Blue Book: Jameson Raid December 1895–January 1896 (1897)

This British Parliamentary Blue Book ([C.-8423], April 1897) captures the direct diplomatic fallout of the Jameson Raid (December 1895–January 1896) and the rapid escalation toward the Second Anglo-Boer War.

The Jameson Raid Aftermath: Following Leander Starr Jameson's botched, covert invasion of the South African Republic (ZAR) intended to incite a Uitlander (foreign miner) uprising, diplomatic relations between Whitehall and President Paul Kruger’s government completely fractured. This volume contains the raw exchange of dispatches between Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain, High Commissioner Sir Hercules Robinson (and later Sir Alfred Milner), and ZAR State Secretary W.J. Leyds.

The Aliens Expulsion & Immigration Laws (1896): A central focus of [C.-8423] is the ZAR's passage of the Aliens Expulsion Law (Act No. 25 of 1896) and the Press Law. The British government argued these acts breached Article XIV of the 1884 London Convention, which guaranteed rights to foreigners, while Kruger's government asserted them as essential state security measures against British subversion.

Precursor to War: The exchanges in this paper document the diplomatic maneuvering and mutual buildup of hostility that ultimately rendered military conflict in 1899 all but inevitable.

Bookseller & Provenance Interest: The yellow bookseller label on the lower cover—P.S. King & Son, Parliamentary Booksellers, Westminster—marks it as having passed through London's premier 19th-century dealer specializing exclusively in official government publications and parliamentary papers. Below it, the faint ink stamp indicates it was once held in the collection of the Liverpool Public Libraries.

Front and back wrappers chipped and busy detatching.

Ex library copy, 141 pages, complete (no maps).
21mm3 x 333mm

R1,250