Mr. Chamberlain in his speech alluded to Mr. Bailey's allegation-that
much less-had been-done for the loyal refugees than for the disloyal, and declared emphatically that our first duty was to our own Mends. He also indignantly repudiated the accusation that there had been favouritism and jobbery in regard to the selection of persbns allowed to proceed to Johannesburg. As a matter, not of right, nor even of grace, but of Imperial policy, the Government, believing that it was desirable that the agricultural industry should be resumed as Baca as possible, would be prepared to lend money, and in some exceptional cases even to give money, to Boers who had accepted our rule. Of course, that would apply equally to the loyalists. No distinction would be made. But the Government also meant to try an experiment in the matter of settlement. Probably £500,000 would be devoted to buy- ing land suitable for settlement by those who had volunteered in the war. As regards native labour, Mr. Chamberlain declared his intention of at once mitigating the punishments applicable to the natives, but strenuously—and, in our opinion, most wisely—refused to commit himself to a sudden and violent revision of the whole native legislation of the
Boers.
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