under the administration of Queen Victoria. The offer was accepted, and on 27 October 1871 the district, together with some adjacent territory to which the Transvaal had laid claim, was proclaimed (under the name of Griqualand West Colony) British territory. Further territorial disputes Territorial disputes continued, even after the British annexation. When the annexation had taken place, a party in the Orange Free State volksraad had wished to go to war with Britain but the wiser counsels of its president prevailed. The Orange Free State did not abandon its claims, believing that the diamond fields were the means of restoring the credit and prosperity of the Free State. Griqualand West was not financially viable, and carried with it enormous public debt. The matter continued for a considerable time and caused immense tension in southern Africa. In the face of claims from the Orange Free State and the Griqua authorities, the Griqualand West Land Court was established in 1875, under Justice Andries Stockenström. Waterboer's claims to the diamond fields, strongly presented by his agent David Arnot, were based on the treaty concluded by his father with the British in 1834 and on various arrangements with the Kok chiefs; the Orange Free State based its claim on its purchase of Adam Kok's sovereign rights and on long occupation. The difference between proprietorship and sovereignty was confused or ignored. That Waterboer exercised no authority in the disputed district was admitted. In a crucial finding Stockenström ruled that, as the Griqua people were nomadic, the Griqua chiefs (or "captains") were rulers over a people, but not over a fixed territory. The Griqua people had also only arrived in this part of southern Africa a little over 50 years before, in the early nineteenth century. The Griqua captains therefore did not automatically get the right to own & develop all of the land through which they moved, but only those areas in which they would settle. Other areas they could continue to move through, but were not given automatic title to own and develop. This resulted in the denial of many of the titles issued by the powerful Griqua Captain Nicolaas Waterboer, outside of his core areas around Griquatown and Albania, were also denied. It also effectively ruled in favour of the Orange Free State. A furore resulted, as accusations were leveled that Stockenström was biased, and sympathetic towards the Orange Free State President Johannes