_Diggers' Gazette_,
12th July, 1872).

In the _Diamond News_ of the 8th October, 1872, one reads:--

"Newspaper after newspaper comes out, and those who have a claim upon
land look eagerly to see 'what is happening about the land?' and all the
information the newspaper gives is that David Arnot, Esq., claims half
the country, and that Francis Orpen, Esq., the Surveyor, has decided
that L30 must be paid before the case of any claimant can be taken into
consideration. It is Arnot and Orpen and land; and land and Orpen and
Arnot, week after week. They appear to be made one for the other, and
for nothing and nobody else.

"Half a newspaper is filled with lists of claims of the said David, and
it becomes daily clearer and clearer that the great head chief of
Griqualand West cannot be Mr. Waterboer, but must be David
Arnot--because all the claims and all the kopjes have been provided for,
and all are for Mr. Arnot and nobody else.

"The impression is everywhere that British protection is invoked not for
British interests, nor for the interests of Britons working on the
fields here, but for the sake of two gentlemen who hold the reins with
far more power than ought to be given to anyone who is entrusted with
the administration of this country.

"Who has ever heard of a Government which binds itself to give the
surveyorship of a new country to one man only? Mr. Francis Orpen is
decidedly a first-class man in his profession ... but that does not
justify any Government in agreeing that he, and he only, is to keep the
survey of this territory entirely in his own hands. Everyone knows what
that must lead to."

APPENDIX C.

THE REPLY TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S DISPATCH ON GRIEVANCES.

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, PRETORIA.

_26th September_, 1899.

SIR,

The Government of the South African Republic has the honour to
acknowledge the receipt of a copy of a certain dispatch dated 10th May,
1899, addressed to His Excellency the High Commissioner by the Secretary
of State for the Colonies, in consequence of a petition sent to Her
Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. 21,684 signatures appear
on this petition, and are said to have been affixed thereto by an
equivalent number of British subjects resident at Johannesburg, in this
Republic.

This Government notes that Her Majesty's Government have thought fit, on
the grounds of the information already in their possession, to make
investigation into the subject