THE EARL OF CAMPERDOWNMy Lords, seeing the noble Earl the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies in his place, I wish to ask him a question, of which I have given him private notice, with regard to the future administration of 325 South Africa. It has been stated in another place that the administration of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony will be vested in the High Commissioner for South Africa. The High Commissioner being at this present time Governor of Cape Colony, I wish to ask whether in the future arrangement of South Africa it is intended that her Majesty's High Commissioner shall continue to be Governor of Cape Colony, or whether the Government of that colony -will be constituted independently of him.
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (The Earl of Onslow)My Lords, I do not think the noble Earl has quite accurately interpreted what was said by the Secretary of State for the Colonies in another place. It is not quite accurate to say that the High Commissioner in South Africa will be the Administrator in the two new colonies. The noble Earl is, perhaps, aware that hitherto the Governor at the Cape has also been the High Commissioner of South Africa, and the commission so appointing him has applied not only to the High Commissioner but also to the Deputy Governor who might be appointed by him whenever he was absent from Cape Colony. The High Commissioner-ship of South Africa and the Governorship of Cape Colony will no longer be in the hands of the same person—that is to say, Sir Alfred Milner, who has been appointed personally the High Commissioner of South Africa, is at the present moment also Governor at the Cape, but at present Lord Roberts holds the commission for the administration of the two new colonies which have been annexed to the Crown. As soon as Lord Roberts leaves South Africa, those powers will, by a dormant commission which Sir Alfred Milner now holds, devolve on Sir Alfred Milner, but he will not be Governor of the two new colonies until such time as Her Majesty has been pleased to appoint him to that post. When he has been appointed as Governor of the Transvaal, with a Lieutenant-Governor of the Orange River Colony under him, he will then, and only then, cease to be Governor of the Cape. When that may be depends, of course, upon circumstances, and I am not able to fix the date when that occurrence will take place, but it is certainly not intended that the office of High Commissioner of South Africa and that of Governor of Cape 326 Colony should be held by Sir Alfred Milner at one and the same time.