The issue had reached the halls of Westminster (Parliament) as a result of Kgosi Sechele’s appeal and the lobbying efforts of his sympathisers.
For his part, having been refused any formal contact with the British colonial authorities at Cape Town, who had otherwise apparently also connived to stall him there so as to prevent him from proceeding to London, Sechele and his associates began their return journey to Kweneng on the 16th of June 1853.