§ MR. MARKHAM (Nottinghamshire, Mansfield)To ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, during the war in South Africa, the Government received any communication whatever from either the Governments of the Transvaal and Orange Free State which have not yet been laid on the Table of the House.
(Answered by Mr. A. J. Balfour.) I understand that the following appears to be the only correspondence which has not been laid before Parliament:—
§ State Secretary, South African Republic, Pretoria, to Lord Salisbury.
§ (Received, Foreign Office, 7.30 a.m., 5th November, 1899.)
§ Telegram.
§ (Translation.)
§ As there are now many English troops here prisoners of war, and your Government prevents the importation of food stuffs into this Republic, I ask you to give instructions for provisions to be allowed to reach the prisoners; the blame will be on you if we, to our shame, should be driven to feed the prisoners, the number of whom is greater than had been anticipated, on mealie porridge, which has not yet been done.
§ Mr. Chamberlain to the State Secretary, Pretoria.
§ (Sent 4.15p.m., 16th November, 1899.) Telegram.
§ Three days before the receipt of your telegram respecting food supplies Her Majesty's Government had given instructions for the removal of the restrictions on the importation of food stuffs into the South African Republic which had been imposed by the British authorities in South Africa.
§ State Secretary, Pretoria, to Lord Salisbury, Minister of Foreign Affairs, London.
§ (Received, 11.50 p.m., 20th November, 1899.
§ (Translation.)
§ Pretoria, 11.25a.m.,
§ 20th November, 1899.
§ Telegram.
§
†I have the honour to inform your Excellency that I have received the following telegram, signed, "Chamberlain ":—
† No answer was sent to this telegram.
§ Begins: 16th November. Three days before the receipt of your telegram respecting food supplies, Her Majesty's Government had given instructions for the removal of the restrictions on the importation of food stuffs into the South African Republic, which had been imposed by the British authorities in South Africa. Ends.
§ I presume that this is an answer to my telegram of the 2nd instant to your Excellency.
§ This Government would be glad to learn from your Excellency whether the declaration in the telegram is true.