Petition to King George V, from the South African Native National Congress, 20
July 1914 (Published in The Cape Argus)

The Argus today is in a position to publish the full text of the petition protesting against
the Native Lands Act, which a deputation representative of the various South African
native sections now in London, have handed to Mr. Harcourt (Secretary for the Colonies)
for presentation to the King.

 

The petition runs as follows: --

 

To His Most Excellent Majesty, George V, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas. King, Defender of
the Faith, Emperor of India:

 

May it please Your Majesty:

 

The humble petition of the undersigned most humbly and respectfully showed:

 

Those petitioners are Your Majesty's most loyal and humble subjects, who have always
been loyal to Your Majesty's throne and person, and still desire to continue being loyal to
Your Majesty's throne and person. That petitioners, in their capacity as representatives of
the South African National Native Congress, which is again the representative body of
natives of the Union of South Africa, most humbly approach Your Majesty as their King,
their father and protector, and say:

 

(1.)

 

That petitioners are descendants of a race that for many years have had a respect and
love for the British people, and a most loyal and respectful disposition for Your Majesty's
throne and person, whose beneficent rule the petitioners and their forefathers have
experienced, more especially when this the land of their birth was under Crown rule.

 

(2.)

 

That petitioners represent a vast number of Your Majesty's subjects, the denizens of this
land, the former owners of this land, whose all in all is in this land, and who have no other
country to go to, as all others of Your Majesty's subjects have, and who love this their land
with a most intense love.

 

(3.)

 

That petitioners are descendants of a race which, when their forebears were conquered by
Your Majesty's might, and their land taken from them, their laws and customs mangled
and their military and other institutions brought to nought, loyally and cheerfully submitted
to Your Majesty's sway in the full belief that they would be allowed to possess their land as
British subjects, and would be given the full benefits of British rule like all other British
subjects.

 

(4.)

 

That on the 12th day of May, 1843 [sic] the British Government in the reign of that most
gracious and most Christian of the world's sovereigns, Queen Victoria, whose memory will
never die with us, and whose most beautiful influence bound us to the British throne and
people, and will ever remain in our hearts as a memento of what such influence can effect
among a subject race, issued a proclamation to the first emigrants, both English and Dutch
and others, who were the first to come to this land of our birth, whose special terms were
as follows, with regard to the denizens of this land:

 

"That Her Majesty's said Commissioner is instructed distinctly to declare that the three
next mentioned conditions -- all of them so manifestly righteous and expedient as to
secure, it is to be hoped, their cheerful recognition by the inhabitants of Natal -- are to be
considered as absolutely indispensable to the permission which it is proposed to give the
emigrants, to occupy the territory in question, and to enjoy therein a settled Government
under British possession.

 

"1st. That there shall not be, in the eye of the law, any distinction or qualification
whatever, founded on mere distinction of colour, origin, or language, or creed; but that
(he protection of the law, in letter and in substance, shall be extended impartially to all
alike.

 

"2nd. That no aggression shall be sanctioned upon the natives residing beyond the limits
of the Colony, under any plea whatever, by private person or any body of men, unless
acting under the immediate authority and orders of the Government.

"3rd. That slavery, in any shape, or under any modification, is absolutely unlawful as in
every other portion of Her Majesty's Dominions."

(5.)

 

That petitioners claim that proclamation, in letter and in spirit, as their gift and Charter
from the British Government, and as a contract by the British Government, as guardian
and protectors of the native races with all the white races that have settled in this land,
and they most humbly pray that Your Majesty may see that that contract is implemented.

 

(6.)

 

That petitioners say that there was an attempt to carry out the spirit and letter of that
proclamation while this land was under Crown rule, but that since Crown rule was
withdrawn that proclamation has been quite ignored, and the treatment of the natives and
all that concerns them has gradually drifted, and is still drifting, from the sweet influence
of that memorable rule of Queen Victoria, our mother and Queen, to a state of things, the
issue of which we shudder to contemplate unless a return from that course is made very
soon.

(7.)

 

That petitioners say that when their fore-bears submitted themselves to the rule of the
British Government, and paid homage to them, they fully accepted the Sovereignty of
Great Britain and no other, but fully believed that their land would be reserved for them,
and that they would have the full right of British subjects, more especially with regard to
the possession of land and all the right incident thereto.

(8.)

 

That petitioners wish to be allowed most humbly and respectfully to refer to the
proclamation of Sir Garnet Wolseley, made in June 1880, after the Zulu War, with regard
to the future of Zululand, which was a clear pronouncement from him, as the
representative of the Crown, to the effect that so long as the sun ran its course the Zulus
would not be deprived of their land, but that the best parts of Zululand have since, by
Colonial legislation, been surveyed into [acres?] and sold to any but the natives.

 

(9.)

 

That petitioners have never begrudged members of the white race, who are British
subjects, getting a share of the land, but protest most strongly and solemnly against being
gradually squeezed out of rights to and in land, and claim that the natives should be put
into possession of land in proportion to their numbers, and on the same terms and
conditions as the white race.

 

(10.)

 

That petitioners say that the only portion of the South Africa Act aforesaid, which has
reference to the natives is Section 147, which reads as follows: --

 

"The control and administration of native affairs throughout the Union shall vest in the
Governor-General-in-Council, who shall exercise all special powers in regard to native
administration hitherto vested in the Governors of the Colonies or exercised by them as
supreme chiefs."

 

(11.)

 

That the petitioners say that they consider; themselves and the native races to be still
under the direct rule and control of the Crown through the Governor-General-in-Council,
and therefore appeal to the Crown.

 

(12.)

 

That the petitioners say that they have never accepted the Union Government in place of
the Crown, but have only accepted the Union Government as advisers of the Governor-General, through their Ministers, for and on behalf of the Crown.

 

(13.)

 

That petitioners say that they and the native races have been friendly and still desire to be
friendly, to the Union Government and all Your Majesty's subjects, but in all matters
affecting them adversely look to Your Majesty for the security of their rights and protection
of themselves and such rights as Your Majesty's subjects.

 

(14.)

 

That petitioners most humbly say that the Native Lands Act No. 27 of 1913, passed by the
Union Government, is an Act that has shown to the natives that the Union Government
have overlooked the Queen's Government Proclamation, as quoted in paragraph 4 of this
petition, and have started to pursue a policy towards the natives of entirely eliminating
them from the interests of this country, and of ignoring their rights as British subjects, and
are taking a course that must inevitably lead to disaster.

 

(15.)

 

That petitioners say this Native Lands Act has caused the greatest disappointment to,
suspicions among, and the deepest opposition from, the native races.

 

(16.)

 

That petitioners say that they recognise that it is necessary to initiate without delay a
policy dealing with the land question, and other questions affecting the Europeans and
natives in this land, but most humbly and respectfully submit that the Union Government
failed to do what was right with regard to the said Land Act.

 

(17.)

 

That the petitioners object to the said Land Act as being generally an act of class
legislation, and one that would never have been dreamt of had only Europeans been in this
land, and see in it the beginning of that policy towards the natives which will end in
making them slaves.

 

(18.)

 

That petitioners beg permission to draw attention to the fact that it was the European who
came to this land and settled in it alongside the native, and the native could not help it,
and that they (the natives) most keenly feel and resent the spirit exhibited by the
Europeans towards the native races by that Land Act.

 

(19.)

 

That the petitioners and the native races, while admitting the wisdom of initiating a policy
to deal with the land question, and other cognate questions in this land without delay,
most earnestly protest against the following with regard to the Native Lands Act of 1913
passed by the Union Government of South Africa, viz.:

 

(a) It was conceived, framed and bought [sic] into the Union House of Parliament without
any previous notice to the natives, and without consultation with the natives and without
the taking of the natives into confidence as should have been done, seeing that the
question at issue affects the natives more than any other subjects of Your Majesty.

 

(b) It was dealt with in both Houses of Parliament in a most reprehensible hurry, and
without consideration, and passed into law with such haste, as could never have been the
case if the European subjects of Your Majesty were to be alone affected by the provisions
thereof.

 

(c) Its conception, its framing, and the manner of its being passed into law, is a precedent
for future legislation in the Union Parliament with regard to questions affecting the natives,
who are entirely unrepresented, though they pay a large sum in taxes, and are the
majority of labourers and inhabitants of the Union of South Africa.

 

(d) It was passed in such a crude and ambiguous shape that it is difficult to understand its
true import, even after many explanations by those who think they can explain its
meaning.

 

(e) It has not been yet explained to most of the natives whom it affects as it should have
been, and a vast number of natives have no explanation of it at all, but have commenced
to feel its cruel effects.

 

(f) It is an Act, which instead of being based on the principles observed in the Cape Colony
with regard to the natives and the land there has been based on principles subversive of
all that is right, just and likely to conserve the peace, prosperity and happiness of the
various races of the Union of South Africa.

 

(g) It is an Act whose provisions, if they are carried out as they stand, will mean the
deprivation of the natives of their most sacred rights as British subjects, will turn them into
slaves, and will create such a strained and bitter feeling between the white races and the
native races as will always in the future mean opposition between the two races and
continual conflicts,

 

(h) It is an Act that ignores the natives and his [sic] feelings, and leads them to believe
that the Union Government consider them nonentities in this the land of their birth, and
they may only expect worse things in the future.

 

(i) Its provisions are entirely opposed to the principles of British policy and justice, and are
laden with dynamite tendencies, which mean agitations, scheming, upheavals, and
conflicts in this land we love so much, and the scandalising of the British name and
prestige.

 

(20.)

 

The petitioners say, that they and the native races object most strenuously and earnestly
against all the provisions of the Native Lands Act, passed by the Union Government in
1913, which have for their object, viz.: --

 

The segregating and separating of the natives and the Europeans, as if they were so many
animals, because:

 

(a) The natives are the original denizens of this land, and the white races came and
located themselves alongside the native in their own land, and it was not the native who
went to the white man's country and located himself alongside the white man.

 

(b) The native does not recognise any wrong he has committed to deserve this segregation
and separation.

 

(c) The natives are as fully British subjects as are all the other members of the various
races constituting the Union of South Africa, and claim for themselves equal consideration
and treatment.

 

(d) The effect of segregating and separating the natives will be to at once satisfy the
natives that the white people intend evil to them, and they (the natives) will deeply resent
the treatment and combine against the white people, and the white people will combine
against the native, and that inevitable and continual conflict between the two races will be
initiated, which the natives do not desire, as they wish to live as friends of the white race,
in peace with the white race, in co-operation with the white race, and in loyalty to the
British Crown and Throne, from which they have received so many blessings.

 

(e) The natives most solemnly protest against any policy which will drive them into conflict
with the white races, for it would be to the serious disadvantage of both, and they submit
that a policy of segregation and separation will immediately lead to such conflict.

 

(f) The natives have had all their institutions broken up by the white race conquering
them, and have been driven by circumstances and choice to the light of civilisation, and
they do not want segregation and separation, which will have the effect of throwing them
backward.

 

(21.)

 

The petitioners and the native races most strenuously and earnestly object to the
provisions of the Union's Native Lands Act, where they differentiate against the natives.

 

(a) In that they limit the right of the native to the free purchase of and dealing in land on
the same terms as the white subjects of Your Majesty.

 

(b) In that with regard to natives on the farms of the white people, they interfere with the
vested rights of the natives exercised for generations, on land once theirs, and on which lie
buried their ancestors, by altering the right they have as British subjects to bargaining in
any way they please with the owners of these farms, for a place for their homes and a
means of existence, which is not done to any other of Your Majesty's subjects, and which
exposes them to a condition that will enable and even force the farmers to eject them from
their farms, leaving them to wander about or submit to living on the farms, on the sole
terms of giving three months' service, which at once turns them (the natives) into slaves.

 

(c) In that they have for their object the forcing of the native to labour by making it the
only condition of his living on a white man's farm; that they are to bargain with the owner
of the farm on the sole condition of supplying three months' labour.

 

(d) In that they have for their object the expropriation of lands already held in freehold by
the natives, where the native is found to live on land in an area, which it is intended to
convert into a white man's area.

 

(e) In that they have for their object, in the Orange Free State, the deprivation of the
natives of all rights of purchase of land, and any right to or in any land.

 

(f) In that they have for their object the most unjustifiable interference with the rights of
races the common subjects of the King, and the common inheritors with the white race of
lands of the Union of South Africa.

 

(g) In that they even place the other natives of the Union of South Africa in a less
favourable position than their brethren and cousins in the Cape Province, whose rights are
secured to them, while the mighty and most beneficial influences of Victorian rule existed,
were safeguarded in the South Africa Act of Union, to the eternal credit of those who took
part, on behalf of the Cape Colony, in drawing up that Act of Union.

 

(22.)

 

The petitioners, therefore, ask for themselves and the native races they represent, that
Your Majesty may be graciously pleased to protect them, and stave off from them the
calamities impending over them by reason of the passing of the Union's Native Lands Act
of 1913, by refusing to confirm it, and by remitting it to the Union Government of South
Africa for the deletion there from of all the obnoxious provisions we have complained of,
and by the insertions of such provisions as we have suggested, and more especially by
such provisions as would have been in the said Act, had it been drawn by Your Majesty's
Home Ministers in matters appertaining to Your Majesty's subjects at Home.

 

(23.)

The petitioners further ask for themselves and the native races that Your Majesty may be
graciously pleased to advise the Union Government of South Africa to secure to them in
addition to the locations and native reserves already existing, substantially large additional
areas of land, within the Union, commensurate with the proportion in numbers of the
natives and the white races, so that there may be land whither the natives leaving farms
or evicted from farms may go to and live.

 

(24.)

The petitioners, for themselves and the native races, most humbly respectfully, and loyally
assure Your Majesty of their continued homage and loyalty to Your Majesty's throne and
person, and their friendliness to General Botha and his Government, and to all Your
Majesty's subjects.

We are, Your Majesty, Your Majesty's most humble subjects and servants.

Source:

Karis, T & Carter G. M. (1972). From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882-1964, Volume 1: Protest and Hope, 1882-1934. Stanford University: Hanover Press.

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