But a more unpleasant duty awaited the Commissioners than that of
attaching their signatures to a document,--consisting of the necessity
of conveying Her Majesty's decision as to the retrocession, to about a
hundred native Chiefs, until now Her Majesty's subjects, who had been
gathered together to hear it. It must be borne in mind that the natives
had not been consulted as to the disposal of the country, although they
outnumber the white people in the proportion of twenty to one, and that,
beyond some worthless paper stipulations, nothing had been done for
their interests.
Personally, I must plead guilty to what I know is by many, especially
by those who are attached to the Boer cause, considered as folly if not
worse, namely, a sufficient interest in the natives, and sympathy with
their sufferings to bring me to the conclusion, that in acting thus we
have inflicted a cruel injustice upon them. It seems to me, that as
they were the original owners of the soil, they were entitled to some
consideration in the question of its disposal, and consequently and
incidentally, of their own.
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