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182 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
through
the creation of Griqualand West. But it has been fairly pointed out by
the leading historian of South Africa, Theal, an earnest supporter of
the rights of the Orange Free State and her sister Republic, that the
claims of both contestants were weakly presented at the Bloemfontein
court, and that Lieutenant Governor Keate cannot be reproached justly
for any conscious unfairness in deciding the case upon the evidence
before him, in a manner unsatisfactory to the Republics on the line of
the Vaal.
There
is, further, the practical view to present of the incorporation of the
Diamond Fields in Griqualand West, — that this was the only feasible
solution of the situation, at that time, which guaranteed to the
irresistible rush of diamond seekers from the Cape and all parts of the
world a government so strong that it could enforce its authority
without recourse to arms and bloodshed. Klip-drift had already revolted
at the first preposterous stretch of authority of the South African
Republic, and maintained its independence until it submitted docilely
to the British High Commissioner. The seething influx on the upland
Diamond Fields was clearly on the verge of rebellion against any Free
State regulations restricting their right of entry or supporting any
monopoly title. Great Britain, with all her array of Imperial power,
would not have ventured to assert such claims as had been set up by
both of the Boer Republics, and could not have enforced them without an
army on the spot. As a matter of fact, she prudently suffered the
miners to occupy the land without any attempt to maintain crown
reservations of mineral rights, even after her supremacy was undisputed
through the formation of the Crown Colony. The Boer Republics, on the
other hand, would have continued to blunder, almost certainly, as they
had been doing, if control of the Fields had been turned over to them
nominally by the decision of the referee.
It
did not appear at that time, either, that there was any strong desire
on the part of the authorities of these Republics to assume the cost
and responsibility and prospect of collision
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