The Transvaal Crisis.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 256, 4 May 1896, Page 2

The Transvaal Crisis.

LORD LOCH IN EXPLANATION. (Pee Press Association"). Paris, May 1. Several Parisian newspapers fear that if the sentence of exile passed in Transvaal on the members of the Reform Committee is carried into execution it will result in damage to the Rand and that their places will be taken by Germans, which may injure the French bondholders. They, therefore, urge that M. Hanotaux, Foreign Minister, should advise President Kruger to commute that portion of the sentences. The Pretoria correspondent of Le Temps states that the Transvaal Government possess proofs that Lord Loch in July 1894, at which period he was Governor of the Cape, discussed the invasion of the Transvaal with the Reformers and offered to assist them, and, further, that he enquired from Mr Phillips, one of the Reform Committee, the extent of their arms. London, May 3. In the House of Lords, Lord Loch, in explaining the statement by the Pretoria correspondent of Paris Temps, said the residents of Johannesberg urgently requested him to visit the town, pleading the grievances they were suffering from. President Kruger dissuaded him, fearing the Governor's presence might lead to an outbreak. He, however, received a deputation at Pretoria, to whom he pointed out the futility of attempting a rising with 1000 rifles only to depend on. He did not offer to assist them, and the statement in the Temps was wholly unfounded. The newspapers, commenting on the explanation admit Lord Loch was perfectly correct as officially reported. Capetown, May 2. In the Volksraad of the Orange Free State a motion was tabled to modify the extradition of the Chartered Company as no longer a civilised Government, and declared that Rhodes desired to be dictator by sending the Huzzars to Matabele on a pretext of importing troops. The President ruled the motion out of order, and declared it was necessary to abrogate all the Chartered Company's treaties. Pretoria. May 2. An interdict proclaims that the Reformers' property be removed except Leonard's and Wool's. The Hollanders and Doopersjobstruct ihe measure taken for lenient sentences.