tersrand population was exceedingly bitter
against the League, a considerable number of the opponents of that body
also attended the meeting. The few police who were present were
powerless to quell the disorder, and when the police came on the scene
in force some few minutes after the commencement of the uproar, the
meeting was already broken up. Taken by itself, this occurrence would
not be of much importance, as it is an isolated instance as far as the
gold fields of this Republic are concerned, and even in the best
organised and best ordered communities irregularities like the above
occasionally take place.

"The gravity of the matter, however, lies in the unjust accusation of
Her Majesty's Government--that the meeting was broken up by officials of
this Republic, and that the Government had curtly refused to institute
an enquiry.

"This Government would not have refused to investigate the matter if any
complaints had been lodged with it, or at any of the local Courts, and
this has been clearly stated in its reply to Her Majesty's request for
an investigation.

"This Government objects strongly to the systematic way in which 'the
local authorities are ignored, and the continual complaints which are
lodged with the Representatives of Her Majesty about matters which ought
to be decided by the Courts of this Republic. Instead, however, of
complaining to Her Majesty's Government after all other reasonable means
of redress have been vainly invoked, they continually make themselves
guilty of ignoring and treating with contempt the local Courts and
authorities by continually making all sorts of ridiculous and _ex parte_
complaints to Her Majesty's Government in the first instance; Her
Majesty's Government is also thereby placed in the equivocal and
undesirable position of intermeddling in the internal affairs of this
Republic, which is in conflict with the London Convention. Had the
complaints been lodged with this Government, or with the proper
officials or Courts, the facts could have been very easily arrived at,
and it would have been proved that the few officials who were present at
the meeting as a section of the public had done their best to prevent
the irregularities, and that some of them had been hurt in their
endeavours to preserve order. Instead of expressing their disapproval of
such complaints, and referring the petitioners to the local Courts, Her
Majesty's Government accepts those complaints, and gives them