§ MR. WEDGWOODI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, whether his attention has been drawn to a speech by General Botha at Standerton in which he said that the civil servants of the old South African Republic who had lost their public employment should have a pension or compensation; and whether he will take steps to see that such civil servants of the Transvaal, while under Crown Colony Government, as are now discharged through no fault of their own, are treated by the Transvaal in as generous a way as these other old servants of that country.
§ MR. CHURCHILLI have seen a telegram in the Press to this effect, but have no official information with regard to it. I have no reason to suppose that any preferential treatment is to be accorded to the ex-civil servants of the South African Republic, to a number of whom considerable sums have already been granted as allowances or pensions on the recommendation of a Commission appointed by the late Crown Colony Government, but in any case all questions relating to the Transvaal Civil Service are matters which fall wholly within the province of the Transvaal Government.