1899._

_Messrs. G. Rouliot, H.F.E. Pistorius, A. Brakhan, E. Birkenruth,
and John M. Pierce, Johannesburg_.

DEAR SIRS,

I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 27th
March last, referring to certain proposals to the Government from
representatives of the mining industry.

In order to understand the natural position it is necessary to state
the facts more extensively than given in your letter.

It is wrong to say, as you do in the first paragraph of your
communication, that Mr. Lippert came to you with certain proposals
from the Government.

It appears also from the second paragraph of the same that Mr.
Lippert came to you _suo motu_ with the object, as he informed me
afterwards, to see 'if it was not possible to obtain a better
understanding between the Government on the one side and the mining
industry on the other.' He acted in no wise as the agent of the
Government, or in the name of the Government, to make any proposals
to you, but only as a friendly mediator to see how far unnecessary
differences and misunderstandings could be removed.

When Mr. Lippert came to Dr. Leyds and myself, and informed us that
you and other gentlemen were agreeable to his mediation, we at once
agreed with his plan, being aware that there was a warm desire and
continued struggle on the part of this Government to remove out of
the way all friction and trouble, and that in this case especially it
was our object to leave no stone unturned to get all differences
settled. We were the more anxious to meet you, because his Honour the
State President had decided to lay before the Volksraad certain
proposals of law, which are of great importance not only for the
people of the Republic, but especially for the mining population and
industry. We gave Mr. Lippert to understand that should the leaders
of the mining industry have no objection to his mediation, we would
not be unwilling to make use of his good services in this matter.

Mr. Lippert then went to Johannesburg, and returned to us with the
assurance that there was no objection to his acting as mediator, and
gave us some of the subjects on which it appeared to him that it was
possible to arrive at a friendly understanding.

In consequence of this, and acting on our own initiative, and not as
representatives of the Government, Dr. Leyds, Mr. Smuts, and myself,
met some of your leading men, as set forth in your letter.

At this meeting we informed you of the i