During the month of September following, the negotiations failed to produce any agreement, and matters remained in this unsatisfactory state until, on October 9, 1899, the ultimatum of President Kruger brought affairs to an actual crisis.

CHAPTER IV.

ULTIMATUM OF SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC, OCTOBER 9, 1899.

The Government of the South African Republic feels itself compelled to refer the Government of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland once more to the Convention of London, 1884, concluded between this Republic and the United Kingdom and which in its XIVth Article secures certain specified rights to the white population of this Republic, namely, that “All persons, other than natives, conforming themselves to the laws of the South African Republic (a) will have full liberty, with their families, to enter, travel, or reside in any part of the South African Republic; (b) they will be entitled to hire or possess houses, manufactories, warehouses, shops, and premises; (c) they may carry on their commerce either in person or by any agents whom they may think fit to employ; (d) they will not be subject, in respect of their persons or property, or in respect of their commerce or industry, to any taxes, whether general or local, other than those which are or may be imposed upon citizens of the said Republic.”  This Government wishes further to observe that the above are only rights which Her Majesty’s Government have reserved in the above Convention with regard to the Uitlander population of this Republic and that the violation only of those rights could give that Government a right to diplomatic representations or intervention while, moreover, the regulation of all other questions affecting the position or the rights of the Uitlander population under the above-mentioned Convention is handed over to the Government and the representatives of the people of the South African Republic.  Amongst the questions the regulation of which falls exclusively within the competence of the Government and of the Volksraad, are included those of the franchise and representation of the people in this Republic, and although thus the exclusive right of this Government and of the Volksraad for the regulation of that franchise and representation is indisputable, yet this Government has found occasion to discuss in a friendly fashion the franchise and the representation of the people with Her Majesty’s Government, without, however, recognizing any rights thereto on the part of Her Majesty’s Government.  This Government has also, by the formulation of the now existing Franchise Law and the Resolution with regard to representation, constantly held these friendly discussions before its eyes.  On the part of Her Majesty’s Government, however, the friendly nature of these discussions has assumed a more and more threatening tone, and the minds of the people in this Republic