Blue Book: Report on the Jameson Raid (March 1897)

This British Parliamentary Command Paper ([C.–8380], March 1897) represents the official British reprint of the famous Cape Select Committee Report on the Jameson Raid.

The Cape Colony's Incriminating Investigation: Following the botched December 1895 invasion of the Transvaal (ZAR) led by Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, the Cape House of Assembly appointed a Select Committee to investigate who was responsible. Published in Cape Town in mid-1896, the report delivered a devastating blow to Prime Minister Cecil Rhodes. It established that Rhodes had actively financed, armed, and facilitated the plot using the British South Africa Company (BSAC) and De Beers resources—forcing his immediate political resignation as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony.

The Imperial Paper Trail: Presented to Parliament in London by command of Queen Victoria in March 1897, this publication ([C.–8380]) laid the groundwork for Whitehall's own British Select Committee of Inquiry (often dubbed the "Lying-in-State Committee" due to Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain's political whitewashing of his own advance knowledge of the plot).

Significant Institutional Provenance: The purple stamps on the title page mark a direct connection to the Witwatersrand mining landscape:

Mining Titles Office, stamped, 1938.

R.M.T. Library (Cat. No. FF 550): Indicates its eventual integration into the official Registrar of Mining Titles collection in Johannesburg.

215mm x 335mm

Ex library copy; spine reinforced; repair to page corner. 300 pages. Complete (no maps as published)

R1,500