the League as well as
their own police officials, gave instructions that the police should
remain away from the meeting; they did this in perfect good faith, and
with the object of letting the League have its say without let or
hindrance. The proposed meeting was however advertised far and wide. As
the feeling amongst a section of the Witwatersrand 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.

The 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 th