But in practice it was found that the
parties could not agree as to what did or what did not threaten
this independence.
What was essential to one was inadmissible to
the other. Milner contended for a five years' retroactive
franchise, with provisions to secure adequate representation for
the mining districts. Kruger offered a seven years' franchise,
coupled with numerous conditions which whittled down its value very
much, promised five members out of thirty-one to represent a
majority of the male population, and added a provision that all
differences should be subject to arbitration by foreign powers, a
condition which is incompatible with any claim to suzerainty. The
proposals of each were impossible to the other, and early in June
Sir Alfred Milner was back in Cape Town and President Kruger in
Pretoria, with nothing settled except the extreme difficulty of a
settlement. The current was running swift, and the roar of the fall
was already sounding louder in the ear.
On June 12th Sir Alfred Milner received a deputation at Cape Town
and reviewed the situation. 'The principle of equality of races
was,' he said, essential for South Africa. The one State where
inequality existed kept all the others in a fever. Our policy was
one not of aggression, but of singular patience, which could not,
however, lapse into indifference.' Two days later Kruger addressed
the Raad. 'The other side had not conceded one tittle, and I could
not give more.
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