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In like manner no military officer or official of the State, who draws a fixed annual or monthly salary, shall be eligible as member of the Volksraad. The members of the Volksraad are elected by a majority of votes from among the electors of each district. No one shall be considered as elected who has not obtained at least sixty votes.
Vorster made what he was pleased to call 'presents' to the members American spiders, Cape carts, gold watches, shares in the Company to be floated, and sums in cash were the trifles by which Mr. Vorster won his way to favour. He placated the President by presenting to the Volksraad a portrait of his Honour, executed by the late Mr. Schroeder, South Africa's one artist. The picture cost £600.
That decision was known as the London Convention of 1884. The displeasure of the Boer Delegates matured after their return to the Transvaal, and was expressed in a message sent by the Volksraad to our Government not many months after the signing of the Convention in London. In this document the Boers seem to regard themselves as a victorious people making terms with those they had conquered.
It then goes on to recite the various points of object, stating that the answers from the English Government proved that they were well founded. It will be observed that English is here represented as begging the favour of a trial of her conditions from the Volksraad of the Transvaal Boers.
At Doornberg the council of war was called together by the Government. President Steyn then communicated to the meeting that his term of office would soon expire. He pointed out that the provisions of the law designed to meet this contingency could not be carried out, because a legally constituted Volksraad could not be summoned at the present moment.
During the session of '96 the Volksraad decided to put the bewaarplaatsen up for public auction, the proceeds of the sale to be divided equally between the Government and the original owners of the farms on which the bewaarplaatsen had been granted.
The Message of the Volksraad was finally summed up in the following words: "we object to the following articles, 15, 16, 26, and 27, because to insist on them is hurtful to our sense of honour." Now what are the articles to which the Boer Government here objects, and has continued to object? Article 15 enacts that no slavery or apprenticeship shall be tolerated.
It was found upon investigation after some years of agitation that the factory at which this 'manufacture' took place was in reality merely a depot in which the already manufactured article was manipulated to a moderate extent so as to lend colour to the President's statement that a local industry was being fostered. An investigation held by order of the Volksraad exposed the imposition.
The Government refused this request on the plea that it was not in a position to suspend duties without the permission of the Volksraad, and yet within a few days we find that the Government has granted a concession to one of its friends to import grain free of duty and to sell it in competition with the merchants who have had to pay duties.
It is interesting to note the articles of the Convention to which they particularly object. In the telegram which was sent to "His Excellency, W.E. Gladstone," the Volksraad stated that the London Convention was not acceptable to them. They declared that "modifications were desirable, and that certain articles must be altered."
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