In order to attain this object a continual agitation was kept up at Johannesburg, so that English shareholders living far away should be prepared for the day when the Annexation would take place on Constitutional lines.

The argument which was calculated to impress these European shareholders was that the administration of the South African Republic had created a situation which was most prejudicial to the financial interests of the mining industry.  Viewed from this standpoint the Uitlander grievances were an inexhaustibly rich and payable mine.

[Sidenote:  The industrial Commission.]

This agitation first of all emanated directly from the Capitalists, and had assumed such proportions in 1897 that the Government decided to appoint a Commission of officials and mining magnates in order to enquire searchingly into the alleged financial grievances.  As far as the Government was concerned, the chief findings of the Commission were:—­

(1).  That the price of dynamite (85 shillings per case of 50lbs.) was too high under the existing concession, and that a diminution in price was desirable either by cancellation of the concession, or by testing the legality of the concession in the High Court.

(2).  That the tariffs of the Netherlands Railway Company for the carriage of coal and other articles were too high, and that it was necessary to expropriate the railway.

(3).  That the import duties on necessaries of life were too high, and that the cost of living in Johannesburg for workmen was too high.

(4).  That stringent measures ought to be adopted in order to prevent gold thefts, and that the law for the total prohibition of drink to native labourers ought to be more strictly enforced, and that there ought to be a more stringent application of the Pass Law (under which the traffic of the native labourers was regulated).

(5).  With the object of carrying out the measures specified in Section 4, the Commission recommended that an Advisory Board should be nominated for the Witwatersrand gold fields for the purpose of advising the Government as to the enforcement of the said regulations.

[Sidenote:  Results of the Commission.]

To what extent was effect given to these recommendations?

[Sidenote:  Dynamite.]

1.  As far as dynamite is concerned, it appeared that there was no chance of contesting the concession in the law courts with any success.  Nor did the Volksraad or the Government feel justified in cancelling, without the consent of the owners, a contract which had been solemnly entered into, and upon which enormous sums of money had been expended.  The Mining Industry was naturally eager for cancellation, even without adequate compensation; but the public were not at that time aware of a fact which was made public some months later, namely, that the De Beers Corporation intended to erect a dynamite manufactory, and that this agitation of the Capitalists was intended to obtain for themselves the control of this great source of income.  People, however, knew that the Messrs. Chamberlain were interested in the English ammunition and dynamite house of Kynoch, but they hesitate to assume that the Colonial Secretary was actuated in his Transvaal policy by considerations of private financial interest.