§ MR. DRAGE () DerbyI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he can state whether, under the existing laws of the Transvaal and the Orange 81 Free State, any impediments are placed in the way of coloured persons desirous of acquiring and holding land. Whether, so far as the Transvaal is concerned, any such impediment constitutes an infringement of Article XIX. of the Convention of 1884. And whether coloured persons are under any disabilities as to the acquisition and ownership of land in Cape Colony and Natal.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINIn the South African Republic natives and other coloured persons are not allowed to acquire land in their own name. Application has to be made to the Superintendent of Natives, who took the place of the British Secretary for Native Affairs and the Native Location Commission provided for by Articles 13 and 31 of the Pretoria Convention. I do not, therefore, think that the existing arrangement is a breach of Article XIX. of the London Convention. In the Orange Free State I believe that coloured persons of partly European origin are allowed to acquire and hold land, but not other coloured persons. Indians are practically excluded from settling in the State at all. In the Cape and Natal coloured persons other than natives residing in locations (who own land in common) are not under any restriction as to acquiring and owning land.