fell through by no fault of Her Majesty's Government, but by the fact that the Transvaal Orange Free State refused to join. But I may add, for the information of the hon. Gentleman, that we are about to make fresh proposals to the Cape Go- vernment on a somewhat different basis, and we hope that they will be accepted. With respect to the third and fourth Questions, I can only say that they do not refer to matters of fact, but really to matters of opinion and policy; and I must refer my hon. Friend to the Papers which are laid on the Table of the House to-night, and to the debate which, I understand, will take place on those Papers.