§ 67. Mr. SITCHasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether any definite steps were ever taken to give Governmental sanction and effect to the proposal, made in 1905, that the sum of £30,000,000 of the revenue of the mining industry in South Africa benefiting by the annexation of the Orange Free State and Boer Republic territories to the British Empire should be earmarked as a contribution towards the cost of the war which resulted in that annexation; and, if so, whether any part of that sum has yet been or ever will be paid?
§ Lieut.-Colonel AMERYThe hon. Member is mistaken in supposing that it was proposed in 1903 that the South African mining industry should make this contribution to the expenses of the South African War. He will find the facts set out in the Blue Book, Cd. 1895 of 1904. The proposal was one for a Transvaal Government loan of £30,000,000, of which certain mine owners undertook under certain conditions to underwrite £10,000,000. The proposal was not carried into effect.
§ Lieut.-Colonel AMERYI think it was realised by common consent that when responsible government was given to the Transvaal it was no longer desirable for the Imperial Government to press for it.
§ Lieut.-Colonel AMERYEconomic circumstances and prospects seemed to be very different in 1903 from what they were actually found to be three or four years later.